How news organizations and journalists understand artificial intelligence: application of news language database to AI-related news stories

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is not an unknown phenomenon in the news industry. Robot journalists have produced a significant portion of daily news contents with no direct guidance from human journalists in many news organizations, such as the Associated Press, the New York Times, and the Maeil Business, a Korean financial newspaper. Journalists and their news organizations take part in creating and maintaining discourse regarding the AI, so their understanding of the AI contributes to such news-making processes. The question of what unique elements exist in the understanding can lead scholars, policymakers, and practitioners to evaluate the status of the AI in the news industry and estimate its potential for enhancing democratic society with quality reporting. By applying the news language database developed by the present study to AI-related news stories and journalistic columns, the study investigates the question. The findings will reveal how newspapers and television networks construct news texts.