Revolution derailed: The struggle for media control and media freedom in China

Abstract

Drawing on data from the 2018 China Internet Survey, this article analyzes the channels through which Chinese citizens acquire political information and how such information changes people's political attitude and behavior. It finds that while many people particularly among the younger generations are using social media, an equally large number of people continue to rely on the officially controlled TV news for political and social information. As hoped by those who want to bring down the authoritarian regime through social media, the Internet contributes to questioning the government and developing liberal ideas among its users but fails to promote bottom-up political participation. Interestingly, government-controlled TV programming meets its goals of improving regime support as well as mobilizing mass political participation. The authoritarian government also seems effective in pushing social media into its orbit of political control. These findings suggest that techno-Utopianism exaggerated the role of technology in liberal democratization.