Postcolonial Analysis of Transcultural News Frames: A Case Study of Facebook Rebranding

1 Introduction

In the post-colonial era, news discourses have assumed a significant role in shaping the economic dynamics of digital platforms. As societies transitioned from colonial rule to independent nation-states, the media landscape underwent profound transformations, with news outlets becoming influential actors in shaping public opinion and driving economic agendas. According to Thussu (2018), the expansion of emerging technology companies and their business models have tremendously attracted academic interest at various levels, faced with geopolitical spirals, monopoly, and new dimensions. News discourses, through their coverage and representation of innovation, science, and technology, have become instrumental in simplifying communication and fostering mutual understanding between various stakeholders, including big tech companies, scientists, and the audience. The media plays a crucial role in disseminating information about technological advancements, highlighting their potential benefits, and contributing to the public’s perception of innovation and big tech. Previous studies such as Asseraf (2022), Zhang et al. (2021), and Jungherr et al. (2019), have explored the impact of news reporting on the economic politics of digital platforms in both cohesive and warring contexts. These studies have shed light on how news discourses influence the public’s perception of technological advancements, which, in turn, can shape consumer behavior, market dynamics, and the success or failure of technological acceptance.

Furthermore, Norris et al. (2003) have argued that the techniques of news writing deeply influence audience perceptions of innovation and big tech. The language, framing, and narrative choices made by journalists can significantly impact how technology-related topics are understood and interpreted by the public. It is important to note that the influence of news discourses on the economic dynamics of digital platforms is not solely derived from the impact of the technology itself on media reporting. Rather, it is shaped by social influence, cognitive processes, and human-computer interaction behavior (Fulk et al., 1990). These factors encompass the social, cultural, and psychological dimensions through which news discourses interact with audiences, shaping their perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors toward innovation and big tech. Amidst uneven geopolitical landscapes, academic inquiries, as conducted by Teer-Tomaselli et al. (2019), Nordenstreng and Thussu (2015), Hallin and Mancini (2011), and Best et al. (2014), have explored the relevance and survival of the media in various facets. These studies contextualize developments in news reports, uncovering journalistic practices, codes, and attitudes that shape the representation of technology-related issues. By examining how the development and feature improvements of digital platforms fit within the context of transcultural news frames and the colonial connotations reflected in post-colonial communication and media representation, it is possible to determine the role of influencing factors and public reactions triggered by media attention (Penney et al., 2003). This research inquiry aims to unravel the intricate relationship between news discourses, digital platforms, and the economic dynamics that arise within the post-colonial context. Therefore, in this study, we aim to answer the following research questions:

2 Literature Review: News Frames

News frames have been widely explored throughout communication research. According to Johnston et al. (2015), framing is rooted in the understanding that the way information is presented and framed can significantly influence people’s perceptions, interpretations, and responses. By considering the significance of framing as a product of cognitive psychology, scholars have recognized the role of mental processes, such as attention, memory, and interpretation, in shaping individuals’ understanding of mediated messages. Goffman’s influential work on framing has provided a theoretical foundation for studying the cognitive aspects of framing. Goffman (1974) explored how individuals construct meaning and make sense of social interactions through various framing processes. This framework highlights the role of individual and collective interpretations, as well as the contextual and situational factors that shape framing effects. Building upon Goffman’s ideas, contemporary researchers have expanded the understanding of framing as a cognitive phenomenon by investigating how framing cues, linguistic devices, visual elements, and narrative structures contribute to the construction and interpretation of messages. This approach acknowledges that framing is not merely a mechanical process of message delivery but rather a complex interplay between communicators, audiences, and the broader socio-cultural context. Thus, news production is viewed as one of the biggest contributors to this debate, in what is termed as ‘news frames’ (Matthes, 2009). When arguing the basis of framing application by the news media, Entman (2007) noted that in some cases, journalists are susceptible to using framing as a tool for biased reporting, drawing from three distinct perspectives – distortion, content, and decision-making bias. For that reason, it is essential to expand academic literature debates on how the media differently apply news framing. Given that the renaming of Facebook to Meta is a global topical issue, there is a need to observe how it has been reported both locally and internationally, especially between African and Western media. Previous research has broadly deliberated on how different aspects of Africa have been reported by the Western media using framing as their basis machinery (Nothias, 2018; Majavu, 2020; Brown et al., 2019; Ogunyemi, 2014; Kraut-Adler, 2018; Matshikiza, 2001).

3 Theoretical Framework: News Framing

The analysis of media discourses and their underlying messages is often pivoted within the framing approach and theorizing news frames from newspapers is nonetheless not new to the theoretical literature. Academic inquiry into this theory derives from a wide range of issues, with significant attention to the framing of topical issues such as climate change, for example, Weathers and Kendall (2016) studied the framing of climate change as a public health issue in US Newspapers, while Djerf-Pierre et al. (2016) studied the framing of renewable energy by comparing newspaper reports in Australia and Sweden. In a similar vein, several previous studies have examined the framing of significant events and topics in different contexts. For instance, Ojala and Pantti (2017) investigated the framing of the Ukrainian conflict in four European newspapers, and Maslog et al., (2006), studied the framing of the Iraq War by selected newspapers in five Asian countries, while Hamdy and Gomaa (2012), studied the framing of the Egyptian uprising, focusing on Social Media platforms and newspapers in the Arabic language. Additionally, Mendes (2011) studied the framing of feminism in British and American newspapers, shedding light on the portrayal and representation of this social movement across different media landscapes. Furthermore, Luther and Zhou (2005) examined the news framing of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in China and the United States, highlighting the distinctive ways in which health-related issues can be framed within different cultural and national contexts. Although it is a widely accepted method for analyzing media frames, Matthes and Kohring (2008) had since argued inconsistencies in the way researchers tend to analyze news frames, citing the lack of reliability in the methods used, and the lack of mutual exclusiveness thereof, relating to the five framing approaches (hermeneutic, linguistic, manual holistic, computer-assisted and deductive). First, by acknowledging that media frames are abstract units, Matthes and Kohring position their argument on the commonness in the abstract explanation of how frames are usually extracted from news items. Given the concentration of certain topical issues being media frames as discussed above, the gap exists in how technology and innovation in communication have been framed by newspapers. Among the few studies deriving from the framing theory on this subject, a recent investigation by Chuan et al. (2019), explored news framing of Artificial Intelligence, academically shedding some light on how innovation and big data reflect media attention, which is more relevant to the current study. Their study drew a similar approach to Boukes (2022) by basing their analysis of framing on episodic and thematic framing, which could certainly be central to the influence of public perceptions through the amount of coverage an issue received from the news media.

Framing theory is a crucial concept in media studies that has been widely used to analyze news coverage. The strength of framing helps to define the scope of its application, and this depends on the main frame strengths, which are episodic and thematic (Aarøe, 2011). Episodic framing focuses on specific events that are reported by framing the characteristics that define their existence and prominence. On the other hand, thematic framing draws from a particular event and how it fits into the context of being newsworthy (Lee & Riffe, 2019). Identifying and understanding the strength of the frame for analysis is essential because frames have a massive potential to shape and influence the emotions of the audience. Therefore, researchers should carefully select the frame strength that best suits their research questions and hypotheses. In this study, the authors explore the two framing strengths of episodic and thematic framing at different setups to appeal to the systematic approach of the study. They also examine the tones derived from the frames identified on the selected news websites. Scholars have categorized news coverage trajectories into three perspectives: positive, negative, and neutral tones. For example, Dunaway (2013) explores the relationship between media ownership and the tone of campaign news, emphasizing that the tones observed are influenced by their alignment with slant or bias, and can be analyzed within this framework.

Previous research has primarily focused on discourses surrounding war crimes and corruption when examining media framing between Africa and the West (Kothari, 2010). However, there remains a significant knowledge gap regarding how African media frame Western countries, as the majority of studies have predominantly investigated how Western media frame Africa. This study aims to address this gap by exploring the reportage and framing of technological development and search interest within both African and Western media. While framing theory has been a valuable tool in media studies, it has not been without criticism. One critique suggests that framing theory lacks a clear and concise definition, posing challenges for its application across different contexts (Reese, 2001). Another criticism highlights that framing theory may overemphasize the media’s role in shaping public opinion while neglecting other factors such as personal beliefs and experiences (Gamson & Modigliani, 1989). Despite these criticisms, framing theory still remains a useful framework for analyzing news media coverage. Researchers should carefully select the frame strength that aligns best with their research questions and hypotheses, as the strength of framing helps define its scope of application. By investigating the reportage and framing of technological development and search interest between Africa and the Western media, this study aims to contribute to bridging the existing knowledge gap in the literature.

4 Methods

The study utilized content analysis to explore search interests and interpret the themes of news frames on selected websites. The researchers identified suitable samples using Google Trends, which is gaining usage popularity among researchers (Nuti et al., 2014; Mavragani et al., 2018; Cervellin et al., 2017) to determine countries with a high search interest on their news websites regarding the Facebook name change to Meta between October 28, 2021, and January 31, 2022, comparing the search rate using three keywords (Facebook, Meta, and Mark Zuckerberg) to monitor trends in the news. This timeline was chosen because, on October 28, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook Inc was being rebranded to Meta, and that was the same date when the name was announced. The search was categorized into three descriptive groups, namely worldwide, news, and web search, to restrict searches to news websites relevant to the study. The study applied a correlational observation to the three keywords to establish the impact of the name change on searches and usage across news reports. The researchers purposively selected nine news websites that had published stories about the rebranding, comprising 107 stories from Western-based news websites (USA, UK, Russia, and France) and 59 stories from African-based news websites (Mali, Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria). The choice of resources was based on the search interest rates identified through Google Trends within both the Western and African regions. By utilizing Google Trends, the researchers were able to identify the news websites that had significant coverage and engagement related to the Facebook rebranding. The number of stories included from each cluster was not arbitrarily determined but rather reflected the actual distribution of available news articles from the identified websites during the specified time period. To identify news frames, the researchers drew from five guiding questions contextualized to fit the scope of news reports about the rebranding exercise. Table 1 presents an overview of the data collection process, showing the sampled news websites arranged in descending order based on the number of stories collected from each source.

5 Data Analysis

This research study employed two distinct sets of data gathered from the same sample. The first data set was analyzed by utilizing Google Trends to determine the search interest during the period when the name “Meta” was unveiled together with its new features (Choi & Varian, 2012). This analysis was conducted to monitor the trends for the selected keywords, including “Mark Zuckerberg,” “Facebook,” and “Meta,” which were subsequently captured using Google Sheets for graphical analysis (Kunicki et al., 2019). The second data set, which comprised text from all published stories, was analyzed using an online Azure Machine Learning program as a sentiment analysis tool to assign tones, with positive sentiment being defined as scores ≥ 0.6, neutral as a score of 0.5, and negative as scores ≤ 0.4 (Harfoushi et al., 2018). The sentiment analysis tool employed algorithms that allocated in-built sentiments to the text, and informed the tones utilized by news reporters in the stories. Moreover, the same text was analyzed for media frames by drawing from prior literature on the allocation of frames from similar analyses. Finally, an Excel-based correlational and regression analysis was performed to examine the relationship between the three keywords mentioned earlier.

6 Findings

The first research question (RQ1) aimed to assess the level of interest in news searches following the announcement of Meta using Google Trends. We focused on three keywords: “Mark Zuckerberg,” “Facebook,” and “Meta.” The results revealed different levels of search interest rates during the study period. Among the three keywords, “Facebook” generated the highest search interest rates throughout the period. It steadily increased from a 99 % rate on October 29, 2021, reaching a peak of a 100 % rate on November 4, 2021. It then slightly dropped to 98 % rate on December 1, 2021. On average, the search interest rates for “Facebook” remained at 88 % rate until December 21, 2021, with the lowest value never falling below 1 % rate. On the other hand, the search interest rates for “Mark Zuckerberg” and “Meta” were comparatively lower. “Meta” reached its highest search interest rate of 14 % rate on October 29, 2021, and maintained an average of 5 % rate between October 28 and December 21, 2021. The minimum search interest rate for “Meta” throughout the entire period was 2 %. For “Mark Zuckerberg,” the peak search interest rate was 3 % between October 28 and October 30, 2021. On average, it had a search interest rate of 1 % between October 28 and December 21, 2021. Notably, there were 13 consecutive days with a minimum search interest rate of 0 %, and the maximum value of a 3 % rate was observed concurrently between October 28 and October 30, 2021. These findings, presented in Figure 1, provide insights into the varying levels of search interest rates for the selected keywords during the study period. It is essential to clarify that the percentages represent the relative search interest rate for each keyword within the context of the study and are not indicative of the overall search volume worldwide.

Figure 1:

Search interest since the first day when Meta announced a rebranding. The figure shows keyword searches for a period of three months from October 28^th to January 31^st.

Research Question 2 (RQ2) aimed to investigate the differences in the framing of the Facebook rebrand into Meta between African and Western-based news websites. A total of 107 stories were selected from Western news websites, out of which 42.7 % (44 stories) centered on the conflicts that emerged before and during the rebranding process. Meanwhile, 15.5 % (16 stories) focused on innovation, highlighting the new features and their potential benefits for users. Additionally, 20.4 % (21 stories) of the selected articles centered on trends, covering the much-discussed events surrounding the rebrand. Sympathy was the focus of 11.7 % (12 stories), while 9.7 % (10 stories) addressed the context, yielding a mean of 20.6 % (see Figure 2 below).

Figure 2:

Dominant frames (Western news websites).

The present study investigated how African-based news websites framed the Facebook rebrand into Meta, utilizing a sample of 59 selected stories. The findings indicated that a majority of the stories, amounting to 29 in total, employed the conflict frame, thus accounting for 49.2 % of the selected articles. A much smaller proportion of the articles, specifically seven stories (11.9 %), focused on innovation, while 10 stories (16.9 %) focused on trends. A limited number of articles, five in total (8.5 %), highlighted sympathy towards the rebrand, while eight stories (13.6 %) were dedicated to context. The overall mean percentage of context frames was 11.8 (see Figure 3 below).

Figure 3:

Dominant frames (African news websites).

Using a machine learning-based sentiment score allocation to the news reports, the selected Western news websites from five countries (U.S., UK, Russia, France, and Germany), cumulatively had an average tone of reporting at 0.2 (negative), which was two scores away from the extreme negative score of 0.0. African news websites selected from four countries (Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, and Mali) scored an average tone of 0.5, translating to a neutral tone. Machine learning-based sentiment score allocation is a process that utilizes machine learning algorithms to assign sentiment scores to textual data (Nigam et al., 2018). This process involves several key steps. First, a labeled dataset is collected, consisting of text samples paired with sentiment labels. The text samples are then preprocessed to extract relevant features, such as tokenization and removing stop words, to capture sentiment. A machine learning model is trained using this labeled dataset, enabling it to recognize patterns and associate them with sentiment labels. The model’s performance is evaluated using a separate dataset to ensure its reliability. Finally, the trained and validated model is used to assign sentiment scores to new text data, indicating the level of positivity, negativity, or neutrality expressed (Godsay, 2015; Xiong et al., 2022). Table 2 above shows tone distribution according to the selected news websites.

7 Discussion

The present study aimed to analyze the search interests and news frames of Western and African-based news websites with regard to the rebranding of Facebook Inc. to Meta. This was achieved through a framing approach that evaluated the framing tones (positive, negative, and neutral) and a correlational and regression analysis of the three keywords (Meta, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg). The study revealed that the search interest for news related to the Facebook rebranding was high across both Western and African regions. However, the keyword “Facebook” dominated the search interest in both regions, as opposed to “Meta” or “Mark Zuckerberg.” This trend was observed in almost all African countries, with only a few exceptions such as Mali, which showed a higher search interest for the keyword “Meta.” Interestingly, despite the high search interest in Mali, news websites in the country did not cover the Facebook rebranding extensively, indicating a need for more information on the topic. Similarly, the news websites in other analyzed African countries, such as Kenya, Nigeria, and Ghana, provided limited coverage on the topic compared to their Western counterparts.

Moreover, the study found a high search interest diversity in Africa when the three keywords were combined, with some searchers associating their inquiries with “Meta” and “Mark Zuckerberg” in addition to “Facebook.” The search interest reached its peak on the 29th of October, just a day after the announcement of the Facebook rebranding, with “Facebook” being the only keyword that reached a 100 % search interest rate on that day. These findings shed light on the audience’s interest and behavior toward the Facebook rebranding, suggesting the need for more comprehensive news coverage on the topic on African news websites. However, the news coverage regarding the rebranding only dominated for a month after the announcement, indicating a short-lived interest. It is noteworthy that the keyword “Facebook” consistently had higher search interest than “Mark Zuckerberg” and “Meta” during the study period, and this was observed in various U.S. states such as Iowa and California, with Nevada contributing at least 8 % of searches for “Mark Zuckerberg”. This finding underscores the continued dominance of the Facebook name in the keyword searches over its rebranded version, Meta during the period of study. Similarly, some countries that fall within the European region such as Russia (Bassin, 1991; Trenin, 2013), the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, which highly reported the rebranding, showed a higher interest in the keyword “Facebook” than “Meta”. Meanwhile, Africa, which came second after the U.S. in search trends, had significantly lower news coverage about the rebranding, especially in countries where Meta has established offices, such as South Africa and Nigeria. While Nigeria had at least 51 reports that met the selection criteria for this study, the news websites that reported consistently, such as Business Insider Africa, were aligned more with the West than Africa.

The study suggests that homegrown news websites in Africa should capture and provide frequent updates on new developments related to the Meta rebrand, especially since Meta has strategic expansion plans in Africa. This study also highlights the disparity between news coverage in the West and Africa regarding events in Africa, with the former having consistent reporting compared to the latter. It raises the question of the salience of events in Africa to be reported consistently on African news websites, while Western news websites tend to give continuous updates on breaking news about Africa, especially within the frames of conflict, corruption, disease outbreaks, and other sensational events. This finding supports previous research by Ogunyemi (2014) that suggests a skewed portrayal of Africa by Western media. Therefore, this study provides insights into the global interest and news coverage of the Meta rebranding and highlights the need for a more balanced and nuanced portrayal of events in Africa. The present study reveals that the search term “Facebook” dominates in both African and European regions. However, Western news websites have provided more coverage than African news websites. In addition, the results indicate that the generic frames of news coverage remain the same with a focus on privacy concerns and scandals involving the platform and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg. Notably, the study shows a significant positive correlation between search interests on Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, while the correlation between Facebook and Meta is moderately positive. These findings suggest the need for further investigation into the driving factors behind these search interests and their implications for the global discourse on social media and privacy. To gain a deeper understanding of these issues, future studies should explore the sociopolitical and economic factors that contribute to these search interests and how they affect the public discourse on social media and privacy concerns. Based on the earlier findings presented, this study conducted an analysis of frames using generic frames extracted from all collected news reports, as outlined by Matthes (2009).

The study also found that out of the 107 news stories selected from Western news websites, 44 (42.7 %) were dominated by reports on the conflict surrounding Facebook’s rebranding to Meta. This conflict frame has been a prominent feature in Meta’s previous scandals and was also featured in the most recent scandal, where a whistleblower allegedly uncovered privacy breaches. This finding is consistent with Yioutas and Segvic’s (2003) argument that previous high-profile scandals can influence media framing and agenda setting. The study also found that innovation was the second most used frame, drawn from 16 stories (15.5 %). These stories highlighted the potential of technology that the rebrand into Meta would offer, including new features presented by the metaverse. This finding is consistent with the trend of corporations adopting technology use in their reporting (Zayani, 2021) and journalism presenting a perspective of user-generated news (Xiang, 2019). This relates to the finding that the least used frame in Western news websites was the contextual frame, while the least used in African news websites was the sympathy frame. This suggests a divided front between the West and Africa in terms of framing and newsworthiness. The former focused more on sympathy, while the latter focused more on context. According to the findings, African-based news websites had a more positive sentiment score compared to Western news websites. Ghanaian-based news website, Ghanaian Times, had the highest average sentiment score of 0.6 (positive sentiment), which was close to the neutral tone. This finding is surprising, given that both reports could be seen as negative. Business Insider Africa, a Nigerian-based news website, provided constant coverage and had the highest number of stories within the selected study period, which could signal Nigeria as one of the strategic business locations for Meta in the African continent. Finally, this study’s analysis of frames and sentiment scores highlights the different perspectives and priorities of Western and African news websites when reporting on Meta’s rebranding. These findings can help media analysts and industry experts understand the impact of media framing and sentiment on audience perceptions and attitudes toward Meta’s rebranding. The rebranding of Facebook Inc. to Meta in October 2021 received global attention and sparked a discourse on the future of social media and privacy. This study aimed to evaluate the search interests and news frames of Western and African-based news websites regarding the Meta rebranding.

8 Conclusion

In conclusion, this study analyzed transcultural news frames surrounding Facebook’s rebranding from a postcolonial perspective. By examining search interest using Google trends and comparing the framing approaches of African and Western news websites, it was evident that diverse reporting styles were employed. The findings highlight the persistence of colonial influences in news coverage, evidently, with Western websites displaying biased sympathy and African websites emphasizing conflict-driven narratives. These observations underscore the need for a more balanced portrayal of events in Africa and emphasize the importance of transparency and diversity in the tech industry and media landscape. The study also provides valuable insights into the global interest surrounding the Meta rebranding and sheds light on the complexities of news coverage. It contributes to a deeper understanding of social media discourse and prompts the call for an informed public sphere.

9 Limitations and Future Research

The study has several limitations that should be acknowledged. Firstly, it focused only on English news sources, potentially overlooking diverse cultural perspectives, and limiting the generalizability of the study to non-English-speaking regions. Additionally, relying solely on Google Trends may not fully capture the motivations behind search behavior. Furthermore, the study’s timeframe was limited to the Facebook rebranding, potentially missing evolving news frames. Future research should include multilingual analysis, qualitative approaches, longitudinal investigations, and explore transcultural news frames globally to address these limitations and gain a comprehensive understanding of news coverage and cultural influences.