Item Details
Skip Navigation Links
   ActiveUsers:4160Hits:25699129Skip Navigation Links
Show My Basket
Contact Us
IDSA Web Site
Ask Us
Today's News
HelpExpand Help
Advanced search

In Basket
  Journal Article   Journal Article
 

ID145746
Title ProperDefending the authoritarian regime online
Other Title InformationChina's “voluntary fifty-cent army
LanguageENG
AuthorHan, Rongbin
Summary / Abstract (Note)Recent studies on internet politics in China have gone beyond the once dominant control–liberalization perspective and directed intellectual attention to the varieties of online activism. Based on extensive in-depth online ethnographic work, this project explores the pluralization of online expression in Chinese cyberspace. Following a constituency of internet users who identify themselves as the “voluntary fifty-cent army,” the paper explores how these users acquire and consolidate their identity and combat criticism that targets the authoritarian regime. Analysis of the confrontational exchanges between the “voluntary fifty-cent army” and their opponents suggests that a perspective that goes beyond state censorship and regime-challenging activism is required in order to gain a better understanding of online expression in China. Close examination of why and how internet users may voluntarily defend the authoritarian regime also reveals how the dynamics in online discourse competition may work to the authoritarian regime's advantage.
`In' analytical NoteChina Quarterly ,No. 224; Dec 2015: p.1006-1025
Journal SourceChina Quarterly No 224
Key WordsChinese Cyberspace ;  Discourse Competition ;  The “Voluntary Fifty-Cent Army” ;  Online Ethnography


 
 
Media / Other Links  Full Text