Chinese Newspapers Research Articles

Print media representations of carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) technology in China

Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technology is an essential component to decarbonize society and reach carbon neutrality. Its success depends on not only technological advances but also people's reaction to it. This study applied traditional content analysis to uncover the CCUS reporting landscape and employed the Socio-Political Evaluation of Energy Deployment (SPEED) framework to explore how different aspects of the CCUS value chain were discussed in Chinese newspapers. A total of 492 news items from November 21st 2002 to May 8th 2021 were identified and analyzed. Results showed that news coverage of CCUS technology in China started in 2005. The media explained the nature and sources of carbon dioxide (CO2), framed CCUS by various terms, for example, “greengen” and “a clean energy technology”, as well as demonstrated various tones in CCUS. The analysis found 71.3% (N = 351) of newsletters took an affirmative stance towards CCUS. It was also revealed that environmental frames appeared in almost every article, while much less attention was paid to other issues. Moreover, this research demonstrated that CCUS-related policies were driving media coverage closely year by year. However, current news presentations were inadequate due to technical misperceptions and a lack of comprehensive coverage. Therefore, this research proposed a science-for-the-community communication strategy that involved several key factors such as policy guidance, newspaper functions at different levels, journalist training, direct engagement of the public as well as student education.

Политические настроения белой эмиграции на Дальнем Востоке в 1920-е годы

Based on the documents from the Central Archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation and the State Archives of the Russian Federation, analysed in line with the anthropological approach, this article describes in broad outline the sentiments of white émigrés in the Far East during the 1920s. The archival documents include informant reports from the Beijing and Shanghai residencies of the Foreign Department of the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU), summaries and analytical reports of the Counterintelligence Department of the OGPU, reports of operational officers of the Foreign Department of the OGPU, official and personal letters, reports and correspondence of top White Guard leaders, and reports from Chinese newspapers. The paper specifies the total number and location of exiles in the Far East. Further, it dwells on the reasons for Russian citizens’ emigration to China and mentions their peacetime occupations in Russia. Moreover, the article describes the attempts of foreign adversaries to involve white émigrés in anti-Soviet activities and the reasons for their failures. It is shown that white émigrés formed organizations for the purpose of cultural and other communication in a kindred environment and for mutual moral and material support. A conclusion is substantiated that the dogma of the irreconcilability of class interests influenced the tendentious selection of information about white émigrés, about their general “hostility” towards the Soviet Union. In addition, it is alleged here that the majority of white émigrés, including some of their leaders, wanted to return to their homeland. This conclusion is based not only on analytical information reports compiled by secret agents of the GPU-OGPU, but also on surveys initiated by top white émigré leaders and carried out abroad in the 1920s.

The socio-political context of energy storage transition: Insights from a media analysis of Chinese newspapers

The development of energy storage (ES) technology is essential for a sustainable energy transition; however, the socio-political context of ES tends to make its large-scale development challenging, which requires more attention. Given the role of media discourse in both reflecting and influencing such socio-technical processes, we initially analysed the national media representation of ES in China based on the Socio-Political Evaluation of Energy Deployment (SPEED) framework. We did this by analysing 156 ES-related articles from two Chinese mainstream newspapers, People’s Daily and China Daily. Through investigating the framing and frequency of articles, the particular ES technology mentioned, and the stakeholders involved, we identify (1) a generally promising pathway of ES development due to its transformative role in China’s low-carbon energy transition and its alignments with other national priorities and interests; (2) some uncertainties about ES development regarding local institutional inertia and how people interact with ES technologies, which could hinder an ES transition; and (3) domestic complexity and dynamics underpinning ES technologies, reflecting a supportive attitude of the Chinese government and a top-down governance system. Our findings help to uncover the unique socio-political environment around ES in China, how audiences are informed, and the support provided to stakeholders’ strategies.

A Comparative Analysis of Chinese and American Newspaper Reports on China’s Belt and Road Initiative

ABSTRACT This study adopts a critical discourse analysis approach in comparing the portrayal of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in two English language newspapers, China Daily (CD) and New York Times (NYT). It focuses on how these two influential newspapers employ various discursive strategies to portray the BRI and its various players to unpack the embedded ideologies underlying the news reports. The data comprises 165 news reports on the BRI published between 2013 and 2019. By examining key news features such as headlines, leads and quotes, three contrastive themes were uncovered: BRI as a unifying agent or disruptive force; bolstering support for or casting aspersions on the BRI; and a rising China versus a fading US. These themes coalesce and converge into two parallel but distinct discourses. While CD unequivocally depicts the BRI as a collaborative project that seeks to unify and bring widespread benefits to member countries, NYT presents a more complex picture that discursively constructs China’s BRI as a geopolitical threat to the waning global influence of the US. These divergent discourses are discussed in light of motivated reasoning theory and in relation to the varying ideological standpoints from which the two newspapers operate.

WHY MEDIA SLANT? Media coverage of mergers and acquisitions in China

Using a text analysis of Chinese newspaper articles covering 1321 proposed mergers during 2008–2018, this study proposes attribution theory to examine how the media is susceptible to stereotype bias. Evidence reveals that the media pays considerable attention to and exhibits favourable sentiments toward overseas-experienced acquirers, which is found only in non-state-owned enterprises. Further analyses on the amplifying effect of stereotype bias show that the media slant more positively on large-scale overseas experiences. Results indicate that the media is biased, referring to impression migration from merger and acquisition experience.

Transformation or Continuation? Comparing Journalism in Digital and Legacy Media in China

ABSTRACT This paper reports a content analysis of ten mainland Chinese newspapers compared with their respective news applications. The newspapers were analysed in 2012 and 2018, and the news applications were from 2018. The paper explores the extent to which a shift from print to digital distribution has altered the practice of journalism. Contrary to the widely-held view which stresses the transformational nature of the shift, the results of this analysis show that there are more commonalities than differences between offline and online journalism. There were some changes to the printed versions between 2012 and 2018 but reports in the news applications remained in most respects close to those in the printed newspapers. There were changes in the way that news was presented, notably the use of more illustrations and emotion-driven expressions and markers. But there were no significant differences in terms of substantial dimensions of content, including the pattern of the sources used, the depth of the contexts and orientation of the reports. The use of distinctive online affordances, like hyperlinks, was found to be infrequent.

Agenda-Setting in Cross-National Coverage of COVID-19: An Analysis of Elite Newspapers in US and China with Topic Modeling

This study examines agenda-setting in US-China elite newspapers coverage of COVID-19 through topic modeling. It attempts to contribute to studies of media agenda first by demonstrating the relevance of text-mining in agenda-setting research and second by comparing how elite newspapers from different countries choose topics as part of agenda-setting when they report a single event. Topic-modeling the news corpora collected between 15 January 2020 and 15 June 2020 from the four US-China elite newspapers, the study finds that “domestic economy” and “international relations” are the two dominant topics that help shape the agenda in the Chinese newspapers, whereas “family & friends” and “daily life” are the topics playing the same role in the US newspapers. The study argues that such differences may associate with ideological gaps between the two countries in terms of “concepts of development”, “media bias” and “views of individualism”.

New Discussion on the Development Strategy of Financial and Economic News under Convergence Media Environment

China Business News is one of the first Chinese newspapers to start media convergence. It has achieved good results in the construction of financial media platform and the production of all media content. The innovation and development of China Business News in the financial media environment is of typical significance. In the Internet era, due to the continuous development of high and new technologies and the changing market environment, China Business News still has some problems in its innovation and development. Based on the financial media environment, this paper uses case studies, literature analysis and comparative analysis and other research methods to deeply explore the development strategies and problems of China Business News in the financial media environment.

Differences in journalism culture or is there more to it? Comparing news on the European refugee issue in Western Europe and China

This study explores the country-specific, regional and cultural differences and similarities between China and two European countries in their coverage of the European refugee issue and seeks to provide a deeper understanding of the various political interests, social values, and journalism cultures in the countries under study. It analyzed and compared 2,368 news articles in Belgian, Swedish, and Chinese newspapers from 2015 to 2017. The analysis demonstrated that Chinese newspapers put less emphasis on welcoming the refugees by politicians and citizens, but are more prone to report on Islamic religion in their coverage of the refugees than the Belgian and Swedish newspapers. The empirical evidence suggests that the differences in reporting are not only a representation of different political interests and social engagement of the three countries, but, to a large extent, a result of different journalism cultures across nations.

Calls to Action (Mobilizing Information) on Cancer in Online News: Content Analysis.

BackgroundThe health belief model explains that individual intentions and motivation of health behaviors are mostly subject to external cues to action, such as from interpersonal communications and media consumptions. The concept of mobilizing information (MI) refers to a type of mediated information that could call individuals to carry out particular health actions. Different media channels, especially digital media outlets, play an essential role as a health educator to disseminate cancer health information and persuade and mobilize cancer prevention in the community. However, little is known about calls to action (or MI) in online cancer news, especially from Asian media outlets.ObjectiveThis study aimed at analyzing cancer news articles that contain MI and their news components on the selected Malaysian English and Chinese newspapers with online versions.MethodsThe Star Online and Sin Chew Online were selected for analysis because the two newspaper websites enjoy the highest circulation and readership in the English language and the Chinese language streams, respectively. Two bilingual coders searched the cancer news articles based on sampling keywords and then read and coded each news article accordingly. Five coding variables were conceptualized from previous studies (ie, cancer type, news source, news focus, cancer risk factors, and MI), and a good consistency using Cohen kappa was built between coders. Descriptive analysis was used to examine the frequency and percentage of each coding item; chi-square test (confidence level at 95%) was applied to analyze the differences between two newspaper websites, and the associations between variables and the presence of MI were examined through binary logistic regression.ResultsAmong 841 analyzed news articles, 69.6% (585/841) presented MI. News distributions were unbalanced throughout the year in both English and Chinese newspaper websites; some months occupied peaks (ie, February and October), but cancer issues and MI for cancer prevention received minimal attention in other months. The news articles from The Star Online and Sin Chew Online were significantly different in several news components, such as the MI present rates (χ2=9.25, P=.003), providing different types of MI (interactive MI: χ2=12.08, P=.001), interviewing different news sources (government agency: χ2=12.05, P=.001), concerning different news focus (primary cancer prevention: χ2=10.98, P=.001), and mentioning different cancer risks (lifestyle risks: χ2=7.43, P=.007). Binary logistic regression results reported that online cancer news articles were more likely to provide MI when interviewing nongovernmental organizations, focusing on topics related to primary cancer prevention, and highlighting lifestyle risks (odds ratio [OR] 2.77, 95% CI 1.89-4.05; OR 97.70, 95% CI 46.97-203.24; OR 186.28; 95% CI 44.83-773.96; P=.001, respectively).ConclusionsThis study provided new understandings regarding MI in cancer news coverage. This could wake and trigger individuals’ preexisting attitudes and intentions on cancer prevention. Thus, health professionals, health journalists, and health campaign designers should concentrate on MI when distributing health information to the community.

“Together, we fight the virus”

This exploratory qualitative study was conducted in the summer of 2020 when Hong Kong people probably needed a substantial boost in their confidence in themselves, the government, and the future. Through the lens of metadiscourse, we investigated the way the city’s Chinese newspapers attempted the confidence boost in editorials and opinion columns – the two newspaper genres that are probably the most persuasive because of the inclusion and expression of the journalists’ and newspapers’ stance and ideologies. Drawing upon metadiscourse as the analytical framework, the article analyses the rhetoric of the discourse of 31 editorials and opinion columns extracted from five key Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong. The patterns of use of metadiscourse in the two genres have been identified. The roles played by Chinese newspapers that circulated in Hong Kong while the city was undergoing one of the hardest periods in its history are discussed.

Social Media Big Data: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (Un)truths.

Social Media Big Data: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (Un)truths.

Evolution of media frames about e-cigarettes from 2004 to 2019: a content analysis of newspapers in China.

This study conducted a content analysis of 639 news articles about e-cigarettes in China from 2004-2019 to examine longitudinal changes in media frames and media tones about e-cigarettes in Chinese newspapers. Results indicated that policy frame was the most frequently used frame, followed by human impact frame, information frame, and uncertainty frame. Dividing the time period of 2004-2019 into four phases (i.e., 2004-2006, 2007-2010, 2011-2017 and 2018-2019), the study found that the frequency of the information frame significantly decreased over time, while the policy frame and uncertainty frame significantly increased, with the policy frame being the dominant frame in recent years. In contrast, the use of the economic frame and morality frame fluctuated, both reaching peaks in the phase of 2007-2010 and decreasing in the most recent phase. Overall, the tone of the large majority of news articles was unfavorable, and the turning point occurred in the phase of 2007-2010 when the percentage of news articles with negative tone exceeded those with positive tone for the first time. Framing of e-cigarette news articles in China demonstrated the pivotal role of policy makers in defining the e-cigarette issue, and the influence of the international public health community, as an important and reliable information source, on defining the health risk of e-cigarettes, which has implication for not only e-cigarette control, but tobacco control in China in general.

“One Country, Two Systems”: A Corpus-assisted Discourse Analysis of the Politics of Recontextualization in British, American and Chinese Newspapers

ABSTRACT This study gives a corpus-assisted discourse study of the recontextualization of “One Country, Two Systems” in Chinese, British and American newspapers. It proposes to analyse the recontextualization of “One Country, Two Systems” at four levels: (1) Lexicalization; (2) Grammatical functions; (3) Evaluation; and (4) Perspectivation. The findings show not only the systematic differences between Chinese and Anglo-American newspapers but also the subtle differences between American and British newspapers in their specific ways of recontextualization. It is argued that a proper understanding of the politics of recontextualization should explicate the dynamic relations between media systems, national interests, and the specific ways of recontextualization.

Focusing on political and civil concerns in news media? European refugee issue seen from China

The European refugee issue has become one of the major topics in Europe’s media narratives, its public discourses, and political debates, particularly in the peak period from late summer 2015 to the migration worries driving the Brexit referendum vote in June 2016. This study examines what image Chinese newspapers projects of the EU as a global actor against the backdrop of the refugee issue. The focus is on the coverage of the political and civil responses in European societies toward the issue and the actors and factors behind these responses. Based on a content analysis of 536 news articles from four Chinese newspapers spanning from 2015 to 2017, this study found that Chinese media portrayed a fairly unwelcoming attitude from both political and civil society actors in Europe towards refugees, though civil society actors tend to be more welcoming than political actors. The place of the event, reference to religion, i.e., Muslims, non-Muslims, and Christian, and threat themes, i.e., economic threat, security threat, cultural threat, and health threat, affect Chinese media representation of the European refugee issue, and these factors showed a different concern pattern from political and civil societies. However, the portrayed unwelcoming responses toward the refugee issue do not seem to harm the images of the EU as a Union of integrity and a global actor in Chinese news media. The study concludes with a discussion on the image of the EU as a global actor in Chinese news as well as limitations and directions for future research.

A Text Convolution Network Based Policy Uncertainty Index: An Application For China

Accurate measurements of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) are essential for understanding and predicting economic dynamics. In this study, we use text convolution network, an advanced natural language processing method, to develop an innovative monthly index of EPU. It is explored that this method can better analyze complex semantics and subtle language in textual data and accurately measure policy uncertainty. We apply this method to the Chinese real estate market based on the texts of 60 Chinese newspapers from 2005 to 2019. It is proved that the index effectively captures the characteristics of policy uncertainty in China’s real estate market. This new approach is not limited to the study of policy uncertainty but can be widely applied to other concept-based text analysis.

Women’s Tennis Diplomacy: Australia–China Cultural Relations and Li Na as a Sports Celebrity Diplomat of the Australian Open

ABSTRACT Mega sports events offer chances for hosting nations to build up their soft power by branding their countries as vibrant, confident and unique places, opening doors for strong cultural exchanges. This paper addresses key questions of cultural diplomacy in international sporting events contexts and furthers the analysis of the growing relevance of ‘women’s tennis diplomacy’. By examining Tennis Australia’s diplomatic strategy to raise its profile in neighbouring countries with the Australian Open Asia-Pacific campaign, this study adopts the alternative perspective of non-state-based sports diplomacy. It particularly examines the diplomatic role of Li Na, the Chinese female tennis player who has become a global sports celebrity after being the first Asian player to win a Grand Slam women’s singles title in 2011. It asks whether Li Na can be named as a sports celebrity diplomat of the Australian Open. By using a content analysis of significant Australian and Chinese newspapers between 2006 and 2019, this study examines Li Na’s global celebrityhood’s impact in the Australia–China binational connections. This analysis discusses the reasons for her success in this unofficial but relevant role for the cultural relations between Australia and China. The findings suggest that Li Na’s gender image as an independent woman, her neoliberal citizenship and her remarkable engagement with Australian and Chinese tennis fans facilitate her unofficial ambassadorship on behalf of the Australian Open. As a remarkable example of women’s tennis diplomacy, Li Na’s cultural influence shapes the understanding between Australian and Chinese publics beyond their governments.

Framing responsibility (Health Coverage)

Framing responsibility (Health Coverage)

From risks to catastrophes: How Chinese Newspapers framed the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in its early stage

Beck identified delocalisation, uncalculability and non-compensability as three characteristics of modern risk, the recognition of which lies at the core of transforming insubstantial risks into urgent catastrophes. This study aimed to empirically test and enrich Beck’s theory by examining how the Chinese media framed COVID-19 during the first month of the pandemic’s outbreak, a critical period for the media’s staging of risk. We observed that the usage of the consequences and treatment responsibility frames lies at the core of transforming COVID-19 from a risk to a catastrophe. Initially, journalists framed the virus as conquerable at a local level, with calculable consequences and compensable solutions. In the second phase, after the central government and national health experts stepped in, journalists admitted that COVID-19 was uncontrollable at a local level, starting to transform the risk into a national catastrophe, and called for enhanced solutions to controlling the spread of the virus. In the third phase, journalists started to transform the local catastrophe into a global crisis, referring to the global community as an information source. By building a bridge between risk theory and framing theory, we found that, in the case of COVID-19, delocalisation, incalculability, and non-compensability were crucial factors in risk virtualisation. We argue that the different usage of the consequences and treatment responsibility frames can either prevent the transformation of a risk into a catastrophe or facilitate this transformation process.

Transadvertising of Western pharmaceutical products in The Chinese Mail (1895–1910)

ABSTRACT This study investigates how English advertisements for Western pharmaceutical products were appropriated to meet the expectations of local consumers in The Chinese Mail, one of the major Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong, between 1895 and 1910. The Chinese advertisements for these foreign medical products are compared to their English counterparts, and the adaptation of brand names and advertising content to the discourse of Traditional Chinese Medicine is analysed. This study reveals that the Western pharmaceutical products marketed in Hong Kong were closely related to the bubonic plague of 1894 and the prostitution industry and that the juxtaposition of Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine discourses in Chinese advertising highlights the discrepancy between these two medical discourses.