From Suppressive to Proactive: Chinese Government’s Control Strategies Over Media Coverage in Popular Protests

• In Event: ICA Interactive paper/Poster Session I
  In Interactive Paper Session: Mass Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

It’s widely believed that the Chinese government put much attention to censor the coverage to maintain regime stability. However, in recent years, news coverage on popular protest has been rising dramatically. How to make sense of the governments’ seemly contradicting behavior? One possible explanation is that the Chinese government adopted a more proactive one in response to the increasingly unimpeded information flow as well as the urgent need to rein in the local government officials. This article shows the specific strategies adopted by different level officials: the suppression approach will be taken by the local officials first, if the suppression failed, the rumor refutal approach, actively guide approach, propaganda approach will
continue to be adopted by the higher-level government.

Author

• Chao Zhang, Tsinghua U