Adverse sentiments in the American media houses towards the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI): An analysis of the taxonomy, trend, texture, and tendency

While the Chinese narrative promotes inclusive development, shared economies and sustainable futures, the American narrative highlights its negative impact on the world. This study explores whether the narratives of the leading news media in the USA emit negative sentiments towards the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) project over the last 10 years, from the BRI's birth in 2013 to adolescence in 2023. During this period, some 3569 articles were written in the two prominent publications in the USA—The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Dow Jones Newswires (DJN) concerning the BRI. This study analyzed them using media theories to discern the prevailing attitudes and perceptions expressed in these articles in terms of heuristics (taxonomy, temporality, texture, and tendency). We made four discoveries related to the sentiments contextualised in the media narratives about the BRI project. First, the WSJ embeds negative sentiments in its narrative more than the DJN does. Second, the temporal line reveals that negative sentiment increased as the BRI project grew towards youth. Third, the concrete (vs abstract) texture of the narrative is more negative and WSJ is more concrete than DJN is. Fourth, the political discourse in the context (people, groups, country) reveals negative tendencies, but business discourse in the institutional/corporate contexts reveals positive tendencies. These findings offer valuable insights into the evolving perceptions and attitudes surrounding the BRI project in influential global media outlets in America, providing a nuanced understanding of how media framing (taxonomy), temporality, texture, and tendency are driving the discourse and geopolitical influence on the public mind.