A Corpus Study of Acupuncture from the Perspective of Mass Media Based on the Corpus of Contemporary American English

Abstract

Based on the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), this study examines acupuncture from the perspective of mass media. Acupuncture has been circulating throughout the Chinese Cultural Circle since the Qin and Han Dynasties, and has since spread directly or indirectly to the rest of the world. The United States boasts the world’s second-largest acupuncture market, with its laws, regulations, industry growth, research, and education all positively influencing the development of acupuncture in other nations. This study uses COCA to analyze the form and content of acupuncture’s dissemination in eight different types of media. The findings show that acupuncture appears in COCA a total of 1,788 times, with the highest frequency in magazines, followed by blogs, and the lowest frequency in fiction. These findings reveal the popularity of acupuncture in mass media in the United States and provide empirical data and insights for the future dissemination and development of acupuncture in the United States.