Jenny Jiang’s new research maps the spread of stories across global media | Today at Elon
The assistant professor of communication design presented her findings at the 75th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) in Denver.
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Jenny Jiang, assistant professor of communication design, presented her new research exploring how global media stories spread at the 75th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) in Denver. Her talk was part of the “Computational Advances in Semantic Network Analysis” panel, which highlighted innovations in the study of digital discourse.
Jiang’s June 13 presentation, titled “Advancing Coherency Network Analysis: Tracking the Pulse of Global Narratives on X,” unveiled a methodological breakthrough for examining how global media narratives evolve over time. Drawing from a dataset of nearly 490,000 posts by the Associated Press and China’s Xinhua News Agency from 2022 to 2024, Jiang mapped the narrative rhythms surrounding geopolitical events such as the Russia–Ukraine war.
“We’re not just asking what is said, but how narratives travel, echo, and evolve – who leads, who follows, and when,” she said.
Her proposed framework, Coherency Network Analysis (CNA), integrates time-series and network analysis to track how international topics – such as alliances, conflicts, and strategic pairings – rise and fall in tandem across media systems. The results reveal stark differences in how Western and Chinese media synchronize coverage, offering new insights into global information flows and media influence.
The session was chaired by George A. Barnett, ICA Fellow and distinguished professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis, who is internationally recognized for his work in communication networks, diffusion of innovations, and semantic network analysis. The panel’s discussant, James A. Danowski, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago, is best known as the creator of WORDij, a prominent software tool for semantic network analysis. His research in automated text analysis and communication modeling continues to shape the fields of computational social science and digital communication.
The International Communication Association (ICA) is a global academic organization for scholars and researchers interested in the study of communication. Founded in 1950, it brings together more than 5,000 members from over 80 countries, representing disciplines such as media studies, journalism, health communication, and digital media.
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