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Shao, G., Zhang, G., & Bowman, N. D. (2011). What is most important for my country is not most important for me: agenda setting effects in China. Communication Research, 38(5).
Gouliang ZhangGouliang ZhangGousong ”Oliver” ShaoGousong ”Oliver” Shao
Nicholas David BowmanNicholas David Bowman
Setting the Public vs. Private Agenda in Chinese Media
Background
• State-run media– Earliest agenda-setting function was to mobilize
youth to the Communist Party (40s)– A shift to “malevolent manipulation” approach,
which led to a loss of trust in the media (60s)– Movement to openness in governance brought
media system away from “blunt propaganda” (70s)
04/10/23 (c) ND Bowman, 2011 2
Quotes from Zhang, Shao & Bowman (2011)
Background
• Truly open?– 80s to today we see a shift to
“picture close to reality” but with an opinion environment “favorable to political stability and economic development”
– This perceptual shift might make the influence more successful in China
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Quotes from Zhang, Shao & Bowman (2011)
Background
• Cultural influences on agenda-setting– US
• focus on individualism, privacy and advancing personal causes over social ones (cf. Triandis, 1995)
• Individuals have a right (and responsibility?) to question their government (cf. Becker, 1958)
– China• Emphasis on the collective, sacrifice for the greater good
(Shih, 1999)
• Lack of sharing “deviant” information (i.e., differing from the collective) (Noelle-Neumann, 1974)
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Background
• Cultural influences on agenda-setting– Chinese media culture
creates: a) high need for orientation about
national welfareb) invariant, uniform messages
from one media source to the next (state-run)
c) lack of sharing of (perceived) alternative interpretations of the media agenda (such as the public agenda
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Research Questions
• Assuming that individuals can differentiate between their social and personal agenda– H1: The agenda-setting effect in China should be
such that the correlation between the media agenda and an individual’s social agenda will be stronger than the same correlation with an individual’s personal agenda
– RQ1: Is there a meaningful correlation between an individual’s personal and social agenda?
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Method
• N=835 phone interviews, Nov 2000, RR2=42%• All respondents were Shanghai residents• 55% male, mix of students, laborers,
executives, retirees and unemployed• Over-representative of:
– Males (sex ratio 122.22 > population ratio 105.74)– College degree (38% +/- 5.08 > 22% +/- 2.57)– Other metrics on par with population
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Method
• Public Survey– Two open-ended questions (Gallup):
• “What do you think the most important problem facing the country/yourself nowadays?”
– Reliance on mediated vs. non-mediated news– Readership of People’s Daily, Jiefang Daily, or
Xinmin Evening News– Media literacy/critical ability questions– Demographics (coded into 3 groups for age and
education) 04/10/23 (c) ND Bowman, 2011 8
Method
• Content Analysis– People’s Daily: main State newspaper– Jiefang Daily: Shanghai Communist party news– Xinmin Evening News: market-oriented
newspaper
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Method
• Content Analysis– Coded 1 May to 1 December 2000 (seven months)– Sampled every six days, total of 114 newspapers– 6046 total stories, even distribution across
sources– Aggregate-level issue salience from seven major
issues (κ = .92):• Political development, economic problems,
transportation and environment, public safety, Taiwan, health care reform, WTO
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56 open-ended issues 13 7 for analysis56 open-ended issues 13 7 for analysis
Results
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Results
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R2 = .29R2 = .29
R2 = .62R2 = .62
Results
• Social & personal agendas only correlated with:– Elder respondents– Poorly educated– Non-mediated– Media not real
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Discussion
• Chinese citizens:– Make distinctions between the social and
personal agenda– Media agendas correlate strongly with the
espoused social agenda, not the personal
• Consistent with a culture that (a) emphasizes the distinction between national and personal interest and (b) encourages the suppression of personal interest to national ones
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Individual Differences
Elder respondents seemed to lack the ability to distinguish social and personal agenda, possibly due to a lifetime of
socialist orientation?
Low media users reported the strongest relationship between
media and social agendas!
Individual Differences
Elder respondents seemed to lack the ability to distinguish social and personal agenda, possibly due to a lifetime of
socialist orientation?
Low media users reported the strongest relationship between
media and social agendas!
Limitations
• Data is 10+ years old– More international coverage of China since then
(e.g., Beijing Olympics, US investments)
• Correlational, not causal– Cross-lagged correlations?
• Broad-issue focus• Attitudes, not behaviors
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Conclusions
• In a culture that emphasizes a divide between public and private thought, public thoughts are both:– Influenced by (state-run)
media– More likely to be shared
publically and acted upon
• A faux, but influentialinfluential, agenda
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