Authoritarianism2.0: Social Media and Political Discussion in China

The ‘authoritarian determinism’ and reductionisms in China-focused political communication studies

“…The event-based and conflict-focused perspectives give rise to the third reductionist misconception which involves viewing the various groups in China’s communication sphere as ‘internally homogeneous’. Many scholars have recognized that the media–politics dynamics in China now unfold in a network-connected space in which a mass of communicative actors engage in reshuffling or reinforcing existing power relations by producing and disseminating political information, deliberating about public affairs, propagating the will of the authorities, and mobilizing collective actions (Esarey and Xiao, 2011; Huang and Yip, 2012; Medaglia and Yang, 2017; Stockmann and Luo, 2015). However, in most studies, various communication actors have been automatically classified into distinct groups based on their sociopolitical and media identities.…”

When the Internet meets collective action: The traditional and creative ways of political participation in China

“…Based on empirical evidence, scholars have agreed that the management of the Internet in China has transformed from ‘hard’ to ‘soft’ control (Stockmann and Luo, 2015a; Yang, 2003). With respect to coercive means, the Chinese government and the Internet companies have tried automatic techniques to control and disrupt the communication and diffusion of information online (Esarey and Qiang, 2008; Svensson, 2014; Yang, 2003, 2006), such as keyword filtering and the blocking of websites with the Great Firewall 2 (Stockmann and Luo, 2015b; Yang, 2014a). However, it has been proved that these automatic methods are ineffective in censoring information online (King et al, 2013).…”

“…Netizens who develop a certain political identity are more concerned about social problems and expressing their political views. People who join online communities because of loneliness tend to take radical action when their identities are threatened (Qiu et al, 2014 Stockmann and Luo, 2015b). Moreover, Xue et al (2013) proposed that people who participated in the same action might be driven by two different levels of identification: identification with the group at stake and with the social movement organization.…”

“…In short, the special functions of information-sharing and social interaction provided by the Internet are conducive to the creation of a new public sphere for Chinese citizens (Stockmann and Luo, 2015b). This basic supply structure provides new channels for activists and potential participants to find each other and to come together to share their grievances or organize activities (Göbel and Ong, 2012; Yang, 2003).…”

“…Through the ubiquitous use of the Internet, Chinese Netizens have gradually formed a large group of potential participants who are more concerned about politics and critical of the party-state (Esarey and Xiao, 2011; Jiang, 2000; Lei, 2011; Stockmann and Luo, 2015b).…”