Framing AI discourse : a study of AI discourse Twitter platform in Kenya and South Africa
Date
2022
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Abstract
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a main feature of news coverage and social media discourse. News and social media coverage can drive the ongoing discussions about the use of AI and influence attitudes towards it. The study used mixed methodology (automatic content analysis and manual coding) to establish the framing of AI on Twitter in Kenya and South Africa. The analysis mainly focused on determining the different local and regional narratives in tweets and retweets in the countries of study pertaining to AI in different categories. The study substantiated the claims, and general views, espoused in the analyzed tweets with data from local and international resources to determine their veracity. A total of 256 tweets from Kenya and 516 tweets from South Africa pertaining to AI sent between 2016 – 2021 were analyzed. These tweets were categorized into 7 different groups: (i) automation and job replacement, (ii) education, (iii) AI and development, (iv) commercial services, (v) health, (vi) AI and governance, and (vii) ethics and regulation, and then further delineated according to 3 sentiments: positive, negative or neutral tweet. The sentiments conveyed by the compiled tweets across these 7 categories was assessed. Study findings showed that, in general, there is still a tendency toward an optimistic view of the possible impact of AI on solving problems in Kenya and South Africa. The differences in negative and positive sentiments across the different categories skews, for the most part, toward higher positive sentiments in Kenya on a particular topic than in South Africa. Finally, the sentiments, both positive and negative, espoused in these tweet mirror those of Global North countries concerning AI, even when the on-the-ground-realities do not support these concerns.
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Keywords
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, SOCIAL MEDIA, TWITTER, SOUTH AFRICA, KENYA, SOUTH OF SAHARA