African Community Media, AI, and the Question of Community Participation in the Disruptive Era

In this article, we examine the nexus of Southern African community newspapers’ sceptical AI integration and grassroots democracy. The sceptical approach to AI integration in marginalised media markets of Southern African community newspapers’ news ecosystems is interrogated. We respond to the questions: In what ways is the integration of AI tools in everyday news production routines within Southern African community media institutions defined by scepticism? What is the basis of scepticism amongst Southern African community media journalists? What are the implications for grassroots democracy in these communities? The Southern African community media under study are drawn from South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with purposively sampled journalists and editors from these newsrooms. Findings show that the sceptical approach to AI adoption among Southern African community newspapers is largely driven by fears and concerns about AI’s documented mass production of misinformation and disinformation. In addition, the sceptical approach to AI adoption in these newsrooms is rooted in a lack of technical proficiency with AI tools and financial limitations occasioned by the decline in philanthropic funding.