WestminsterResearch http://www.westminster.ac.uk/westminsterresearch Guiding public protest: assessing the propaganda model of China’s hybrid newspaper industry Bond, G. This is an electronic version of a PhD thesis awarded by the University of Westminster. © Mr Graham Bond, 2015. The WestminsterResearch online digital archive at the University of Westminster aims to make the research output of the University available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the authors and/or copyright owners. Whilst further distribution of specific materials from within this archive is forbidden, you may freely distribute the URL of WestminsterResearch: ((http://westminsterresearch.wmin.ac.uk/). In case of abuse or copyright appearing without permission e-mail [email protected] Guiding public protest: assessing the propaganda model of China’s hybrid newspaper industry Three case studies: the 2007 Xiamen PX Protest, the 2008 Chongqing Taxi Strike and the 2011 Wukan Land Protest Graham Bond A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Westminster for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2015 1 Abstract This dissertation presents an account and analysis of published mainland Chinese media coverage surrounding three major events of public protest during the Hu-Wen era (2003-2013). The research makes a qualitative analysis of printed material drawn from a range of news outlets, differentiated by their specific political and commercial affiliations. The goal of the research is to better understand the role of mainstream media in social conflict resolution, a hitherto under-studied area, and to identify gradations within the ostensibly monolithic mainland Chinese media on issues of political sensitivity. China’s modern media formation displays certain characteristics of Anglophone media at its hyper-commercialised, populist core. However, the Chinese state retains an explicit, though often ambiguous, remit to engage with news production. Because of this, Chinese newspapers are often assumed to be one- dimensional propaganda ‘tools’ and, accordingly, easily dismissed from analyses of public protest. This research finds that, in an area where political actors have rescinded their monopoly on communicative power, a result of both policy decisions and the rise of Internet-based media platforms, established purveyors of news have acquired greater latitude to report on hitherto sensitive episodes of conflict but do so under the burden of having to correctly guide public opinion. The thesis examines the discursive resources that are deployed in this task, as well as reporting patterns which are suggestive of a new propaganda approach to handling social conflict within public media. Beside the explicitly political nature of coverage of protest events, the study sheds lights on gradations within China’s complex, hybrid media landscape both in terms of institutional purpose and qualitative performance. Keywords: China media; China commercial media; China protest; China newspapers; authoritarian resilience 2 Contents Title Page ................................................................................................................. 1 Abstract .................................................................................................................... 2 Contents ................................................................................................................... 3 List of Tables and Images ....................................................................................... 10 A Note on Romanization ......................................................................................... 10 Preface ................................................................................................................... 11 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ 12 Author’s Declaration .............................................................................................. 13 Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................... 14 The problem statement and research questions ............................................................ 14 Theoretical background ................................................................................................ 18 Aims and methods ........................................................................................................ 20 Main Findings ............................................................................................................... 24 Revisions ....................................................................................................................... 27 Approach ...................................................................................................................... 28 Value of research .......................................................................................................... 31 Structure of the thesis ................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 2: The Chinese Press in Context ................................................................. 33 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 33 The Chinese Press in Historical Context ......................................................................... 33 The Early Press .............................................................................................................................. 33 The Republican and Early Communist Press ................................................................................. 36 The Propaganda Model of the Chinese Press ............................................................................... 37 The Press During Reform and Opening Up ..................................................................... 40 Liberalisation in the 1980s ............................................................................................................ 40 The Market and the Party, Post 1989 ........................................................................................... 41 Continued political control of the press _________________________________________ 42 3 Public Opinion ‘Guidance’ and ‘Channelling’ _____________________________________ 45 Commercial Newspapers: From Within or Without? .................................................................... 46 Professionalisation _________________________________________________________ 50 Summary ...................................................................................................................... 53 Chapter 3: Social Contention in China ..................................................................... 54 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 54 Protest in China ............................................................................................................ 54 Protest in Historical Context ......................................................................................................... 54 Democracy and Authoritarianism ................................................................................................. 56 Rights Consciousness _______________________________________________________ 57 Protest in authoritarian adaptation ____________________________________________ 58 The Historical-Cultural Approach .................................................................................................. 61 Social management ________________________________________________________ 62 Protest and the countryside __________________________________________________ 63 Urban and Intellectual Protest ________________________________________________ 65 Protest repertoires _________________________________________________________ 66 Protest and the media .................................................................................................................. 68 Protest and the Chinese media _______________________________________________ 68 Protest and the Anglophone media ____________________________________________ 69 Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 72 The Chinese Internet ..................................................................................................... 73 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 73 The Chinese Web in Historical Context ......................................................................................... 74 Scale and Reach ............................................................................................................................ 76 The Chinese Internet as a Space ‘Apart’ ________________________________________ 76 Ways of looking at the internet in China ...................................................................................... 77 The Liberation Discourse ............................................................................................................... 78 A Networked Public Sphere? _________________________________________________ 80 The Authoritarian Adaptation Discourse .....................................................................................