Multifocal analysis of narratives and representations of the European AI Act in Spanish digital newspapers

María Dolores Meneses-Fernández 1 * , María Sonnia Chinea Rodríguez 1
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1 Department of Communication Sciences and Social Work, Faculty of Social and Communication Sciences, Universidad de La Laguna, Canary Islands, SPAIN
* Corresponding Author
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, Volume 16, Issue 3, Article No: e202643. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/18968
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ABSTRACT

This study analyzes Spanish news coverage of the AI Act from a European perspective, still unexplored in specialist literature. We examine how journalistic narratives are constructed surrounding the risks associated with AI, digital sovereignty and the tension between security-rights and technological innovation. We applied a multifocal theoretical framework and mixed method research design with an inductive approach to the coding, categorization and news analysis of a textual corpus derived from Spanish digital newspapers with high readership rates, published between 2020 and 2024. The results reveal narrative imbalances in the representation of pro-digital rights NGOs and Big Tech stakeholders concerned by European Union regulatory processes. Moreover, the analysis shows that journalistic treatment of these complex regulations and AI technology has been undertaken with a digital literacy deficit. These narratives seem more directed at politicians, experts and interested organizations than to end users, even though they are the ones the AI Act is designed to protect.
Keywords: journalism, AI Act, AI regulation, artificial intelligence, media analysis, European Union

CITATION

Meneses-Fernández, M. D., & Chinea Rodríguez, M. S. (2026). Multifocal analysis of narratives and representations of the European AI Act in Spanish digital newspapers. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 16(3), e202643. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/18968

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