"AI Won't Take Your Job; But Journalists Who Don't Learn It Might Lose Theirs"

Titilope Fadare-Oparinde is a multimedia journalist and founder of Generative AI Journalism with Titi, an initiative dedicated to helping African journalists integrate artificial intelligence into their workflows ethically and creatively. In this episode, Titi shares her journey from a Lagos-born journalist curious about both print and broadcast media to becoming a leading voice in AI literacy for African newsrooms. She recounts the moment she stumbled upon ChatGPT while writing a seminar paper and realized that what took weeks could be done in seconds. That discovery led her to ask a critical question: how can this tool help journalists? Titi explains how she prayed for direction, received a light bulb idea during a family devotion, and launched her initiative with personal resources and deep passion. She describes the initial resistance she faced when training older journalists who questioned what a young woman could teach them, and how she learned to acknowledge their fears, break down complex concepts, and create inclusive, hands-on learning experiences that shifted their mindset. A significant portion of the conversation focuses on the gap between AI adoption and AI literacy in African newsrooms. Titi reveals that 95 per cent of Nigerian journalists use AI tools weekly, yet only 10 per cent have received structured training. She warns that newsrooms operating inside this gap risk publishing hallucinated information, reproducing Western biases, and exposing confidential sources. Titi walks listeners through the top three recurring issues she encounters: job loss fears, racial and contextual bias in AI-generated content, and hallucinations. She explains how she uses a simple exercise, asking participants to generate an image of a scientist, to reveal how AI defaults to a white man in a lab coat, and why inclusive prompting and context engineering are essential skills for African journalists. Titi also highlights initiatives like Africa No Filter's Africa Bias Buster, an AI tool designed to identify and remove bias in content, and emphasizes the importance of African journalists becoming co-architects of AI solutions and policies. Titi closes with a powerful message to African women journalists: stop staying in the background. She urges them to ask questions, join decision-making processes, and be part of shaping AI governance and newsroom policies. She reminds listeners that AI will not take their jobs, but journalists who refuse to learn AI might lose theirs. Her advice is simple: start with what you have, stay curious, and never stop advancing yourself. For Titi, curiosity is not just a mindset; it is the foundation of resilience, innovation, and survival in a rapidly changing media landscape. Chapters

00:00:00 Introduction: Building a Media Career in the Age of AI 00:01:06 Growing Up in Lagos: Early Journalism and the NYSC Experience 00:02:05 From Mobile Journalism to AI: The Pandemic Pivot 00:02:57 The Seminar Paper Moment: Discovering AI's Power 00:04:37 The Training Gap: 95% Use AI, Only 10% Have Structured Training 00:05:04 Resistance and Change: Navigating Newsroom Skepticism 00:06:50 The Empathy Approach: Teaching Journalists Who Built Careers Without AI 00:10:45 Founding Generative AI Journalism with Titi: A Prayer Answered 00:12:08 Creative and Ethical Integration: Beyond Random AI Use 00:14:11 AWIM Learning Platform: Courses for African Journalists 00:14:59 Top Three Issues: Job Loss Fears, Bias, and Hallucinations 00:16:20 The Scientist Exercise: Exposing Racial Bias in AI 00:17:28 Prompt Engineering and the E-Book: Structured AI for Better Outputs 00:19:36 Beyond Prompting: The Bigger Problem of AI Bias from the Global North 00:21:25 Africa Bias Buster: An AI Tool to Identify and Remove Bias 00:22:59 Start Where You Are: Advice for Journalists Who've Never Used AI 00:25:07 The Human Editorial Factor: What AI Can't Replace 00:26:32 Stay Curious: The One Thing That Changes Everything 00:27:53 Women at the Table: Be Co-Architects of AI Solutions 00:30:00 Closing Thoughts: Subscribe and Stay Curious

If this episode resonated with you, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Your support helps amplify conversations that strengthen media ecosystems across Africa. Interested in joining a future episode of Her Media Diary? Email: yemisi@africanwomeninmedia.com Join the ongoing conversation using #HerMediaDiary. Her Media Diary is produced by African Women in Media (AWiM). And this episode is sponsored by Luminate Follow African Women in Media (AWiM): Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/share/1ARgsBptVC/) LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/african-women-in-media/) TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@realawim?_r=1&_t=ZS-93QVDxwCcv1) X (Twitter) (https://x.com/RealAWiM) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/africanwomeninmedia?igsh=MXA4NTc4NjF1NTFnbQ==)