Everything, but hardly any science fiction: A topic analysis of German media coverage of AI

One pillar of the Opinion Monitor Artificial Intelligence [MeMo:KI] project explores media coverage of AI. In this factsheet, we present a topic analysis of the coverage of AI by the highest-circulation regional and national media, as well as specialist news media, in Germany from 2018 to 2021. To do so, we used an automated content analysis to evaluate a total of 4,968 news articles. We show that German media coverage of AI can be broken down into 25 topics, which can then be assigned to six overarching categories: “Economy”, “Science”, “Technology”, “Ethics & Society”, “Politics”, and “Arts & Culture”. Three core results can be derived from our findings. First, media coverage of AI is strongly event-driven and fluctuates considerably over time, with events such as the publication of the AI strategy, the AI Act, and the Corona pandemic having an impact on the number of articles published on AI, and on the subject matter that these articles cover. Second, while media coverage is quite broad in terms of the topics that it focuses on, it is clearly dominated by an economic perspective on AI that emphasizes AI’s economic value. Third, there are differences between media genres, since both the amount and thematic focus of coverage are influenced by the channels through which end users learn about AI. We conclude that, while German coverage focuses on various topics, it tends to foreground the benefits of the economic application of AI. Given that, we can ask whether the goal of a human-oriented AI is at all possible without a stronger emphasis in the media on social and ethical issues.

Recommended citation: Kieslich, K., Došenović, P., & Marcinkowski, F. (2022). Everything, but hardly any science fiction: A topic analysis of German media coverage of AI. Factsheet No. 7 of the Meinungsmonitor Künstliche Intelligenz.[Opinion Monitor Artificial Intelligence].
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