Research Uncovers Unexpected Divide: Liberal Media vs. AI

According to a study conducted by researchers from Virginia Tech University in the US, articles from liberal media outlets express greater opposition towards artificial intelligence (AI) compared to conservative media. The researchers suggest that this opposition may stem from concerns regarding the potential reinforcement of racial and gender biases, as well as income inequality, within society.

Considering that media opinion is indicative of public opinion and can in turn Their work was published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

They also said that observed differences in biased media attitudes toward AI may also later lead to differences in public attitudes toward AI.

“Media sentiment is a powerful driver of public opinion, and policymakers often look to the media to predict public opinion on controversial issues,” said Angela Yi, study author and doctoral student in the Department of Marketing at the Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business. .

For the study, the researchers compiled a collection of more than 7,500 articles written about artificial intelligence from May 2019 to May 2021 by downloading them from various media. They search articles for specific keywords such as “algorithm” or “artificial intelligence”.

The articles the group decided to investigate were published by several media houses, such as the liberal The New York Times and The Washington Post and the conservative The Wall Street Journal and New York Post.

The researchers analyzed the “emotional tone” of these articles using an automated text analysis tool. The tool, they said, worked by calculating the difference between the percentage of positive emotion words and the percentage of negative emotion words in a text. Each article was then given a standardized “emotional tone” measure or score.

The researchers said they were not judging “whether the liberal media is operating optimally or the conservative media is operating optimally” and that they did not take a position on what would be the “right way” to discuss AI.

“We’re just showing that these differences exist in the media mind and that these differences are important to quantify, see and understand,” said Shreyans Goenka, study author and assistant professor of marketing at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business.

The researchers also studied how the media’s opinion of artificial intelligence changed after the death of George Floyd, which occurred on May 25, 2020. 44-year-old Derek Chauvin killed a 46-year-old black American man in Minneapolis, USA. -year-old white police officer.

“As Floyd’s death ignited a national conversation about social prejudice in society, his death increased social prejudice in the media,” said Yi.

“This in turn led to the media becoming more negative about AI in their storytelling,” Yi said.