From Revolution to Regulation: A Critical Discourse Analysis of AI-Related Headlines in Taiwanese News Media From 2023 and 2024

As AI continues to reshape societies, media discourse plays a crucial role in shaping public perception, policy debates, and ideological framings. While existing research on AI discourse is largely centered on English and Western contexts (e.g., Bran et al., 2023; Gu, 2023), little attention has been given to Taiwan, despite its unique role in the global AI industry and its distinct linguistic landscape. This study fills this gap by employing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine how AI is framed in Taiwanese news headlines from 2023 and 2024.

Analyzing 100 headlines from each year, this study explores recurrent linguistic patterns, shifts in emphasis, and underlying ideological stances. Findings indicate that AI is most frequently used as a noun modifier (e.g., AI jìshù ‘AI technology’ and AI yìngyòng ‘AI application’), abstracting it as a vague property rather than a concrete entity. When AI appears as a subject, it often co-occurs with modal verbs expressing uncertainty or risk, suggesting that AI-related news in Taiwan frequently involves speculation about its development and potential harm. Additionally, while 2023 headlines employed more diverse and dramatic terms such as làngcháo ‘wave,’ gémìng ‘revolution,’ and cuīhuǐ ‘destroy,’ 2024 headlines focus more on AI regulation, education, and its dual impact on society.

These findings show that Taiwanese media’s representation of AI tends to be speculative and abstract rather than reportative and specific. Media stances may shift over time, from more sensationalized framings to a more pragmatic approach, which in turn influences public understanding of AI. Despite AI being a human-created tool, the media’s tendency to portray it as an independent agent, rather than an object of human control, may contribute to perceptions of AI as an autonomous force. This study thus provides insights into how AI discourse evolves within Taiwan’s media landscape.