Use of Microblogs in Grassroots Movements in China: Exploring the Role of Online Networking in Agenda Setting

Abstract

This study examines the role of online networking in a grassroots movement in China. Drawing on Manuel Castells’s theory of communication power in the network society, we argue that microblogs can facilitate China’s mass self-communication in a network environment, even under authoritarian control, and are able to challenge the power of agenda setting, which has been mainly dominated by the state and the state media. We study a grassroots movement in China and examine the ways in which messages were communicated and people were connected into a network. Thus we investigate the role of online communication in reconfiguring the balance of power between the authority and Chinese citizens. Using systematic data collection and social network analysis, we characterize the microbloggers who contributed to the process, the network configuration, and the interplays between different stakeholders.

• Agenda setting
• China
• microblogging
• network society
• social network analysis

Additional information

Notes on contributors

King-wa Fu

King-wa Fu is assistant professor at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC), The University of Hong Kong. His research focuses on political participation and media use, computational media studies, mental health/suicide and the media, health communication, young people’s Internet use, and statistics for journalism. He has a PhD from the JMSC, a MA in Social Sciences and a MPhil in Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Michael Chau

Michael Chau is an associate professor in the School of Business at the University of Hong Kong. He received a Ph.D. degree in management information systems from the University of Arizona and a B.Sc. degree in computer science and information systems from the University of Hong Kong. His current research interests include information retrieval, Web mining, data mining, social media, electronic commerce, and security informatics. He is the author of more than 100 articles and has been ranked as the 14th most productive researcher in the field of information science in the period 1998–2007 in a research productivity study.