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Temporal network analysis uncovers decaying news-driven cohesion across state and non-state media on Douyin, highlighting that content strategy outweighs institutional authority in algorithmic reach.
The rise of algorithmic curation challenges the traditional authority of journalism. Focusing on Douyin, this study employed agent-based testing and temporal network analysis to examine how recommendation systems generate network cohesion around Chinese state and non-state media. Results revealed that state media’s cohesive power stemmed from news, whereas cohesion around non-state media was sustained by non-news content. However, for both media types, the cohesion generated by news showed a significant decline over time, and this trend varied by topic. These findings suggest that, beyond mere institutional status, strategic content adaptation is fundamental to building network cohesion in algorithmic environments.
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Xiao et al. (2026) studied this question.
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