Media and Large-scale Demonstrations: The Pro-democracy Movement in Post-handover Hong Kong

Abstract

This article reviews the dynamic relationship between the media and the large-scale pro-democracy demonstrations in post-handover Hong Kong. It analyzes how the media have contributed to citizen participation, its roles in constructing the movement's self-understanding, and the impacts of the demonstrations on media discourses. The media and interpersonal networks are found to play instrumental roles in facilitating large-scale demonstrations, resulting in a mode of self-mobilization. Media discourse helps legitimize collective action as a way for citizens to express their opinions. The huge turnout in demonstrations narrowed the political parallelism of Hong Kong media. The huge rallies and subsequent events lent importance to the interactions between public discourse and collective action in Hong Kong.

Keywords:

• Demonstration
• Media Discourse
• Collective Behavior
• Public Opinion
• Hong Kong

The work described in this article was fully supported by a grant from the Research Grants Committee of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (CUHK4136/04H).

Notes

1. As in many places around the world, number of protesters is often a matter of contention between the protest organizers and official organs. In the past few years, many local academic research teams were involved in estimating the number of protesters in the demonstrations. Here we state the rough numbers to which the results of most independent research teams come close.

2. This follows Charles Tilly's (2004) conceptualization of social movement.

3. For details about the research method employed, see Chan and Lee (2005).

4. The numbers were generated through a keyword search using Wise News, an electronic news archive widely adopted in university institutions in Hong Kong.

5. We use the term action-facilitating information because of our conceptual distinction between the facilitating and mobilizing role of the media.

6. The respondents were allowed to select more than one option when answering the question.

7. See Ng (2007) for an analysis of the movement to establish the core values of Hong Kong by the city's professional community.

8. Interview conducted in May 2006.