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How Chinese Short Video News Cover Russia-Ukraine
Conflict: A Case Study of Pengpai’s Douyin Account
Zirui Zhang1,a,*
1Department of Communications, Huihua College of Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei
Province, 050000, China
a. zzr5200924@126.com
*corresponding author
Abstract: Since February 2022, the situation in Russia and Ukraine has changed
dramatically, with the outbreak of an armed conflict on a scale that has attracted widespread
international attention. As a representative of China’s mainstream media biased towards
internationalization, Pengpai is naturally extremely concerned about the Russia-Ukraine
conflict. To capture attention on the development of Chinese mainstream media and the
Russia-Ukraine conflict, the author adopted a content analysis approach to analyze how
Chinese mainstream media, Pengpai, published news about the Russia-Ukraine conflict on
Douyin and summarize some of the Pengpai reports (N=64). Overall, the research finds that
by referencing more Chinese citation sources, particularly the news media, Pengpai
demonstrates its professionalism. At the same time, the analysis reveals that Pengpai’s
tendency to report on the Russia-Ukraine conflict is in line with the Chinese government’s
attitude, with a neutral stance and calls for peace as well as putting people first.
Keywords: short video news, Pengpai, Russia-Ukraine conflict, coverage features, Douyin
1. Introduction
On March 29, 2023, China released the “2023 China Internet Audio-Visual Development Research
Report”, stating that the number of Chinese short video users reached 10.12 billion, accounting for
94.8% of Internet users [1]. Indeed, short videos have become a critical component of citizens’
social lives, being used as a tool for entertainment and communication [2]. As more and more
people watch, share, and create short videos, mainstream media outlets are actively looking for
ways to produce short video news, such as Beijing News, Pengpai, CCTV, etc.
Since 2017, short video platforms like Douyin and Quick Worker have incredibly developed,
which simultaneously increased the viewers of short video news [3]. For instance, the followers of
Pengpai’s Douyin account has reached 39 million so far, with an average daily increase of 17
thousand since March 2021, which can demonstrate the huge impact of Pengpai [4]. As for the news
media, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has been an international hot topic since February 2022 and has
drawn a lot of attention due to its huge effects on the world’s economy, military, and international
relationships. In the early stage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Pengpai published several videos,
covering the military, refugees, evacuations, etc., which gained over 1.5 million views on Douyin.
Based on this, the study will focus on how Pengpai’s Douyin account reported the Russia-Ukraine
conflict. Through this study, it can not only understand the attitude of the Chinese government and
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DOI: 10.54254/2753-7048/21/20230102
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the concerns of the Chinese people towards the Russian-Ukrainian conflict but also provide a better
reference for Pengpai and other news media to publish related news to increase their attention.
2. Literature Review
Short video news is a brand-new type of news product that is timed in seconds and often lasts no
more than five minutes. They can arouse both the auditory and visual senses and provide a deeply
immersive experience for the user [5]. For instance, a world-known short video news site, Newsy,
focused on compiling short multidimensional videos of American current events within a few
minutes [6]. At the same time, Chinese mainstream media started to explore short video news, with
Xinhua News Agency launching the first short video news client in China, “Xinhua 15 Seconds”, in
2014 [3]. The mission of the 15 Seconds of Xinhua video was to “make news in the same way as
advertising”. To eliminate as much unnecessary information as possible, news is presented as
“image + caption.” It is an innovative method of presentation that offers a new form of journalism
by making information dynamic.
Short video news has quickly developed the traditional, consistent pattern of news distribution,
which bring in advantages [7]. First, from the perspective of the news producer, short video news
lowers the threshold of information production and dissemination and breaks the time and space
limitations of news and information dissemination. Next, from the perspective of the audience, short
video news enhances interactivity and appeals to the public with the help of H5 and interactive
sections [8]. Additionally, in terms of the news style, short video news enriches the style of news;
for example, some media use animation instead of traditional forms of text reporting to avoid the
use of rigid news scenes and boring verbal texts to present news content [9].
With the rising popularity of short video news, many mainstream media outlets have begun to
diversify their content and format. Pengpai has done a remarkable job in this regard. Pengpai is a
local news media; it was formerly known as the Oriental Morning Post, a Shanghai-based
newspaper. With the development of new media, Pengpai diversified and expanded its channels.
Compared to other news media, Pengpai has a relatively high degree of freedom in reporting and
focuses more on international events [10]. In addition to that, Pengpai has multiple sources of news
and information, mostly from authorities or government agencies, professional news media, and
netizens [5].
To conclude, previous research on Pengpai short video news focused on the perspective of short
video platforms and short video operations but did not provide enough analysis of short video
content. Therefore, this paper will focus on the content of Pengpai short video news to interpret:
What are the characteristics of Pengpai short video news on Russia-Ukraine conflict coverage in the
early stage?
3. Methodology
This article chooses Douyin as the case because it is one of the most popular short video platforms
in China, with over 500 million active users. Specifically, the article chooses Pengpai as a subject,
because firstly, it is a representative of the mainstream media, and secondly, it has a strong
influence, with 39.4 million followers on the Douyin platform.
Concerning the selection of sampling methods, the study selected March 1 to March 7, 2022,
because this period caused a huge international sensation and was widely concerned by the country,
and the people. In terms of statistics, 64 short videos about the Russia-Ukraine conflict have been
published on Douyin during this period and the average number of visits remained above ten
thousand during this period, in contrast to the 500 to 4,000 visits that followed, reflecting the
concentration of audience attention. Based on this, this paper will use a content-analysis approach to
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conduct analysis, which is a common analytical method used in journalism and communication to
provide an objective, systematic, and quantitative analysis and description of the research sample
[11]. Compared to traditional bibliometric methods, content analysis is more useful for delving into
the nature of an issue [12]. As for the coding elements, this article constructs five categories,
namely news sources, keywords, date, news angle and click rate.
4. Results
The article consolidates these 64 news items on the Russia-Ukraine conflict to create a pie chart (as
shown in Figure 1) and finds that the most-cited news sources reported by Pengpai are from
Chinese media, accounting for 31% of the total. This is followed by the Western with 28% of the
total number of quotations. Figure 2 revealed that the majority of Chinese and Western sources
cited were news media, followed by authorities.
Figure 1: Sources of Pengpai based on nation.
Figure 2: Different sources of Pengpai.
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Summing up the 64 news keywords for word frequency statistics (Figure 3), Russia-Ukraine
negotiations, sanctions, and Chinese evacuation were the top three most frequent occurrences, with
15, 9, and 8 times, respectively. The words EU and silence, although not as frequent, appeared more
than once, three times, and twice, respectively. With regard to the news angle, the article’s research
summary found (Figure 4) that 48 of the 64 short video news stories (75% of the total) were about
neutral attitudes, and 16 stories (25% of the total) were about critical attitudes.
Figure 3: News keywords cloud map.
Figure 4: News angle.
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According to the analysis of Figure 5, the click rate for each day from March 1 to March 7
exceeded a hundred thousand, showing a fluctuating upward trend in general, with the highest point
on March 7 (The theme of the coverage was peace talks and ceasefire, in line with the audience’s
expectations for peace), when the click rate was over forty-five thousand. In addition to this, the
click rate on March 4 exceeded 43 thousand, placing it in second place.
Figure 5: Click rate per day from March 1 to March 7, 2022.
5. Discussion
As a representative of the mainstream media, Pengpai cites Chinese news sources most frequently
in its coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war, the reason being that Chinese news sources are more
trustworthy than those from social media. The second most cited source after China is Western
news sources, with the news media also in the top spot, due to the long history of Western media
outlets such as the BBC or Forbes, which have a strong international reputation and report more
timely and factual news. In contrast, Pengpai cites fewer sources from Russia and Ukraine, the main
reason being that news information from both sides during the Russia-Ukraine conflict is more
subjective and biased. The lack of authority of the news media in both countries has led to
information and opinion positions in both countries being flooded with fake news.
The statistics and reporting tendencies through the keyword cloud chart can be seen in the fact
that the reports of the Pengpai, as a Chinese mainstream media, follow the official statement of the
Chinese Foreign Ministry on the Russia-Ukraine conflict: to remain neutral between the two sides,
hoping to see a peaceful negotiated settlement between the two countries, but at the same time
criticizing the absurd sanctions and suppression of Russian art and animals by the West. China has
always insisted on dialogue and negotiation to solve problems and opposes the provision of military
weapons to arch fire. In addition to this, the frequency of the word evacuation in the keyword cloud
statistics shows the Chinese state’s commitment to the safety of its citizens’ lives and putting the
people at heart. China’s evacuation of overseas Chinese is a reflection of China’s “warm strength”,
and the relevant reports can inspire people with a strong sense of patriotism.
An analysis of the news reports on March 7, item by item, reveals that there were four videos
with more than ten thousand clicks on this day. The summary keywords are no longer joining
NATO, silence, evacuation, and ceasefire, and an analysis of the reasons for this shows that
evacuation is the third most frequent keyword, while the remaining three words are the attitude of
the Chinese state and the tendency of the news media to report on it. As citizens, most Chinese
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people will think in terms of the country, with the national interest as the main concern. Therefore,
the other three videos have over a ten thousand click rate.
6. Conclusion
This study describes the characteristics of Pengpai’s coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Firstly, Pengpai reflects its professionalism by citing more Chinese citation sources, especially the
news media. Besides, its news content is very adequate; it has information from both social media
and the news media, reflecting the diversity of its sources. Then, the national policy can be seen in
the keywords and news angle: the call for peace and putting people first, especially in the report on
March 7. Additionally, In the early days of short-video news, it took the form of “caption + image,”
which was basically 15 seconds or less. This paper only conducts simple research on the early stage
of the outbreak, which focuses on March 1 to March 7. Future research will focus more on the
comparative study of the content of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and extend the time dimension.
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