The UK media coverage of China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak

This article addresses one question: how is the coronavirus outbreak and its management in China reported in the UK media in general, and on the Internet in particular? It does so by examining how the online versions of the BBC, the Guardian and the Daily Mail reported on the coronavirus outbreak in...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zhang, Xiaoling, Shaw, Gareth
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications Ltd 2020
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/64359/
_version_ 1848800122207469568
author Zhang, Xiaoling
Shaw, Gareth
author_facet Zhang, Xiaoling
Shaw, Gareth
author_sort Zhang, Xiaoling
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This article addresses one question: how is the coronavirus outbreak and its management in China reported in the UK media in general, and on the Internet in particular? It does so by examining how the online versions of the BBC, the Guardian and the Daily Mail reported on the coronavirus outbreak in China, but more importantly, on how China handled it, over a 20-week timeframe. The sentiment analysis and thematic analysis show that although the selected media are of different types in the United Kingdom, the themes and topics are not substantially different from each other. This implies that the general media-consuming public in the United Kingdom would regard China’s handling of the virus as largely negative or neutral. However, the ways of discussing and presenting those topics were subject to variation between the publications, which in turn is reflected in the attitudes and perceptions of their readers.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T20:46:32Z
format Article
id nottingham-64359
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-14T20:46:32Z
publishDate 2020
publisher SAGE Publications Ltd
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-643592021-01-22T05:52:20Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/64359/ The UK media coverage of China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak Zhang, Xiaoling Shaw, Gareth This article addresses one question: how is the coronavirus outbreak and its management in China reported in the UK media in general, and on the Internet in particular? It does so by examining how the online versions of the BBC, the Guardian and the Daily Mail reported on the coronavirus outbreak in China, but more importantly, on how China handled it, over a 20-week timeframe. The sentiment analysis and thematic analysis show that although the selected media are of different types in the United Kingdom, the themes and topics are not substantially different from each other. This implies that the general media-consuming public in the United Kingdom would regard China’s handling of the virus as largely negative or neutral. However, the ways of discussing and presenting those topics were subject to variation between the publications, which in turn is reflected in the attitudes and perceptions of their readers. SAGE Publications Ltd 2020-12-18 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc_by_nc https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/64359/1/The%20UK%20media%20coverage%20of%20China%E2%80%99s%20handling%20of%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak.pdf Zhang, Xiaoling and Shaw, Gareth (2020) The UK media coverage of China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak. Global Media and China . ISSN 2059-4364 China; COVID-19; pattern; representation; sentiment analysis; thematic analysis; UK media http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2059436420980072 doi:10.1177/2059436420980072 doi:10.1177/2059436420980072
spellingShingle China; COVID-19; pattern; representation; sentiment analysis; thematic analysis; UK media
Zhang, Xiaoling
Shaw, Gareth
The UK media coverage of China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak
title The UK media coverage of China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak
title_full The UK media coverage of China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak
title_fullStr The UK media coverage of China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak
title_full_unstemmed The UK media coverage of China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak
title_short The UK media coverage of China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak
title_sort uk media coverage of china’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak
topic China; COVID-19; pattern; representation; sentiment analysis; thematic analysis; UK media
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/64359/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/64359/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/64359/