News, Society, and Democracy: Framing Artificial Intelligence in Arabic Regional Media

As AI technologies increasingly permeate societies, quality news coverage is crucial for informed public discussions on their impact on society and democracy. Previous research shows that public support for AI is shaped by how it is framed in the news, but most studies focus on Western contexts. Emerging markets, such as the Arab region, are often overlooked, with existing AI literature primarily focusing on newsroom practices rather than broader media discourses. This study explores how AI is framed by four news outlets with an Arab regional focus—BBC Arabic, Al Jazeera, CNBC (Arabic), and DW (Arabic)—reflecting diverse ideological and international perspectives. It examines topics, frames, and sources over a six-month period (30 April to 30 October 2023), marked by key AI advancements and the release of popular chatbots like ChatGPT, widely regarded as the fastest-growing consumer internet app in history. Frame analyses reveal a predominance of personal frames over societal frames and episodic frames over thematic frames across all outlets, with DW displaying the most balanced frame usage. Positive frames, such as economic and social progress and AI acting as a personal assistant, were most frequently used by Al Jazeera, while dominant negative frames like ethical considerations and concerns about human replacement were primarily used by the BBC. AI-democracy frames received minimal attention across news coverage, with the BBC focusing on disinformation, Al Jazeera on political participation, and DW on surveillance. Sources analyses further reveal that Industry and business sources were the most cited, especially by Al Jazeera and CNBC, while AI scientists and research institutions were predominantly cited by DW and the BBC. Government, citizen, and academic sources were cited the most by the BBC. These findings are discussed in light of debates on AI and democracy in the Arab region.