Innovative discourse in Chinese shipping reports——A diachronic corpus‑based study of China Daily English‑language edition
中国航运报道中的创新话语——基于《中国日报》英文版的历时语料研究

摘要

行业新闻如何使创新获得正当性，并将其组织为可欲的行业行动，尚缺少长时段媒体语料的经验检验。本研究以作者提供且经既有流程清理的《中国日报》英文版2014年2月至2024年10月8,000条中国航运相关发布记录为分析底库，使用预设的innovat-词形集合建立949条创新专题子库。主分析以发布记录为单位，并以344条直接航运记录、666个完全相同标题正文内容组、目标类别去重叠口径及排除6条尾部模板残留后的943条记录开展敏感性检验。分析覆盖创新语义、行动者、正当化、成功标准、反思边界和历时变化六个观察域。创新最常处于促进赋能（35.9%）、未来指向（44.2%）和正面评价（36.5%）语境；采用严格动词界定的明确问题解决仅占2.7%，问题与解决同句配对仅占0.4%。在同一分析总体和去共享词口径下，基础设施与物流在949条记录和344条直接航运记录中的比例分别为11.0%和16.6%，港口与运输行动者分别为1.8%和2.9%，后者差异不确定。国际合作、企业以及国家与政策行动者均有较高可见度，劳动者与公众较少出现。对创新自身风险、责任和替代路径的反思性表达稀少，支持亲创新偏向；必要性表达只见于部分记录，创新必然性因而是局部、有限的结果。年度聚合的准二项敏感性模型显示相对可见度总体向上，但11个年度中首尾为不完整年度，结果只作探索性描述。四项实质条件加证据质量要求的联合评估不足以支持技术发展主义，后者仅保留为竞争性解释。研究据此区分可欲性、有限必要性与更强结构解释的证据强度，并明确单一媒体、预设词形集合和未完成独立双人编码的边界。

Abstract

How industry specific news legitimizes innovation and frames it as desirable industrial action has yet to be empirically examined through long run media corpus data. Drawing on 8,000 China Daily English language edition publications related to Chinese shipping (February 2014 October 2024), which were provided by the author and pre processed following established procedures, this study constructs a 949 item innovation focused sub corpus using a pre defined set of innovat word forms. The primary analysis treats each publication record as the unit of analysis. Sensitivity tests are conducted on 943 records after adopting multiple de duplication criteria: 344 direct shipping records, 666 groups of entries with identical titles and full texts, target category deduplication, and removal of six residual template entries at the dataset tail. Six analytical dimensions are examined: innovation semantics, actors, legitimation, success criteria, reflective boundaries, and diachronic changes. Innovation most frequently appears in contexts of enabling facilitation (35.9%), future orientation (44.2%), and positive evaluation (36.5%). Explicit problem solving defined by strict verb criteria accounts for merely 2.7%, while co occurrence of problems and solutions within single sentences stands at only 0.4%. Based on the same overall dataset and shared term exclusion rules, infrastructure and logistics account for 11.0% in the 949 record sub corpus and 16.6% among the 344 direct shipping records; port and transport actors make up 1.8% and 2.9% respectively, with the latter difference remaining inconclusive. International cooperation, corporations, as well as state and policy actors enjoy high visibility, whereas laborers and the general public are rarely represented. Reflective discourses concerning innovation related risks, accountability and alternative pathways are scarce, indicating a pro innovation bias. Statements emphasizing innovation necessity only appear in partial records; accordingly, the perceived inevitability of innovation constitutes a partial and limited outcome. Quasi binomial sensitivity models based on annual aggregation show an overall rising trend in relative visibility. Given that the first and last of the eleven sampled years are incomplete, results are interpreted as exploratory only. A joint assessment integrating four substantive conditions and evidence quality requirements fails to validate tech developmentalism, which is retained merely as a competing interpretation. This paper differentiates evidential strengths across desirability, limited necessity and stronger structural explanations. Limitations are acknowledged, including reliance on a single media source, pre specified word form sets, and the absence of completed independent double coder annotation.