Framing Ambiguity: A Comparative Analysis of Indonesian and American Media Coverage on Sam Altman’s Tweet

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_66How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Media Framing; Ambiguous Discourse; Cross-Cultural Comparison

Abstract

This comparative study analyzes how Indonesian and American news outlets frame an ambiguous tweet by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, about AI interaction costs. Using Entman’s (1993) framing theory, this research examines ten online articlesfive from Indonesian media (CNBC Indonesia, Detik, Kompas, Viva, IDN Times) and five from American sources (The New York Times, USA Today, New York Post, PCMag, Fox32). The analysis focuses on problem definition, causal diagnosis, moral judgment, and remedy suggestion. Findings reveal distinct cross-cultural framing patterns. Indonesian media split between economic and socio-ethical interpretations. Some outlets emphasized financial burdens and efficiency, while others framed the tweet as humor or digital ethics advocacy, encouraging polite AI interaction. American media consistently applied an economic frame, presenting the tweet as a serious statement about operational costs despite narrative variations. The study demonstrates how cultural contexts shape media interpretation of ambiguous digital discourse. Indonesian outlets reflected diverse value priorities, while American media maintained consistent economic focus. This research concludes that public understanding of emerging technologies is mediated through cultural lenses, directing audiences toward either cost-efficiency frameworks or ethical-relational paradigms in human-AI interaction. These findings highlight media’s role in constructing social reality around technology through culturally specific framing. The comparative approach illuminates how identical ambiguous statements receive divergent interpretations based on cultural priorities and media practices, contributing to understanding cross-cultural technological discourse.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Andi Wardatul Wahidah Lufini
AU  - Ainun Fatimah
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/03/26
TI  - Framing Ambiguity: A Comparative Analysis of Indonesian and American Media Coverage on Sam Altman’s Tweet
BT  - Proceeding of 2025 8th International Conference on Humanities Education and Social Sciences (ICHESS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 626
EP  - 634
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_66
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-551-5_66
ID  - Lufini2026
ER  -