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AbstractThis study proposes a moderated mediation model to understand how social media use influences political polarization through two competing mechanisms and how such mechanisms are conditioned by political tolerance. The model was tested with a survey of 1,200 Hong Kong residents after the prolonged Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill movement. We found that social media use was positively correlated with attitudinal and affective polarization. Such polarizing effects were channeled through politically motivated selective avoidance, but there were noticeable depolarizing effects induced by increased network heterogeneity. More importantly, political tolerance could further amplify the depolarizing effects of social media use. In contrast, political tolerance cannot counteract the polarizing effect of social media use channeled through selective avoidance.

AbstractGovernment response to public opinion is essential to democratic theory and practice. However, previous research on the relationship between public opinion and government attention predominantly focuses on western societies. Little is known about such relationship in nonwestern or nondemocratic societies. Drawing upon time-series data of public opinion polls and government press releases, this study examines the dynamic relationships between public opinion and government attention in posthandover Hong Kong. The findings reveal that the responsiveness of the Hong Kong government to public opinion varies across issue domains and is constrained by the political power from the central government in Beijing.

Different types of media use exert distinctive influences over political participation of various forms. Drawing on the O-S-R-O-R (Orientation–Stimulus–Reasoning–Orientation–Response) model of political communication effects, this study proposes a theoretical model to connect traditional news media use and online alternative media use to both institutional and noninstitutional forms of political participation. The framework integrates internal efficacy and political satisfaction as mediators to explain the indirect processes from media use to political participation. Findings from a survey of representative Hong Kong adults suggest that news media use and alternative media use can influence political participation in different ways. Specifically, traditional news media play the role of an efficacy facilitator to boost institutional and noninstitutional political participation, whereas online alternative media mainly serve as a political dissatisfaction amplifier to fuel citizens' noninstitutional political participation, such as protest participation.

Does the adoption of digital media platforms affect the success of environmental movements? We address this question by using a representative sample of environmental non-governmental organizations (ENGOs) from Hong Kong and examining the linkages between their digital media adoption and reach and their level of success. Guided by the agenda setting theory, we test whether the digital strategies are related to the shifts in the media and government agenda from 2007–2018. Our findings show that the adoption of digital media contributes to ENGOs' own media visibility and specific issue salience in the news media agenda, and that the extent of digital reach of ENGOs is also associated with ENGOs' visibility in the news media. Furthermore, although we find no direct relationships between the digital adoption and the government agenda, we argue that the legislative processes on biodiversity and green energy issues in Hong Kong suggest a pattern of mutually reinforcing interactions between the media agenda and the policy agenda. It is therefore likely that digital strategies contribute to policy changes indirectly, that is, by increasing issue salience in the local news media.

"This book analyzes the constraints on press freedom and the ways in which independent reporting and reporters are at risk in contemporary Asia to provide a barometer of democratic development in the region. Based on in-depth country case studies written by academics and journalists, and some who straddle both professions, from across the region, this book explores the roles of mainstream and online media, and how they are subject to abuse by the state and vested interests. Specific country chapters provide up-to-date information on Bangladesh, Kashmir, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as on growing populist and nationalist challenges to media freedom in the Philippines, India, Indonesia and Japan. The book includes a theoretical chapter pulling together trends and common constraints facing newsrooms across Asia and a regional overview on the impact of social media. Three chapters on China provide insights into the country's tightening information environment under President Xi Jinping. Moreover, the legal environment of the media, political and external pressures, economic considerations, audience support and journalists' standards and ethics are explored. As an international and interdisciplinary study, this book will appeal to undergraduates, graduates and scholars engaged in human rights, media studies, democratization, authoritarianism and Asian Studies, as well as Asia specialists, journalists, legal scholars, historians and political scientists"--