Social robotics in Eastern and Western newspapers: China and (even) Japan are optimistic

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

To look into the assumed difference between East and West in acceptance and use of robots, we performed a content analysis on 120 papers about social robots in two Asian-English (China Daily and The Japan Times) and two Western-English newspapers (The Guardian and New York Times) written between 2009 and 2018. From these papers, we drew a number of statements (N=118). We analyzed tone of voice (TOV) as well as the positive or negative framing of the consequences of the implementation of social robots in society, economy, health, and safety. Intercoder reliability was>0.7, according to Krippendorff's α-reliability. Western newspapers presented significantly more negative social frames, negative fairness-and-equality frames, and negative safety-and-health frames than did Eastern papers, which presented significantly more positive economic frames than did Western papers. Western newspapers expected more negative social, health, safety, and equality issues than did the East. The West anticipated little economic benefit. The East expected little harm to society, safety, health, and equality but rather foresaw beneficial economic outcomes.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2040001
Pages (from-to)1-15
Number of pages15
JournalInternational Journal of Innovation and Technology Management
Volume18
Issue number1
Early online date10 Jul 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Feb 2021

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Social robotics in Eastern and Western newspapers: China and (even) Japan are optimistic'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this