VICE President of News at Google, Richard Gingras, has called on west African media stakeholders to be more intentional about listening to its audience.
Gingras made this call at the West Africa Journalism Innovation Conference (WAJIC), organised by the Centre for Journalism, Innovation and Development, CJID in Abuja on Tuesday.
The Google executive who delivered the keynote address at WAJIC noted that a decline in the trust of audience had contributed to the crisis in the news ecosystem. He noted that the media must restructure its approach to delivering news
“The Reuters Institute tells us that less than 10 per cent of our society regularly consume what we call serious news. Google tells us that less than 2 per cent of search curves are about matters of serious news,” he said.
Speaking on the use of artificial intelligence, he said “we are concerned about the dangers of ourselves not machines. AI(s) are learning from the vast expression of humans.
“Technology brings possibilities, but it does not necessarily have values. That’s where the human component comes in.
“I think there are immense benefits with Artificial Intelligence (A.I), there’s also room for potential harm. However, these new technologies afford tremendous promise to news organizations, both to analyze data for where the story might be and also to put stories together.”
WAJIC is a two-day event that brought together media professionals, technology experts and industry leaders to explore ideas, foster collaboration and drive innovation in the field of journalism.
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