Relay activism and the flows of contentious publicness on WeChat: a case study of COVID-19 in China
Authors: Sun, Y. and Wright, S.
Journal: Information Communication and Society
eISSN: 1468-4462
ISSN: 1369-118X
DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2023.2205474
Abstract:This paper explores a case of public contention against the censoring of a feature article about a COVID-19 whistleblower on the Chinese social media, WeChat. Moving beyond the normative theory of the public sphere and publics, we draw on Kavada and Poell's theory of ‘contentious publicness’ which is flexible enough to capture the complexity, diversity and hybridity of digital contention in the context of China. Through a combination of textual analysis and participatory observation, this article analyses how citizens challenged the censorship system and attempted to keep Dr Fen's story online through what we call ‘relay activism’. Informed by the three dimensions of ‘contentious publicness’, we analyse the materiality of the communication infrastructure of WeChat and the temporal and spatial relations of the public contention (focusing primarily on WeChat and GitHub). In doing this, the paper contributes a more comprehensive approach to examining the social, structural and participatory characteristics of the contestation of censorship in China.
https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/39019/
Source: Scopus
Relay activism and the flows of contentious publicness on WeChat: a case study of COVID-19 in China
Authors: Sun, Y. and Wright, S.
Journal: INFORMATION COMMUNICATION & SOCIETY
Volume: 27
Issue: 2
Pages: 257-277
eISSN: 1468-4462
ISSN: 1369-118X
DOI: 10.1080/1369118X.2023.2205474
https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/39019/
Source: Web of Science (Lite)
Relay activism and the flows of contentious publicness on WeChat: a case study of COVID-19 in China
Authors: Sun, Y. and Wright, S.
Journal: Information Communication and Society
ISSN: 1369-118X
Abstract:This paper explores a case of public contention against the censoring of a feature article about a COVID-19 whistleblower on the Chinese social media, WeChat. Moving beyond the normative theory of the public sphere and publics, we draw on Kavada and Poell's theory of ‘contentious publicness’ which is flexible enough to capture the complexity, diversity and hybridity of digital contention in the context of China. Through a combination of textual analysis and participatory observation, this article analyses how citizens challenged the censorship system and attempted to keep Dr Fen's story online through what we call ‘relay activism’. Informed by the three dimensions of ‘contentious publicness’, we analyse the materiality of the communication infrastructure of WeChat and the temporal and spatial relations of the public contention (focusing primarily on WeChat and GitHub). In doing this, the paper contributes a more comprehensive approach to examining the social, structural and participatory characteristics of the contestation of censorship in China.
https://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/39019/
Source: BURO EPrints