ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Comput. Sci.
Sec. Human-Media Interaction
Is AI a Game Changer or a Spoilsport? Chinese Audience Acceptance of AI in Sports Communication from a Media Affordance Perspective
Provisionally accepted
- 1Beijing Sport University, Beijing, China
- 2Communication University of China, Beijing, China
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The rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into sports communication presents a fundamental tension between technological efficiency and humanistic values. To understand the mechanisms of audience adoption, this study applies the media affordance framework to investigate the factors shaping audience acceptance of AI in sports. A comprehensive questionnaire survey was conducted and collected 526 valid responses from sports viewers across mainland China. Multiple linear regression analysis reveals that content credibility and cross-scenario adaptability are the most 2 significant positive predictors of audience acceptance. Conversely, the perceived ethical risks of technology act as a powerful inhibitor. Further analysis uncovers significant group differences: younger, "digital native" audiences and students exhibit greater skepticism, whereas mid-career professionals and sports industry insiders demonstrate higher levels of acceptance. All the above content collectively suggest that audience acceptance is a complex negotiation between the perceived utility of AI and its ethical implications. On this basis, this study extends the application of media affordance theory and provides an empirical basis for a multi-stakeholder collaborative framework to foster human-AI synergy in the evolving sports media landscape.
Keywords: AI ethics5, AI-powered sports communications2, audience acceptance3, human-AI collaboration4, media affordances1
Received: 02 Oct 2025; Accepted: 16 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Yao, Zhang, Liu and Zheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jingwang Zhang
Shanshan Zheng
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