A Qualitative Inquiry of Online Hoax Video of Fuel Subsidy Removal in Nigeria

Abstract

The impact of Articial intelligence (AI) in the different spheres of human endeavour is no longer in doubt. In the field of communication, video manipulation known as deepfake is the use of AI to create fake information about someone. This study examines one deepfake of the President of Nigeria—President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) spread online about fuel subsidy removal in
Nigeria. The objectives of the study are to ascertain the level of synchrony of the utterances and lip movements of the human figure in the video; and to make deductions based on popular knowledge in Nigeria about the verbal content of the video. The video that served as data for the study was downloaded from YouTube and transcribed. The verbal transcript was divided into single words and were used to match the lip movement of the human figure in the video. The study adopts the descriptive method of enquiry in the study; propositions from Mayring (2000) Qualitative Content Analysis, and Common Ground by Stalnaker (2014) are used in the analysis of the coded transcripts to answer the research questions raised in the course of the study. Findings show a high level of mismatch between the lip movement and the articulation of each word in the deepfake video. AI is reshaping the way information is spread on the internet especially about public figures, netizens should be conscious of this; thus, the study recommends that netizens should make sure that sensitive information received from the internet about notable personalities should be checked on other sources of credible information for authenticity before believing them.