The contentious public sphere : law, media, and authoritarian rule in China / Ya-Wen Lei.
2018
KNQ3482 .L45 2018 (Mapit)
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Author
Title
The contentious public sphere : law, media, and authoritarian rule in China / Ya-Wen Lei.
Imprint
Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2018]
Description
xvii, 284 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Series
Princeton studies in contemporary China.
Formatted Contents Note
Introduction
The rise of a nationwide contentious public sphere
The Chinese state's turn to law and rights
Critical news reporting and legal-media collaborative networks
Extending liberalization from the press to the Internet
An emerging online public
The Chinese state strikes back
Conclusion.
The rise of a nationwide contentious public sphere
The Chinese state's turn to law and rights
Critical news reporting and legal-media collaborative networks
Extending liberalization from the press to the Internet
An emerging online public
The Chinese state strikes back
Conclusion.
Summary
"Since the mid-2000s, public opinion and debate in China have become increasingly common and consequential, despite the ongoing censorship of speech and regulation of civil society. How did this happen? [This book] shows how the Chinese state drew on law, the media, and the Internet to further an authoritarian project of modernization, but in so doing, inadvertently created a nationwide public sphere in China--one the state must now endeavor to control. [The author] examines the influence this unruly sphere has had on Chinese politics and the ways that the state has responded. Using interviews, newspaper articles, online texts, official documents, and national surveys, [the author] shows that the development of the public sphere in China has provided an unprecedented forum for citizens to influence the public agenda, demand accountability from the government, and organize around the concepts of law and rights. [The author] demonstrates how citizens came to understand themselves as legal subjects, how legal and media professionals began to collaborate in unexpected ways, and how existing conditions of political and economic fragmentation created unintended opportunities for political critique, particularly with the rise of the Internet. The emergence of this public sphere--and its uncertain future--is a pressing issue with important implications for the political prospects of the Chinese people. Investigating how individuals learn to use public discourse to influence politics, [this book] offers new possibilities for thinking about the transformation of state-society relations."-- Book jacket flap.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 247-271) and index.
Location
STA
Available in Other Form
Online version: Lei, Ya-Wen. Contentious public sphere. Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [2018]
Call Number
KNQ3482 .L45 2018
Language
English
ISBN
1400887941 (electronic book)
9781400887941 (electronic book)
9780691166865
0691166862
9781400887941 (electronic book)
9780691166865
0691166862
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