Self-positioning in space science communication: A corpus-assisted discourse study

Clinical Snapshot

Key Findings

• P Value: Not applicable — qualitative study design; text mining frequency analyses may be reported in full paper but are not quantified in the abstract

• Effect Size: Not applicable — qualitative discourse analysis; no effect sizes reported

• Primary Outcome: Chinese government science agencies position themselves as state-affiliated yet approachable institutions, integrating national achievement narratives, patriotism, and collective pride with interpersonal warmth. U.S. government science agencies emphasise professionalism, scientific expertise, mission execution, and audience engagement, with minimal state affiliation signalling.

• Nnt Or Sensitivity: Not applicable — this is a qualitative discourse study; no diagnostic, therapeutic, or prognostic metrics apply

• Confidence Interval: Not applicable — qualitative study design

Clinical Application

The corpus-assisted discourse analysis methodology is feasible for health communication research contexts. The KH Coder tool is freely available and the approach could be adapted to analyse health agency communication (e.g., comparing Australian Department of Health, TGA, or ATAGI social media messaging strategies). Resource requirements include corpus construction expertise and qualitative discourse analysis skills. While this study focuses on space science agencies, its methodological and conceptual contributions are directly transferable to Australian health communication contexts. Australian government health agencies — including the TGA, ATAGI, and state health departments — increasingly rely on social media platforms for public health messaging. Understanding how institutional self-positioning on platforms such as X/Twitter and Facebook influences public trust, vaccine uptake, and health behaviour is of direct relevance to RACGP members and public health practitioners. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted significant variation in how Australian health agencies positioned themselves relative to government authority versus scientific independence, a tension directly analogous to the China-U.S. contrast described in this study. The findings may inform evidence-based social media communication strategies for Australian health agencies seeking to balance institutional authority with public accessibility. This study is not a clinical research paper and does not directly apply to patient populations. Its findings are relevant to public health communicators, health agency social media strategists, science communication researchers, and policymakers responsible for institutional health and science messaging.

Abstract

This study incorporates text mining into critical discourse analysis to examine how government science agencies in China and the United States position themselves in space science communication on social media. Two specialized corpora have been built by collecting posts from government science agencies on Weibo from China and X (formerly Twitter) from the U.S. With the help of the text mining tool KH Coder, this study gives a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of the particular ways of positioning at different levels of discourse: (1) topics/themes, (2) addressing terms, and (3) those words that co-occur with self-addressing terms in a sentence. The findings reveal significant differences in their preferential ways of positioning. Chinese government science agencies present themselves as state-affiliated yet approachable institutions, blending achievements and operational efficiency with patriotism and collective pride. Their use of diverse addressing terms and co-occurrence patterns portrays them as experienced, supportive guides, balancing national identity with interpersonal closeness. In contrast, U.S. government science agencies emphasize professionalism, focusing on research, space exploration, mission execution, and audience engagement, with minimal reference to state affiliation. Their addressing terms are formal and standardized, with pride centred on mission success and discovery, highlighting expertise and scientific leadership. Their preferential ways of positioning are further explained in their respective contexts in order to present a proper understanding of these differences.

References

1. 1.Chen, F., Ngai, C. S. B., & Liu, M. (2022). Self-positioning in space science communication: A corpus-assisted discourse study. Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media. https://doi.org/10.51685/jqd.2022.023