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Tackling fake news in socially mediated public spheres: A comparison of Weibo and WeChat

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  • Pang, Hua
  • Liu, Jun
  • Lu, Jiahui

Abstract

While studies have documented the difference between political and public discussions on Chinese social media platforms, few have interrogated and compared how state and social media companies shape corresponding public spheres across different platforms. Building on research concerning socially mediated publicness, we advance the understanding of the public sphere in China as a communicative space in which the (Party-)state carries its power into society, with the platform as the structural designer and facilitator of this mediated public sphere. We further examine empirical data from the official accounts countering COVID-19 fake news on two dominant social media sites, Weibo and WeChat, between December 1, 2019 and April 30, 2020. Semantic content analysis of these posts reveals that the two social media sites showed distinctive socially mediated public spheres in terms of authoritative actors, topics and content, and media frames. The results shed light theoretically and empirically on the heterogeneity and complexity of socially mediated public spheres in Chinese cyberspace.

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  • Pang, Hua & Liu, Jun & Lu, Jiahui, 2022. "Tackling fake news in socially mediated public spheres: A comparison of Weibo and WeChat," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:teinso:v:70:y:2022:i:c:s0160791x22001452
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2022.102004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. Balakrishnan, Vimala & Ng, Kee S. & Rahim, Hajar Abdul, 2021. "To share or not to share – The underlying motives of sharing fake news amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    5. Raj, Chahat & Meel, Priyanka, 2022. "People lie, actions Don't! Modeling infodemic proliferation predictors among social media users," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
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    Cited by:

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    3. Yuanyuan Wu & Ozan Kuru & Dam Hee Kim & Seongcheol Kim, 2023. "COVID-19 News Exposure and Vaccinations: A Moderated Mediation of Digital News Literacy Behavior and Vaccine Misperceptions," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-29, January.
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    5. Hua Pang & Yuxin Qiao & Yi Xiao & Xiang Hu, 2023. "More Happiness or Less Comparison? Unpacking Associations Between Life Satisfaction, Negative Comparison and Mobile Social Networking Use Among Sojourning Students," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(2), pages 21582440231, June.

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