Media and Conflict in the Social Media Era in China

167 Pages·2020·2.362 MB·English

by  Shixin Ivy Zhang

Media and Conflict in the
Social Media Era in China
Shixin Ivy Zhang
Media and Conflict in the Social Media
Era in China
Shixin Ivy Zhang
Media and Conflict in
the Social Media Era
in China
Shixin Ivy Zhang
School of International Communications
University of Nottingham Ningbo China
Ningbo, China
ISBN 978-981-15-7634-8 ISBN 978-981-15-7635-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7635-5
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P
reface
This research monograph explores the changing relationship between
media and conflict in the social media age through the lens of China.
Inspired by the concepts of mediatisation of conflict and actor-network
theory, this book centres on four main actors in the wars and conflicts:
social media platform, the mainstream news organizations, online users
and social media content. These four human and non-human actors asso-
ciate, interact and negotiate with each other in the social media network
surrounding specific issues. Specifically, this book examines and analyses
the professional media’s news coverage and users’ comments on social
media platform Weibo in China, and discuss how the professional media
and other actors interact with each other and use social media for their
own ends. The central argument is that social media is playing an enabling
role in contemporary wars and conflicts with limitations and constraints.
Both professional media outlets and web users employ the functionalities
of social media platforms to set, counter-set or expand the public agenda.
Social media platform embodies a web of technological and human com-
plexities with different actors, factors, interests, and power relations. These
four actors and the macro social-political context are influential in the
mediatisation of conflict in the social media era.
Ningbo, China Shixin Ivy Zhang
v
a
cknowledgments
Thanks go to student interns at University of Nottingham Ningbo China
who helped with data collection and preliminary coding for this book
project. They are: Chen Chen, Cheng Cheng, Gui Haoyang, Jiarui Guo,
Meishu Ai, Kexin Yu and Te Rong. I also express appreciation for funding
and support from Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of
Nottingham Ningbo China.
Some content in Chaps. 1, 2 and 3 was published in Zhang, S. I. (2019)
Mediatization of Conflict in the Social Media Era – A Case Study of Sino-
Indian Border Crisis in 2017, Journalism. https://doi.org/10.1177/
1464884919870329.
vii
c
ontents
1 Introduction: Media and Conflict Studies in the Social
Media Age 1
2 China’s Social Media Platforms: Weibo 21
3 Sino-Indian Border Crisis in 2017 41
4 Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands Dispute in 2017–2018 63
5 South China Sea Dispute in 2018 89
6 North Korea Nuclear Crisis in 2018 113
7 Conclusion 137
Index 155
ix
l f
ist of igures
Fig. 1.1 Media and conflict actor-network in the social media era.
(Source: the author) 8
Fig. 3.1 The trend of forwards (shares), comments and likes of GT’s
Weibo posts during the Sino-Indian border crisis in 2017.
(Data source: Sina Weibo) 50
Fig. 4.1 The trend of forwards (shares), comments and likes of GT’s
Weibo posts during the Diaoyu/Senkaky Isands in 2017–8
(N=60). (Data source: Sina Weibo) 75
Fig. 5.1 The trend of forwards (shares), comments and likes of GT’s
Weibo posts during the South China Sea dispute in 2018.
(Data source: Sina Weibo) 99
Fig. 6.1 The trend of forwards (shares), comments and likes of GT’s
Weibo posts during the North Korea nuclear crisis in 2018.
(Data source: Sina Weibo) 122
Fig. 7.1 Contextualized social media and conflict actor–networks.
(Source: the author) 139
xi
l t
ist of ables
Table 1.1 Summary of data collection 15
Table 2.1 Major social media platforms in China 2019 24
Table 3.1 Distribution of frames in GT posts on Weibo pertaining
to the Sino-Indian border crisis in 2017 (N = 71) 49
Table 3.2 Five GT posts that have the largest number of shares,
comments and likes 51
Table 3.3 Online users’ usage of languages and emoji on Weibo 56
Table 4.1 Distribution of frames in GT posts on Weibo pertaining
to the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute in 2017 and 2018
(N=60) 74
Table 4.2 Four GT posts that have the largest number of shares,
comments and likes pertaining to the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands
in 2017–8 76
Table 4.3 Online users’ usage of languages and emoji on Weibo
pertaining to Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in 2017–8 80
Table 5.1 Distribution of frames in GT posts on Weibo pertaining
to the SCS disputes in 2018. (N=98) 98
Table 5.2 Four GT posts that have the largest number of shares,
comments and likes pertaining to the South China Sea
in 2018 100
Table 5.3 Online users’ usage of languages and emoji on Weibo
pertaining to South China Sea in 2018 103
Table 6.1 Distribution of frames in GT posts on Weibo pertaining
to the North Korea nuclear crisis in 2018 (N=51) 121
Table 6.2 Three GT posts that have the largest number of shares,
comments and likes pertaining to the North Korea nuclear
crisis in 2018 122
xiii
xiv LIST OF TABLES
Table 6.3 Online users’ usage of languages and emoji on Weibo
pertaining to North Korea nuclear crisis in 2018 126
Table 7.1 Web users’ response to professional media’s coverage of
conflicts/crisis on social media in China 146
Table 7.2 Weibo’s censorship in different conflicts 149
Table 7.3 Different levels of impact of external actors/factors on the
media- conflict actor-network 150