WeChat and the Sharing of News in Networked China

Abstract

This article takes a close look at news sharing on the immensely popular Chinese instant messaging app WeChat. The study is an example of how an affordances perspective can be useful for understanding a key concept of digital journalism, namely news sharing. Most research on news sharing focuses on its antecedents or consequences; in contrast, this study demonstrates how a focus on the affordances of WeChat can illuminate ways in which news sharing on social media in China works. It also explores how the interplay of the platform’s owner, Tencent’s commercial logics and the technology company’s relations with the state may have shaped WeChat’s news sharing through the lens of the political economy of communication. By analysing the platform’s nuanced interface design and its possible implications, the study finds that the affordances of WeChat can both enable and constrain users’ participation in news distribution.