State Media Monitor Global Dataset 2025

Replication Data for "State Media Control Influences Large Language Models"

Replication dataset for "State Media Control Influences Large Language Models," forthcoming in Nature (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10506-7). We show through six studies that government control of the media across the world influences the output of large language models (LLMs) via their training data.

Replication Data for "State Media Control Influences Large Language Models"

Replication dataset for "State Media Control Influences Large Language Models," forthcoming in Nature (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10506-7). We show through six studies that government control of the media across the world influences the output of large language models (LLMs) via their training data.

Media Influence Matrix – The World's Most Reliable Influence Tracker

This week’s edition reads five FY2025 reports against each other: Dnevnik (Slovenia), Delfi Latvia, Phoenix New Media (China), Hanza Media (Croatia) and Digi Communications (Romania). It finds two publishers separating their journalism from their balance sheets, a Croatian publisher closing a 35-year-old political weekly on a 1.1% net margin, a Chinese state-linked digital news group whose financial centre has quietly shifted from advertising to mini-program reading apps, and a Romanian telecom giant’s having its news channel walk off the must-carry list.

Media Bias/Fact Check News

We are the most comprehensive media bias resource on the internet. There are currently 3900+ media sources listed in our database and growing every day.

State media control influences large language models

Millions of people around the world query large language models (LLMs) for information. Although several studies have compellingly documented the persuasive potential of these models1–10, there is limited evidence of who or what influences the models themselves, leading to a flurry of concerns about which companies and governments build and regulate the models. Here we show through six studies that government control of the media across the world already influences the output of LLMs via their training data. We use a cross-national audit to show that LLMs exhibit a stronger pro-government valence in the languages of countries with lower media freedom than in those with higher media freedom. This result is correlational, so to triangulate the specific mechanism of how state media control can influence LLMs, we develop a multi-part case study on China’s media. We demonstrate that media scripted and curated by the Chinese state appears in LLM training datasets. To evaluate the plausible effect of this inclusion, we use an open-weight model to show that additional pretraining on Chinese state-coordinated media generates more positive answers to prompts about Chinese political institutions and leaders. We link this phenomenon to commercial models through two audit studies demonstrating that prompting models in Chinese generates more positive responses about China’s institutions and leaders than do the same queries in English. The combination of influence and persuasive potential across languages suggests the troubling conclusion that states and powerful institutions have increased strategic incentives to leverage media control in the hopes of shaping LLM output.

State media control influences large language models

Millions of people around the world query large language models (LLMs) for information. Although several studies have compellingly documented the persuasive potential of these models1–10, there is limited evidence of who or what influences the models themselves, leading to a flurry of concerns about which companies and governments build and regulate the models. Here we show through six studies that government control of the media across the world already influences the output of LLMs via their training data. We use a cross-national audit to show that LLMs exhibit a stronger pro-government valence in the languages of countries with lower media freedom than in those with higher media freedom. This result is correlational, so to triangulate the specific mechanism of how state media control can influence LLMs, we develop a multi-part case study on China’s media. We demonstrate that media scripted and curated by the Chinese state appears in LLM training datasets. To evaluate the plausible effect of this inclusion, we use an open-weight model to show that additional pretraining on Chinese state-coordinated media generates more positive answers to prompts about Chinese political institutions and leaders. We link this phenomenon to commercial models through two audit studies demonstrating that prompting models in Chinese generates more positive responses about China’s institutions and leaders than do the same queries in English. The combination of influence and persuasive potential across languages suggests the troubling conclusion that states and powerful institutions have increased strategic incentives to leverage media control in the hopes of shaping LLM output.

Government Ratings - Nira Data

Track global public opinion, political sentiment, and trust in government with insights from the 2025 Global Political Opinion Report.

State Media Control Influences Large Language Models – State Media & LLMs

Hannah Waight1,2, Eddie Yang1,3, Yin Yuan4, Solomon Messing5, Margaret E. Roberts4, Brandon M. Stewart6, Joshua A. Tucker5,7

Language Models Trained on State Media Sources Launder Propaganda

Tech Policy Press is a nonprofit media and community venture intended to provoke new ideas, debate and discussion at the intersection of technology and democracy. We publish opinion and analysis.

Archived Fact-Checked Media — MediaVault

“There's a story going around: after the drone strikes on Yandex data centres, comments on AfD and MAGA accounts collapsed. We monitor 17,000+ politicians, media and civil society accounts in 30+ countries. 50,000+ posts a day. So we checked. We don't see it. 🧵 https://t.co/8quSNosqv0”

Local Journalism Directory | Media and Democracy Project

We created a directory to help you find local journalism and local news sources in your area worth reading and supporting.

The Metric Media network runs more than 1,200 local news sites. Here are some of the non-profits funding them.

<p>This is the first part of a two-part investigation. The second piece can be found here. As local news outlets across the US struggle to stay afloat, pop-up newsrooms are filling the void. Organizations with ties to political parties, special-interest groups, and lobbyists have emerged under the guise of news. One of the biggest such […]</p>

Home | International Center for Journalists

We enable a global network of journalists to provide the trustworthy news essential to free and strong societies.

Advocacy groups and Metric Media collaborate on local ‘community news’

<p>This is the second part of a two-part investigation. The first piece can be found here. Metric Media launched “Community Newsmaker” in 2020 using the language of citizen journalism. However, what appeared to be  grassroots news is part of a sprawling network that promotes political agendas and corporate interests, without disclosing those ties to the […]</p>

Opinion: Losing the Local Journalism Initiative leaves communities in the dark

With more outlets vying for federal funding, why are national outlets opening up new bureaus in communities with healthy media ecosystems?

Democracy Tracker | The Global State of Democracy

Each report describes an event that affects the state of democracy in a given country, with assessments made relative to that country's context, not as comparisons or rankings between countries.