Competition and collaboration: Topic modelling of Chinese and US news coverage about Beijing 2022 winter olympics on twitter

This study analyzes the news coverage by Chinese and U.S. media on Twitter (X) during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, exploring the core topics, reporting frameworks, and mutual influences between the two countries' media. Using tweets from five Chinese media outlets and two U.S. media outlets as the sample, the study employs LDA topic modelling analysis and time series analysis to uncover differences and interactive relationships in topic selection, framing, and reporting volume.The findings reveal that Chinese media focused on eight core topics in their Winter Olympics coverage, while U.S. media concentrated on five. Both countries' media displayed significant attention to the topic of ''popular athletes,'' but Chinese media emphasized the construction of national image from a collectivist perspective, whereas U.S. media highlighted individual achievements from an individualist perspective.The study further examines the differences in communication strategies, noting that Chinese media employed a comprehensive approach, covering the event and related cultural and technological content to project both soft and hard national power. In contrast, U.S. media, influenced by international relations and political factors, placed greater emphasis on controversial international events. These differences reflect divergent communication strategies in terms of subject identification, categorization, framing, and generalization, shaped by their respective mainstream values and ideologies.Finally, the study concludes that despite the significant differences in coverage, the mutual influence observed in reporting volumes between Chinese and U.S. media indicates the growing international influence of Chinese media, which is gradually reshaping the landscape of global news communication.