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Research Article: Media framing of traditional Chinese medicine and its public health implications: a cross-national panel analysis of news coverage in the US, UK, and Europe (2010–2024)

Date Published: 2026-06-12

Abstract:
Western media framing of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shapes public health beliefs and policy attitudes across national contexts, yet systematic cross-national evidence remains limited. This study analyzed TCM-related news coverage across six Western countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, and Italy, from 2010 to 2024. Using a unified four-category coding framework applied to a multilingual corpus of elite print and online outlets, we constructed a balanced panel of 360 country-quarter observations and employed two-way fixed effects regression models to examine cross-national variation in frame distribution and sentiment orientation. Risk/safety frames dominated in the United States (38.4%) and the United Kingdom (35.1%), whereas scientific/efficacy frames prevailed in Germany (41.2%) and France (37.8%). The COVID-19 pandemic improved overall sentiment ( ? =?0.14, p <?0.001) and intensified risk framing ( ? =?0.11, p <?0.01), with risk amplification concentrated in NHS-type healthcare systems. WHO ICD-11 inclusion of TCM increased policy frame ratios ( ? =?0.08, p <?0.01) without improving evaluative tone, while domestic TCM legislative developments improved sentiment and policy framing but did not affect risk framing. These findings suggest that national regulatory contexts and major public health shocks are consistent correlates of TCM media framing patterns. However, the small number of country clusters and uneven article density, especially in Southern European countries, limit inferential precision and preclude strong causal claims. The findings support country-specific rather than uniform international public health communication strategies for TCM, pending audience-level confirmation.

Introduction:
Western media framing of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) shapes public health beliefs and policy attitudes across national contexts, yet systematic cross-national evidence remains limited.

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