How China is represented in communication journals A content analysis of three leading publications from 1979-2013

摘要

This study is a content analysis of China-related research published in three prominent communication peer-viewed journals, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Communication, and Communication Research between 1979, the year after China started to implement its reform and opening-up policy and 2013. The purpose of this study is to discover potential trends in China-related research published in the communication field. Thus, every peer-reviewed article pertaining to mainland China (N = 55) is considered as a unit of analysis. This inquiry focuses on the nature of the topic covered, the theoretical framework, methodological details, research questions and hypotheses as well as authorship, statistical approach, sampling method and source of data. Results indicated that American institutions published the largest amount of communication research on China. Political issue and public opinion was the most popular research topic addressed dominantly through quantitative method and most specifically with content analyses. The published research, tested through hypotheses more than research questions, dominantly featured theoretical framework and more precisely agenda-setting. Statistically, frequency was used in the majority of articles.