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Triangulating Temporal Dynamics in Multilingual Swiss Online News

Bros Victor, Dufraisse Evan, Popescu Adrian, Gatica-Perez Daniel

Abstract

Analyzing news coverage in multilingual societies can offer valuable insights into the dynamics of public discourse and the development of collective narratives, yet comprehensive studies that account for linguistic and cultural diversity within national media ecosystems remain limited, particularly in complex contexts such as Switzerland. This paper studies temporal trends in Swiss digital media across the country's three main linguistic regions, French, German, and Italian, using a triangulated methodology that combines quantitative analyses with qualitative insights. We collected and processed over 1.7 million news articles, applying lexical metrics, named entity recognition and Wikidata-based linking, targeted sentiment analysis, and consensus-based change-point detection. To enable principled cross-language comparisons and to connect to theories of domestication and cultural proximity, we derive domestication profiles together with a proximity salience ratio. Our analysis spans thematic, recurrent, and singular events. By integrating quantitative data with qualitative interpretation, we provide new insights into the dynamics of Swiss digital media and demonstrate the usefulness of triangulation in media studies. The findings reveal distinct temporal patterns and highlight how linguistic and cultural contexts influence reporting. Our approach offers a framework applicable to other multilingual or culturally diverse media environments, contributing to a deeper understanding of how news is shaped by linguistic and cultural factors.

Triangulating Temporal Dynamics in Multilingual Swiss Online News

Abstract

Analyzing news coverage in multilingual societies can offer valuable insights into the dynamics of public discourse and the development of collective narratives, yet comprehensive studies that account for linguistic and cultural diversity within national media ecosystems remain limited, particularly in complex contexts such as Switzerland. This paper studies temporal trends in Swiss digital media across the country's three main linguistic regions, French, German, and Italian, using a triangulated methodology that combines quantitative analyses with qualitative insights. We collected and processed over 1.7 million news articles, applying lexical metrics, named entity recognition and Wikidata-based linking, targeted sentiment analysis, and consensus-based change-point detection. To enable principled cross-language comparisons and to connect to theories of domestication and cultural proximity, we derive domestication profiles together with a proximity salience ratio. Our analysis spans thematic, recurrent, and singular events. By integrating quantitative data with qualitative interpretation, we provide new insights into the dynamics of Swiss digital media and demonstrate the usefulness of triangulation in media studies. The findings reveal distinct temporal patterns and highlight how linguistic and cultural contexts influence reporting. Our approach offers a framework applicable to other multilingual or culturally diverse media environments, contributing to a deeper understanding of how news is shaped by linguistic and cultural factors.
Paper Structure (58 sections, 1 equation, 29 figures, 3 tables)

This paper contains 58 sections, 1 equation, 29 figures, 3 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Media Framing, Agenda-Setting, and Temporal Dynamics in News Studies
  4. Multilingual Media Studies & Swiss Context
  5. Triangulation Methodologies in Media Studies
  6. Methodology
  7. Data Collection and Processing
  8. Definition of Media Events
  9. Lexical Diversity and Density
  10. Named Entity Recognition and Linking
  11. Operationalizing Domestication and Cultural Proximity
  12. Domestication profile.
  13. Cultural proximity ratio (PSR).
  14. Sentiment Analysis
  15. Change Point Detection
  16. ...and 43 more sections

Figures (29)

  • Figure 1: Triangulated methodology for temporal analysis of Swiss digital news events. The diagram summarizes the integrated workflow, combining multilingual data collection, automatic event extraction, quantitative analyses, qualitative interpretation, and triangulated findings on temporal and cross-lingual patterns.
  • Figure 2: Weekly Brexit article counts. Shaded bands indicate consensus change points.
  • Figure 3: Weekly Swiss Wolf article counts. Shaded bands indicate consensus change points.
  • Figure 4: Standardized composite lexical index for Brexit (monthly, 3‑month MA).
  • Figure 5: Standardized composite lexical index for Swiss Wolf (monthly, 3‑month MA).
  • ...and 24 more figures