Data reveals: mainstream media does not have a negative bias in reporting on Bitcoin.

As Bitcoin has evolved from a niche subculture into a global financial phenomenon, mainstream media are exploring how to report on Crypto Assets. This process has not been smooth, especially in the early stages. Crypto supporters often complain about media bias. For example, in a Reddit post from 2018, both the poster and commenters felt that the media had a bias against Bitcoin.

It is indeed not difficult to find negative reports about Bitcoin in the media. But do the media really have a bias against Bitcoin? Are their reports disconnected from public interest? Do some media hold a positive attitude? To reveal the truth, we conducted an in-depth analysis of the historical reporting of mainstream media over the years.

Our dataset contains 2.6 million articles and news published by 26 well-known media outlets from January 2016 to April 2017. These media include major news networks, newspapers, magazines, and popular news websites, but do not include media that specialize in reporting on encryption technology.

Among the more than 2.6 million articles, 3,580 titles mentioned Bitcoin. Although the proportion seems small, considering the dataset covers various fields, the reporting on Bitcoin is already quite substantial. For example, compared to "dollar" (1,368 articles) and "Ethereum" (282 articles), the reporting volume on Bitcoin is significantly higher.

Analysis shows that the reporting intensity of Bitcoin is closely related to its price movements. In 2017, as the coin price soared, the media coverage also increased. During the time period covered by the dataset, the daily number of Bitcoin reports showed a moderate positive correlation (0.39) with BTC prices.

However, the charts show that after the bull market in 2017, even though Bitcoin prices fluctuated dramatically, the volume of media coverage fell back to pre-bull market levels. Another price surge in mid-2019 similarly failed to generate significant media attention.

By comparing the trend of media reports with the Google search trend of "Bitcoin" during the same period, we found that they are highly correlated (0.88). Further analysis indicates that search interest often peaks before mainstream media coverage, suggesting that mainstream media reporting seems to follow the public's demand for information about Bitcoin.

Different media outlets vary in their coverage of Bitcoin. CNBC, which focuses on finance, has the highest proportion of Bitcoin coverage in its overall reporting, followed by tech blogs like Gizmodo, Wired, and TechCrunch. Mainstream media such as CNN and The New York Times are more moderate, while entertainment sites like TMZ and Refinery29 pay less attention to Bitcoin.

To assess the media's attitude towards Bitcoin, we used two sentiment analysis tools, VADER and TextBlob, to analyze over 3,500 Bitcoin articles. The results showed no evidence of negative bias against Bitcoin in the media. The sentiment of most articles leaned towards positive or neutral, rather than negative.

The analysis also found that most articles maintain a balance between subjectivity and objectivity, although there are indeed some extremely subjective cases.

We also compared the average sentiment scores of various media. Although VADER and TextBlob differ in specific ratings, the average scores for all media in both assessments are positive. TechCrunch, Vox, and The New York Times are among the most optimistic media regarding Bitcoin, while Reuters and Axios have relatively lower scores but still maintain a positive outlook.

In subjective analysis, traditional news organizations are more objective as expected, while internet-based new media such as Mashable, Vice, Vox, and Gizmodo are relatively more subjective.

Overall, our analysis found no evidence of bias against Bitcoin in mainstream media. The data suggests that the intensity of media coverage is closely related to the public's demand for information about Bitcoin. Neither of the two sentiment analysis tools found any media that regularly reports on Bitcoin to have targeted bias.

Nonetheless, these conclusions also have their limitations. The data coverage is broad but limited, including only 26 media outlets over a few years. Machine sentiment analysis is not perfect, and other natural language processing tools may yield different results.

Critical thinking remains the best way for humans to evaluate crypto news articles. However, the next time you see someone accusing the mainstream media of speaking negatively about Bitcoin, you can maintain a skeptical attitude. While there are indeed some negative views, overall, the media's attitude towards Bitcoin is quite positive.