We studied the relationship between Facebook advertisements from Chinese state media on the global media environment by examining the link between advertisements and online news coverage of China by other countries. We found that countries that see a large increase in views of Facebook advertisement from Chinese state media also see news coverage of China become more positive. News coverage also becomes more likely to use keywords that suggest a point of view favorable to China. One possible explanation is that by drawing greater attention to the issues emphasized by Chinese state media, the advertisements help Chinese state media set the news agenda covered by other media sources.
ARJUN M. TAMBE
Hoover Institution, Stanford University, USA
TONI FRIEDMAN
International Policy Department, Stanford University, USA
JANUARY 14, 2022
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RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Is increased exposure to Chinese state media Facebook ads within a country associated with changes in the tone of news coverage of China?
Is increased exposure to Chinese state media Facebook ads within a country associated with changes in the content of news coverage of China?
Do the changes linked to exposure to Chinese state media ads decrease after Facebook’s adoption of labels indicating that an advertisement is from state-controlled media?
ESSAY SUMMARY
We analyzed the relationship between Chinese state media Facebook advertisements and coverage of China in news articles from around the world published between 2018 and 2020.
We measured the number of times all Facebook advertisements from Chinese state media Facebook pages were shown on screens in over 100 countries from 2018 to 2020.
We collected news articles about China published online in each country from 2018 to 2020, and found the average tone of the news articles became more favorable, and the number of articles containing keywords that suggested a stance favorable to China increased.
We found that after countries were exposed to Chinese state media advertisements, news articles on China had a more positive tone, and were more likely to contain keywords suggesting a stance favorable to China.
The link between impressions and the tone of coverage of China weakened after Facebook’s adoption of state-funding labels in June 2020.
The findings suggest that social media platforms should take steps to limit the dissemination of state propaganda via paid advertisements, such as applying state-funding labels more consistently and prominently.
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