How Propagandistic is International News Channels’ Reporting? A Content Analysis of YouTube Uploads from the Nine Most Important International News Channels

How propagandistic is the reporting by international news channels (INCs) such as RT, CGTN, Al Jazeera English, CNN International or BBC World News? And how can we explain differences between the INCs in their reporting? We define propaganda as persuasive communication that is ideologically oriented, i.e. conveys a worldview with an absolute truth claim. Overall, we extracted nine propaganda features from the literature and operationalized these features for a content analysis in which we examined a sample of YouTube uploads from nine main INCs in 2019 (N = 1,608). The data allowed us to (a) outline a profile of each INC from a propaganda perspective, (b) compare the INCs differentiated by each propaganda feature and aggregated using a propaganda index, and (c) examine whether the form of government and development status of each country of origin inhibit or promote propaganda. The results demonstrate that INCs from autocratic states report more propaganda than INCs from democratic states, but the former report less propaganda than expected and the latter also contain elements of propaganda. The form of government has a stronger influence on the INC’s propaganda content than the development status.