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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The Effects of the Internet on Collective Democratic Action in China Chen, Xiaojin Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 01. Oct. 2021 The Effects of the Internet on Collective Democratic Action in China Xiaojin Chen / 1219305 PhD Thesis Department of Culture, MeDia anD Creative InDustries King’s College London 2016 Abstract Focussing on the effects of the Internet on collective democratic action in China, this research seeks to understand the ways in which the Internet may promote civic participation and the public sphere in China. It is concerned with the rich experiences and enduring human spirits of Chinese citizens trying to facilitate social change. The research attempts to contribute to both constructing a theoretical framework for studying powers in collective democratic action in digital China, and exploring ways of conducting an in- depth empirical examination of Chinese Internet culture. To do so, an event-triggered framework is proposed, focusing on a public sphere ‘in formation’ in China. A public sphere ‘in formation’ is examined in the context of the long-term social transformation in China where this formation may always be invoked and refused at the same time. The study of this formation focuses on the mechanisms of social mobilisation of events, highlighting the interplay between powers of politics, the market, technology, and civil society in China. A case study of the 2013 Southern Weekly Incident is adopted to explore this framework. In the investigation of the 2013 Southern Weekly Incident, I conducted 45 in-depth interviews. I examine the ways in which the Internet benefited Journalists and citizens' information acquisition and communication, as well as the ways in which journalists and citizens adopted the Internet to facilitate online contention. I examine the radicalisation of action on the street in this case in order to understand who, in the sensitive protesting environment in China, is still mobilised to protest, and why. For both online and offline action, I analyse the mechanisms of embodiment and emotions, a framework of connective action, and the form of online and offline action being seemingly segmented in the Southern Weekly Incident. My investigation of the negotiation taking place within media organisations and people’s self-restriction during the incident further accelerates discussion of the interplay and conflicts between powers in Chinese society. Through this case study, the public sphere ‘in formation’ in China is examined. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................. 2 Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... 3 Table of Figures .......................................................................................................................... 5 AcknowleDgements .................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1 IntroDuction: A stuDy on the Chinese Internet anD beyonD ............................... 8 Chapter 2 The Internet and the formation of the public sphere in China ......................... 12 2.1. The Internet and technological empowerment .................................................................... 12 2.2. The Internet and the public sphere ..................................................................................... 15 2.2.1. The public sphere in a Habermasian sense ................................................................ 15 2.2.2. The political economy of the Internet .......................................................................... 21 2.3. Studying the Internet and the public sphere in China ......................................................... 26 2.3.1. State power and control of the Internet ....................................................................... 27 2.3.2. Citizens’ resistance and the state’s adaptation of Internet control .............................. 32 2.3.3. Studying the formation of the public sphere in China .................................................. 36 Chapter 3 Collective action anD emboDiment in Digital China .......................................... 40 3.1. Forming collective action: understanding emotions in action ............................................. 43 3.2. The logic of connective action: understanding embodiment in the digital age .................... 50 3.3. Understanding collective action in digital China ................................................................. 53 3.3.1. Action online and offline in China ................................................................................ 53 3.3.2. The complex ideologies and elusive democracy in China .......................................... 57 3.3.3. Action as everyday resistance .................................................................................... 59 Chapter 4 Issues anD methoDology ..................................................................................... 62 4.1. Research issues ................................................................................................................. 62 4.2. Qualitative, reflexive, situated research .............................................................................. 65 4.3. Case studies and multiple methods .................................................................................... 68 4.3.1. Case studies and the 2013 Southern Weekly Incident ............................................... 69 4.3.2. Online observation and qualitative content analysis ................................................... 71 4.3.3. In-depth interviews ...................................................................................................... 73 4.3.4. Collecting and analysing contextual data .................................................................... 78 4.4. Ethics, anonymity, confidentiality ........................................................................................ 79 Chapter 5 A case stuDy of the 2013 Southern Weekly Incident ........................................ 81 5.1. Information dissemination and online contention ................................................................ 81 5.1.1. The Internet as the only source ................................................................................... 81 3 5.1.2. Online collective and individual action ........................................................................ 84 5.1.3. Truth! Truth! - a race against deletion ......................................................................... 88 5.1.4. ‘You know what I mean’ (ni dong de) .......................................................................... 94 5.2. Go to the street? ................................................................................................................. 98 5.2.1. ‘I could be arrested’ ..................................................................................................... 98 5.2.2. ‘We come to mourn the death of our beloved paper’ ................................................ 101 5.2.3. ‘Come on! It’s a good issue to use’ ........................................................................... 111 5.2.4. The ‘others’ ............................................................................................................... 124 5.3. The results and the legacy ................................................................................................ 127 Chapter 6 The mechanisms, framework, and form of action in the Southern Weekly Incident ............................................................................................................... 128 6.1. The mechanisms of embodiment and emotions ............................................................... 128 6.1.1. ‘It was just so exciting that I wanted to keep posting, reposting…’ ........................... 128 6.1.2. ‘We all had been suffering for the whole career…’ ................................................... 136 6.1.3. ‘It felt like being morally kidnapped…’ ......................................................................