Understanding Frames of the State-Sponsored Media Tweets During the 2019 Hong Kong Protests

Asian Journal of Media and Communication E-ISSN: 2579-6119, P-ISSN: 2579-6100 Volume 6, Number 1, 2022 Understanding Frames of the State-Sponsored Media Tweets During the 2019 Hong Kong Protests Ji Young Kim School of Communication and Information, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii, United States Abstract. In this current study, Chinese government’s strategic communication efforts were explored in the context of the 2019 Hong Kong protests via state-sponsored media tweets. To understand how the government conveyed the protests and how it is engaged with other stakeholders, tweets were examined inductively in terms of frames and stakeholders. Recognizing the strategic nature of agenda building, message frames, stakeholders, and their characteristics and relationships around the issues were the key aspects of understanding the issue. Results show the multiple frames identified to understand how the protests were described, who the main actors were, and how their relationships were presented in the social media messages. The representation of the stakeholders or frames in the social media messages changed over a short period. The roles of state-sponsored tweets as strategic public diplomacy tools and information sources are discussed. Article Info Article History Received: 1 March 2022 Revised: 7 November 2022 Accepted: 31 December 2022 Keywords: Tweets, government, protest, frames, global communication, strategic communication Copyright © 2022 Authors. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-sa/4.0/) 77 Volume 6, Number 1, 2022, 77-94 1. Introduction In 2014 and 2019, Hong Kong received global attention for its citywide grassroots movement, comprising the biggest demonstrations in Hong Kong’s history since the 1997 handover from the United Kingdom. The protests began by opposing the government’s proposals on Hong Kong’s electoral and judicial system reforms (Li, 2019; Neuman, 2019; Reuters, 2019). In 2019, hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets to protest against a now-suspended extradition law amendment bill. Protests have gradually increased the size and scope of the controversies, presenting multiple stakeholders’ perspectives: fear of the end of China’s “one country, two systems” principle, criticism of Western countries’ intervention in domestic affairs, support for freedom, and support for the status quo (A. K., 2019; Quinn, 2019; Xinyan & Weiping, 2019). The protesters’ focus has evolved from the extradition bill to include democracy and free speech, and the 2019 Hong Kong controversy has gained international recognition from worldwide stakeholders, including global media, government officers, lawmakers, business and sports organizations, and public protesters (Hollingsworth, 2019; Impelli, 2019; Rascoe, 2019). This study explored the Chinese government’s strategic communication via social media by examining the evolution of the issues presented in tweets during the 2019 Hong Kong controversies. Social media (such as Twitter) became important information sources for foreign audiences, and from the international agenda building perspective, scholars proposed that certain issues or attributes (such as frames) frequently appeared on the statesponsored media would be more salient on the foreign news coverages (Cheng et al., 2016). To explore frames then, in the context of social movement, scholars emphasized the needs of frame development to understand its processes and outcomes (Benford & Snow, 2000). One of the goals of this study is to suggest descriptions of frames that can be used for the social movement cases in the international level (involved with multiple stakeholders). An inductive, interpretive analysis was conducted on state-sponsored media tweets collected in October 2019. Researchers have largely studied the effectiveness and process of the strategic communication using the agenda-building theoretical framework in various communication contexts—expanded from the role of media in setting public and policy agendas (Cobb & Elder, 1971; Sheafer & Gabay, 2009; Sheafer & Weimann, 2005). Moreover, several agenda building studies emphasize the role of online or social media in transferring issues or attributes salience to media outlets (or public) (Lariscy et al., 2009; J. H. Parmelee & Bichard, 2012; John H Parmelee, 2014). 78 Ji Young Kim, Understanding Frames of the State-Sponsored Media Tweets During the 2019 Hong Kong Protests Issues and attributes salience transfer refers to the first and second level agenda building framework: issues (e.g., social issues, candidates, corporates, or nation) and attributes (e.g., issue frames, candidate/corporate/nation images) (Cheng et al., 2016; Kiousis et al., 2006, 2007; Ragas, 2012; B. Signitzer & Wamser, 2006; Wanta et al., 2004). Attributes are used for journalists or people to understand certain objects better highlighting certain aspects more than others; and frames are one of the popular examples of attributes in the agenda building studies (Cheng et al., 2016; Kiousis et al., 2007; Lariscy et al., 2009). In the context of anti-government protest in Thailand, Sinpeng (2021) analyzed tweets and suggested Twitter as a central communication tool protesters used to build their stories. Through hashtags, it would act as an agenda-building tool for public discourse (Sinpeng, 2021). In Arab regions, scholars examined social media use by the public and by media professionals to explore its role in political and social changes (Al-Jenaibi, 2014; Khondker, 2011). Moreover, scholars also identified social media as a tool authorities use to frame public discourse in their favor (Sinpeng, 2021). At the international level, Sheafer and Gabay (2009) also analyzed the agenda-building associations in terms of the issues and frames (McCombs, 1997; McCombs & Shaw, 1972), emphasizing multiple actors’ strategic communication process of mediated public diplomacy. Scholars have defined public diplomacy by highlighting its strategic communication characteristics: persuasive and goal-oriented activities by governmental and private sectors via direct and indirect communication aimed at foreign governments and audiences (Cull, 2008; Gilboa, 2008; Malone, 1985; B. H. Signitzer & Coombs, 1992). Cull (2008) defined public diplomacy as “the process by which international actors seek to accomplish the goals of their foreign policy by engaging with foreign publics” (p. 31). Ultimately, strategic communication aims to affect a foreign public’s understanding, attitude, and opinion toward another government (B. H. Signitzer & Coombs, 1992). The digital and social media today constitute important public diplomacy tools (Collins et al., 2019; Dodd & Collins, 2017; Golan et al., 2019). Collins et al. (2019) examined how the Obama administration used Twitter for diplomacy to present U.S. fore (...truncated)