The people dissent, or The People’s consent? Comparing news agendas of traditional and new media surrounding a large-scale Chinese political event

Guoliang ZhangNicholas David BowmanGuosong ShaoDengfeng Guan

Newspapers Micro-BlogsRk Agenda item Freq. Perc. Rk Agenda item Freq. Perc.

1 People's livelihood

94 28.92% 1 Convention representatives

189 33.27%

2 Economic development

43 13.23% 2 Governance 170 29.93%

3 Convention representatives

38 11.69% 3 People's livelihood

156 27.46%

4 Shanghai/local affairs

37 11.38% 4 Judicial 112 19.72%

5 Social admin 32 9.85% 5 Political system reform

98 17.25%

6 Judicial 26 8.00% 6 Economic development

63 11.09%

7 Governance 25 7.69% 7 Social admin 42 7.39%

8 Political system reform

23 7.08% 8 Environment 18 3.17%

9 Military and foreign affairs

12 3.69% 9 Military and foreign affairs

15 2.64%

10 Environment 8 2.46% 10 Shanghai/local affairs

6 1.06%

Chi-square within group

χ2(9) = 151.9, p < .001

Chi-square within group

χ2(9) = 482.2, p < .001

Agenda item Newspaper(%) Micro-Blogs(%)

Significance test (z-score)

People's livelihood 28.92% 27.46% 3.80, p < .001Economic development 13.23% 11.09% 3.02, p < .001Convention representatives 11.69% 33.27% 4.19, p < .001

Shanghai/local affairs 11.38% 1.06% 8.63, p < .001Social admin 9.85% 7.39% 3.01, p = .003Judicial 8.00% 19.72% 2.55, p = .011Governance 7.69% 29.93% 5.16, p < .001Political system reform 7.08% 17.25% 2.32, p =. 021Military and foreign affairs 3.69% 2.64% 1.92, p = .054Environment 2.46% 3.17% .318, p = .751

AbstractThrough content analysis of their coverage of the Fifth Session of the EleventhNational People's Congress and the Fifth Session of the Eleventh ChinesePeople's Political Consultative Conference [March 3 to 14, 2012], this paperexamines the difference of agendas set by traditional media (represented bynewspapers Shanghai Morning News and Oriental Morning Post; 325 totalstories) and new media (represented by micro-blog Sina Weibo, 568 valid postsfrom 12 influential users). The results show that the agendas discussed by theChinese people on micro-blogs are not significantly influenced by newspapers. Interms of the topics of the news, newspapers are more concerned with theChinese economy and people's livelihood while micro-blogs are more concernedwith political and legal reforms in China. As for media tone, newspapers are morelikely to cover the event positively while micro-blogs tend to be negative. Thesefindings that the Chinese government may be incapable of exercising theirtraditionally strong media agenda influence over newer digital media suggestthat Chinese citizens, or netizens, may enjoy more freedom of speech in micro-blogging.

HypothesesGiven that Chinese micro-blogs are less controlled in general and thus not asopen to strict control by the government, we expect (H1) a significant differencebetween the broad news agenda set by micro-blogs and the news agenda set bynewspapers. Specifically, we assume that when covering the Two Conferences,(H2) newspapers are more likely to focus on economic growth andsocioeconomic issues, while micro-blogs are more likely to focus on socialissues, such as political and legal debates. This is expected given the Chinesegovernment’s increased focus on the growth of China as an economic powerjuxtaposed with the renewed world focus on human rights concerns that parallelsthe Chinese government’s increased exposure to global scrutiny. Finally,considering the difficulty for the public to express their complaints of thegovernment via traditional media and the comparatively relieving effect of suchself-media like micro-blogs, we expect (H3) micro-blogging on the TwoConferences to be overall more negative in tone than newspaper coverage.

“…there was no significant relationship between the micro-blog agenda and newspaper agenda using the Spearman-Brown rank order correlation function, r = .139, t(8) = 0.4, p= .699, n = 10 rank-order pairs. Hypothesis 1 was thus supported.” (p. 15)

“The agenda-setting of traditional newspapers largely mirrored its function as the Chinese Communist Party’s mouthpiece…In the other case, micro-blog agenda revealed the public appeal on social equality and controversy. Hypothesis 2 was thus supported, Yates-adjusted x2(9) = 41.7, p < .001.” (p. 16)

Newspapers Micro-BlogsNumber Percentage Number Percentage

Positive 171 52.6% 219 38.6%Neutral 117 36.0% 43 7.6%Negative 37 11.4% 306 53.8%

Chi-square (within group)

χ2 (2) = 25.9p < .001

χ2 (2) = 33.7p < .001

Total 325 100% 568 100%“…Comparing the media tone of newspapers and micro-blogs, we founded that Hypothesis 3 was thus supported, χ2(2) = 199.8, p < .001, as the distribution of tone between traditional newspapers and micro-blogs differed both significantly and meaningfully.” (p. 18)

The current study showed that therewas a significant difference in micro-blogs. The agendas discussed by theChinese people on micro-blogs werenot influenced by newspapers.

Study Authors