Political Participation in Hong Kong: The Roles of News Media and Online Alternative Media

Authors

  • Chuanli Xia City University of Hong Kong
  • Fei Shen Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University

Keywords:

news media, online alternative media, political participation, Hong Kong

Abstract

Different types of media use exert distinctive influences over political participation of various forms. Drawing on the O-S-R-O-R (Orientation–Stimulus–Reasoning–Orientation–Response) model of political communication effects, this study proposes a theoretical model to connect traditional news media use and online alternative media use to both institutional and noninstitutional forms of political participation. The framework integrates internal efficacy and political satisfaction as mediators to explain the indirect processes from media use to political participation. Findings from a survey of representative Hong Kong adults suggest that news media use and alternative media use can influence political participation in different ways. Specifically, traditional news media play the role of an efficacy facilitator to boost institutional and noninstitutional political participation, whereas online alternative media mainly serve as a political dissatisfaction amplifier to fuel citizens’ noninstitutional political participation, such as protest participation.

Author Biographies

Chuanli Xia, City University of Hong Kong

Chuanli Xia is a PhD candidate at the Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong.

Fei Shen, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University

Dr. Fei Shen ('Chris') is a keen observer of the social and political impacts of the Internet. His empirical work examines how people make use of new media technologies in different settings and how the internet helps reshape people's behavior and redistribute power in societies, in particular, in authoritarian regimes. He wrote extensively on the topic of the internet and China: online political discussions, opinion climate in the cyberspace, the Great Firewall, censorship patterns of news portal sites, circumvention tools use, and ordinary citizen running social media campaigns for local congress elections, etc. He has published articles in such journals as Communication Theory, Journal of Communication, Communication Research, the International Journal of Press/Politics, and International Journal of Public Opinion Research. Dr. Fei Shen is currently taking sabbatical at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University. At Berkman, he will spend most of his time working on a policy project funded by Google, among other things.

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Published

2018-03-29

Issue

Vol. 12 (2018)

Section

Articles

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