The Impact of Fentanyl-Related Deaths on U.S. Press Coverage of China

<p dir="ltr">Winner of the Navari Center for Digital Scholarship, University of Notre Dame Library Research Award, 2025. This senior thesis investigates the relationship between fentanyl-related mortality in the United States and anti-Chinese sentiment in the U.S. press. Utilizing Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools and sentiment analysis via TextBlob, the researcher constructs a dataset of over 5,500 U.S.-based news articles from 2012–2020 referencing both China and fentanyl. The study combines these with fentanyl mortality data from the National Center for Health Statistics to examine whether increased overdose deaths correlate with shifts in media sentiment. Though an initial rise in coverage is evident with mortality increases, the study finds no consistent causal relationship between fentanyl deaths and anti-China sentiment once unemployment and political affiliation are controlled for. The project offers a novel interdisciplinary approach blending economics, data science, and media studies.</p>