AI Hype and its Function: An Ethnographic Study of the Local AI Initiative of the Associated Press
Economic precarity and the competitive environment of the news industry have resulted in pressures for news professionals to become early adopters and foster AI in journalism. At the same time, practitioners have voiced concerns over overblown expectations of AI and ethical challenges specific to journalistic contexts. Against this backdrop, this study asks: What function do expectations serve in realizing journalistic AI projects in small newsrooms and with what implications? Empirically, we draw on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork following the Associated Press’ efforts to develop AI tools for five local newsrooms in collaboration with data scientists from U.S. universities. Previous research has conceptualized AI hype as the gap between possibilities and realities, or as a form of stimulation, amplification, and magnification. This study examines hype through a theoretical lens of a sociology of expectations. It understands hype as a cultural resource that coordinates actors and mobilizes resources that can be strategically leveraged. Instead of painting news professionals caught in between AI hype with little power, or as uncritical actors, this study sheds light on the complex role of their involvement and investment in shaping expectations around AI.
Nadja Schaetz is a postdoctoral research at the University of Hamburg and a graduate of the IMS International Masters Programme.
