Media Coverage of China During COVID-19: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The first case of COVID-19 appeared in China in late 2019, followed by a global outbreak of the virus. There are many articles examining the content of media coverage of China, but the topics examining media coverage of China during COVID-19 are still very new and have not been adequately studied. Knowledge related to Media coverage of China during COVID-19 was analyzed and visualized using CiteSpace software with the Web of Science Core Collection as the data source. The main findings suggest that media coverage of China during COVID-19 is a relatively recent topic of research. (1) The three most influential journals in this area are Communication, Psychology Multidisciplinary, and Public Environmental Occupational Health. Zhang W., Chen Q, et al. are among the most influential authors. (2) Co-author networks are decentralized, whereas transnational collaborations take place in groups. 10 clusters are considered to be of high interest, of which "covid-19 governance" "contesting coronavirus narrative" "understanding public protective behavioral intention" has persisted to this day. (3) Thirteen emergent terms illustrate the evolution of the field's research frontiers, the earliest being "social media," "fake news," etc., followed by "support," "emotions," "media," etc., and finally "media satisfaction" and "media perceptions."Finally, its contributions, limitations and directions for further research are discussed. The findings of this study predict future trends in research on media coverage of China during COVID-19 and provide a basis for more in-depth research.