Measuring competition between the great powers across Africa and Asia using a measure of relative dispersion in media coverage bias
Abstract Senior leaders in the US Department of Defense, as well as global affairs strategists and academics, have argued that China’s economic growth is associated with a dramatic increase in competition for resources and Chinese influence abroad. We aim to ascertain whether and where competition b...
Main Authors: | , , , |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Springer Nature
2022-10-01
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Series: | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01408-w |
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author | Elizabeth Gooch Stone Goethe Nicholas Sobrepena Eric Eckstrand |
author_facet | Elizabeth Gooch Stone Goethe Nicholas Sobrepena Eric Eckstrand |
author_sort | Elizabeth Gooch |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Abstract Senior leaders in the US Department of Defense, as well as global affairs strategists and academics, have argued that China’s economic growth is associated with a dramatic increase in competition for resources and Chinese influence abroad. We aim to ascertain whether and where competition between great powers exists and to characterize China’s growing influence. Our main contribution is that we create a measure of competition among the United States, China, Russia, India, and France within African and Asian countries. We draw our data from a large media database that records news articles published since March 2015. We sum the quantity of articles published by local press agencies that discuss an international or regional powers’ engagement in an event located within the Asian or African countries’ borders, and we construct a measure of country-level competition among powers. To validate our country-level competition measure, we synthesize qualitative information from current government, think tanks, and academic documents on the presence and interests of foreign powers across subregions in Asia and Africa. From those narratives, we construct an additional subregional measure of competition. We compare our statistical country-level measure of competition to this narrative-based subregional measure of competition and find that they are correlated. |
first_indexed | 2024-04-11T08:54:21Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-bcd8ad646db94de5860697e8f0688ed7 |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 2662-9992 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-04-11T08:54:21Z |
publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
publisher | Springer Nature |
record_format | Article |
series | Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
spelling | doaj.art-bcd8ad646db94de5860697e8f0688ed72022-12-22T04:33:20ZengSpringer NatureHumanities & Social Sciences Communications2662-99922022-10-019111410.1057/s41599-022-01408-wMeasuring competition between the great powers across Africa and Asia using a measure of relative dispersion in media coverage biasElizabeth Gooch0Stone Goethe1Nicholas Sobrepena2Eric Eckstrand3Defense Resources Management Institute, Naval Postgraduate SchoolGraduate School of International and Defense Studies, Naval Postgraduate SchoolDepartment of Statistics, San Jose State UniversityData Science Analytics Group, Naval Postgraduate SchoolAbstract Senior leaders in the US Department of Defense, as well as global affairs strategists and academics, have argued that China’s economic growth is associated with a dramatic increase in competition for resources and Chinese influence abroad. We aim to ascertain whether and where competition between great powers exists and to characterize China’s growing influence. Our main contribution is that we create a measure of competition among the United States, China, Russia, India, and France within African and Asian countries. We draw our data from a large media database that records news articles published since March 2015. We sum the quantity of articles published by local press agencies that discuss an international or regional powers’ engagement in an event located within the Asian or African countries’ borders, and we construct a measure of country-level competition among powers. To validate our country-level competition measure, we synthesize qualitative information from current government, think tanks, and academic documents on the presence and interests of foreign powers across subregions in Asia and Africa. From those narratives, we construct an additional subregional measure of competition. We compare our statistical country-level measure of competition to this narrative-based subregional measure of competition and find that they are correlated.https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01408-w |
spellingShingle | Elizabeth Gooch Stone Goethe Nicholas Sobrepena Eric Eckstrand Measuring competition between the great powers across Africa and Asia using a measure of relative dispersion in media coverage bias Humanities & Social Sciences Communications |
title | Measuring competition between the great powers across Africa and Asia using a measure of relative dispersion in media coverage bias |
title_full | Measuring competition between the great powers across Africa and Asia using a measure of relative dispersion in media coverage bias |
title_fullStr | Measuring competition between the great powers across Africa and Asia using a measure of relative dispersion in media coverage bias |
title_full_unstemmed | Measuring competition between the great powers across Africa and Asia using a measure of relative dispersion in media coverage bias |
title_short | Measuring competition between the great powers across Africa and Asia using a measure of relative dispersion in media coverage bias |
title_sort | measuring competition between the great powers across africa and asia using a measure of relative dispersion in media coverage bias |
url | https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01408-w |
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