TY - JOUR
T1 - Between reality and perception
T2 - the mediating effects of mass media on public opinion toward China
AU - Huang, Junming
AU - Cook, Gavin G.
AU - Xie, Yu
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Hao Dong, Shawn Dorius and Yongai Jin for valuable discussions. We thank Xiaoxiao Shen and Haosen Ge for coding the US-China relations events.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - There are many conflicting theories about the relationship between media reports and public opinion, but few of them are supported by empirical work on large data sets. We use sentiment results on over 260,000 China-related articles in The New York Times to show that events in international relations affect media sentiment which, in turn, affects public opinion. We find that sudden shifts in US-China relations are accompanied by changes in how The New York Times covers China and that the news reporting on China leads public opinion on China by 1 year. Our work illustrates how The New York Times, a prestigious mass media institution, propagates international relation signals to shape American views of the Chinese state and the Chinese people.
AB - There are many conflicting theories about the relationship between media reports and public opinion, but few of them are supported by empirical work on large data sets. We use sentiment results on over 260,000 China-related articles in The New York Times to show that events in international relations affect media sentiment which, in turn, affects public opinion. We find that sudden shifts in US-China relations are accompanied by changes in how The New York Times covers China and that the news reporting on China leads public opinion on China by 1 year. Our work illustrates how The New York Times, a prestigious mass media institution, propagates international relation signals to shape American views of the Chinese state and the Chinese people.
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U2 - 10.1080/21620555.2021.1980720
DO - 10.1080/21620555.2021.1980720
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85117506970
SN - 2162-0555
VL - 53
SP - 431
EP - 450
JO - Chinese Sociological Review
JF - Chinese Sociological Review
IS - 5
ER -