Examining the Intermedia Agenda Setting Effects amid the Changsheng Vaccine Crisis: A Computational Approach

Jian Shi and Hanxiao Wang ()
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Jian Shi: Academy of Contemporary China and World Studies, China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, Beijing 100037, China
Hanxiao Wang: School of Journalism and Communication, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 5, 1-12

Abstract: Scholars have long questioned whether the traditional media effects approach can still be applied in the current digital media era, especially in the non-Western, state-regulated Chinese media environment. This study examines the intermedia agenda setting of traditional media sources and we-media sources in the WeChat Official Accounts through a computational look at the Changsheng Bio-technology vaccine (CBV) crisis. Utilizing LDA topic modeling and Granger causality analysis, results show that both traditional media and we-media (i.e., online news sources operated by individuals or collectives) focus more consistently on two frames, the news facts and the countermeasure and suggestion frames. Interestingly, the traditional media agenda impacts the we-media agenda under the news fact and the countermeasure and suggestion frames, while the we-media agenda influences the traditional media agenda under the moral judgment and causality background frames. Overall, our study demonstrates the mutual effects between the traditional media agenda and the we-media agenda. This study sheds light on the theoretical meaning of network agenda setting and extends its application to social media platforms in Eastern countries and health-related fields.

Keywords: intermedia agenda setting; network agenda setting; LDA modeling; vaccine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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