Publication
Oct 2012
This paper explores the role of keyword control – the blocking and unblocking of search keywords – on Sina’s popular microblog platform during media campaigns over politically sensitive issues in China. The author examines media campaigns in Chinese newspapers, television, microblogs and other media forms during two separate large-scale protests in December 2011 in Guangdong province. This paper uses these case studies to examine which acts of keyword control might be part of a set of coordinated directives in a broader media campaign over a particular politically sensitive issue. Observations based on these case studies suggest that changes in keyword control on microblogs might be the earliest detectable sign of shifts in the government’s position in their response to politically sensitive issues.
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English (PDF, 38 pages, 302 KB) |
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Author | Keegan Elmer |
Series | FIIA (UPI) Working Papers |
Issue | 76 |
Publisher | Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) |
Copyright | © 2012 Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) |