CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODS
3.2 Research Methods
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Generally speaking, All About Macau and Macau Concealers are in anti-establishment or democratic camp while “True. Love Macao” and UTV can be treated as pro-establishment or establishment media groups although more details about their political preference and the accurate background of each is needed to be further confirm by conducting in-depth interviews with their key members later.
Regarding the form of media content, UTV and Macau Concealers prefer releasing videos compared to the other two.
However, there are differences between the two media in same camp. When comparing All About Macau and Macau Concealers, both seem to have a similar standpoint, there are some slight differences in various aspects, for example, All About Macau is run by a group of reporters, commentators, and artists, unlike Macau Concealers which is managed by the affiliate of New Macau Association, which has one seat in the local Legislative Assembly. Therefore, the practices revealed in Macau Concealers － an online media outlet consistent with New Macau Association’s political stance on ‘anti-corruption, the struggle for democracy and the promotion of people's livelihoods. The topics covered by the former are more diverse than the latter.
Topics covered in All About Macau include social, political and cultural issues while Macau Concealers pays high attention to political events or government scandals and it also an player in some social action. Therefore, Macau Concealers is activist media according to Kuang’s view.
Regarding the pro-establishment camp, for example, UTV places more emphasis on the local community while True. Love Macao also pays attention to the politics in mainland China and Hong Kong, thus its content is more diverse and has a great deal of information about the Central Government on it.
The coverage of the four online media’s Facebook page can be seen in Appendix A: Screenshots, Nos 10,11,12 & 13.
3.2RESEARCHMETHODS
In this study two research methods are set to be applied, one is discourse analysis and semi-structured in-depth interviews.
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3.2.1 DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
Considering that Facebook is the main platform for the four online media in Macau to share their information thus posts about the protests are the study object of this study.
－SAMPLING
In order to analyse the posts about these protests, I shall set a specific period for collecting samples for each incident. However, I have not chosen the same period for data collection for all incidents considering that each of them lasted different lengths of time and the timing of the critical moment. To provide a better understanding of the protests I shall give a simple timeline of each incident.
Macau government proposed the perks bill in 2013 and the outline of the bill was approved by lawmakers in December that year. After a five-month committee level discussion, the bill was originally scheduled to be voted article by article on 29 May.
Simultaneously, Macau Concealers launched a campaign which asked netizens to post their photos along with slogans against the bill and an online group Macau Conscience also undertook serious action again the bill including submitting a petition. Until 25 and 27 May, the two collective actions occurred.
In an attempt to give a clear picture of how online media represented those protests thus I chose a specific period from which to collect the posts as a study subject in this paper.
Regarding the two protests in 2014 I shall set the time for the sampling for two weeks, from 18 May to 3 June, one week before and one week after the two protests.
Since some online campaigns had started earlier than 18 May and continued until the occurrence of the protest thus I choose to collect the sampling from 18 May. The posts from the two can help the general public to understand how online media describe the events and social movements and the meaning behind them. Concerning the time limitation. I used the Facebook search function which allows users to search past posts by month thus I elected to search all posts in May and June that the four online media released and then checked whether the related news was found from 18 May to 3 June.
In an initial check, it was found that there are about 670 posts in May and June and about 130 post about the incidents between 18 May to 3 June. Since UTV only started operating in 2016 there are no post from this media. Meanwhile, True. Love
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Macao had not posted anything in May and June although it started operating in early 2014. Therefore, all posts came from All About Macau and Macau Concealers.
Regarding the donation incident, the time for collecting post-sampling is set from 5 to 28 May. The outcry came after a news report by a mainland newspaper stated that Macau Foundation donated about TWD 480.4 million to Jinan University and local media including online media started to follow up the news in early May. Local groups paid attention to the matter including local pro-democracy youth group Youth Dynamics (澳門青年動力) who submitted a petition to the local graft-buster on 12 May calling for an investigation into whether Chui and Macau Foundation Council of Trustees had followed all the necessary procedures to avoid any conflict of interest. on 15 May various groups took to the streets. However, the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) said in a statement on 28 May that the there was no rule violation regarding the donation. Therefore, I chose to start collecting the posts from 5 to 28 May when the graft buster announced the donation was in line with the regulations. I shall also use the Facebook search function to check all posts of the four media uploaded in May and select those related to the incident.
After a preliminary check, there are a total of 76 posts related to the incident while there were about 410 posts released by the four media in May. UTV did not report the incident at all while True. Love Macao had one report about it.
However, concerning the legal process of the DQ case lasted for such a long time and the final result was only announced on 29 May 2018, thus I only chose five days which I believe to be critical moments in the case. I chose 13 and 14 November and 3 and 4, December 2017 and 29 May 2018. The Legislative Assembly announced on 3 November it would follow the court's suggestion to have a plenary meeting to discuss whether to suspend Sou from the Legislature and once Sou was suspended he would be able to attend the court. (A sitting Legislature cannot be prosecuted until he is suspended or loses an election). About 300 people joined the protest in support of Sou on 3 December, one day before the Legislative Assembly held a plenary session to vote on whether Sou should be suspended from the Legislature or not, and on 29 May the court announced the ruling over case. Since the case occurred last year and it is easy to search the daily posts on the Facebook pages of the four media.
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－TOPICS OF DISCOURSE ANALYSIS
When having an initial look on how the four online media reported the massive collective actions mentioned above, there has been a great deal of difference in the quantity and the quality, for example, Macau Concealers and All About Macau paid more attention to reporting social movements and other related matter than the other two. However, even the anti-democratic camp media have a different degrees of involvement in the situation.
When briefly analysing the posts about protests against the perks-bill and donation the terms such as “citizen” （公民）, “citizen awakening” (公民醒覺) “Macau people"
or sentences such as "Macau people have to unite to protect their home and public treasure", "Macau people will not keep silent anymore" and “Macau people have stood up and united to protect their home and public treasure”, as well opposing privileges, often appeared. Such descriptions are so different to what Lam said in her research that Macau people have been shaped to "love the country love Macau" and hate having conflict and are silent and they will not resist injustice because they love harmony.
Macau people are those people who just quietly made a living in Macau. Although they had been given the names of "patriotic, anti-colonialism and imperialism" by local newspapers during the period of the 1966 incident since they were encouraged to resist Portugal’s suppression. The author also said that after the incident, the term of "Macau people" became vague again and they were once again considered "silent" people who just quietly made a living in Macau and such a state had been kept until before and after the handover.
From such terms and sentences, a new image of “Macau people” seems to have appeared and they care more about the city in which they live, they will not keep silent when facing injustice and they consider they are owners of the city. In other words, today’s Macau people have come to realise who they are and their identity, they are more concerned about what the city is becoming. Through the collective actions, people of this city seem to have a shared identity and that may inspire locals to explore the subjectivity of the city. When more people in Macau realise who they are the more discussions about how the city should develop will be had.
When investigating the posts about the DQ case, sentences such as directly-elected lawmakers must be respected and Macau progresses meanwhile the terms such as
“Macau people”, “political persecution” were found. However, sentences such as
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“lawmaker violates law must be punished like an ordinary person” and “lawmaker has to obey the law”.
Regarding such stark differences, this paper will explore how the online media from two different camps used the terms such as “citizen”, “citizen awakening”,
“Macau people” in their posts about these incidents and their related anti-government actions and in what context they have been used. While analysing the use of such terms helps to recognise how the two online media camps represent those civic activism and whether there were any differences between the two camps.
3.2.2 SEMI-STRUCTURED IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS
Apart from the analysis of the posts about the actions by the four online media, I shall conduct semi-structured in-depth interviews with the key members of the four online media of the two camps, as well the main players in the protests. Here is a list of the names of the interviewees and the general outline of the interview. See table 3.1 TABLE 3.1: INTERVIEWEES LIST –PRO-ESTABLISHMENT AND PRO
Macau Concealers Vice-director cum Editor-in-chief-
Pro-democracy Loi Man
Keong 雷民強
UTV Director/ key member of local pro-establishment group
Pro-establishment
Unknown True. Love Macao Editor-in-chief Pro-establishment
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Regarding the two different media camps, I shall focus on questions related to how they view their role in social movements and civil society, and how their political preferences or attitude affect the contents they chose to write.
Here is the outline:
1. When setting up the media? Why set up it? Background? Why choose online-media?
2. What are the main contents of your news? Why choose this kind of news?
What are the criteria for sharing news or information? Why?
3. How do you define the role of your media? Why?
4. What do think about the ecology of online media?
5. Do you think the colonial background of Macau affects the landscape of online media? How and why?
6. Can you evaluate the relationship between your medium and social movements/NGOs?
7. How do you evaluate the politics or governmental influence on the operation of media?
8. What kind of civic society Macau should head towards? And the role of online media in it?
As each online media has its own conditions and characteristics I shall come up with tailored questions for each one (See Appendix B)
Apart from interviewees from the four online media, I shall also interview two main players from each civic activism mentioned. Regarding the interviews with the players of the social movements, the questions will be mainly associated with the interviewees' personal information and the turning point for them to take part in social movements.
The other questions will be related to what they think about social movements and civil society in Macau and whether the colonial history of Macau affects the online media landscape, social movements and civil society in the city. See table 3.2
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TABLE 3.2: INTERVIEWEES LIST – CIVIC ACTIVISM AND MAIN PLAYERS
Chao Teng
Interview outline for the civic activism players 1. Can you brief your personal background?
2. Why and how have you become the main player of this social movement?
3. How do you evaluate online media’s attitude towards this social movement?
4. What do think about the ecology of online media?
5. Do you think the colonial background of Macau affects the landscape of local online media? How and why?
6. What kind of civic society should Macau should head to?
7. What is the role of social movements and online media to civil society in Macau?