How Media Influence the Student Protests in China

• In Event: Poster Session: Formal Political Theory; Political Methodology & Canadian Politics
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Formal Political Theory: Formal Models of Political Processes

Abstract

This paper will set up formal models on how the political media affect the dynamics of student movements in China based on the empirical cases—Beijing 1989 Protest, 2012 Hong Kong Central Occupation Movement and 2014 Taipei Sunflower Movement. The current research mostly focuses on how the asymmetrical information involve in the bargaining between authoritarian regimes and social protesters while this paper will emphasize on how the media change the informational dynamics as well as the strategic information manipulation in authoritarianism. The conclusions propose that though regime types create lower level media freedom and therefore increase the protesters' moral utilities from sacrifices leading to inevitable repression. This paper explains why protesters in authoritarian regimes usually use extreme tactics in protests as well as why dictators prefer repressions rather than negotiations.

Author

• Gary Ziwen Zu, Duke University