Less Hype, More Drama

Open-Ended Technological Inevitability in Journalistic Discourses About AI in the US, The Netherlands, and Brazil

Bibliographic Data

ID22010941
AuthorsJoão C Magalhães (0000-0002-5680-8645, University of Manchester, corresponding author), Rik Smit (0000-0002-9809-9656, University of Groningen)
Year2026
Volume14
Issue2
Pages323-340
Publication date2026-02-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDigital Journalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2167-0811 • E-ISSN: 2167-082X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21670811.2025.2522281
OpenAlexW4411661937
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited30

This article examines the portrayal of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in journalistic discourses, nuancing assumptions that such coverage constitutes systematic media hype. Building on Pfaffenberger’s (Citation1992) concept of technological drama, we conducted a qualitative textual analysis of AI coverage in three newspapers of record—The New York Times (US), De Volkskrant (Netherlands), and Folha de S.Paulo (Brazil)—focusing on the period between June 2020 and September 2023. The findings indicate that these depictions constitute a multi-faceted drama whose importance is, however, at no point disputed. We theorize this phenomenon as a form of open-ended technological inevitability, where AI’s impact is seen as unavoidable but its trajectory remains undecided

Art · Drama · Journalism · Literature · Media studies · Political science · Public relations · Sociology · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection · Misinformation and Its Impacts

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