THE EMOTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND EVOLUTIONARY TRENDS OF CHINESE NEWS HEADLINES: A DIACHRONIC ANALYSIS BASED ON THE PAPER
Keywords:
The Paper, News headlines, Emotional characteristics, Evolutionary trends, Text mining, Sentiment analysisAbstract
This study investigates the emotional distribution, section-specific characteristics, and evolutionary trends of news headlines from The Paper (2019.3–2025.3) using text mining and sentiment analysis. Results show that the headlines exhibit distinct emotional traits: neutrality as the core, a slight predominance of positivity, and concentrated negativity, with rationally controlled emotional intensity. Significant differences exist across sections: Current Affairs is neutral-dominant with mild positivity, Social News features diverse emotions with the highest negative proportion, Technology is predominantly positive, and Entertainment is positive-led with varied moods. Temporally, the emotional orientation presents "long-term stability with periodic fluctuations," influenced by major events and policy cycles. This research provides empirical insights for emotional headline operation in new media and enriches case studies of Chinese news short text sentiment analysis.References
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