Pro-liberalism vs. Nationalism: how critical opinion leaders challenge the persuasive effect of propaganda in China

In Chinese cyberspace, mass media and opinion leaders struggle over socio-political discourses. While the former propagates positive views on national policies, the latter often expresses dissenting opinions that challenge authoritarian rule. In the context of China-US competition, do citizens still...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inChinese journal of communication Vol. 17; no. 3; pp. 271 - 287
Main Authors Pan, Yating, Shu, Zhan
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hong Kong Routledge 02.07.2024
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
China
Credibility
Influence
Internet
Liberalism
Manipulation
Mass media effects
Nationalism
News media
Opinion leaders
Political discourse
Political leadership
Political persuasion
Propaganda
public opinion
China
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Summary:In Chinese cyberspace, mass media and opinion leaders struggle over socio-political discourses. While the former propagates positive views on national policies, the latter often expresses dissenting opinions that challenge authoritarian rule. In the context of China-US competition, do citizens still perceive non-state sources as more credible? Taking the Belt and Road Initiative as the issue, this experimental study investigates how Chinese netizens process conflicting information from a government-owned news agency and two opinion leaders with varying levels of source credibility. Our findings reveal that high-credibility propagandistic news is effective, whereas low-credibility propaganda is not. Furthermore, an opinion leader perceived as independent surpasses government propaganda in influence, regardless of information credibility. However, when an opinion leader is perceived as backed by a rival nation, the former's influence is counterproductive unless their message credibility exceeds that of propaganda. This study sheds light on the prevalence of nationalistic sentiment in China, which has raised concerns about the manipulation of Chinese netizens by hostile forces.
ISSN:1754-4750
1754-4769
DOI:10.1080/17544750.2023.2293860