AI Discourse Dynamics in Arabic Media: Analyzing Rhetorical Strategies and Cultural Influences

The study explores how artificial intelligence (AI)-related headlines are presented pragmatically to the public audience, the rhetorical appeals and devices used, and why they are used in Arabic media discourse.A corpus of 163 headlines from four popular Saudi Arabian online newspapers provided the data for qualitative and quantitative analysis, including a descriptive analysis of the distributions of rhetorical appeals and tropes (figures of speech and linguistic devices).The data showed rhetorical appeals encompassing logos, pathos, and ethos, whereas the tropes included metaphors, irony, parallelism, overstatements, and rhetorical questions.Among the three rhetorical appeals, the most common was logos.The pragma-rhetorical technique, coupled with quantitative analysis, evidenced various linguistic devices used to clarify ideas and produce persuasive effects, such as appealing to readers' emotions and evoking strong feelings.The findings address the language choices, rhetorical strategies, and persuasive appeals used in media discourse related to AI, specifically in Arabic newspapers.Analyzed from a pragmarhetorical perspective, they contribute to understanding how such elements are used in news media addressing the rapid advances in the application of AI technology.