The inexorable rise of the robots: Trade journals’ framing of machinery in the workplace

Abstract

As artificial intelligence and industrial automation continue to impact on the workplace, the manner in which they are reported by news media becomes increasingly of interest. Combining quantitative and qualitative analysis of trade journals, this paper investigates how machinery in the workplace is framed, in order to indicate the way in which such framing may shape thought and influence management decisions. It finds that trade journals frame the topic as an inevitable rise of machinery thanks to the problems in human employees, and that people and machinery will collaborate offering salvation for corporate firms. The implications for advancing framing theory into trade journalism are discussed, arguing for a sector-relevant attitude rather than normative ideas in scholarship common to all forms of journalism.