Gender differences in Chinese journalists' blogs

The explosion of Internet users and j-bloggers in mainland China makes Chinese j-blogs an area worthy of examination. This study focused on the gender differences in Chinese journalists' blogs. The study found that female j-bloggers were more likely to write about lifestyle issues and use the diary-like and rumor-mill formats, while male j-bloggers were more likely to discuss hard news topics and use the opinion column format. In addition, female j-bloggers in China were more likely to receive and respond to reader comments than male j-bloggers. Traditional social norms for gender may have influenced the content and format of Chinese j-blogs.     

Environmental communication in and about China: a review of the Chinese-language literature

This article offers a review of the Chinese-language literature on environmental communication in mainland China. In particular, it discusses the main features, promises, and limitations of the relevant literature. All academic papers matching particular keywords for environmental communication in seven top-ranking Chinese-language media and communication journals (four in mainland China, one in Hong Kong, and two in Taiwan) were collected and analysed quantitatively. The first section of the article presents the findings of the quantitative analysis based on several aspects, including the journals’ main interests, distribution of publications over time, types of topics, research methods, leading authors in the field, their choices of research methods and topics, and the inclusion of English-language literature. The article turns to qualitatively examining the wider available Chinese-language literature on environmental communication. It then evaluates the current status of and challenges to Chinese-language research in this field and suggests some directions for future research.     

Friend or foe? Examining the relationship between news portals and newspaper sites in Taiwan

Newspapers worldwide often serve as content providers for news portals, but portals outperform most newspaper sites in audience share. Whether this is a zero-sum game or a win-win scenario deserves scholarly attention, because the phenomenon constitutes a unique case of intra-media competition. Based on empirical data collected through a large-scale survey, this study systematically examines the delicate relationship among and between news portals and newspaper sites in Taiwan. The results document non-competitive relationships among most news sites, with the exception of Yahoo! News. Such counter-intuitive findings carry theoretical and strategic implications for the study and practice of online journalism.     

Framing distance: local vs. non-local news in Hong Kong press

Geographical location as a “natural” attribute of news has always been a source of news manipulation. This research investigates how different community newspapers select, interpret, and package events originating in places of varying distances. Contextualized in Hong Kong, three media frames (authority, conflict, and attribution) are closely examined and theoretically connected to three types of newspapers (mass appeal, elite, and pro-establishment) across four locales (local, mainland China, Asian, and international). To test the hypotheses, a large-scale content analysis of 14 daily newspapers in Hong Kong was conducted. On the whole, findings supported the three hypotheses, showing that local news was systematically differentiated from non-local news in terms of the frequency of political authorities cited, presence of diversified opinions, and the likelihood of either individuals or institutions being blamed for social wrongs. Considerable variations were detected across different types of newspapers as well. Theoretical and social implications of the empirical findings are discussed.     

Opening the black box of link formation: Social factors underlying the structure of the web

Links play a twofold role on the web: they open the channels through which users access information, and they determine the centrality of sites and their visibility. This paper adds two factors to the analysis of links that aim to draw a parallel between the web and other offline interorganisational networks: the resources that the organisations publishing online are able to mobilise, and the status or public recognition of those organisations. Exponential random graph models (ERGMs) are used to analyse a sample of the web of about one thousand sites, showing that both the economic resources of the producers of the sites (a proxy to their wider pool of resources) and their presence in traditional news media (a proxy to their status) significantly increase their probability of receiving more links, and therefore, their centrality. This adds a sociologically relevant dimension to the analysis of the web that has been disregarded so far but that is crucial to understand the way it distributes visibility.     

Exploring the mediating role of government–public relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic: A model comparison approach

This study proposed, tested, and compared three models to examine an antecedent and outcome of government–public relationships. It conducted three surveys of 9675 people in mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong from August 2020 to January 2021. The results of the model comparison supported the proposed reciprocal model: not only were relational satisfaction and relational trust found to mediate the effect of perceived responsiveness on people’s word-of-mouth intention to vaccinate, but they also had a reciprocal influence on each other. This study further affirmed that the relative effects between satisfaction and trust. We also found that emotion-dominant model is more powerful than cognition-dominant model, i.e., people’s feeling of satisfaction happens before sense of trust, which results from their perceived organizational responsiveness and then contribute to their word-of-mouth behavioral intention. The theoretical and practical implications of this study were also discussed.     

Coresidence With Elderly Parents: A Comparative Study of Southeast China and Taiwan

Using recent survey data from the Panel Study of Family Dynamics (PSFD) on 1,655 married persons born in 1964-1976 in southeastern China and Taiwan, we studied coresidence with elderly parents using a multinomial probit model for coresidence type and an ordered probit model for residential distance. The study yielded four findings: (a) Patrilocal coresidence was more prevalent in Taiwan than in China; (b) matrilocal coresidence was more prevalent in China; (c) practical factors mattered in both places; (d) in Taiwan only, a couple's economic resources facilitated breaking away from patrilocal coresidence. The findings suggest that, although economic development does not necessarily result in less traditional familial culture, personal economic resources may enable individual couples to deviate from tradition.     

From control to autonomy? Journalism awards and the changing journalistic profession in Taiwan

In most professional fields, award giving often symbolizes the establishment of professional standards by acknowledging and promoting exemplary practices. Theoretically, awards also serve as an important indicator of the level of professional autonomy in a specific field. In Taiwan, numerous journalism awards have been established over the last 50 years under the claim of enhancing news quality. Yet these awards do not necessarily signify a high level of journalistic autonomy in Taiwan; instead, they have become an implicit control mechanism through which the government operates to shape news production to further its political agenda. Previous studies on Taiwan's news media during the Martial Law era often focused on the restrictions imposed on the media, analyzing the oppressive methods employed by the government to undermine the freedom of the press. This study, however, examines how the government uses award giving to establish and exemplify its journalistic preferences and thus control news production. Specifically, this study reviews the history of the major journalism awards established in Taiwan since the 1950s with a focus on three aspects in each historical period: (1) the characteristics of the award organizers; (2) the objectives of establishing the awards; and (3) the genre of the winning works.     

打造沪台经济合作新优势,助推上海城市转型

台湾高新技术产业以其良好的发展势头,成为上海引进世界先进技术与管理经验的重要载体和桥梁,促进了上海产业调整、结构升级,在上海城市产业发展中占据重要地位。同时,上海在长三角地区、海西地区和成渝经济区吸引台商竞争中既占有独特优势,也面临不可回避的挑战。上海应采取优化两岸金融合作政策和人才政策、完善项目扶持制度和服务台商的工作机制、设立专项引导基金和加强对台交流的机制性平台等措施来优化台商投资环境、把握对台经贸发展趋势。     

Seeking identity: the transborder lives of mainland Chinese families with children born in Hong Kong

Between 2001 and 2013, Hong Kong regulations permitted pregnant women from mainland China to travel to Hong Kong to deliver their babies. In this article, based on 30 in‐depth interviews, I explore the transborder lives and identities of these mainland Chinese families who, motivated by cost considerations, citizenship and anticipated benefits for their children, chose to give birth to their babies in Hong Kong. In some cases, family networks providing flexible residential practices and family care, supported these transborder activities. However, the complexities of transborder life reveal the diverse ‘identifications’ within Hong Kong society and mainland families. Because neither administration totally accepts them, they are not full members of either society and so the identities they form are both plural and fragmented.     

Hybrid social and news media protest events: from #MarchinMarch to #BusttheBudget in Australia

Public protest events are now both social media and news media events. They are deeply entangled, with news media actors – such as journalists or news organisations – directly participating in the protest by tweeting about the event using the protest hashtag; and social media actors sharing news items published online by professional news agencies. Protesters have always deployed tactics to engage the media and use news media agencies’ resources to amplify their reach, with the dual aim of mobilising new supporters and adding their voice to public, mediatised debate. When protest moves between a physical space and a virtual space, the interactions between protesters and media stop being asynchronous or post hoc and turn instantaneous. In this new media-protest ecosystem, traditional media are still relevant sources of information and legitimacy, yet this dynamic is increasingly underpinned by a hybrid interdependency between traditional news and social media sources. In this paper we focus on an anti-austerity government movement that arose in Australia in early 2014 and was mobilised as a series of social media driven, connective action protest events. We show that there is a complex symbiotic interdependency between the movement and the traditional media for recognition and amplification of initial protest events, but that over time as media interest wanes, the movements’ network becomes disconnected and momentum is lost. This suggests that the active role traditional media play in protest events is being underestimated in the current research agenda on connective action.     

Promoting Philanthropy? News Publicity and Voluntary Organizations in Canada

This paper reports exploratory data from a broader study that examines media representations of the voluntary sector in Canada. It specifically identifies the resources and organizational attributes of Canadian voluntary groups that appear to be important for receiving mainstream news coverage. The data identifies four sets of characteristics of more than 500 voluntary organizations: demographic variables, association type, noneconomic resources, and economic expenditures. These characteristics are examined in terms of their relationship to news coverage. The data suggest that area of activity is significantly related to the amount of media attention that organizations receive. However, the amount of media attention that an organization receives is most strongly influenced by its yearly budget. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to both current debates about advocacy in the voluntary sector and important contextual developments that are transforming the communication environment in which charities and nonprofit organizations in Canada operate. We also draw comparisons to news coverage of the voluntary sector in other liberal democratic countries.     

Behind the Numbers: Talking Politics with Foreign-born Chinese Americans

This paper discusses results of in‐depth follow‐up interviews conducted with selected individuals of Chinese descent residing in Los Angeles and San Francisco who were previously chosen at random to participate in the 2000 and 2001 Pilot National Asian American Political Survey. A total of 15 male and female informants who had migrated from Taiwan, mainland China, and Hong Kong were interviewed in Mandarin Chinese. They were asked to compare the performance of the US Government with that of the government in their respective ethnic homeland. They were also asked to explain their reasons for supporting a certain US political party, ideology, and type of candidate. In addition, they commented on the state of political participation or the lack of it among Chinese Americans. Finally, they explained the complexity of their ethnic self‐identification and experiences of racial discrimination. Their responses were interpreted within the context of the historical formation of the Chinese American community as well as the summary results of the mass opinion survey. The results help dispel myths about Chinese Americans being politically indifferent and irrational. They help illuminate the possible relationships among ethnic identity, homeland politics, and political participation in the host land. They also provide exciting insights into improving the survey instrument for a majority immigrant and non‐Anglophone population.     

A Transnational Flow of the Art of Tea: The Paradox of Cultural Authenticity in Taiwan

Being regarded as representing authentic Chinese cultural tradition in the eyes of many mainland Chinese, the Taiwanese practice of the art of tea, however, is displayed as an adapted authenticity that integrates multiple sources, including Chinese cultural legacy, Japanese art influences and constant innovations by Taiwanese actors. By conditionally selecting whether to side with Japanese or Chinese culture, a Taiwanese cultural identity through the art of tea is manifested as quests for liberal changes, leisure lifestyle, anti-showy representation and a paradox over commodified practices. This article traces the historical and ongoing transnational cultural flow among China, Taiwan and Japan in the art of tea, and focuses on exploring Taiwanese cultural reconstruction through the development of the art of tea. The author argues that the trajectory of the art of tea intrinsically reflects the paradox of cultural authenticity in Taiwan.     

Ethnography and News Production: New(s) Developments in the Field*

Ethnographic studies of news production provide invaluable insights into the nature and determinants of news production and a necessary corrective, therefore, to grand speculative claims and theories about the news media. These more grounded studies have variously examined the daily routines, bureaucratic nature, competitive ethos, professional ideologies, source dependencies and cultural practices of the news media. Today, however, the globalising field of news production and journalist practices is fast changing and ethnographies of news production remain as essential as ever for explaining and understanding the complexities involved. This article overviews the field of news production studies and makes the case for why ethnographic studies need to be conducted in the future. It describes past studies and their findings, reflects on the principal strengths and possible blind spots of ethnography as a research method, and finally considers new developments in the field and the challenges that these pose to academic researchers.     

Transnational queer sociological analysis of sexual identity and civic‐political activism in Hong Kong,Taiwan and mainland China

The sociology of homosexuality lacks engagement with queer theory and postcolonialism and focuses primarily on the global metropoles, thus failing to provide a plausible account of non‐Western non‐normative sexual identities. This research adopts the author’s newly proposed transnational queer sociology to address these deficiencies. First, it critiques the Western model of sexual identity predominantly employed to elucidate non‐Western, non‐normative sexualities. It does so by examining not only the queer flows between West and non‐West but also those among and within non‐Western contexts to produce translocally shared and mutually referenced experiences. Second, the proposed approach combines sociology with queer theory by emphasizing the significant role of material, as well as discursive, analyses in shaping queer identities, desires and practices. This article employs the approach to examine young gay male identities, as revealed in 90 in‐depth interviews conducted in Hong Kong (n = 30), Taiwan (Taipei, n = 30) and mainland China (Shanghai, n = 30) between 2017 and 2019. More specifically, it highlights the interplay between the state and identity by investigating the intersection and intertwining effects of these young men’s sexual and cultural/national identities, revealing three different forms of civic‐political activism. The article both demonstrates the way in which sexuality and the state are mutually constituted and provides nuanced analysis of the heterogeneity of contemporary homosexualities in Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China. In applying a new sociological approach to understanding sexuality, this research joins the growing body of scholarship within sociology that is decentring the Western formation of universal knowledge.     

Model Hong Kong malls and their development in mainland China: consumer iconicity and the trans/national capitalist class

Relational geographies of capital and consumption between Hong Kong and mainland China have been forming through tourism engagement in Hong Kong and the development of model Hong Kong malls in China. This analysis of urban restructuring for the consumer economy identifies how landmark Hong Kong malls are reproduced in major cities of China by networks of Hong Kong property firms and mainland elites. Adapting Leslie Sklair's formulation of architectural iconicity in the culture‐ideology of consumerism, this economic relationship, which restructures urban space, constructs iconic built forms and develops Chinese consumerism, marks hegemonic opportunities of a national capitalist class, suggesting how Chinese state capitalism and its Hong Kong networks limit and incrementally engage transnational capital while instantiating Hong Kong‐style consumer iconicity. New malls in mixed‐use developments in China often occupy sites of historical markets and thus affirm Sklair's prediction that iconic architecture increasingly proclaims consumer space while claiming historic forms of public space.     

A study of the consumption of Chinese online fortune telling services

This study examines consumer behavior in the online fortune telling market. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed through a content analysis of websites, in-depth interviews with website owners, and online consumer surveys. Focus group discussions were conducted to uncover a general profile of and the motives for users who visited fortune telling websites in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China. In addition, a survey of 6,088 members of major fortune telling websites was conducted in order to identify a dynamic psychological model to explain online fortune telling behavior and attitudes. Three types of explanatory variables were used as predictors – demographics, psychological orientations, and motivations. Results from the analyses indicate that the majority of users were attracted to the fortune telling websites by free trial services. Personal relationship fortunes were the most popular service item consumed by both male and female users. Some consistent patterns regarding the effects of the predictor variables on online fortune telling behavior and attitudes were reported and discussed. The three types of predictors in question all contributed to different online fortune telling behavior and attitudes. Results and implications are reported and discussed.     

Same Bed,Different Dreams? The Divergent Pathways of Foundations and Grassroots NGOs in China

The rapid rise of high-wealth individuals and foundations in China should be good news for China’s grassroots NGOs whose continued growth depends critically on their ability to mobilize domestic resources. As a number of Chinese philanthropy practitioners have noted, Chinese foundations and NGOs should be natural allies and strategic partners. Yet the reality is very different as foundations currently provide very little support to NGOs, particularly the more independent, grassroots NGOs that have few ties with the government. This paper examines the disconnect between Chinese foundations and grassroots NGOs, and whether progress is being made in closing the gap between them. It argues that one of the main reasons for the gap has to do with their very different development paths, which have engendered significant structural and cultural differences between the two.     

The Generation Y’s Working Encounter: A Comparative Study of Hong Kong and other Chinese Cities

Understanding the encounter of different generations may be a determining factor in the success of organizations. In order to have a clear understanding about the new generation, this article examines the working encounter of Generation Y. Generation Y in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and four cities in mainland China were studied. How the social environment influenced their attitudes and behavior in work and geographical mobility, and how geographical mobility created problems to the migrants were studied. We find that the Generation Y in Hong Kong is facing more competition than the Generation Y in mainland. In geographical mobility, most of the respondents accept geographical mobility. The findings provide some insights on how the social environment shapes the generation.