Comparative Research on Elite Media Strategies in Authoritarian Contexts

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel brings together four papers that explore how elites in authoritarian contexts use media to shape public opinion in China, Russia, and Turkey and how audiences respond to those efforts. The papers use a variety of cutting-edge methods including survey experiments, textual analysis, and machine learning to explore the different strategies that elites use to legitimize their rule in the eyes of audiences, both domestic and international. Specifically, the papers examine the role of state media in reframing negative foreign coverage of authoritarian governments; the role of state media coverage of foreign elections in legitimizing authoritarian rule; how public demand for state media coverage depends on the content and beliefs about sources; the role of framing and agenda-setting of morality issues in times of economic crises. Together, these papers reveal how authoritarian elites can use their influence over the media to bolster their power through framing, regime legitimization, agenda-setting, redirecting audience attention, appealing to emotions and identities, and reframing narratives.

Sub Unit

• Division 11: Comparative Politics

Individual Presentations

• The Strategies of Chinese State Media on Twitter - Yingjie Fan; Jennifer Pan, Stanford University; Jaymee Sheng

• China's Negative Legitimation Strategy in Foreign Election Media Coverage - Patrick Chester, UC, San Diego

• Preferences for Propaganda: An Experiment on Demand for News Types in Russia - Ashley Blum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

• Elite Framing and Agenda-Setting of Morality Issues: An Experiment in Turkey - Daniel Joseph Schulte, Brown University

Chair

• Sarah A. Oates University of Maryland

Discussants

• Haifeng Huang University of California, Merced

• Erin Baggott Carter University of Southern California