How Media Unions Stabilize Technological Hype Tracing Organized Journalism’s Discursive Constructions of Generative Artificial Intelligence

Bibliographic Data

ID22010995
AuthorsMike Ananny (0000-0001-7160-212X, University of Southern California, corresponding author), Jake Karr (New York Law School)
Year2026
Volume14
Issue2
Pages261-283
Publication date2026-02-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueDigital Journalism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2167-0811 • E-ISSN: 2167-082X
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/21670811.2025.2454516
OpenAlexW4406829385
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited64

Amidst ongoing challenges to journalism’s economic models, labor markets, and technological practices, a new pressure has recently appeared in many newsrooms: the power of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) computational models and off-the-shelf interfaces to synthetically create content that passes for news. Seeing the phenomenon through the lens of this special issue’s focus on “hype,” this paper uses discourse analysis to understand how journalism unions define GenAI as a problem, articulate the value of journalism against it, and use collective bargaining to contractually shape its use in newsrooms. Motivated by scholarship detailing hype as popular communication, expectation setting, and technological stabilizing, we examine journalistic trade press, union statements, and collective bargaining agreements to offer a 6-dimensional image of GenAI hype and union-driven responses to it, and reflect on notable absences in media unions’ understanding of GenAI. We see this as a case of journalists articulating their roles and values in an all-too-common moment when they are challenged by sociotechnical forces that they did not create, but that they must nonetheless collectively navigate and reshape in service of the profession’s democratic mission

Cognitive science · Epistemology · Generative grammar · Journalism · Knowledge management · Media studies · Political science · Programming language · Public relations · Sociology · Tracing · Computer Science · Cybernetics and Technology in Society · Digital Games and Media · Media Studies and Communication · Psychology · Artificial Intelligence

Tools

Open DOI