Artificial Intelligence in Zimbabwean media: ethical concerns, governance issues, and societal impact (2016-2025)

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gained attention in Zimbabwean media, with reports highlighting its applications in healthcare, education, parliament, marketing, and agriculture. This study explores how Zimbabwean media reports AI adoption and usage, focusing on socioeconomic impacts, ethical concerns, and regulatory issues. An analysis of 575 news stories using media classification methods, sensitising codes, and grounded theory revealed key themes through Leximancer and RStudio Bibliometrix. The findings show increased AI coverage from to 2023-2024, coinciding with generative AI tools and governance concerns. The media presents utopian views emphasising AI benefits while giving less attention to dystopian concerns such as privacy, bias, and neo-colonialism. The Zimbabwean media emphasises data sovereignty and Ubuntu philosophies in AI development. Dystopian perspectives highlight privacy, bias, access, ethical decision-making, job loss, and neocolonialism issues. The media suggest stakeholder collaboration to address insufficient funding, skills, infrastructure, and connectivity challenges through network expansion, re-skilling, expert consultation, and developing comprehensive AI frameworks aligned with regional policies. This study demonstrates the media's role in raising awareness of AI's benefits and risks of AI and influencing public perception and policy development. Recommendations include an increased coverage of ethical issues and infrastructure upgrades to promote societal readiness. Developing a clear AI framework is essential to govern the adoption of ethical AI in Zimbabwe. This study offers insights to policymakers and researchers in low-resource settings. Future research should explore public AI perception using web scrapping and sentiment analysis, track international AI commitments, and investigate sectoral AI implementations. Amplifying diverse voices and enhancing journalists' training in AI reporting are essential for a balanced, in-depth coverage of ethical and governance issues as AI continues to evolve.