Use of Microblogs in Grassroots Movements in China: Exploring the Role of Online Networking in Agenda Setting

Abstract

This study examines the role of online networking in a grassroots movement in China. Drawing on Manuel Castells’s theory of communication power in the network society, we argue that microblogs can facilitate China’s mass self-communication in a network environment, even under authoritarian control, and are able to challenge the power of agenda setting, which has been mainly dominated by the state and the state media. We study a grassroots movement in China and examine the ways in which messages were communicated and people were connected into a network. Thus we investigate the role of online communication in reconfiguring the balance of power between the authority and Chinese citizens. Using systematic data collection and social network analysis, we characterize the microbloggers who contributed to the process, the network configuration, and the interplays between different stakeholders.