News, society, and democracy: Framing artificial intelligence in Arabic regional media

The study analyses public discourse on artificial intelligence (AI) in the Arab region. It examines how AI is framed by four mainstream news outlets, reflecting various ideological and international perspectives – BBC Arabic, Al Jazeera, CNBC and DW – highlighting topics, frames and sources over 6 months. Findings show a strong focus on business, finance and technology across all outlets. The news outlets also relied more on episodic than thematic framing, with personal frames prevailing over societal ones. Moreover, AI received a mixed portrayal, with a growing focus on ethical concerns, while its potential and risks were framed differently in Western and non-Western news outlets. Finally, AI–democracy frames received minimal coverage, with BBC focusing on disinformation, Al Jazeera on political participation and DW on surveillance. Overall, the study's findings show that while AI news coverage in the Arab region broadly aligns with some global trends, some cross-cultural and cross-outlet variations exist, and societal and democratic dimensions remain largely overlooked.