Understanding Hong Kong nationalism: A topic network approach

In: Nations and nationalism: journal of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism, Band 28, Heft 4, S. 1249-1266

Abstract

AbstractDrawing on data from Facebook, this article examines how elements of nationalism discourse were invoked by political actors to advance their agenda. In this paper, a novel mixed‐method approach is introduced. The analysis begins with the quantitative phase, and topic modelling is used to identify the recurring themes in corpus. A topic network is generated based on the semantic association and centrality measures from social network analysis are used to identify the core topics in the discourse. In the qualitative phase, texts from the core topics are analysed discursively. The findings reveal that Hong Kong nationalism discourse includes three frames: the threat frame that constructs the overarching narrative of China Threat, the identity frame that engages with the debate on localism and nationalism and the action frame that discusses the actions to be taken in response to the threats.