Suchergebnisse

This study examines the democratic impact of ordinary political conversation by tackling two interrelated research questions: (1) Does private conversation lead to more public opinion expression? (2) Is discord a necessary condition for conversation to exert its impact? Analysis of a survey conducted in Hong Kong shows that people who talk to family and friends about public affairs more frequently are more likely to engage in online political chats with strangers, to express a minority opinion, and to vote. However, the impact of conversation does not apply to every context of public opinion expression. There is also no robust evidence showing that the impact exists only among people who perceive differences in opinions in their social networks.

Explores their role as a vehicle for political communication and as a public forum; based on data from 1,226 telephone interviews with listeners, 1998. Infotainment refers to a mixture of entertainment and information in programming in which the traditional distinction between the two categories is blurred.

Past research has generated two main characterizations of the radio phone-in talk show phenomenon. Some argue that talk shows can provide forums for public deliberation, while others regard talk shows as a form of infotainment that displaces serious political journalism. This study argues that public forum & infotainment are not necessarily incompatible with each other, & it tests this possibility by a case study of talk radio in Hong Kong. Analysis of a survey data set points to the infotainment characteristics of talk radio listening in the city. However, results also suggest that talk radio provides political information to listeners & serves as a forum for the public to criticize the government. The author thus argues that talk radio constitutes a form of politically significant infotainment in Hong Kong. Implications on the study of infotainment & talk radio in general & in the specific case of Hong Kong are discussed. 4 Tables, 66 References. D. Weibel

Recent research has adopted the network analytic approach to examine issues of audience fragmentation and selective exposure. This article extends this line of study by analyzing how newspapers' political stance, market position, and technological platform predict readership overlap. Analyzing readership survey data in Hong Kong, the results show that market position—in terms of elite versus mass orientation and language of the newspapers—consistently predicts readership overlap. In comparison, political distance between two newspapers predicts readership overlap mainly when online readership is concerned. Different from the United States, predictors of readership overlap do not vary for news consumers of different partisanship.

Some recent studies have illustrated a positive relationship between social media use and political participation among young people. Researchers, however, have operationalized social media usage differently. This article adopts a multidimensional approach to the study of the impact of social media. Focusing on Facebook (FB), the most widely utilized social networking site in Hong Kong, this study examines how time spent on FB, exposure to shared political information, network size, network structural heterogeneity, and direct connection with public political actors relate to young people's online and offline political participation. Analysis of a survey of university students ( N = 774) shows that participation is explained most prominently by direct connection with public political actors, followed by exposure to shared political information. These two variables also mediate the impact of other dimensions of FB use on political participation.

Media self-censorship refers to nonexternally compelled acts committed by media organizations aiming to avoid offending power holders such as the government, advertisers, and major business corporations. While self-censorship constitutes a major threat to press freedom in Hong Kong under China, recent studies have shown that Hong Kong journalists have maintained a strong sense of professionalism. The coexistence of professionalism and self-censorship poses important challenges to news organizations: How is self-censorship effected as professionalism does not favor its practice? How can news organizations minimize the conflicts between self-censorship and professionalism so that news operations will remain stable, smooth, and efficient? Drawing on the literature on newsroom social control, we tackle the above questions by focusing on the internal structure of and the interactive dynamics within newsrooms. Methodologically, this study draws on both representative survey and in-depth interview data. It is found that self-censorship is effected through selective positioning and assignment, observational learning of tacit rules, the giving of ambiguous orders, and the use of professional or technical reasons to justify questionable news decisions. Meanwhile, some journalists also developed their own operational tactics to resist what they perceived as self-censorship attempts. The theoretical implications of the findings are discussed. [Reprinted by permission; copyright Sage Publications Inc.]

For 79 days in 2014, Hong Kong became the focus of international attention due to a public demonstration for genuine democracy that would become known as the Umbrella Movement. On the surface, this movement was not unlike other large-scale protest movements that have occurred in recent years. However, it was distinct in how bottom-up processes evolved into a centrally organized, programmatic movement with concrete policy demands. This book analyzes how traditional mass media institutions and digital media combined with on-the-ground networks in such a way as to propel citizen participation and

Much academic research has examined the transformation of Hong Kong people's national and local identification after 1997. This article further develops the literature by focusing on the notion of cultural othering and adopting the perspective of eventful sociology. It contends that, up to year 2020, an important aspect of Hong Kong people's identity change was the increasing tendency, especially among the younger generation, to see Hong Kong and Chinese identities as separable from—or even contrasting witheach other. This cultural othering was an ongoing trend augmented by both routinized and unpredicted political events. Analysis of longitudinal and individual-level survey data shows that Legislative Council elections and major social protests strengthened this tendency of othering. This article adds to the understanding of the post-handover development of Hong Kong people's political identities. Theoretically, the article illustrates the role of political events in the process of cultural othering and identity evolution.(J Contemp China / GIGA)