Niger State Correspondent of The Nation, Justina Asishana who has been exploring the use of artificial intelligence for her editorial work shares her experience other journalists can learn from in this account shared below.
My AI exploration began two years ago when the usage of the tools was becoming well-known. Though at that time, I was not aware of Chat GPT and other generative AI tools, but for transcription, creation of animated videos and graphics, and editing my reports, I was able to use AI, and it worked well for me. Especially transcription, the hours I used to take in transcribing interviews were cut short, which was very helpful to me.
Then came the turnaround, which happened between last year and this year. So many tools came up. I discovered better transcription tools that could transcribe, and then you can interact with your transcription, looking for a better angle to tell your story.
Video editing got better as the tools I was using were upgraded to perform and edit better. Now, I can add captions to my videos without typing them word by word. My graphics tool, Canva, also got upgraded, and I could also edit videos, turn text to images, create talking heads, turn my texts into animated texts, and other features.
The video creation tool, Lumen5, included voice and got sleeker, while I discovered other video creation tools where I could turn text to videos like Video AI, Hydra, King AI, and others. And tools that can turn texts into images. Then, generative AI like ChatGPT and Gemini helped me fine-tune my writing.
I used to be very poor in writing headlines. I could write the whole story completely and struggle with coming up with appropriate headlines, but this has been solved. When I see myself struggling with headlines, I just copy my whole story and place it on Chat GPT and Gemini and ask them to generate the headlines for me, then I go through what was generated and select the one that fits my report best. Grammarly has helped my writing come out refined. I use it to edit my work as it suggests better phrases or words to use and indicates areas you need to put or remove punctuation marks or work on my Grammar. These tools have been very helpful.
I keep being amazed at the endless creativity one can achieve with these tools.
With my busy schedule, most people wonder how I get time to explore these tools, and I let them know that I use like an hour every night before I sleep to explore a tool. I learnt that if you can dedicate an hour every day to a skill or task, in a year, you would be knowledgeable in it, and that’s what I have been trying to do.
One thing we need to know about these tools is that you need to know how to write prompts well. Prompts are the keys to a good output you wish to get. Without an accurate prompt, these tools will give you anything. But using an explanatory prompt, you get exactly what you want. Also, giving these tools, especially the generative AI like Chat GPT and Gemini, a role will help you get the refined response that you need.
Another thing is that these tools are great to brainstorm with and if you give it a role to be a critical partner who has to critically analyse what you are suggesting, you will be surprised to see yourself arguing with a professor who will poke a lot of holes in your idea, and make you think critically too.
To help me keep abreast with new trends in the AI world, I follow a lot of people on TikTok and YouTube, where they teach how to use most of these tools and any new feature or tool that comes up. When I see anyone who interests me, I save them and practice them later. I have learnt so many things from these people and discovered several features that I didn’t know in the tools I use.
In all, I see using and exploring AI as having fun while learning on the way, and I wonder why some journalists are not yet utilizing what AI brings. I will say they are missing a lot.
