TY - JOUR
T1 - Networked Resistance
T2 - Digital Populism, Online Activism, and Mass Dissent in China
AU - Tai, Zixue
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2015/4/3
Y1 - 2015/4/3
N2 - The ever-expanding communicative space online has provided Chinese individuals with unprecedented access to an exploding base of user-generated content and has engendered innovative ways of mass collaboration and grassroots participation in the information production process. Within this context, an emerging pattern has redefined the contours of Chinese cyber culture in which dispersed individuals creatively coordinate efforts to expose outrageous wrongdoings and transgressions committed by government officials and other targeted individuals. This article scrutinizes the role of social media in China in opening up new windows of opportunities for mass collaboration and collective action. The analysis is embedded in the current Chinese socio-political power relations and hegemonic structure, and focuses on the salient themes, trending patterns, and circumstantial factors underlying this type of social media activism. It concludes with a deliberation on the implications of this type of populism for so-called netizens, the authoritarian polity, and the evolving new media landscape in China.
AB - The ever-expanding communicative space online has provided Chinese individuals with unprecedented access to an exploding base of user-generated content and has engendered innovative ways of mass collaboration and grassroots participation in the information production process. Within this context, an emerging pattern has redefined the contours of Chinese cyber culture in which dispersed individuals creatively coordinate efforts to expose outrageous wrongdoings and transgressions committed by government officials and other targeted individuals. This article scrutinizes the role of social media in China in opening up new windows of opportunities for mass collaboration and collective action. The analysis is embedded in the current Chinese socio-political power relations and hegemonic structure, and focuses on the salient themes, trending patterns, and circumstantial factors underlying this type of social media activism. It concludes with a deliberation on the implications of this type of populism for so-called netizens, the authoritarian polity, and the evolving new media landscape in China.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84929088256&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84929088256&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/15405702.2015.1021469
DO - 10.1080/15405702.2015.1021469
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84929088256
SN - 1540-5702
VL - 13
SP - 120
EP - 131
JO - Popular Communication
JF - Popular Communication
IS - 2
ER -