AI Hype in Journalism: Visibility, Power, and the Politics of Media Narratives

Hype is a phenomenon that emerges from a set of practices rooted in the norms and narratives not only of journalism but of digital media and its algorithmic infrastructure more broadly, in the sociopolitical and cultural capital of technical expertise, and in the ambiguous and uncertain promises of a brighter future made by the world’s techno-elite. In this special issue, we explore media hype around AI functions as a pervasive system that is “sunk into and inside of other structures, social arrangements, and technologies” (Star, 1999, 381). We pay particular attention to how AI hype is embedded within journalism’s norms and narratives, labor politics, and the rhetoric of the tech industry. As the different articles in this special issue show, understanding AI hype as a systemic phenomenon conveys its power to shape narratives, practices, and regulations across layered systems of actors and networks, as well as its malleability by different stakeholders.