Networked Huawei Agendas During the U.S.-China Trade Conflict: The Interrelationships Between Huawei, the News Media, and Public Tweets

Abstract

This study examines interrelationships among Huawei’s networked agendas, the U.S. and Chinese news media agendas, and Twitter users’ agendas on Twitter during the U.S.-China trade conflict. Social network analysis is used as a theory and method to analyze Huawei tweets, news media tweets, and public tweets. This study explored whether Huawei’s direct network agenda setting (NAS) to Twitter users is more successful than the news media’s network agenda setting to Twitter users. This study is among the first to explore cross-nation NAS and network intermedia agenda setting (IAS) effects on Twitter. It also found that the U.S. media did not follow Huawei’s networked agendas, but the Chinese media followed the corporation’s agendas during the U.S.-China trade conflict. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.