Hong Kong journalists’ attitude towards social protests: A belief system perspective

Abstract

Social protests have become an increasingly prominent aspect of the political process in Hong Kong in the past decade. Yet how the news media handle social protests and movements have important consequences on the development and influence of protest politics in a society. Based on this premise, this study examines Hong Kong journalists’ attitude towards social protests by adopting a belief system perspective. The perspective posits that journalists’ attitudes towards prominent social and political phenomena are embedded in their existing belief systems, which encompass both professional norms and beliefs and social and political attitudes and perceptions. Drawing upon a representative survey of journalists, the empirical analysis shows that Hong Kong journalists’ attitude towards social protests is significantly related to beliefs in the importance of several social functions of the news media, a liberal political orientation, political identities, and perceived seriousness of media self-censorship. Political orientation also moderates the relationship between attitude towards social protests and some of the factors. Implications of the findings are discussed.