Media framing of agricultural technology adoption in developing countries: Evidence from Juncao technology news coverage

Juncao technology, a key agricultural technology innovation for Sustainable Development Goals, is praised for boosting agricultural yields, reducing poverty, and restoring ecosystems, yet how media framing shapes adoption remains unclear. This study employs BERTopic for theme mining and NRC Emotion Lexicon for emotion analysis to examine English-language news coverage of Juncao technology in 13 developing countries, drawing on a self-built corpus published between 2019 and 2025. The BERTopic analysis identifies five dominant topics: government-led rice cultivation and farmer training for sustainable production; local agricultural development, ecological management, and poverty alleviation; the Belt and Road Initiative-international agricultural investment for a shared global community; provincial and intergovernmental official visits; and contributions to the UN SDGs through livestock production. Emotion analysis shows that positive emotions prevail, with Trust and Anticipation most salient. Trust is closely associated with international cooperation, particularly within the Belt and Road Initiative, while Anticipation reflects expectations of improved agricultural production and economic gains. Negative emotions target existing challenges such as poverty, food insecurity, and environmental degradation rather than Juncao itself, positioning the technology as a solution. These findings demonstrate that emotional framing plays a key role in shaping perceived advantages and fostering adoption of technology.