Main Article Content
Abstract
The adaptation of artificial technology in society requires a healthy public discourse. This necessitates nuanced and diverse views provided by mainstream media. However, there has not been empirical understanding of editorial practice towards AI in Indonesia, and whether news outlets have cited balanced voices. Drawing from a similar study in the United Kingdom, this paper seeks to identify the primary news sources and topics on the coverage of AI in Indonesian media outlets. This paper analyzed 777 news articles from January to June 2024, published by five major news sites namely Liputan6.com, Detik.com, Kompas.com, tvonenews.com, and Tempo.co. This paper found that of 1025 news sources, people representing the business sector dominated the conversation (55.6%), far beyond government (16.39%) and academics (13%). We also found that of 777 published articles, more than half discussed the AI industry itself (58.9%), compared to AI impact on society and labor (23.5%), and misuse and regulation (16.2%). We conclude that these media outlets have failed to provide varied viewpoints for the public, paving avenues for asymmetrical business-led debate, and allowing promotional messaging to camouflage as journalism reports.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Rio Tuasikal, Virginia Gunawan

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References
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- Chubb, Jennifer, Darren Reed and Peter Cowling. 2022. “Expert Views About Missing AI Narratives: Is There an AI Story Crisis?”. AI & Society doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01548-2
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- O'Neill, Deirdre and Catherine O’Connor. 2008. “The Passive Journalist: How sources dominate local news”. Journalism Practice, 2:3, 487-500, doi.org/10.1080/17512780802281248
- Phillips, Angela. 2015. “Journalism in Context: Practice and Theory for the Digital Age”. London: Routledge.
- Rusbridger, Alan. 2020. “News and How to Use It”. Edinburgh: Canongate.
- Sartori, Laura and Andreas Theodoru. 2022. “A Sociotechnical Perspective for the Future of AI: Narratives, Inequalities, and Human Control”. Ethics and Information Technology 24:4. doi.org/10.1007/s10676-022-09624-3
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References
Adiprasetio, Justito, & Kunto Adi Wibowo. 2020. “Konvergensi Jurnalisme: Reorganisasi, Komodifikasi dan Eksploitasi”. In J. R. Suminar, D. I. Surtikarani, F. Nasir, A. Surahmat, P. N. Fatimah, S.F.Z. Fibaeti, E. R. Juningsih, Sugiyarto, and Y. Wulandari (Eds.), Komunikasi Organisasi dalam Era Post-Modern (pp. 501–509). Unpad Press.
Brennen, J. Scott, Philip N. Howard and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. 2018. “An Industry-Led Debate: How UK Media Cover Artificial Intelligence”. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
Chuan, Ching-Hua, Wan-Hsiu Sunny Tsai and Su Yeon Cho. 2019. “Framing Artificial Intelligence in American Newspapers”. Miami: Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (www.aaai.org).
Chubb, Jennifer, Darren Reed and Peter Cowling. 2022. “Expert Views About Missing AI Narratives: Is There an AI Story Crisis?”. AI & Society doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01548-2
Dandurand, Guillaume, Marek Blottière, Guillaume Jorandon, Nick Gertler, Meaghan Wester, Nicolas Chartier-Edwards, Jonathan Roberge and Fenwick McKelvey. 2022. “Training the News: Coverage of Canada's AI Hype Cycle (2012-2021)”. Shaping 21st-Century AI, Institut national de la recherche scientifique.
Fenton, Natalie. 2010. “Drowning or Waving? New Media, Journalism and Democracy” in N. Fenton (ed.) New Media, Old News. London: Sage.
Franklin, Bob and Lily Canter. 2019. Digital Journalism Studies: The Key Concepts. London: Routledge.
Hall, Stuart, Chas Critcher, Tony Jefferson, John Clarke and Brian Roberts. 1978. “Policing The Crisis: Mugging, The State, and Law and Order”. London: The Macmillan Press.
Hardy, Jonathan. 2021. “Sponsored Editorial Content in Digital Journalism: Mapping the Merging of Media and Marketing”, Digital Journalism, 9:7, 865-886. doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1957970
Juntunen, Laura. 2022. “Digital Challenges to Ethical Standards of Journalism”. Helsinki: Council for Mass Media in Finland.
Just, Natascha. 2009. “Measuring Media Concentration and Diversity: New Approaches and Instruments in Europe and the US”. Media, Culture & Society, Vol. 31(1): 97–117. doi.org/10.1177/0163443708098248
Kats, Timo, Peter van der Putten and Jasper Schelling. 2021. “Distinguishing Commercial from Editorial Content in News”. Luxembourg: 33rd Benelux Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the 30th Belgian Dutch Conference on Machine Learning (BNAIC/BENELEARN 2021). doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2111.03916
Kern, Jonathan. 2008. “Sound Reporting: The NPR Guide to Audio Journalism and Production”. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Koch, Thomas, Magdalena Obermaier and Claudie Riesmeyer. 2017. “Powered by public relations? Mutual perceptions of PR practitioners’ bases of power over journalism”. Journalism 2020, Vol. 21(10) 1573–1589, doi.org/.o0r.g1/107.171/1774
Masini, Andrea, Peter Van Aelst, Thomas Zerback, Carsten Reinemann, Paolo Mancini, Marco Mazzoni, Marco Damiani & Sharon Coen. 2018. “Measuring and Explaining the Diversity of Voices and Viewpoints in the News”, Journalism Studies, 19:15, doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2017.1343650
Nguyen, Dennis and Erik Hekman. 2022. “The News Framing of Artificial Intelligence: A Critical Exploration of How Media Discourses Make Sense of Automation”. AI & Society (2024) 39:437–451. doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01511-1
O'Neill, Deirdre and Catherine O’Connor. 2008. “The Passive Journalist: How sources dominate local news”. Journalism Practice, 2:3, 487-500, doi.org/10.1080/17512780802281248
Phillips, Angela. 2015. “Journalism in Context: Practice and Theory for the Digital Age”. London: Routledge.
Rusbridger, Alan. 2020. “News and How to Use It”. Edinburgh: Canongate.
Sartori, Laura and Andreas Theodoru. 2022. “A Sociotechnical Perspective for the Future of AI: Narratives, Inequalities, and Human Control”. Ethics and Information Technology 24:4. doi.org/10.1007/s10676-022-09624-3
Sun, Shaojing, Yujia Zhai, Bin Shen and Yibei Chen. 2020. “Newspaper Coverage of Artificial Intelligence: A Perspective of Emerging Technologies”. Telematics and Informatics doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2020.101433
Sutrisno, Eri. 2024. “Pagar Aturan Artificial Intelligence”. Portal Informasi Indonesia. indonesia.go.id (Accessed July 6, 2024).
Tarigan, Edna. 2024. “Microsoft will invest $1.7 billion in AI and cloud infrastructure in Indonesia”. Associated Press. apnews.com (Accessed July 6, 2024).
Wang, Weili, John Downey and Fan Yang. 2023. “AI anxiety? Comparing the sociotechnical imaginaries of artificial intelligence in UK, Chinese and Indian newspapers”. Global Media and China 2023, Vol. 0(0) 1–17 doi.org/10.1177/20594364231196547