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Internet Mediated NGO Activity: How Environmental NGOs use Weibo in China / MATTHEW COLLINS

Swansea University Author: MATTHEW COLLINS

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DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.63585

Abstract

This thesis uses an interdisciplinary approach that draws on both the political science and media and communication fields to analyse how Chinese environmental NGOs use the microblogging site, Sina Weibo, in their online activism. The study of NGOs and how they use the internet in China is widesprea...

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Published: Swansea, Wales, UK 2023
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
Supervisor: Clarke, Gerard. and Wu, Yan.
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa63585
first_indexed 2023-06-05T12:36:06Z
last_indexed 2024-11-15T18:01:53Z
id cronfa63585
recordtype RisThesis
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spelling 2023-09-29T10:20:47.0803723 v2 63585 2023-06-05 Internet Mediated NGO Activity: How Environmental NGOs use Weibo in China 1c10d66008c97008363c86999bf0a89b MATTHEW COLLINS MATTHEW COLLINS true false 2023-06-05 This thesis uses an interdisciplinary approach that draws on both the political science and media and communication fields to analyse how Chinese environmental NGOs use the microblogging site, Sina Weibo, in their online activism. The study of NGOs and how they use the internet in China is widespread. However, in many cases, the way that NGOs in China work, both online and offline, has been analysed through the lens of traditional civil society and internet studies literature, which has mostly focused on the ability of NGOs, and the internet, to give rise to significant political change, and even democratisation.Through a mixture of thematic, network, and organisational analysis, this thesis investigates the communicative functions, themes, and use of interactive features in posts on Weibo, including the use of hashtags, retweets and @mentions. At the organisational level, the ways that NGOs engage with different actors, both online and offline, including fellow NGOs, government departments, their followers, and potential donors are interrogated using four case studies. These analyses found that although the political space afforded to environmental NGOs in China is severely constrained, and the operations of the NGOs could not be seen as overtly activist or confrontational in the traditional sense, the NGOs do in fact retain a certain amount of autonomy and are able to carve out some political space for themselves. The findings of this thesis therefore challenge the notion that NGOs in China are co-opted organisations without autonomy from the state and suggests that there is scope for digital activism by NGOs in an authoritarian context, even though the online and offline political space they inhabit may be tightly regulated and controlled. E-Thesis Swansea, Wales, UK China, Environmental NGO, Weibo, Social Media, Environmental Activism 28 4 2023 2023-04-28 10.23889/SUthesis.63585 A selection of third party content is redacted or is partially redacted from this thesis due to copyright restrictions. COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Clarke, Gerard. and Wu, Yan. Doctoral Ph.D ESRC 2023-09-29T10:20:47.0803723 2023-06-05T13:32:06.3013948 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Social Sciences - Politics, Philosophy and International Relations MATTHEW COLLINS 1 63585__27709__0552a66803214994880c249cf85f71ac.pdf 2023_Collins_M.final.63585.pdf 2023-06-05T13:38:29.7020272 Output 4672441 application/pdf Redacted version - open access true Copyright: The Author, Matthew Collins, 2023. Distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (CC BY-NC 4.0). true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
title Internet Mediated NGO Activity: How Environmental NGOs use Weibo in China
spellingShingle Internet Mediated NGO Activity: How Environmental NGOs use Weibo in China
MATTHEW COLLINS
title_short Internet Mediated NGO Activity: How Environmental NGOs use Weibo in China
title_full Internet Mediated NGO Activity: How Environmental NGOs use Weibo in China
title_fullStr Internet Mediated NGO Activity: How Environmental NGOs use Weibo in China
title_full_unstemmed Internet Mediated NGO Activity: How Environmental NGOs use Weibo in China
title_sort Internet Mediated NGO Activity: How Environmental NGOs use Weibo in China
author_id_str_mv 1c10d66008c97008363c86999bf0a89b
author_id_fullname_str_mv 1c10d66008c97008363c86999bf0a89b_***_MATTHEW COLLINS
author MATTHEW COLLINS
author2 MATTHEW COLLINS
format E-Thesis
publishDate 2023
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.23889/SUthesis.63585
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Social Sciences - Politics, Philosophy and International Relations{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Social Sciences - Politics, Philosophy and International Relations
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description This thesis uses an interdisciplinary approach that draws on both the political science and media and communication fields to analyse how Chinese environmental NGOs use the microblogging site, Sina Weibo, in their online activism. The study of NGOs and how they use the internet in China is widespread. However, in many cases, the way that NGOs in China work, both online and offline, has been analysed through the lens of traditional civil society and internet studies literature, which has mostly focused on the ability of NGOs, and the internet, to give rise to significant political change, and even democratisation.Through a mixture of thematic, network, and organisational analysis, this thesis investigates the communicative functions, themes, and use of interactive features in posts on Weibo, including the use of hashtags, retweets and @mentions. At the organisational level, the ways that NGOs engage with different actors, both online and offline, including fellow NGOs, government departments, their followers, and potential donors are interrogated using four case studies. These analyses found that although the political space afforded to environmental NGOs in China is severely constrained, and the operations of the NGOs could not be seen as overtly activist or confrontational in the traditional sense, the NGOs do in fact retain a certain amount of autonomy and are able to carve out some political space for themselves. The findings of this thesis therefore challenge the notion that NGOs in China are co-opted organisations without autonomy from the state and suggests that there is scope for digital activism by NGOs in an authoritarian context, even though the online and offline political space they inhabit may be tightly regulated and controlled.
published_date 2023-04-28T05:12:02Z
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score 11.089572

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