An Inductive Empirical Case Study Of China's Exercise Of Discourse Power: A Topic Model Based Analysis Of Xinhua's English-Language Facebook Posts About The War In Ukraine In 2022 - 2023

Abstract

This thesis analysed Xinhua's posts about the war in Ukraine in 2022 - 2023 on its primary global English-language Facebook page, as an inductive empirical case study of China's exercise of Discourse Power. This thesis used an inductive computational method, Topic Modelling, in combination with a framework adapted from the public diplomacy literature due to limited existing scholarship in English about China's Discourse Power, to analyse data about Xinhua's Facebook posts about the war in Ukraine in 2022 - 2023. The dataset of this thesis consisted of 1110 Facebook posts and their associated metadata from the period 1 February 2022 - 31 March 2023. The data was gathered using CrowdTangle, then processed and analysed using the Python programming language. This thesis inductively identified five possible topics of Xinhua's Facebook posts about the war in Ukraine in 2022 - 2023: China's Perspectives On The War In Ukraine; The War In Ukraine And Global Prices; Russia's "Military Operation" In Ukraine And Presidents; UN And The War In Ukraine; US, NATO, And The War In Ukraine. Through an analysis of data from Facebook, this thesis found that these topics possibly obtained some traction with audiences. Therefore, China's exercise of Discourse Power regarding the war in Ukraine via Xinhua was possibly...