Investigating the Differences in Privacy News Based on Grounded Theory

Abstract

The current study explores how privacy is covered in the news in two different cultural contexts, by summarizing both an issue framework and a subject diagram utilizing privacy dialogues in the news coverages. Data was collected through Google and Baidu, most commonly used engines in the US and China through 2016 to 2019. Adopting a qualitative method based on the Grounded Theory, 400 news samples were coded following theoretical sampling procedure and reached a theoretical saturation. Our analyses yielded three main topics namely technology, data collection and use, and privacy law making and eight subtopics in the US and China that were framed differently in distrust aspect, and significantly different in reporting perspectives. We also found that subjects covered in privacy news were mainly related to legal topics. And a common ground was identified in the data protecting aspect for both users and data collectors.