Abstract
China is facing an unprecedented challenge to its authority in the era of new media that has made it easier to get information and mobilize activists. Indeed, recent growth in social movements and collective action has led China watchers and policymakers to question whether this is a game changer for the authoritarian regime, and if it will be able to handle the increasing frequency and magnitude of such protests. Fanxu Zeng’s recent book, Media as Mediators: Citizen Activism and Public Deliberation, is a useful starting point to understand the nuanced dynamics of collective action in China, especially the role played by media. Zeng collected and analyzed a handful of cases of collective action using a variety of methods and offers us a timely assessment of media–movement dynamics in today’s China.
At the core of Zeng’s analysis is the co-empowerment model, which suggests two levels of interaction between the media and the collective action. First, the media empowers the protestors, who can leverage media exposure to capture public attention and to organize the collective action. This type of mobilization is no longer a top-down hierarchical process. Citizen activism does not have core movement organizations and its decision-making process is often transparent, with less political risk—a crucial feature of the co-empowerment model (p. 11). Meanwhile, protestors empower the media during the collective action, allowing them to push the boundaries of their limited autonomy in news coverage, improve their credibility and professional integrity, and nurture effective deliberation on public issues. The co-empowerment model emphasizes the mutual benefits of this process, which then shapes the trajectory of contentious politics in China (pp. 11–13).
The rest of the book is organized into two sections. The first section (Chapters 2–5) looks at how co-empowerment dynamics are formed. In Chapter 2, Zeng analyzes 182 cases of collective action from 2001 to 2012; he finds that even though the Internet offers more ways to take action, protestors still tend to choose methods, both online and offline, with low political risk to avoid repercussions such as coercion from the state. In this sense, the Internet does not fundamentally change the nature of how collective action is carried out. Zeng investigates the mobilization process in Chapter 3, in the case of the anti-incinerator protests in Panyu, Guangzhou, in 2009. He argues that while traditional collective action might have been stymied by a lack of resources, this is not a limitation when organizing such a campaign online. There is also a challenge from local media, examined in Chapter 4, in countering citizen activism. Zeng shines a light on the inner workings of Guangzhou’s state media apparatus, with its distinct political and economic structures, including how the news is produced and how “fragmented authoritarianism” plays out in this context. He moves on to opinion leaders in Chapter 5, with a network analysis of posts on popular microblogging site Sina Weibo related to selected cases. From this, Zeng identifies three circles of opinion: the core circle, led by opinion leaders, which sets the collective agenda; the distribution circle, in which comments from celebrities, entrepreneurs, and writers generate public interest in the issue; and the bystander circle, which sees ordinary netizens become the critical mass.
The second section (Chapters 6–9) discusses the impact of the co-empowerment process on citizen activism. In Chapter 6, Zeng explores the regional variations of this process in three cities—Xiamen, Shanghai, and Guangzhou—and how activism went from “not in my backyard” protests to policy advocacy. He goes on to look at how citizen activism becomes radicalized in Chapter 7. The analysis then turns to media framing and its effect on mediating public and official opinion in Chapter 8, using six case studies concerning environmental activism. Chapter 9 looks at the ways in which citizen activism spreads across regions.
Zeng is a veteran journalist and an associate professor at Tsinghua University. He has published a wide range of articles on the relationship between the media and social movements in China. Underpinned by rich empirical data, this book offers outsiders important insights into citizen activism while throwing the spotlight on the evolving media–movement interaction in authoritarian China. Zeng’s analysis widens the discussion on the regime’s resilience, broadening the scope for media studies in connection with social transition.
However, Zeng’s analysis could be a little too optimistic. The fundamental assumption of the co-empowerment model lies in the non-confrontational nature of citizen activism in China. Zeng is critical of the conventional understanding of social movements that assumes a confrontational state–society relation in which activists aim to resist certain policies or programs. Yet, many protests in China—particularly environmental campaigns in the period Zeng focused on (2001–2012)—are more negotiable than confrontational, which leaves room for authoritarian deliberation with the media as mediator. But this assumption raises questions about the scope and sustainability of the co-empowerment model. Is citizen activism “non-confrontational” because the media turn contentious politics into deliberative politics? Or is it because the state somehow tolerates a certain degree of defiance from society? The former suggests a potential and fundamental change in the state–society relation, while the latter implies that the “co-empowerment” mechanisms only work within the narrow confines of what is acceptable. In other words, the role of the state is never passive nor is it static. Without taking the state’s response into consideration, there would be a missing piece in this puzzle. This is particularly important given the leadership transition and power struggle that has been taking place in China since 2013, which has seen the state crack down on dissenting voices and the media. In this climate, the dynamics on contentious issues have become more complicated, and there is little cause for optimism. However, this monograph certainly invites further discussion on the nature of media–movement dynamics in China, and it is essential reading for any graduate students and scholars who are interested in citizen activism and the media.