Geopolitical Narratives and the Framing of Rare Earth Elements in Indian Web News Coverage: A Corpus-Linguistic Perspective

This study conducts a corpus-linguistic analysis of the representation of rare earth elements (REEs) in Indian web-based news from 2023 to 2026, amid increasing Chinese export restrictions and India’s push for critical-mineral self-sufficiency. Utilizing a corpus of 1,141 articles (701,121 words) primarily from Indian outlets, the analysis employed methods such as frequency counts, collocation profiling, and an inductively developed framing taxonomy influenced by Entman’s framing theory and Baker’s corpus-assisted discourse studies. The term 'rare earth(s)' appeared 7,511 times, indicating a normalized frequency of 106.7 per 10,000 words, with 88.4% of the articles containing this term. Collocational analysis revealed a dominant lexical environment focused on supply-chain and industrial vocabulary, alongside notable mentions of dependency and conflict terms. Framing analysis identified that 65.7% of articles were categorized under an Economic and Industrial Development frame, 15.0% under Geopolitical Rivalry/Weaponisation, and 9.7% under Diplomatic Cooperation, with smaller proportions in National Security, Science and Technology, and Environmental frames. Notably, China appeared in 84.4% and the United States in 72.1% of relevant articles, highlighting the external dependency contextualized in ostensibly domestic discussions. The findings suggest that Indian web news presents a dual narrative regarding REEs: one of vulnerability to Chinese influence and another of aspirational self-reliance, emphasizing the importance of integrating quantitative corpus methods with qualitative framing analysis in the examination of geopolitical narratives in business-centered digital journalism. Keywords: geopolitics; media framing; India; China; rare earth elements; corpus linguistics; collocation; concordance; critical minerals