Designing authoritarian deliberation: how social media platforms influence political talk in China
| Autor: | Ting Luo, Daniela Stockmann, Mingming Shen |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
021110 strategic
defence & security studies business.industry media_common.quotation_subject 05 social sciences Geography Planning and Development Authoritarianism 0211 other engineering and technologies 02 engineering and technology 16. Peace & justice Public opinion Deliberation 0506 political science Politics Political economy Political science Political Science and International Relations 050602 political science & public administration Social media Element (criminal law) China business media_common |
| Zdroj: | Democratization. 27:243-264 |
| ISSN: | 1743-890X 1351-0347 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/13510347.2019.1679771 |
| Popis: | Discussion is often celebrated as a critical element of public opinion and political participation. Recently, scholars have suggested that the design and features of specific online platforms shape what is politically expressed online and how. Building on these findings and drawing on 112 semi-structured qualitative interviews with information technology experts and internet users, we explain how major Chinese social media platforms differ in structure and motivation. Drawing upon a nationwide representative survey and an online experiment, we find that platforms aiming to make users a source of information through public, information-centred communication, such as the Twitter-like Weibo, are more conducive to political expression; while platforms built to optimize building social connections through private, user-centred communication, such as WhatsApp and Facebook-like WeChat, tend to inhibit political expression. These technological design effects are stronger when users believe the authoritarian state tolerates discussion, but less important when political talk is sensitive. The findings contribute to the debate on the political consequences of the internet by specifying technological and political conditions. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
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