Promoting Peace and Sustainability Through Social Media: Facebook Users’ Responses to International Media Coverage of China-Taiwan Conflict

This study is founded on the contention that the principles advocated by the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are in alignment with the orientations of Peace Journalism (PJ). Given this context, the paper explores the extent of applying the PJ orientations by Facebook users in their comments on international media coverage (CNN, BBC, New York Times (NYT), and The Guardian) of the China-Taiwan dispute. A total of 594 comments were selected and analyzed during the period before the controversial visit of former White House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan on August 2, 2022. Based on the PJ model, framing theory, and quantitative content analysis methods, the study found that Facebook users intended to use PJ frames significantly while commenting on the news coverage of Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. The inclusion of PJ frames recorded (31.5%), (31.9%), (26.5%), and (25.8%) in the Facebook comments posted in response to CNN, BBC, NYT, and The Guardian coverage respectively. The findings also show that the Solution frame dominated the PJ frames in the comments extracted from CNN’s (78.4%), BBC’s (53%), NYT’s (69.4%), and The Guardian’s (78.3%) Facebook accounts.