Masaryk university
ONLINE INTERVIEW WITH CHINESE MICROBLOG USERS
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- Findings
- Collective Action Involvement
- Weibo Slacktivism
ONLINE INTERVIEW WITH CHINESE MICROBLOG USERSIn the spring of 2012, I interviewed seven voluntary respondents online through instant message software. All interviews were conducted simultaneously through written communication. The researcher guaranteed the respondents’ anonymity. Interviews were conducted in Mandarin Chinese, saved in online chat history records, and later translated into English for analysis. All these interviews were semi-structured and open-ended. These interviews started with questions about the interviewees’ Weibo use patterns, Weibo activism use, followed by their involvement in online protests and other contentious political collective actions. The online interviews further highlighted the concept of slacktivism, which was a surprising finding from the survey results. In the end, three major questions were explored in these interviews: 1) What do you usually use Weibo for? 2) Have you joined in any collective action through Weibo? 3) What do you think about Weibo activism and slacktivism? Other issues related to this research were also discussed during the interviews. The questions listed above were intertwined throughout the interview. Out of the seven people interviewed, two were from Beijing, one was from Guizhou province, one was from Guangxi province, two were from Shanghai province, and one was from Guangzhou. The participants ranged in age from 20 to 45 years (Mean=32). Three were male, and the other four were female. All of the seven people had a bachelor’s degree or above. These participants have significantly high levels of education, due to several reasons: 1) Weibo users tend to be young people with higher education levels; 2) the online questionnaire used the snow-ball sampling technique. Thus, respondents with higher education levels are more likely to be socially connected with similar people, who have a similar education background; 3) people with higher education backgrounds are more interested in participating in social research, some of them had social research backgrounds, so they were interested to know about a peer’s work, as confirmed through interview. In sum, the interview sample was not randomly selected, and is not the representative of the general Weibo user population. However, the data collected from these respondents are valuable for seeing what is behind the survey responses, which are often a yes or no or a numerical response. It is at this micro-level that we can explore the meanings and motivations of social actors.
Survey data shows that Weibo is used by most people as an information channel. Our interview data further supports this finding and brings multiplicity into the picture too. Even though the respondents use Weibo as one of their main sources of information, they generally see it as a tool for entertainment. All the interviewees confirmed that Weibo is one of the main information sources they have, in addition to news websites. There was only one respondent who still watches TV. However, all the interviewees said that the main purpose of using Weibo is actually to get some information so as to have fun. One female employee currently working in a foreign company in Beijing said: “For me, Weibo is the mainstream media!” She said she is on Weibo 7 days a week whenever she has a computer and Internet cable. I haven’t read any newspaper or magazine for years; neither do I have a TV. Weibo has everything I want to know. Its news is much faster than that from other media. But the most attractive thing is that Weibo has more interesting information. You can find almost any kind of information you would ever imagine on Weibo. No matter whom you are or what you like, you will find your circle. Since Weibo as an information source depends on who the users follow, most of the interviewees said they follow some celebrities or public figures on Weibo. Four interviewees said that they think Weibo still has some way to go to become the mainstream media. Two interviewees said they think for Weibo users it is already as important as other any other media. One interviewee thought that Weibo was already mainstream media in China. As a 20-year-old student pursing an economics degree at a university in Shanghai, she claimed: Weibo affects other media such as newspapers and TV. There is a morning program on CCTV [Central China Television] that cites some comments from Weibo every day. Even other websites also quote the comments from Weibo. Youku [a Chinese video website like YouTube] also have a program to report the most up to date news originated from Weibo. All the interviewees said that they may forward Weibo activism issues from time to time, but politics or activism issues were not their main priority in using Weibo. “National affairs are none of my business,” said one of the interviewees. Joining in the popular muckraking and derision is just another form of entertainment for her. Besides, all of the posts she forwarded that related to Weibo activism were later deleted. So she thought Weibo could not make any difference in reality. One female interviewee who was still a master’s student said she would not post any sensitive information on Weibo because she wanted to enter into government or a government affiliated institution upon graduation. She was afraid that if she was found giving comments online that were subversive to the state or party, her future career as a government official would be threatened. She said: I never forward any posts related to politics on Weibo, because I’m afraid that I could be monitored by someone. It might leave black marks on my record. There were times when my QQ [Chinese instant message software] went strange every time I tried to log in. My computer technician friend told me I was being followed. I talked a lot about politics during that time, as I remember. Overall, Weibo was found to be an entertainment tool for the interviewees. They were generally not interested in using Weibo to receive and spread information about activism issues, even if they did forward some Weibo posts about activism issues before.
Even though the interviewees said they are not particularly concerned with Weibo activism issues, they will still forward online protest posts from time to time. The issues of online protest posts range from human rights problems and environmental issues to corruption and power abuse and nationalism. Two of the interviewees took part in Weibo-driven events that aimed at charity through forwarding related posts. One interviewee joined in a boycott of a French supermarket chain store, which was driven by nationalism. When it comes to Weibo’s role in collective action mobilization, one female interviewee who was still a master’s student in journalism said: We cannot compare ourselves with Western society in regards to collective action. For now, Weibo is only a platform for people to relatively freely express their thoughts and opinions. Massive offline protest must have a concrete initiation that will really motivate people to join. Sophisticated strategy and organization skills are essential to mobilize people. I think one of the biggest flaws Weibo has in mobilizing collective action is that it often directs people’s emotions to certain extremes and calling for action, but never makes any sensible analysis or solution on the issue concerned. However, I think Weibo is playing a positive role overall, by introducing alternative thoughts and opinions, as well as exposing facts to the public. A male interviewee who was a company employee had a more pessimistic view of Weibo’s role in collective action mobilization. He said: “The success rate of online protest, or any form of protest, might largely depend on their protest issue. For those that ask for fundamental change of the political system, they have very little chance to succeed.”
When it comes to Weibo slacktivism, all the interviewees believed that Weibo slacktivism is still better than no action. The effect of Weibo in disseminating news to wide public is stressed by the interviewees. One female undergraduate student from Shanghai said that: Even without Weibo, there would still be few people willing to protest or demonstrate in the street, unless they are desperate with their situation. Freedom of speech online was not improved because of Weibo. Censorship (on Weibo) will only become stricter as Weibo becomes more influential. However, Weibo still allows information that would be otherwise censored to spread online. However, it seems that Weibo censorship works on her effectively. While the world media was talking about the Wukan event last year, she never heard about the Wukan event on Weibo or from any of her friends. Another female interviewee, who held a positive opinion on Weibo slacktivism, said: Overall, I think Weibo has a positive effect in mobilizing people to join in collective action. First of all, people can at least get information about contentious issues that they would never have heard about in the pre-Weibo era. Then, more people will gather online to express their opinions. Protest can take various forms online. Even changing the profile picture is a demonstration of attitude. Then, some activists will be willing to personally join in collective action offline. However, I think offline activists are still quite limited. Overall, I think Weibo is promoting collective action in China. Without the information, how could anyone even take any action? One of the interviewees who disagreed with criticisms of Weibo slacktivism said: Weibo slacktivism still has an offline impact, as we witnessed in the outcome of various online collective actions. The Chinese government is attentive to popular opinions formed online. Collective action online can also have offline influence. The overwhelming online action is often pushing the government to be responsible. In China, where the democratic participation system is not well-developed, unofficial participation in Weibo or other Internet platforms serves as a complement to the current political system. Thus, as the interviewees said, even under strict censorship, Weibo is still better than nothing in regards to raising public concerns and mobilizing collective action.
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