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Educate Online Through Online Fear: Exploring the Chinese Rumours Online Phenomenon

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Media and the Dissemination of Fear

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Abstract

This chapter aims to provide a historical overview of the history of online rumours on the Chinese Internet. The contribution is divided into three sections. The first part highlights the role of the Internet and new media in the Chinese context questioning similarities and differences between Chinese online rumours with online fake news in the USA and Europe. The second part of this chapter focuses on how an improper online behaviour in China feeds a metanarrative of fear, in which traditional media campaigns are aimed at influencing the Chinese Internet users. Finally, in line with the rationale of this book, the third section demonstrates through a textual and visual analysis of two official webpages (中国国情and 中国互联网联合辟谣平台) how the creation of propaganda webpages designed to educate Chinese Internet users supports the spread of fear on online media.

This research highlights how, despite a series of efforts, the online rumours phenomenon still represents an issue for the Chinese media. This contribution invites to consider the role of the private Chinese Internet companies in feeding online rumours as they can contribute not only to offer a more nuanced picture of the presence of online fear in China but also to reconfigure the issue within a more global framework.

网络谣言

Internet rumours

They refer to words fabricated and not supported by facts

They have not recognized background

They are popular rumours and sayings about current affair

—Xinhua dictionary

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Dainian Zhang, Key Concepts in Chinese Philosophy. Translated by Edmund Ryden (New Haven, CT: Yale University, 2002), 383–387.

  2. 2.

    Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China’s Medical History, 960–1665 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1999), 88.

  3. 3.

    http://www.China.com.cn.

  4. 4.

    http://www.piyao.org.cn/.

  5. 5.

    China Internet Joint Rumor Refutation Platform, “The second anniversary of the launch of China’s Internet joint rumor-refuting platform: Authoritative rumor-refuting platform has added a new position” [“中国互联网联合辟谣平台上线运行两周年”] Last modified August 29, 2020. http://www.xinhuanet.com/2020-08/29/c_1210774308.htm.

  6. 6.

    Warren A Peterson and Noel P. Gist, “Rumor and public opinion,” American Journal of Sociology 57, no. 2 (1951): 159–167.

  7. 7.

    H. Taylor Buckner, “A theory of rumor transmission,” Public Opinion Quarterly 29, no. 1 (1965): 54–70.

  8. 8.

    Young M. Baek, Hyunhee Kang, and Sonho Kim, “Fake news should be regulated because it influences both “others” and “me”: How and why the influence of presumed influence model should be extended,” Mass Communication and Society 22, no. 3 (2019): 301–323.

  9. 9.

    Soroush Vosoughi, Deb Roy, and Sinan Aral, “The spread of true and false news online,” Science 359, no. 6380 (2018): 1146–1151.

  10. 10.

    People’s Daily, “The first year of China Government Weibo” [“中国政务微博元年”], Last modified December 13, 2011. http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/html/2011-12/13/content_976323.htm.

  11. 11.

    Lianrui Jia, “What public and whose opinion? A study of Chinese online public opinion analysis,” Communication and the Public 4, no. 1 (2019): 21–34.

  12. 12.

    Long Fu and Dong Cui, “Victims of Internet rumors show up. Rumours are infinitely harmful and must be resolutely managed” [“网络谣言受害者现身说法. 谣言危害无穷必须坚决治理”], Last modified April 15, 2012. http://www.chinanews.com/fz/2012/04-15/3819926.shtml.

  13. 13.

    Jia, “What public and whose opinion? A study of Chinese online public opinion analysis,” 21–34.

  14. 14.

    Edson C. Tandoc Jr, Zheng W. Lim, and Richard Ling, “Defining “fake news” A typology of scholarly definitions,” Digital journalism 6, no. 2 (2018): 137–153.

  15. 15.

    Nicholas DiFonzo and Prashant Bordia, “Rumor, gossip and urban legends,” Diogenes 54, no. 1 (2007): 19–35.

  16. 16.

    Gary Alan Fine, “Rumor, trust and civil society: Collective memory and cultures of judgment,” Diogenes 54, no. 1 (2007): 5–18.

  17. 17.

    Buckner, “A theory of rumor transmission,” 54–70.

  18. 18.

    Ed Pulford, “Wind from an empty cave? Online rumor and ideology in postsocialist China and Russia,” Asian Anthropology 18, no. 1 (2019): 1–20.

  19. 19.

    Lei Guo, “China’s “Fake News” Problem: Exploring the Spread of Online Rumors in the Government-Controlled News Media,” Digital Journalism 8, no. 1 (2020): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2020.1766986.

  20. 20.

    Lei Guo and Yiyan Zhang, “Information Flow Within and Across Online Media Platforms: An Agenda-setting Analysis of Rumor Diffusion on News Websites, Weibo, and WeChat in China,” Journalism Studies 21, no. 15 (2020): 2176–2195.

  21. 21.

    Cory L. Armstrong and Fangfang Gao, “Now tweet this: How news organizations use Twitter,” Electronic News 4, no. 4 (2010): 218–235.

  22. 22.

    The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China, “Xu Lin’s speech at the 2020 China New Media Conference” [“徐麟在2020中国新媒体大会上的致辞”], Last modified November 20, 2020. http://www.scio.gov.cn/xwbjs/zygy/38848/38851/Document/1692866/1692866.htm.

  23. 23.

    David Bandurski, “Red Convergence,” China Media Project. Last modified November 23, 2020. https://chinamediaproject.org/2020/11/23/red-convergence/; Rogier Creemers, “Cyber China: Upgrading propaganda, public opinion work and social management for the twenty-first century,” Journal of Contemporary China 26, no. 103 (2017): 85–100.

  24. 24.

    CPC News, “Xi Jinpin: Keep the overall situation in mind, grasping the general trend, focus on the major issues and strive to do better propaganda and ideological work” [“习近平:胸怀大局把握大势着眼大事 努力把宣传思想工作做得更好”], Last modified January 4, 2020. http://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2013/0821/c64094-22636876.html.

  25. 25.

    CNNIC, “Statistical Report on Internet Development in China,” Last modified April 2020. https://cnnic.com.cn/IDR/ReportDownloads/202008/P020200827549953874912.pdf.

  26. 26.

    China Daily, 2018.

  27. 27.

    Yang Feng, Shan Zhao, Wenyong Li, Richard Evans, and Wei Zhang, “Understanding user satisfaction with Chinese government social media platforms,” Information Research 25, no. 3 (2020).

  28. 28.

    Zhan Zhang and Gianluigi Negro, “Weibo in China: Understanding its development through communication analysis and cultural studies,” Communication, Politics & Culture 46, no. 2 (2013): 199.

  29. 29.

    Rongbin Han, Contesting cyberspace in China: Online expression and authoritarian resilience (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), pp. 101–130.

  30. 30.

    Gianluigi Negro, Internet in China (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

  31. 31.

    David Bandurski, “Politics in the Age of the Microblog,” China Media Project. Last modified August 2, 2011. http://cmp.hku.hk/2011/08/02/14461.

  32. 32.

    Negro, Internet in China.

  33. 33.

    Maria Repnikova, “Contesting the State under Authoritarianism: Critical Journalists in China and Russia,” Comparative Politics 51, no. 1 (2018): 41–60; Zhang and Negro, “Weibo in China: Understanding its development through communication analysis and cultural studies,” 199; Zixue Tai and Tao Sun, “Media dependencies in a changing media environment: The case of the 2003 SARS epidemic in China,” New Media & Society 9, no. 6 (2007): 987–1009.

  34. 34.

    Yang Cheng and Chia-Jui Lee, “Online crisis communication in a post-truth Chinese society: Evidence from interdisciplinary literature,” Public Relations Review 45, no. 4 (2019): 101826.

  35. 35.

    Yanqi Tong and Shaohua Lei, “War of position and microblogging in China,” Journal of Contemporary China 22, no. 80 (2013): 292–311.

  36. 36.

    A total of 448 million comments per year in favour of the government (2013).

  37. 37.

    Cheng and Lee, “Online crisis communication in a post-truth Chinese society: Evidence from interdisciplinary literature,” 101826.

  38. 38.

    Sora Kim, Xiaochen Angela Zhang, and Borui Warren Zhang, “Self-mocking crisis strategy on social media: Focusing on Alibaba chairman Jack Ma in China,” Public Relations Review 42, no. 5 (2016): 903–912.

  39. 39.

    Shari R. Veil. and Aimei Yang, “Media manipulation in the Sanlu milk contamination crisis,” Public Relations Review 38, no. 5 (2012): 935–937; Xinyi Zhu, Iona Yuelu Huang and Louise Manning, “The role of media reporting in food safety governance in China: A dairy case study,” Food Control 96 (2019): 165–179.

  40. 40.

    Yang Cheng, Yi-Hui Christine Huang, and Ching Man Chan, “Public relations, media coverage, and public opinion in contemporary China: Testing agenda building theory in a social mediated crisis,” Telematics and Informatics 34, no. 3 (2017): 765–773.

  41. 41.

    China Youth Daily, “10 Suggestions for local governments to deal with public opinion” [“给地方政府10条应对网络舆论的建议”], Last modified July 24, 2009. http://zqb.cyol.com/content/2009-07/24/content_2771546.htm.

  42. 42.

    David K Herold, “Whisper campaigns: market risks through online rumours on the Chinese Internet,” China Journal of Social Work 8, no. 3 (2015): 269–283.

  43. 43.

    Creemers, “Cyber China: Upgrading propaganda, public opinion work and social management for the twenty-first century,” 85–100.

  44. 44.

    Joyce YM Nip and King-wa Fu, “Challenging Official Propaganda-Public Opinion Leaders on Sina Weibo,” China Quarterly 225 (2016): 122–144.

  45. 45.

    Creemers, “Cyber China: Upgrading propaganda, public opinion work and social management for the twenty-first century,” 85–100.

  46. 46.

    Reuters, “China shuts websites, detains six for spreading online rumors,” Last modified March 31, 2012. https://www.reuters.com/article/net-us-china-microblogs-idUSBRE82U04Q20120331.

  47. 47.

    Ibid.

  48. 48.

    People’s Daily. “The first year of China Government Weibo.” [“中国政务微博元年”] Last modified December 13, 2011. http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/html/2011-12/13/content_976323.htm.

  49. 49.

    Lianrui, “What public and whose opinion? A study of Chinese online public opinion analysis,” 21–34.

  50. 50.

    Xinhua, “Severe Penalties for defamatory retweets in China,” Last modified September 10, 2013. http://en.people.cn/90882/8394620.html.

  51. 51.

    Chris Luo. “Police arrest 16-year-old boy in Gansu for spreading internet ‘rumours’.” South China Morning Post. Last modified September 19, 2013, https://www.scmp.com/news/china-insider/article/1313136/police-arrest-16-year-old-boy-gansu-spreading-internet-rumours.

  52. 52.

    Eileen Yu, “China airs confession of detained blogger in online rumor crackdown” ZdNet. Last modified September 16, 2013, https://www.zdnet.com/article/china-airs-confession-of-detained-blogger-in-online-rumor-crackdown/.

  53. 53.

    Hong Kong Free Press, “China State TV ‘confession’ Charles Xue,” YouTube Video, 1:07, Last modified August 29, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vmR1sVAZl4&t=2s.

  54. 54.

    Zhai, Keith, “Charles Xue Biqun admits Weibo fuelled ego, state media reports,” South China Morning Post. Last modified September 16, 2013, https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1310567/charles-xue-biqun-admits-weibo-fuelled-ego-state-media-reports.

  55. 55.

    It is a confidential CCP internal document leaked in 2013 and aimed at regulating the ideological sphere in China. The document highlights the importance of the Internet and new media in maintaining social and political stability.

  56. 56.

    Hong Kong Free Press, “China State TV ‘confession’ Gao Yu,” YouTube Video, 0:19, Last modified May 8, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK-d25sqn14.

  57. 57.

    Ibid.

  58. 58.

    Guo and Zhang, “Information Flow Within and Across Online Media Platforms: An Agenda-setting Analysis of Rumor Diffusion on News Websites, Weibo, and WeChat in China,” 2176–2195.

  59. 59.

    Herold, “Whisper campaigns: market risks through online rumours on the Chinese Internet,” 269–283. [“中国互联网联合辟谣平台上线运行两周年”] Last modified August 29, 2020. http://www.xinhuanet.com/2020-08/29/c_1210774308.htm. August 28 2020.

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  1. University of Siena, Siena, Italy

    Gianluigi Negro

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  1. School of Human Sciences, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Nelson Ribeiro

  2. Department of Media, Knowledge and Communication, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany

    Christian Schwarzenegger

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Negro, G. (2022). Educate Online Through Online Fear: Exploring the Chinese Rumours Online Phenomenon. In: Ribeiro, N., Schwarzenegger, C. (eds) Media and the Dissemination of Fear. Global Transformations in Media and Communication Research - A Palgrave and IAMCR Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84989-4_12

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