# Exposing the Obscured Influence of State-Controlled Media: A Causal Estimation of Influence Between Media Outlets Via Quotation Propagation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.05985 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.05985/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 9 of its 42 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 16 Jan 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [Sentence-BERT: Sentence Embeddings using Siamese BERT-Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.10084/) (2019)
- [Bilateral Multi-Perspective Matching for Natural Language Sentences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1702.03814/) (2017)
- [Convolutional Neural Network Architectures for Matching Natural Language Sentences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03244/) (2015)
- [Framing and Agenda-setting in Russian News: a Computational Analysis of Intricate Political Strategies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.09386/) (2018)
- [Automatic Detection of Influential Actors in Disinformation Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.10879/) (2020)
- [Influence Estimation on Social Media Networks Using Causal Inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.04109/) (2018)
- [Relation Clustering in Narrative Knowledge Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13647/) (2020)
- [Causal Inference Under Network Interference: A Framework for Experiments on Social Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.08522/) (2017)
- [A network perspective on intermedia agenda-setting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05971/) (2020)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This study quantifies influence between media outlets by applying a novel methodology that uses causal effect estimation on networks and transformer language models. We demonstrate the obscured influence of state-controlled outlets over other outlets, regardless of orientation, by analyzing a large dataset of quotations from over 100 thousand articles published by the most prominent European and Russian traditional media outlets, appearing between May 2018 and October 2019. The analysis maps out the network structure of influence with news wire services serving as prominent bridges that connect outlets in different geo-political spheres. Overall, this approach demonstrates capabilities to identify and quantify the channels of influence in intermedia agenda setting over specific topics.