What the Media Talks About When It Talks About Robots

Image: Wikimedia

Most real-life robots are boring. They regulate subway trains and operate vacuum cleaners, and nobody wants to read or hear about them. But just consider this: ROBOT. Now what sort of image did your brain just produce? It probably wasn’t a hydraulic arm in a factory or an automated answering service. It was probably a steely humanoid with arms and legs, or an R2D2 type thing, or at least something with lots of wires and flashing lights. And it could either kill or delight you.

There is a major discrepancy between a robot and a ROBOT. And it is reflected in the way the media tells us about each, especially on the internet.

Just including the word ‘robot’ can make a boring technological topic seem sexy in the headline. Or the robot can be invoked to inspire fear or wonder in the face of the rapidly-arriving future. See for yourself. Here are a collection of headlines the internet has generated about robots in the last 24 hours alone:

“Ban the killer robots before it’s too late” -CNN

“Russia Announces ‘Aggressive’ Plan For Fleet Of Robots To Explore The Moon” – Huffington Post

“Students turn lives around by building robots” – ABC News

“Robots are One Step Closer to Putting More Humans Out of Work” – Nature World News

“Robots to play game against humans” – Press Association 

“Teaching, dancing robot unveiled in UK” – The Australian

“Watch out: the robots are going to take your job” – The Telegraph

“Robots, Deep-Sea Sensors Help Pentagon Futurists Hunt Subs” – Wired

“Robot-mad youngsters narrowly miss out on national final” – The Bromsgrove Advertiser

“Iran to manufacture robots for underwater work on oil jetties” – Azerbaijan News

“Japan’s Robot Cars: Where’s this Road Going?” – Akihara News

You’d think the future was already here, the way everyone’s talking.