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Measuring media bias in China

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  • Yuan, Han

Abstract

Major advances in research on media bias have been achieved in recent years. However, methods used in the literature are primarily applied to American media and usually dependent on the two-party system. This paper attempts to detect and quantify the principal difference, or ‘media bias’, of Chinese media. We extract a document-term matrix from articles on the Eighteenth Party Congress in November 2012 from 21 Chinese newspapers from seven provinces, as well as the People's Daily. With this matrix, hierarchical clustering is subsequently used to divide newspapers into two groups. Using the dendrogram and intergroup dissimilarities, we can construct an index to indicate the direction and the magnitude of media bias. In our sample, newspapers from Zhejiang and Guangdong constitute one group, and the rest constitute the other group. The principal difference of Chinese media is reflected in two dimensions: central/local and political/economic.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuan, Han, 2016. "Measuring media bias in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 49-59.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:38:y:2016:i:c:p:49-59
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2015.11.011
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bernhardt, Dan & Krasa, Stefan & Polborn, Mattias, 2008. "Political polarization and the electoral effects of media bias," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(5-6), pages 1092-1104, June.
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    6. Matthew Gentzkow & Jesse M. Shapiro, 2010. "What Drives Media Slant? Evidence From U.S. Daily Newspapers," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 78(1), pages 35-71, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Huang, Yun & Luk, Paul, 2020. "Measuring economic policy uncertainty in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
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    3. Guo, Mengmeng & Liu, Jinge & Yu, Jianyu, 2021. "Social trust and food scandal exposure: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    4. Ito, Asei & Lim, Jaehwan & Zhang, Hongyong, 2023. "Catching the political leader's signal: Economic policy uncertainty and firm investment in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Media bias; Chinese media; Text categorisation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media

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