Stakeholders and professionals in the field of communication have advocated for the control of Artificial Intelligence(AI) to guide against abuse in digital communication.
The stakeholders also addressed the need for a national policy on AI, verification and fact-checking would address misinformation and disinformation and improve elections and good governance.
Rising from the 11th annual conference and general meeting of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria held between September 4 and 5, 2024, the stakeholders recommended that tech companies, government agencies, civil society organisations and academics should be engaged in formulating the policy.
According to the stakeholders, in a communique issued at the end of the conference, there is a need for communication researchers and practitioners to work with scholars around the world to understand and develop AI-neutral network-based methods to map opinions and discussion for good governance and development in Africa.
The communique was signed by the general secretary of the ACSPN, Dr Solomon Oyeleye.
Noting that there is little collaboration between government, academics, media and civil society on AI, ethics, threats of deepfake, and good governance, the communication scholars and practitioners said the enablement of digital communication, AI and good governance is being challenged by infrastructure, quality of data, access, cultural complexities and explanation in Africa.
They encouraged communication and journalism institutions and scholars to engage in attracting funds that can be used to construct AI and digital communication laboratories and newsrooms for teaching the next generation of scholars and practitioners.
The communique partly read, “Communication institutions in Africa should construct and maintain newsrooms and laboratories managed by professors of practice, who will teach the next generation of journalists and other practitioners in the media and communication industry.
“Communication and Journalism institutions should start implementing the Teaching Hospital Model in educating their students, a model that facilitates hands-on experiential learning thus combining theoretical knowledge with practical application in a real-world setting.”
Delivering his keynote address titled, ‘Digital communication and governance in Africa’ at the conference, the publisher of Premium Times, Dapo Olorunyomi, stated that the news media industry in Africa is faced with crises of funding and information disorder that require the focus and attention of communication stakeholders.
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