| dc.description.abstract | Executive summary
The purpose of this study was to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) has been framed in the
Swedish news media through the course of time. Although the first definition dates back to the 1950’s,
AI can still be considered a rather early concept when seen as an emerging technology. The Swedish
public’s understanding of AI is still being formed by new, ongoing developments, and the
introductions of models such as OpenAI:s ChatGPT or DALL-E. What the study initially found was
that the understanding of the technology has been scattered across different societal institutions. Since
the swedish news media's objective is the democratic coverage of events that affect their society, AI
also gets recognition and a certain meaning in the journalistic field which deserves to be elaborated.
Three core issues were mainly found within the research gap, which gave way to our three research
questions:
Q1: What frames characterize the appearance of AI in the Swedish news media?
Q2: Who are the major actors in these frames?
Q3: How has the framing of AI as an emerging technology changed over time?
To examine the ways in which the Swedish news media has framed AI we used a quantitative content
analysis to gather data from 818 articles throughout five media outlets, spanning a range of eight years
dating from 2016 to 2023. The results were analyzed by the use of framing theory and its related term
emerging technologies. Through this process we managed to identify a total of four more or less
unique Swedish AI-frames; “The Swedish tunnel vision”, “A wakeup call”, “AI as everyday life”
and “the artificial as a benefitting provocation”.
The main outcome of the study was the visible change of tone and focus in 2023 compared to earlier
years. With a noticeable rise in overall publications (432 in 2023 alone), new topics were identified,
such as a more even split in the view of AI as associated with either potential risks or benefits. While a
rise of articles in 2023 were identified across every topic, economy was the most common one
throughout the years. Culture was the second most coded topic, with a greater difference between 2023
and earlier years. The most prominent actors were American companies and business people, mainly
OpenAI and Elon Musk. OpenAI can also be seen as the spark of media's sudden interest in AI in
2023, being the most frequently mentioned company by far, from having next to no mentions in earlier
years. Swedish authorities and politicians were mentioned less than expected, but were eager in their
focus of putting Sweden ahead in what can be described as the global AI-competition, yet without
distinct plans of making this a reality. Instead, similar to the AI-debate in Germany identified in
previous research, a big portion of Swedish capacities were put in the faith of the industry, in
companies like ABB, SaaB, Volvo and WallenbergAI.
Aside from the often revolutionary view of AI in its economical implications, the discussion of AI is
characterized by views such as its use as an unethical tool, a source of international competition and
the end of humanity. These widely ranging views can be traced to imaginary fantasies originating from
science fiction and popular culture, and are still part of news media's portrayal of AI today. | sv |
