One Story, Four Lenses: How Media Framing Shapes Our View of America, AI, and Global Power By William B. Ready It started with a morning email. L ike many of you, I scan headlines before I finish my first cup of coffee. One of my go-to sources is the Wall Street Journal’s “Top Stories” briefing — a quick-hit summary of what’s supposedly most important in the world. From the lead article today, One line stood out: “China is quickly eroding America’s lead in the global AI race.” That sentence and a few words into the summary, made me pause. Maybe it was the framing — the use of the word eroding , the immediate implication of loss or "losing." Maybe it was the subtle tension behind the idea that America’s dominance in AI, something we often take for granted, might be slipping away. The tone was clear: America is losing ground, China is gaining it, and we should be worried . But the more I looked at it, the more I began to wonder—not just what the summary said, but how it ...