Anyone interested in journalism as a livelihood and eager to distinguish themselves in 2026 and beyond, should embrace computer-assisted journalism.
Commercial air travel started in 1914. The first two computers were connected in 1969. The first handheld cellular phone call was made in 1973. The first smartphone was released in 1994. A computer AI model first defeated a world chess champion in 1997 — and a Go champion less than two decades later. The first tweet was posted in 2006. Facebook opened up to the public in the same year. ChatGPT was first released to the public in 2022.
There have been a lot of life-changing innovations in the past century or thereabout — and even more so in our lifetime. They have changed how we travel, how we communicate, how we earn, how we mourn, and a hundred other things about our lives. Journalism is not spared. How human beings produce and consume information have changed drastically, and that means what a contemporary journalist typically looks like has also changed. The opportunities and the challenges in the industry look different, and oftentimes, the only way to prevent the tyre of relevance from rolling over you is to stay updated.
Given this background, one could not stress enough the importance of embracing computer-assisted journalism for anyone who is interested in journalism as a livelihood and eager to distinguish themselves. In 2026 and beyond, you should make this your focus.
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Specifically, you should familiarise yourself with artificial intelligence and its vast use cases. Many people have hyped the need to learn prompt engineering — which basically means asking large language models questions that elicit the best results — but, in my view, it is more crucial to know what AI is great at, what its weaknesses are, what tools are available, and how you can incorporate them into your work. Watch YouTube videos about the latest updates. Use the tools for fun. You can use AI to generate text, images, audio, and video files.
You can build a custom agent that mimics and executes tasks for you. You can build a website. Now, you can even code apps by just entering a few prompts. You may not need these skills in your everyday work, but a journalist who is AI-savvy is a lot more beneficial to most newsrooms than one who isn’t. By using AI correctly, you can save time, make your work more efficient and innovative, and reach more audiences.
Another important skill to learn is video production. One of my takeaways from the 2025 Digital News Report is that more and more people prefer to watch their news than read it. And they’re not getting these video reports mainly from TV. Instead, they are using social media apps like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and X. So, if you want your reports to get to more people, consider complementing with or transitioning to video. Again, advances in technology have democratised the video production skill, such that you don’t need to enrol for a course to learn it. Apps such as Canva have made it easier by being intuitive to use and offering ready-made templates that can help you bring your content ideas to life.
You need the talent of discernment now more than ever. We are battling misinformation and disinformation at a massive scale. With advancements in generative AI, people can fabricate almost anything easily and make it believable, too, with just a click of a button. One study recently found that about a fifth of videos shown to new YouTube users are entirely generated by AI. The era of “picture or I don’t believe it” is gone. Even if there is supposed video evidence, without supporting metadata, you can’t be too sure. So as a journalist, you have to double-check the claims you are amplifying on your platform to make sure you are not innocently spreading false information. You have to strengthen your verification skills. Similar to this is being able to find and analyse open-source intelligence.
It’s also important to think of how you can make your stories stand out from the noise and information overload. We have a finite amount of time, but live in a world of “infinite scroll”. So, why should people read your story instead of watching another AI slop about dramatic car romance? How can you make them care? How can you build a loyal audience? In other words, the average journalist, especially if you’re working for a small newsroom, should make an effort to understand audience engagement and social media marketing.
Finally, as long as we have people in the workforce, interpersonal skills will always be an added advantage, if not crucial to career growth. If you want to advance on the corporate ladder, you need to learn how to manage people and projects. Also, as long as we have people on this planet — and not cyborgs — storytelling and journalism will not go out of fashion. It may just take a different shape. So, the job is not going anywhere. The question is, will you still have what it takes five years from now?
‘Kunle Adebajo currently serves as editor of the African Academy for Open Source Investigations (AAOSI) at Code for Africa, and previously headed the investigations desk at HumAngle. He is passionate about innovative journalism and delicious storytelling. He is equally very fond of data and OSINT investigations. ‘Kunle is the founder and editor of Chronycles and Punocracy. In his spare time, he volunteers for the Abuja Hub of the Global Shapers Community.
