How citizen journalists impact the agendas of traditional media and the government policymaking process in China

Abstract

“Citizen journalism” is a term used to refer to ordinary individuals who act as journalists during some part of the process of creating content for mainstream journalism coverage. In China, besides ordinary citizen journalists, some professional journalists have been regarded as citizen journalists if they write stories online that would otherwise not be publishable in traditional media. Unfortunately, since the real name registration system was launched on the Internet in 2012, the activities of both professionals and average citizens in China are frequently limited. So, is citizen journalism a role that can only be practiced in very limited ways in China? This article adopts a broader definition of citizen journalism, in which, through the use of social media to discuss and comment on news and social issues, ordinary citizens in China act as collective citizen journalists, which insulates them against individually targeted criticism for their opinions. We applied agenda-setting theory to explain citizen journalist contributions to the content of traditional media and the policymaking process in China. Using several forms of Chinese media and rank-order cross-lagged correlations, we found that online public opinions in social media influenced the agenda of traditional commercially oriented media, but not the agenda of traditional government-sponsored media. The policy agenda was partially influenced by the online public. The online public acted collectively to influence and contribute to the content of the traditional media and policies the government considers, thus changing the nature of journalism and public sphere.

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