On Deutschlandfunk’s media podcast “Nach Redaktionsschluss” [After the Editorial Deadline], tech journalist and Mercator Fellow Svea Eckert discusses why artificial intelligence (AI) is so prevalent in the media right now. The show addresses questions from the audience. In this episode, listener Sven Lindroth feels that everything is all about AI these days and asks, “Is current coverage perhaps lumping too many topics into the AI category?” On the show, he discusses this with host Pia Behme, Svea Eckert, and Marcus Richter, host of Deutschlandfunk’s digital culture magazine “Breitband,” to which Lindroth refers critically. As a visiting researcher at the HBI, Svea Eckert is currently examining how the media reports on AI and where good journalism on AI still faces limitations.
Click here for the podcast episode. The media podcast “Nach Redaktionsschluss” [After the Editorial Deadline] is recorded in German.
Patterns in AI Reporting
Listener Sven Lindroth shares that AI coverage rarely surprises him. “AI reports are often not the ones I remember afterward.” Svea Eckert has an explanation for this. There are currently clear, recurring patterns in the coverage. The dominant narrative in AI reporting is abstract and adopts economic frameworks, which are difficult to recall. Listeners often find “AI in particular” reporting more interesting because it focuses on real-world examples and applications. When reporting on new developments, context is always needed to provide perspective. However, from a journalistic perspective, it’s difficult to resist the dominant, abstract narratives, precisely because coverage is often driven by hype, and many newsrooms lack the necessary expertise.
What Do We Mean by “Artificial Intelligence”?
The discussion reveals that, in media coverage, AI is currently used as an umbrella term that can mean everything or nothing. This term is used instead of specifying the various underlying technologies—from large language models to agents to generative AI. Even in our everyday lives, including at the dentist’s office, the use of AI is touted without a clear explanation of what it actually entails. Both the listeners and the journalists who participated in Svea Eckert’s workshops expressed a desire for greater differentiation. After all, not everything labeled as AI is the same. This lack of differentiation can contribute to a sense of ubiquitous AI coverage and even lead to a perceived “AI burnout,” as mentioned by the listener in the podcast.
Related to this topic: See the post “Hype vs. Doom – How Can AI Reporting Become More Nuanced?” on our Media Research Blog.
Image: Svea Eckert