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Abstract
Mass media play an important role in grassroots democracy, yet the dynamics of media–citizen interaction remains under-researched. Using the case of the ‘Civil Monitory Organization’ (CMO) programme in Zhejiang’s Wenzhou city, this article shows how local media, and the local government to whom the local media are held accountable, shape citizen participation. This article develops the framework of ‘contingent participation’ to analyze the constraints on local political participation. Based on the observation of CMO activism, this article typologizes four participation behaviours: (1) symbolic participation; (2) instrumental participation; (3) managed participation; and (4) transgressive participation. This article concludes that contingent participation yields paradoxical results inherent under authoritarian rule: it aims to mobilize citizens to hold government accountable, yet denies the free flow of information and full participation of citizens.
Highlights
Mass media play an important role in grassroots democracy, yet the dynamics of media-citizen interaction remains under-researched
Using the case of “Civil Monitory Organization” (CMO) program in Zhejiang’s Wenzhou city, we show how local media and the local government to whom the local media are held accountable shape citizen participation
We develop the framework of “contingent participation” to analyze the constraints on local political participation
Summary
The mass media provide channels for citizens to express grievances. Because journalists could identify flaws and miscarriages of state policies, the Chinese government may encourage them to break information blockage and expose censorship in China allows government criticism but silences collective expression’, American Political Science Review, 107 (2), (2013), pp. 326-343. Current research reveals that mass media do not always act in full support of citizens.[28] Because media are held accountable to local government rather than citizens, when conflicts of interests break out, the Chinese mass media may moderate popular contention and channel public opinions in ways that gloss over social discontent. This is reflected in many aspects of news production and editing. (eds.), Grassroots Political Reform in Contemporary China (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press 2007), pp.300-324.; Zweig D., ‘To the court or to the barricades? When local residents marched on the street to protest at Maglev train project in Shanghai, for example, local propaganda organ Jiefang Daily framed their peaceful walking as “undermining social harmony”.32 during an anti-PX chemical plant protest in Ningbo, Ningbo Daily aligned with the local government to criticize local protestors as “disrupting the overall stability of Ningbo city”.33 Teresa Wright’s study of student movements in China and Taiwan showed how students rely on their media allies to achieve their goals, but at the same time they worried that their action would invite criticism from newspapers, radios and television reports.[34]
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