Investigating the Coverage of China’s Vaccine Crisis on YouTube: Networked Framing, Grassroots Activism, and Homophily

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how China’s domestic vaccine crisis in 2018 was politicized within Chinese video content on YouTube. The analysis, employing the Structural Topic Model, uncovered a notable hyper-politicization of the vaccine crisis in video comments, often diverging from the issue frames presented in video titles. Furthermore, inferential network analysis using the Exponential Random Graph Model revealed the hyper-politicized comments can be attributed to 1) the emergence of networked commenters engaging in cross-video commenting practices, and 2) political homophily among video producers, particularly regarding their critical political stance toward China. The findings suggest the networked dynamics of ssue politicization.

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Initiation Grant for Faculty Niche Research Areas (RC-FNRA-IG/21-22/COMF/01) of Hong Kong Baptist University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2024.2313471

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Initiation Grant for Faculty Niche Research Areas of Hong Kong Baptist University [RC-FNRA-IG/21-22/COMF/01].

Notes on contributors

Yuanhang Lu

Yuanhang Lu (Ph.D., Hong Kong Baptist University) is an Associate Professor of the School of Journalism and Communication at South China University of Technology. His research interests include computational communication, online misinformation, and digital media and society.

Yunya Song

Yunya Song (Ph.D., City University of Hong Kong) is a Professor of the Department of Interactive Media at Hong Kong Baptist University. Her research interests include digital media, social network analysis, and computational social science.

K. Hazel Kwon

K. Hazel Kwon (Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo) is an Associate Professor of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism/Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Her research interests include computation and digital media, social/digital media and society, and communication technologies.

Drew Margolin

Drew Margolin (Ph.D., University of Southern California) is an Associate Professor of the Department of Communication at Cornell University. His research interests include computational social science and collective processes, particularly related to the production of discourse, that can be analyzed using digital, observational data.