This study will combine corpus-based diachronic analysis with four discursive strategies from the Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) to establish the analytical framework (Fig. 1). First, the changes in the number of reports will be statistically analyzed, and keywords from the NS corpus will be extracted to identify the themes covered by Austrian mainstream media in relation to the Belt and Road Initiative. The analysis will explore which themes emerge at different historical stages and how they evolve over time. Secondly, through concordance analysis of the node words, the study will examine the use of discursive strategies by Austrian mainstream media, along with their linguistic realizations. Finally, the study will delve into the underlying reasons for how Austrian mainstream media constructs the image of the Belt and Road Initiative especially in cultural and historical context. Furthermore, we employ statistical tests to validate the inferences derived from the qualitative analysis, utilizing Python as the primary tool for statistical analysis. This study proposes three research questions. RQ1: How do mainstream Austrian media construct the image of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)? RQ2: How does the attitude of Austrian media toward the BRI change over time? RQ3: What role do cultural dimensions play in the construction of the BRI image by Austrian media?
In terms of the volume of coverage, the trends of Die Presse and Der Standard are similar (Fig. 2), with a concentrated reporting phase between 2017 and 2019, peaking in 2019, and a sharp decline in 2020. A closer examination of the content and social context reveals that in 2017, China hosted the first Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation; in 2018, Austrian President Van der Bellen and Chancellor Kurz visited China and signed cooperation documents on the Belt and Road Initiative; in 2019, Italy became the first G7 country to join the initiative, and Austrian Chancellor Kurz visited China and attended the second Belt and Road Forum. However, in 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the suspension of most Belt and Road projects. The chi-squared test results (χ (10) = 164.24, p < 0.001) further support the observation of significant differences in reporting volume across years. Specifically, the null hypothesis (H₀), which assumes an even distribution of reporting volume across years, was strongly rejected in favor of the alternative hypothesis (H₁), which posits that reporting volume varies significantly over time. These findings demonstrate that the distribution of reporting volume is not uniform. In addition, Fig. 3 provides a visual representation of the report proportions and their 95% confidence intervals (calculated using the Wilson score interval) from 2013 to 2023. The Wilson score interval is particularly useful in this analysis as it provides a more accurate estimation of proportions, especially for smaller sample sizes or extreme proportions near 0 or 1. The confidence intervals offer further evidence of significant temporal variations. For instance, the sharp increase from 2016 (5.26%, 95% CI: [3.04%, 8.97%]) to 2019 (24.56%, 95% CI: [19.43%, 30.54%]) is evident, as their confidence intervals do not overlap. Similarly, the dramatic decline in 2020 (3.51%, 95% CI: [1.79%, 6.77%]) and subsequent recovery in 2021 (15.35%, 95% CI: [11.25%, 20.60%]) further highlight significant changes in reporting volume over time. These non-overlapping intervals reinforce the conclusion that the distribution of reporting volume is not uniform. Thus, it can be proved that the level of attention given by Austrian mainstream media to the Belt and Road Initiative is closely related to Sino-Austrian relations, the hosting of the Belt and Road Forum, and other major international events.
To determine the report themes, this study further analyzes the distribution of key terms in the Austrian mainstream media's reporting on the Belt and Road Initiative. The reference corpus used for extracting keywords is the Timestamped JSI Web Corpus 2014-2016 German, a large-scale comprehensive corpus of media discourse, dynamically collected from numerous German-language news websites between 2014 and 2016, containing 1,987,759,563 words. Given the inflectional nature of the German language, sorting keywords by word form could result in the fragmentation of different forms of the same word, which would undermine the coherence and accuracy of retrieval and analysis. Therefore, lemma was applied, which not only helps to group different forms of the same word, improving the corpus's organization and retrieval efficiency, but also facilitates semantic analysis by eliminating grammatical variations. The top 50 keywords extracted from the NS corpus were screened and filtered to remove terms directly related to the Belt and Road Initiative, yielding a final list of thematic keywords (Table 1).
The analysis of the keywords reveals that geopolitics, infrastructure construction, and economic cooperation are the core themes of media discussions. First, the appearance of keywords like "Xi", "China" indicates the significance of China and its leaders in global politics. The term "Weltordnung" (world order) is particularly noteworthy, as it suggests that the media perceive the Belt and Road Initiative as part of China's efforts to reshape the global political landscape. Meanwhile, terms such as "Uigur" (Uighur) and "Xinjiang" signal that media coverage of the BRI touches on China's ethnic issues. Regional conflicts, particularly in relation to "Zentralasien" (Central Asia), lead to the initiative being perceived not just an economic project but also one with geopolitical sensitivity. Regarding infrastructure and economic cooperation, terms like "Breitspurbahn" (broad-gauge railway), "Infrastrukturprojekt" (infrastructure project), "Seidenstraßenprojekt" (silk road project), and "Handelsweg" (trade path) reflect the core focus of the Belt and Road Initiative on promoting cross-border infrastructure development, particularly the connectivity of transportation networks, which is crucial for fostering economic integration between Central Asia and Europe. The keywords "Kasachstan" (Kazakhstan) and "Zentralasien" (Central Asia) highlight the geographical importance of Central Asia in the Belt and Road strategy, indicating that the region serves as a key node in China's economic and logistics corridors. Media outlets have also focused on how the region can achieve economic development and regional cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.
The appearance of corporate names such as "COSCO" (China Ocean Shipping Corporation) and "CRRC" (China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation) reveals the important role of Chinese enterprises in the initiative. These companies are not only responsible for infrastructure construction but also involved in the development of global trade and logistics networks. Additionally, the term "Pandemie" (pandemic) indicates that the global COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. In summary, these keywords present multiple perspectives in the Austrian mainstream media discourse on the Belt and Road Initiative, covering areas from global politics and economic cooperation to cultural and social issues. They reveal that the Belt and Road Initiative is not merely a regional development project but a global strategic vision, influencing and involving not only economic matters but also international relations, global governance, and regional integration on a broad scale.
To analyze the trend of keyword changes over the years, this study further divides the NS corpus into twenty sub-corpora by newspaper and year: 2013-2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 for Die Presse and Der Standard. Using the NS corpus as a reference, AntConc 3.5.9 was used to extract keywords from these sub-corpora and combine them by year, as shown in Table 2. This study employed the Log-Likelihood (4-term) test to determine the statistical significance of terms. The significance level was set at p < 0.05, and the Bonferroni correction was applied to control for false positive rates in multiple comparisons. The selection criteria excluded thematic keywords that referred explicitly to "Belt and Road", such as "Obor", or words that were part of the "Belt and Road" phrase, such as "Belt", "Road", "Gürtel" and "Straße", as well as function words. We ranked the keywords in descending order of their keyness and selected the top ten keywords for each year. When the total number of keywords was fewer than ten, all the extracted keywords were included in the analysis.
The keyword analysis reveals that from 2013 to 2016, the number of keywords related to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) gradually increased (Table 3). This period marked the transition of the initiative from concept to action, with several infrastructure projects related to the BRI, such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and the Yamal project between China and Russia, starting up. At the same time, the Chinese government provided significant policy and financial support, ensuring the implementation of the BRI and attracting the attention of Austrian mainstream media to its sustainability and potential impacts. We selected keywords reflecting specific areas and projects of BRI and calculated their normalized frequency (per 10,000 words) to obtain Table 3. Due to the absence of any relevant reports in 2013, this section begins its statistical analysis from 2014. This approach ensures the completeness and continuity of the data, as well as the scientific rigor and reliability of the results. We conducted a linear regression analysis to assess the trend changes from 2014 to 2016. Using the standard least squares method, we calculated a slope of 80.211. The p-value was 0.0898, which exceeds the conventional significance threshold of 0.05. However, the extremely high coefficient of determination (R = 0.98022) suggests a strong linear relationship despite the statistical limitations imposed by the small sample size (n = 3). The data show a notable linear growth trend and high fit, providing preliminary quantitative evidence of the increasing prominence of the action of BRI in relevant texts.
From 2017 to 2019, the keywords related to the BRI focused more on Austria. China actively promoted the hosting of the Belt and Road International Cooperation Forum, Austria officially joined the BRI, and several major projects under the BRI were launched and made substantial progress. These developments increased the relevance of the BRI keywords in Austrian media coverage. Through period contribution analysis, average annual data density calculation and continuity index assessment, the quantitative analytical results strongly corroborate the aforementioned qualitative observations (Table 4). The data indicate that the 2017-2019 period constituted the peak of "Belt and Road Initiative" coverage in Austrian media, contributing 60.80% of the total metrics throughout the entire research timeframe, with an average annual contribution rate of 20.27% per annum and a continuity indicator of 1.00, signifying uninterrupted media attention. Annual growth rate data further demonstrates a sustained upward trajectory: 44.2% growth from 2017 to 2018 and 27.5% from 2018 to 2019, closely aligning with Austria's timeline of joining the "Belt and Road Initiative" and the advancement of related projects.
Between 2020 and 2023, however, the keywords related to the BRI was somewhat reduced, and the number of BRI-related keywords decreased. Major global events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the Taliban's Return to Power, led to a decline in the priority of BRI reporting in Austrian media, and the geopolitical risks associated with the initiative further weakened its potential for economic cooperation. According to Table 4, in comparison to the peak period of 2017-2019, media coverage of BRI in Austrian media during 2020-2023 exhibited a significant cooling trend: the mean coverage volume decreased from 37.250 to 14.767, representing an approximate 60% reduction; coverage volatility increased substantially, with the coefficient of variation rising from 0.294 to 1.301; reporting continuity declined, as the non-zero percentage dropped from 100% to 50%; and the annual contribution rate decreased from 20.27% per annum to 8.03% per annum. These shifts reflect the challenges faced by international cooperation initiatives during the pandemic period, as well as the media's shifting focus following the BRI's transition into a phase of adjustment and transformation. Despite the reduced coverage, Austrian media maintained a consistent level of attention to this significant geopolitical initiative.
From this, we can conclude that the level of attention given to the BRI by Austrian mainstream newspapers is closely linked to Sino-Austrian relations, the hosting of the Belt and Road International Cooperation Forum, and major international events. Initially, the BRI did not receive widespread attention or recognition from Austrian media. Austrian mainstream newspapers viewed it as an important geopolitical strategy for China, believing it could alter the existing international order and affect the Western-dominated international system and economic cooperation mechanisms. With the acceleration of globalization and deepening international cooperation, the BRI gradually demonstrated its actual influence and potential value, leading to more comprehensive and diverse media coverage in Austria. However, as economic pressure increased, Austrian media began to express concerns about the massive investments and debt issues associated with the initiative.
Based on the thematic changes, this study divides the years 2013-2023 into three stages: the early stage (2013-2016), the mid stage (2017-2019), and the recent stage (2020-2023). The early stage comprises 24 articles, totaling 7128 word tokens, with more neutral and objective reporting. The mid stage includes 132 articles, totaling 41,804 word tokens, with a reporting attitude focused on close attention and active cooperation with the initiative. The recent stage consists of 72 articles, totaling 26,661 word tokens, with an increase in negative reporting.
Using AntConc 3.5.9 for corpus analysis, it was found that Austrian media's reporting on the BRI mainly focused on economic and political aspects, primarily using nomination strategies. News reports often employed indirect speech to construct discourse, mainly applying perspectivization strategies. Since argumentation strategies can be reflected in any of the nomination, predication, or perspectivization strategies, relevant analyses are distributed across Sections "Nomination Strategy", "Predication Strategy" and "Perspectivization Strategy". The intensification and mitigation strategies mainly rely on predication strategies, so they are omitted from this study. This section will reveal the underlying attitudes and purposes of discourse constructors based on discursive strategy categories.
The quantitative analysis in this chapter is based on all concordance lines related to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) within the corpus, constructing a complete dataset to reveal the reporting characteristics of Austrian media on the BRI during different time periods. For the qualitative analysis, purposive sampling was employed to select representative concordance lines from the corpus as case studies. This method aims to delve deeper into the use of specific discursive strategies and their underlying attitudes and intentions while ensuring the specificity and depth of the analysis. The use of purposeful sampling enables the study to more clearly reveal how linguistic strategies adopted in the reports serve the overall framework and purpose of the reporting. The combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis provides a solid data foundation and theoretical basis for the detailed discussion of specific discursive strategies in the subsequent sections (Fig. 4).
The nomination strategy refers to how social actors, objects, phenomena, events, processes, and actions are labeled or referred to linguistically. The linguistic means of nomination involve categorizing members, with i deictics and nouns as the forms of realization (Reisigl and Wodak, 2014: 94). Thus, words used for nomination often highlight a specific image or characteristic of a social group or individual. This section examines the nouns used by Austrian media to refer to the Belt and Road Initiative at different times to explore the changes in their attitudes.
Advanced search settings in AntConc were applied using the following list of search terms: "neue Seidenstraße", "Ein Gürtel und eine Straße", "Belt and Road", "Belt and Road Initiative," "One Belt and One Road," "One Belt One Road," "Obor," "Seidenstraßen-Initiative", "Seidenstraßenprojekt", and "Silk Road". The sub-corpora for each of the three stages were searched, and the resulting concordance lines were purified. Excluding the direct naming phrases for "Belt and Road", the results yielded 8, 55, and 25 occurrences of the BRI being named in the early, mid, and recent stages, respectively.
In the early stage, the two major newspapers' naming of the BRI was largely neutral, such as "Jahrhundertprojekt" (century project). In the mid stage, naming became more diverse and specific, involving infrastructure construction (10 instances), initiative scale (9 instances), trade and investment (10 instances), politics (6 instances), and professional fields (5 instances). Examples include "weltgrößte Infrastrukturprojekt" (world's largest infrastructure project), "milliardenschweren Investitionsinitiative" (billion-euro investment initiative), "einer Gesamtstrategie Chinas" (China's overall strategy), and "Transport- und Logistik-Ausbauprogramm" (transport and logistics expansion program). Austrian media mostly considered the BRI to be a commendable initiative, with only one instance referring to it as China's "neuer Marshallplan" (new Marshall Plan). Overall, Austrian media emphasized the positive impacts and grand goals of the BRI, reflecting recognition of China's role as a global builder.
In the recent stage, naming increasingly emphasized the political and strategic aspects of the projects, such as "Chinas globales Infrastruktur-Projekt" (China's global infrastructure project) and "geopolitisches Meisterstück" (geopolitical masterpiece), highlighting the global influence of the BRI and China's strategic intentions. At the same time, the frequency of negative naming increased, with terms such as "eine Art Marshall-Plan für Entwicklungsländer" (a kind of Marshall Plan for developing countries) and "ein geschlossenes System" (a closed system). This stage's naming strategy reflected a more complex and cautious attitude, with both affirmations and criticisms of the BRI coexisting.
Example (1) reflects topos of danger and threat, arguing that China's push for globalization through the BRI is fundamentally disrupted by the unforeseen external threat of the pandemic, thus undermining the initiative's stability and its ability to proceed smoothly as expected.
The predication strategy refers to how attributes or characteristics are assigned to social actors, objects, phenomena, events, and processes, typically using evaluative language (positive or negative) or explicit predicates, such as nouns or adjectives (Reisigl and Wodak, 2014: 94). This section examines adjectives, predicates, and other words surrounding the search terms from the concordance lines in Section "Nomination Strategy" to determine the use of predication strategies and to analyze how the semantic resonance reflects Austrian media's changing attitudes towards the BRI.
Semantic tones can generally be divided into positive, neutral, and negative categories (Stubbs, 1996). In the early stage, predication strategies included positive, neutral and negative language such as "eröffnet" (opened), "verbinden" (connected), and adjectives like "fraglich" (debatable). A detailed examination revealed that 18 instances (37.5%) of the predication were positive, 25 instances (52.1%) of the predication were neutral, and 5 instances (10.4%) were negative. Media discourse at this stage expressed both positive and negative evaluations of the BRI, such as seeing it as "opening new possibilities for the development of Sino-Austrian relations" while also characterizing it as "controversial". In the mid stage, predication strategies mainly used noun predicates. A detailed examination revealed that 141 instances (60.3%) of the predication were positive, 42 instances (17.9%) of the predication were neutral, and 51 instances (21.8%) were negative. Media coverage in this stage largely constructed the BRI positively. However, when reporting on Italy's participation in the BRI, positive constructions were only 17.6% (3 instances), while 82.4% (14 instances) were negative. Austrian media were generally critical of Italy's involvement in the BRI.
Example (2) employs topos of danger and threat, as well as responsibility, with the argument logic being: Western countries are concerned that Italy's involvement in the Belt and Road initiative may threaten their unity. As a result, participation in the initiative could lead to negative consequences, and thus, it is the responsibility of countries to take preventive measures to prevent the Belt and Road initiative from interfering with or undermining that unity.
In the recent stage, the predication strategy mainly involves the use of verbs and adjectival predicates, such as "verlassen" (to exit), "vorwerfen" (to accuse), "bekannt" (well-known), and "unattraktiv" (unattractive). The co-occurrence of these adjectives reflects both positive and negative semantic connotations. A detailed examination of the concordance lines and their contextual meanings reveals that 31 instances (26.3%) of the predication were positive, 23 instances (19.5%) of the predication were neutral, and 64 instances (54.2%) were negative. In this phase, the positive and negative representations of the initiative in Austrian media are largely balanced, with no clear tendency towards negative portrayals.
The diachronic analysis of predication strategies across the three periods indicates a shift in Austrian mainstream media's construction of the Belt and Road initiative, from mixed positive and negative representations, to predominantly positive portrayals, and finally, a balance between positive and negative constructions. To validate these findings, a chi-square test was conducted to analyze the distribution of attitudes across the three periods (Table 5). The chi-square test yielded a statistically significant result (χ = 76.0153, df = 4, p < 0.001, Cramer's V = 0.3083), indicating substantial differences in attitude distribution across the three periods, with a medium effect size suggesting the practical significance of these variations. To determine which specific cells contributed most significantly to the overall chi-square value, adjusted residuals were calculated.
Both standardized residuals and adjusted residuals constitute valid methodological approaches for evaluating cell-specific independence hypotheses within contingency tables, wherein the calculated test statistics are compared against critical values derived from the standard normal distribution. However, because adjusted residuals is always larger than standardized residuals for an observed data, adjusted residuals is often recommended for use in practice as compared to standardized residuals as the latter test could be too conservative (MacDonald and Gardner, 2000). Analysis of the adjusted residuals reveals statistically significant patterns (Fig. 5). In the early period (2013-2016), neutral representations were significantly higher than expected (residual = 5.23, p < 0.001), while negative representations were significantly lower than expected (residual = -3.16, p < 0.01). The middle period (2017-2019) was characterized by significantly higher than expected positive representations (residual = 6.07, p < 0.001), with both neutral (residual = -2.59, p < 0.01) and negative representations (residual = -4.25, p < 0.001) being significantly lower than expected. The late period (2020-2023) exhibited significantly higher than expected negative representations (residual = 6.84, p < 0.001) and significantly lower than expected positive representations (residual = -5.50, p < 0.001). These results suggest that Austrian mainstream media's reporting attitude towards the Belt and Road Initiative has significantly changed over time. The early stage was characterized by predominantly neutral representations, the mid stage shifted towards positive portrayals, and the recent stage saw an increase in negative coverage.
The analysis of perspectivization strategies focuses primarily on reported speech, including direct, indirect, and free indirect speech, with the aim of identifying the author's viewpoint and the expressing of their involvement or detachment (Reisigl and Wodak, 2014: 94). Reported speech plays an important role in news reporting (Fishman, 1980: 92). Since free indirect speech is rare in news reporting, this section mainly examines direct and indirect quotations and their sources, including explicit, vague, and unspecified sources to determine the evolving viewpoints of Austrian mainstream newspapers regarding the Belt and Road Initiative. By filtering quotations related to the BRI from the concordance lines in Section "Nomination Strategy", and excluding cases where the source is not part of the same sentence, the results for the three periods are 6 examples, 96 examples, and 42 examples, respectively. The analysis reveals that when reporting on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the media predominantly employs emotionally charged quotations to convey their perspectives or positions, rather than adopting a completely neutral tone. Therefore, this section aims to examine the interplay between the types of quotations (direct or indirect), the nature of their sources (explicit or vague), and the tone of these quotations. By doing so, it seeks to uncover how Austrian mainstream media has constructed and communicated its views on the BRI over time. This analysis will contribute to understanding how the media, through emotionally inclined expressions, influences public perception and attitudes towards the BRI across different periods.
Although the early stage has fewer instances of quoted speech, the sources of these quotations are specific and precise, primarily coming from experts and scholars in Germany and Austria, with a higher frequency of direct quotations. During this phase, there are 4 instances of negative attitudes, all sourced from experts from EU countries, indicating that the media generally adopted a wait-and-see attitude toward the Belt and Road Initiative.
In the mid stage, there are 27 instances of negative attitudes, mostly from vague or unspecified sources, constituting 28% of the cases, while 69 examples express positive attitudes, mainly from experts and scholars and the Chinese government, accounting for 72%. The number of texts with a positive stance has notably increased, and Austrian media largely constructed the Belt and Road Initiative positively during this period. Direct quotes accounted for 15 instances (15.6%), while indirect quotes made up 81 instances (84.4%).
Due to the smaller quantity and simplicity of quotations in the early and recent phases, the information is easier to convey through descriptive language. In contrast, the mid-phase features a larger and more complex dataset, where tables facilitate a clearer presentation of the data. The sources during the mid stage (Table 6) show that Austrian mainstream newspapers focused more on the speech acts of domestic and international government officials and experts. By highlighting these authoritative voices, Austrian media was able to shape the public's understanding of Sino-Austrian relations and, to some extent, legitimize government policies. To translate official viewpoints into public discourse that could be broadly and naturally understood, Austrian media preferred using indirect quotes.
Example (3) employs topos of usefulness, advantage and numbers. Through indirect quotation of the Vienna Chamber of Commerce president's statements, it underscores the strategic significance of railway expansion. It highlights the positive impact on the economy, job creation, and logistical advantages for the Vienna region. This further substantiates the necessity and benefits of the initiative, reflecting Austrian media's positive stance in calling for active participation in the Belt and Road Initiative. Analysis of perspective strategies across the two leading Austrian newspapers reveals a transition in their representation of the BRI. Compared to the early phase, as the BRI was progressively implemented, Austria displayed a growing interest and intent to cooperate with the initiative. Positive representations of the BRI increased significantly, shifting from initial scepticism to more objective and positive reporting during this period.
In the recent stage, 28 instances of negative attitudes were identified, predominantly from EU-based experts and government sources, accounting for 64% of the sample. In contrast, there were 16 instances of positive attitudes, primarily from non-EU countries such as Middle Eastern nations and Turkey, comprising 36%. This period included seven direct quotations (15.9%) and 37 indirect quotations (84.1%). A closer examination of the concordance lines reveals that, among concrete and specific information sources, 86.1% originated from non-Austrian sources, while Austrian sources were limited to experts and scholars, with no government sources cited. This indicates the Austrian government's relative absence and cautious approach in publicly discussing the BRI. Austrian media favored exploring the BRI from an international perspective, reflecting the complexity surrounding the topic. The absence of government sources can be attributed to the EU's widespread concerns and reservations regarding the BRI during this phase. As a member state, Austria aligned its stance with the broader EU position rather than making unilateral statements, resulting in the lack of government representation in media reports.
The diachronic analysis of perspective strategies reveals a transition in Austrian mainstream media's construction of the BRI's image over three stages: from a mix of positive and negative perspectives, to predominantly positive, and back to a balanced mix of positive and negative representations. To validate these findings, the primary analytical methods included chi-square test for independence, pairwise proportion z-tests with Bonferroni correction, and Wilson score interval for confidence interval estimation (Table 7, Fig. 6). The chi-square test (χ = 23.76, df = 2, p < 0.001) revealed significant differences in attitude distribution across the three periods, indicating temporal shifts in media perception. This omnibus test justified subsequent pairwise comparisons to identify specific period-to-period changes. For these comparisons, we employed z-tests for proportions with Bonferroni correction (adjusted α = 0.0167) to control for Type I error inflation resulting from multiple testing. The pairwise analyses demonstrated a statistically significant difference between the mid-stage and recent-stage periods (z = 5.42, p < 0.001), with positive attitudes declining from 72% to 36%. This substantial decrease suggests a notable shift in Austrian media sentiment toward BRI in recent years. The comparison between early and mid stages, while showing an increase in positive attitudes (from 33% to 72%), did not reach statistical significance after Bonferroni correction (p = 0.0386), likely due to the small sample size in the early period (n = 6). The 95% confidence intervals for positive attitude proportions across the three periods are as follows: early stage [9.7%, 70.0%], mid-stage [62.2%, 79.9%], and recent stage [23.8%, 51.1%]. The non-overlapping confidence intervals between the mid and recent stages further corroborate the significant difference in attitude distributions between these two periods. These statistical findings support the main conclusion of this study: Austrian media coverage of the Belt and Road Initiative has undergone a significant transformation from predominantly positive support during the mid-stage to a relatively more cautious stance in the recent period. Due to the limited sample size in the early stage, conclusions drawn from this period can be strengthened by incorporating findings from the predication strategy analysis to enhance credibility.
