Al Jazeera Network's coverage of the Belt and Road Initiative: An analytical study using the thematic LDA model

Document Type : Original Article

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Abstract

This study examined the coverage of Al Jazeera network on the Belt and Road Initiative during 2015-2023. 53 news articles were obtained from the network after data processing, and the researcher analyzed the news contents using the LDA topic modeling approach. The major findings showed that the number of news about the Belt and Road Initiative on Al Jazeera network during 2015-2023 generally increased, Al Jazeera's attitude towards topics related to the Belt and Road Initiative was generally neutral, the topics of Al Jazeera's news related to the Belt and Road Initiative consisted of seven main topics, and Al Jazeera mainly focused on economic and trade cooperation between China and the participating countries along the Belt and Road and the economic benefits for these countries.

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