“AI’s Good, but People Have Hearts”: Artificial Intelligence in Data-Driven Journalism in Ghanaian Newsrooms

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers tremendous potential to advance data journalism by empowering journalists to analyse massive datasets and produce insights for investigative reporting. Through the lens of the technology acceptance model and the social construction of technology theory, this study employed qualitative methods to investigate how Ghanaian journalists adopt AI tools in data journalism. The findings indicate that AI tools are primarily used to support research, idea generation, editing, story development, and visual data representation. Journalists also perceive AI as enhancing efficiency, accessibility, and storytelling capacity. These perceptions align with the perceived usefulness dimension of the technology acceptance model as AI is viewed as improving productivity and strengthening audience engagement and trust. However, several challenges, including high subscription costs, limited availability of context-specific datasets, and persistent ethical concerns, hinder the adoption of AI technologies in data journalism. We argue that these challenges highlight the social context within which technology is adopted, which the social construction of technology theory accounts for.