Social media live streaming as affective news in the anti-ELAB movement in Hong Kong

abstract

This article uses the theory of affective news to examine social media live streaming during the 2019 Hong Kong Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement. We argue that this specific form of affective news was enabled by the affordances of the Facebook Live platform, collectively produced by journalists who were not bound by conventional detached practices and audiences who actively engaged in emotional reactions and discussions, and offering an immersive, unpredictable, sensational, and dramatic experience of collective witnessing through the unique content and format. This case enriches our understanding of the emotional turn of journalism and provides implications for digital journalism and social movements.

Keywords:

• affect
• emotion
• affective news
• social media
• live streaming
• social movement
• Anti-ELAB Movement

Disclosure statement

The authors report no potential conflicts of interest.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kecheng Fang

Kecheng Fang is an assistant professor in the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s School of Journalism and Communication. His research interests include journalism, political communication, and digital media. Before joining academia, he worked as a political journalist at the Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly.

Calvin Yixiang Cheng

Calvin Yixiang Cheng is a DPhil student at the Oxford Internet Institute. His current research focuses on leveraging computational methods, particularly natural language processing, to address detection and diffusion issues of conspiracy theories on social media.