Artificial Intelligence and Journalistic Practice: The Crossroads of Obstacles and Opportunities for the Pakistani Journalists

In the past two decades, technological advancement has reshaped the news media landscape in many developed and developing countries of the world. Journalistic practice, especially in large-scale economies, is experiencing transformations due to the introduction of automatic artificial intelligence processes into different aspects of news production and dissemination. Now devices and machines are taking on the role of communicator, replacing journalists as communicators. It is important to analyse whether journalism in low income countries has begun to feeling the ripple of artificial intelligence for technologically advanced journalistic practices and newsrooms. Using the Human-Machine Communication framework, this study advances knowledge about what AI can do to transform journalism practice in low-income countries, which is vital to compare the implications of AI in other similar socioeconomic contexts and news media ecologies. Thus, this study specifically reflects upon the case of Pakistan. It investigates how the Pakistani journalists perceive AI technology in the role of communicator and how they view the human-machine communication process. This study identifies constraints and explores opportunities for the use of artificial intelligence in Pakistan’s mainstream news media. To address these aims, this study uses the qualitative method of in-depth interviews, and presents the findings using thematic analysis.