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Weibo, Framing, and Media Practices in China

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Abstract

This study uses frames analysis to investigate online discourses and processes of political deliberation on China’s weibo (microblog) service. It offers a comparative analysis of competing discourses surrounding the case of Wang Yue, a toddler who was ran over by two motor vehicles in Foshan, following which 18 people passed by and ignored her plight. The study aims to understand how weibo facilitate its users to express their differences and deliberate disagreements with each other. The study found that Internet users are rational in the sense that they do not simply lean towards a dichotomised choice of ‘pro-’ or ‘anti-’ official discourse, but they are able to negotiate their moral choices by considering a wide range of social and political factors in such an emotional and morally controversial incident.

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Notes

  1. Xiao literately means ‘little’ and ‘small’ in Chinese. Chinese often use this prefix to describe young child.

  2. Keywords search the Chinese characters, Xiao Yueyue Shijian (Little Yueyue Incident), search done on 17 October 2012. (http://www.baidu.com/s?wd=%E5%B0%8F%E6%82%A6%E6%82%A6%E4%BA%8B%E4%BB%B6&rsv_bp=0&rsv_spt=3&ie=utf-8&rsv_sug3=11&rsv_sug1=8&rsv_sug4=17844&oq=%E5%B0%8F%E6%82%A6&rsp=1&f=3&rsv_sug5=0&rsv_sug=0&rsv_sug2=0&inputT=39053).

  3. Weibo with a capital letter ‘W’ refers to Sina Weibo; where weibo with a lower case ‘w’ refers to weibo services in China in general.

  4. As this paper is being written up, services such as Sina Weibo continue to launch new functions and features. During the writing process, a ‘LIKE’ button (as on Facebook) has been introduced. Weibo in China is more a converged version of Facebook and Twitter than simply a Chinese version of Twitter.

  5. CCTV—China Central Television network;

    ‘Transformation’ here refers to the media reform that commercialise Chinese media (especially local media sectors) from a state-subsidised entity to a self-financed entity since 1990s.

  6. Q. Liu ([15], p. 246) provides the example of ‘universal impartial love’ (jian’ai), which is ‘the most desirable good in human life’ in accordance to Moism, but for Confucianism, ‘it is “beastly” and blameworthy evil in the moral sense’.

  7. Lei Feng (1940–1962) was a communist solider and was being portrayed as a social role model of an altruistic self by the CCP. His selfless image and stories have been promoted and inserting into school text books across China over the years. For detail discussion on morality and modelling in China, see Bakken ([1], pp. 179–200).

  8. This is the result from a separate poll that is attached with the Foshan Daily’s poll. Sina Weibo sets up a subordinate poll to seek people’s view on the original polling outcomes and set ups.

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful for the generous input of Associate Professor Jonathan Sullivan and the two anonymous reviewers, whose invaluable comments and suggestions have greatly enriched this article; I would also like to thank Professor Michael Keane and Associate Professor Jean Burgess for their academic guidance and support.

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  1. ARC Centre of Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Creative Industries Precinct, Z1-515 Musk Ave, Kelvin Grove, QLD, 4059, Australia

    Wilfred Yang Wang

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Wang, W.Y. Weibo, Framing, and Media Practices in China. J OF CHIN POLIT SCI 18, 375–388 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-013-9261-3

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