When Nationalism Encounters the COVID-19 Pandemic: Understanding Chinese Nationalism From Media Use and Media Trust

Zhang, Dechun; Xu, Yuji

doi:10.1080/13600826.2022.2098092

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…According to Statista (2018), the number of Weibo users increased substantially, from 63 million in 2010 to 350 million in 2018. Studies have suggested that social media plays a key role in Chinese politics (Schneider, 2018;Zhang, 2021;Zhang and Xu, 2022). Therefore, the Chinese government has prioritized regulating social media and the internet (Xu and Albert, 2017).…”

Section: Changing Landscape Of the Chinese Digital Media Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…26-27) noted that Chinese propaganda involves "mass mobilization campaigns; the construction of ideological and educational 'models' to be emulated; the control of the content of newspaper articles and editorials; development of a nationwide system of loudspeakers that reached into every neighborhood and village; the domination of the broadcast media. " Chinese propaganda is used to consolidate the government's control over society, stabilize the state, and defend national interests through self-promotion and self-advocacy (Li, 2019, p. 145;Wang, 2012;Zhang and Jamali, 2022). Chinese official media produce a massive amount of content to increase visibility to the public (Xu and Wang, 2022).…”

Section: Digital Practice and Digital Propaganda In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Chinese soft propaganda generally arouses fear, anger, and grievances by mobilizing the public's sense of nationalism (Huang, 2015;Mattingly and Yao, 2022). Zhang and Jamali (2022) explored how the Chinese media on Weibo report on Western vaccines to mobilize negative emotions toward foreign countries. Research has also revealed the mobilization of positive emotions in Chinese propaganda (Yang and Tang, 2018).…”

Section: Digital Practice and Digital Propaganda In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During the early stages of COVID-19, the Chinese government's delayed reaction incurred criticism from around the world. Several studies have explored the Chinese government's propaganda during COVID-19 (Zhang, 2022;Zhang and Jamali, 2022). Studies have suggested that the Chinese government has triggered a sense of nationalism on social media by mobilizing emotion (Zhang, 2022) and positively framed the Chinese government (Zhang and Jamali, 2022;Zhang and Xu, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies have explored the Chinese government's propaganda during COVID-19 (Zhang, 2022;Zhang and Jamali, 2022). Studies have suggested that the Chinese government has triggered a sense of nationalism on social media by mobilizing emotion (Zhang, 2022) and positively framed the Chinese government (Zhang and Jamali, 2022;Zhang and Xu, 2022). Although China's digital propaganda is well documented, most studies have examined China's digital practices through case studies or qualitative observations and interviews rather than longitudinal time-series analysis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The softening of Chinese digital propaganda: Evidence from the People’s Daily Weibo account during the pandemic

Zhang

Shao

2023

Front. Psychol.

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IntroductionSocial media infuses modern relationships with vitality and brings a series of information dissemination with subjective consciousness. Studies have indicated that official Chinese media channels are transforming their communication style from didactic hard persuasion to softened emotional management in the digital era. However, previous studies have rarely provided valid empirical evidence for the communicational transformation. The study fills the gap by providing a longitudinal time-series analysis to reveal the pattern of communication of Chinese digital Chinese official media from 2019 to 2022.MethodThe study crawler collected 43,259 posts from the People’s Daily’s Weibo account from 2019 to 2021. The study analyzed the textual data with using trained artificial intelligence models.ResultsThis study explored the practices of the People’s Daily’s Weibo account from 2019 to 2021, COVID-19 is hardly normalized as it is still used as the justification for extraordinary measures in China. This study confirmed that People’s Daily’s Weibo account posts are undergoing softenization transformation, with the use of soft news, positive energy promotion, and the embedding of sentiment. Although the outburst of COVID-19 temporarily increased the media’s use of hard news, it only occur at the initial stage of the pandemic. Emotional posts occupy a nonnegligible amount of the People’s Daily Weibo content. However, the majority of posts are emotionally neutral and contribute to shaping the authoritative image of the party press.DiscussionOverall, the People’s Daily has softened their communication style on digital platforms and used emotional mobilization, distraction, and timely information provision to balance the political logic of building an authoritative media agency and the media logic of constructing audience relevance.

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Section: Changing Landscape Of the Chinese Digital Media Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Digital Practice and Digital Propaganda In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Digital Practice and Digital Propaganda In Chinamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The softening of Chinese digital propaganda: Evidence from the People’s Daily Weibo account during the pandemic

Zhang

Shao

2023

Front. Psychol.

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Evaluating public opinions: informing public health policy adaptations in China amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Wang,

Wang

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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Public concern regarding safety policies serious consequences is anticipated to persist over an extended duration. A study examining a case of rapid public health policy adaptation in China during the COVID-19 epidemic was conducted by gathering public opinion data from major social media platforms. A systematic approach to comprehend public opinion was developed. Five fundamental elements and four dimensions were delineated. An indicator system was established utilizing the K-means text clustering model. Public prediction, expectation, and their evolution underlying public concern were elucidated employing TF–IDF text mining models. The HMM elucidated the way public opinion influences policy adjustments. The findings underscore that public concern regarding enduring events undergoes temporal shifts, mirroring the evolution of public opinion towards policy. Public opinion aroused by both the original event and derived events collaboratively influence policy adjustments. In China, public opinion serves as a mechanism for policy feedback and oversight; notably, negative public sentiment plays a pivotal role in expediting policy transitions. These findings aid in refining policies to mitigate emergencies through a feedback loop, thereby averting the emergence of safety risks such as social unrest prompted by public opinion.

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Effect of online video infotainment on audience attention

Dai

Wang

2023

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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Based on the attention economy theory, this study used the regression analysis method to analyse the effect of online video information entertainment on audience attention’s breadth, depth, engagement, and validity. The empirical research results show that highly positive and negative emotions significantly impact the audience’s attention in infotainment. We found that content storytelling, star characters, soft news themes, and sensational headlines have a significant positive effect. From the perspective of online video and media platforms, time fragmentation significantly impacts the audience’s attention positively and negatively. The diversification of presentation methods, the number of labels, and authoritative media have significant positive effects, whereas the number of topics has a significant negative impact.

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When Nationalism Encounters the COVID-19 Pandemic: Understanding Chinese Nationalism From Media Use and Media Trust

Cited by 9 publications

References 66 publications

The softening of Chinese digital propaganda: Evidence from the People’s Daily Weibo account during the pandemic

The softening of Chinese digital propaganda: Evidence from the People’s Daily Weibo account during the pandemic

Evaluating public opinions: informing public health policy adaptations in China amid the COVID-19 pandemic

Effect of online video infotainment on audience attention

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