This study seeks to identify and test a mechanism through which the Internet influences public support in an authoritarian environment in which alternative information is strictly censored by the state. Through online discussions, web users often interpret sanctioned news information in directions different from or even opposite to the intention of the authoritarian state. This alternative framing on the Internet can strongly affect the political views of web users. Through an experimental study conducted in China, we find that subjects exposed to alternative online framing generally hold lower levels of policy support and evaluate government performance more negatively. This finding implies that even though the access to information on sensitive topics is effectively controlled by the government, the diffusion capabilities of the Internet can still undermine the support basis of the seemingly stable authoritarian regime.
BenklerYochai (2006) The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
2.
BestMichael L.WadeKeegan W. (2009) The Internet and democracy. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society29(4): 255–271.
3.
BoasTaylor C. (2006) Weaving the authoritarian web: The control of Internet use in nondemocratic regimes. In: ZysmanJohnNewmanAbraham (eds) How Revolutionary Was the Digital Revolution? National Responses, Market Transitions, and Global Technology. Stanford, CA: Stanford Business Books.
4.
Bueno de MesquitaBruceDownsGeorge (2005) Development and democracy. Foreign Affairs84(5): 77–86.
5.
ChangTsan-KuoWangJianChenChih-Hsien (1998) The social construction of international imagery in the post-Cold War era: A comparative analysis of U.S. and Chinese national TV news. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media42(3): 277–296.
6.
ChaseMichaelMulvenonJames (2002) You’ve Got Dissent! Chinese Dissident Use of the Internet and Beijing’s Counter-Strategies. Santa Monica, CA: Rand.
7.
ChenJie (2004) Popular Political Support in Urban China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
8.
ChowdhuryMridul (2008) The role of the Internet in Burma’s Saffron Revolution. Berkman Center for Internet and Society, September, 14.
ColemanStephanHallNicola (2001) Spinning on the Web: E-campaigning and beyond. In: ColemanStephan (ed.) Cyber Space Odyssey: The Internet in the UK Election. Hansard Society. Available at: www.hansardsociety.org.uk
11.
DiamondLarry (2010) Liberation technology. Journal of Democracy21(3): 69–83.
12.
EastonDavid (1965) A Systems Analysis of Political Life. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons.
13.
EastonDavid (1975) A re-assessment of the concept of political support. British Journal of Political Science5(4): 435–457.
14.
EntmanRobert M. (1993) Framing: Toward clarification of a fractured paradigm. Journal of Communication43(4): 51–58.
15.
FarrellHenry (2012) The consequences of the Internet for politics. Annual Review of Political Science15: 35–52.
16.
GoffmanErving (1974) Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
HarwitEricClarkDuncan (2001) Shaping the Internet in China: Evolution of political control over network infrastructure and content. Asian Survey41(3): 377–408.
19.
HassidJonathan (2008) Controlling the Chinese media: An uncertain business. Asian Survey48(3): 414–430.
20.
HeroldDavidMaroltPeter (2011) Online Society in China: Creating, Celebrating and Instrumentalising the Online Carnival. Abingdon: Routledge.
21.
HillDavid T.SenKrishna (2000) The Internet in Indonesia’s new democracy. Democratization7(1): 119–136.
22.
HowardPhilip (2010) The Digital Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Information Technology and Political Islam. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
23.
HowardPhilipMuzammilHussain (2011) The role of digital media. Journal of Democracy22(3): 35–48.
24.
HungChin-Fu (2010) China’s propaganda in the information age: Internet commentators and Wen’an Incident. Issue and Studies46(4): 149–181.
25.
ImaiKosuke (2005) Do get-out-the-vote calls reduce turnout? The importance of statistical methods for field experiments. American Political Science Review99(2): 283–300.
26.
IyengarShanto (1991) Is Anyone Responsible? How Television Frames Political Issues. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
KalathilShanthiBoasTaylor C. (2003) Open Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rule. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
29.
KennedyJohn James (2009) Maintaining popular support for the Chinese Communist Party: The influence of education and the state-controlled media. Political Studies57(3): 517–536.
30.
KinderDonaldSandersLynn (1990) Mimicking political debate with survey questions: The case of white opinion on affirmative action for blacks. Social Cognition8(1): 73–103.
31.
KingGaryPanJenniferRobertsMargaret (2013) How censorship in China allows government criticism but silences collective expression. American Political Science Review107(2): 326–343.
32.
KopaczMaria (2008) Framing immigration online: Online position statements of 2006 candidates for Congress. The Electronic Journal of Communication18(1). Available at: http://www.cios.org/EJCPUBLIC/018/1/01813.HTML
33.
LechelerSophiede VreeseClaes H. (2011) Getting real: The duration of framing effects. Journal of Communication61(5): 959–983.
34.
LeiYa-Wen (2011) The political consequences of the rise of the Internet: Political beliefs and practices of Chinese netizens. Political Communication28(3): 291–322.
35.
LiLianjiang (2008) Political trust and petitioning in the Chinese countryside. Comparative Politics40(2): 209–226.
36.
LiuFengshu (2011) Urban Youth in China: Modernity, the Internet and the Self. New York, NY, and London: Routledge.
37.
LotanGiladGraeffErhardtAnannyMike. (2011) The revolutions were tweeted: Information flows during the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. International Journal of Communication5: 1375–1405.
38.
LowreyWilsonAndersonWilliam (2005) The journalist behind the curtain: Participatory functions on the Internet and their impact on perceptions of the work of journalism. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication10(3). Available at: http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue3/lowrey.html
39.
LutherCatherine A.ZhouXiang (2005) Within the boundaries of politics: News framing of Sars in China and the United States. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly82(4): 857–872.
40.
LynchMarc (2011) After Egypt: The limits and promise of online challenges to the authoritarian Arab state. Perspectives on Politics9(2): 301–310.
41.
McFaulMichael (2005) Transitions from postcommunism. Journal of Democracy16(3): 5–19.
42.
MercerClaire (2004) Engineering civil society: ICT in Tanzania. Review of African Political Economy31(99): 49–64.
43.
MitchelsteinEugeniaBoczkowskiPablo J. (2009) Between tradition and change. Journalism10(5): 562–586.
44.
MorozovEvgeny (2011) Whither Internet control?Journal of Democracy22(2): 62–74.
45.
MurphyEmma C. (2009) Theorizing ICTs in the Arab world: Informational capitalism and the public sphere. International Studies Quarterly53(4): 1131–1153.
46.
NelsonThomas E.ClawsonRosalee A.OxleyZoe M. (1997) Media framing of a civil liberties conflict and its effect on tolerance. The American Political Science Review91(3): 567–583.
47.
NorrisPippa (ed.) (1999) Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Government. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
48.
PanZhongdangLeeChin-ChuanChanJoseph Man. (1999) One event, three stories. International Communication Gazette61(2): 99–112.
49.
RheingoldHoward (2002) Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Publishing.
50.
RodanGary (1998) The Internet and political control in Singapore. Political Science Quarterly113(1): 63–89.
51.
SeligsonMitchellMullerEdward N. (1987) Democratic stability and economic crisis: Costa Rica, 1978–1983. International Studies Quarterly31: 301–326.
52.
ShirkSusan (2010) Changing Media, Changing China. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
53.
ShirkyClay (2009) Here Comes Everybody! The Power of Organizing Without Organizations. New York, NY: Penguin.
54.
ShirkyClay (2011) The political power of social media. Foreign Affairs90(1): 28–41.
55.
SlothuusRune (2008) More than weighting cognitive importance: A dual process model of issue framing effects. Political Psychology29(1): 1–28.
56.
SongYonghoi (2007) Internet news media and issue development: A case study on the roles of independent online news services as agenda-builders for anti-US protests in South Korea. New Media & Society9(1): 71–92.
57.
StockmannDaniela (2011) Race to the bottom: Media marketization and increasing negativity toward the United States in China. Political Communication28(3): 268–290.
58.
StockmannDanielaGallagherMary E. (2011) Remote control: How the media sustains authoritarian rule in China. Comparative Political Studies44(4): 436–467.
59.
SullivanJonathan (2012) A tale of two microblogs in China. Media, Culture & Society34(6): 773–783.
60.
TangLijunYangPeidong (2011) Symbolic power and the Internet: The power of a ‘horse’. Media, Culture & Society33(5): 675–691.
61.
TangMinJorbaLaiaJensenMichael J. (2011) Digital media and political attitudes in China. In: AnduizaEvaJensenMichaelJorbaLaia (eds) Digital Media and Political Engagement Worldwide: A Comparative Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 240–253.
62.
TangWenfang (2005) Public Opinion and Political Change in China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
63.
TangWenfangIyengarShanto (2011) The emerging media system in China: Implications for regime change. Political Communication28(3): 263–267.
64.
TaubmanGeoffry (1998) A not-so World Wide Web: The Internet, China, and the challenges to nondemocratic rule. Political Communication15(2): 255–272.
65.
ThomasPradipNainZaharom (2005) Who Owns the Media: Global Trends and Local Resistance. Penang, Malaysia: Southbound.
66.
TufekciZeynepWilsonChristopher (2012) Social media and the decision to participate in political protest: Observations from Tahrir Square. Journal of Communication62(2): 363–379.
67.
XenosMichael A.FootKirsten A. (2005) Politics as usual, or politics unusual? Position taking and dialogue on campaign websites in the 2002 U.S. Elections. Journal of Communication55(1): 169–185.
68.
YangGuobin (2003) The co-evolution of the Internet and civil society in China. Asian Survey43(3): 405–422.
69.
YangGuobin (2009) The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
70.
YangJin (2003) Framing the NATO air strikes on Kosovo across countries. Gazette65(3): 231–249.
71.
YangQingTangWenfang (2010) Exploring the sources of institutional trust in China: Culture, mobilization, or performance?Asian Politics & Policy2(3): 415–436.
72.
ZhengYongnianWuGuoguang (2005) Information technology, public space, and collective action in China. Comparative Political Studies38(5): 507–536.
73.
ZhouYuqiongMoyPatricia (2007) Parsing framing processes: The interplay between online public opinion and media coverage. Journal of Communication57(1): 79–98.
74.
ZhouXiang (2009) The political blogosphere in China: A content analysis of the blogs regarding the dismissal of Shanghai leader Chen Liangyu. New Media & Society11(6): 1003–1022.
75.
ZillmannDolfChenLeiKnoblochSilvia. (2004) Effects of lead framing on selective exposure to Internet news reports. Communication Research31(1): 58–81.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
