Seeing Bias at a Glance: A Visual–Statistical Analysis of Sentiment in China’s State-Backed English News Media

Abstract

China’s state-backed media is valuable for news bias research due to the tight control of journalism in China. In the digital era, bias remains, and quantitative and computational methods are playing an important role in studying it. Bias on China’s English news websites has not been examined in previous research, and a day-to-day angle is lacking. This study selects four well-known news media websites in China: CGTN, China Daily, Global Times, and Xinhuanet, which are owned and operated by the state or party in different ways. The BBC is chosen as a benchmark of editorial independence to highlight differences in bias. The news titles on their official websites were collected on a daily basis and analysed with sentiment as the focus. Features of news webpages are discussed and utilised. The charts and network graphs in this paper lower the barrier to comprehension for wider audiences, enabling readers to grasp the sentiment bias of news media in a visually digestible format. The results demonstrate that sentiment bias exists in China’s state-backed English-language news websites today, favouring positive coverage of the domestic side. In contrast, the BBC serves as a suitable benchmark and reflects the tendency for negativity dominance in news reporting.