TY  - JOUR
AU  - Guan, Tianru
AU  - Chen, Xiaotong
JF  - Javnost-The Public
TI  - Moving away from the “Repression-Resistance” Paradigm: The Effects of Civil/Uncivil Disagreements on Political Deliberation in China
VL  - 30
IS  - 4
PY  - 2023
SN  - 1854-8377
PB  - EURICOM
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2023.2244843
N2  - This study engages in the academic effort of moving beyond the “repression-resistance” lens by shedding light on the civic function of exposure to cross-cutting arguments and their (in-) civility on individual’s expression willingness and discursive quality in China’s cyberspace. While civility and dissonant-viewpoint exposure are viewed as the hallmark of political deliberation and public sphere in most Western societies, whether their potential could be realised in a censored yet increasingly pluralist media space in China remains a question. Through experiment method (N = 1064), participants were exposed to dissonant (civil/uncivil) viewpoints that were selected, manipulated, and presented as original Weibo posts, regarding a controversial marital policy. Our results illustrate that exposure to civil yet reasoned cross-cutting information significantly provokes individuals’ willingness to engage in a manner of reciprocal civility. Implications are discussed for deliberation studies and internet governance.
U1  - Print ISSN: 1318-3222
ER  -