CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODS
3.1 Research Questions
國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODS
3.1RESEARCHQUESTIONS
The aim of this study is to investigate the association between the online media and civic activism within Macau’s social context. I shall mainly focus on two aspects, one is how the colonial background of the city affects its online media, social movement and their correlation. Another is how the different viewpoint of online media affects civil society, whether they are the forces to propel the development of civil society or just a barrier to the development of civil society in Macau.
Following the discussions of previous studies on similar topics, this paper will analyse three research questions:
1. How do the online media represent civic activism and the differences between the two camps of online media?
2. How do the online media impact and mobilise civic activism and the differences between the two camps?
3. How do online media impact the development of local civil society?
In an attempt to analyse the questions, I shall choose some civic activism mainly ones that occurred in 2014 and 2017. One is the anti-perks bill protests and the other is the protest about the government’s donation to the mainland-based Jinan University.
Apart from those, I shall also include “DQ” case which is connected to the donation incident as a study subject. The DQ case, including an assembly, involves a lawmaker who underwent a legal process of “disqualified” or so-call DQ. In the following section, I shall explain why these incidents and the related civic activism were chosen.
－5.25 & 5.27 ANTI-PERKS BILL PROTESTS（反離補反特權）
May 2014 was considered momentous occasion to Macau society and it has been depicted as “Splendid May”. Two massive collective actions occurred on 25 and 27 May 2014, which were in protest of the government-proposed bill offering generous retirement benefits to the chief executive and other principal officials but denied to other public sector workers, have been regarded as a significant aspiration to the awakening of local Macau people (Chan,2014). The protests aimed at opposing lavish
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
retirement benefits and privileges to retired principal officials. After the two protests, the government withdrew the bill and the result has been regarded as "the victory for Macau citizens". One main organiser of the protests Macau Conscience, an online group, claimed in its statement that 2014 was "the year that citizens began to wake up"
and the protests showed that "Macau people are not to be silenced anymore".
Without public consultation on the bill, the Macau government submitted it to the Legislative Assembly in December 2013 and the outline of the bill was approved.
However, the bill had received much criticism after more details were revealed during committee level discussions including retired principals could receive over several million patacas as a one-off pension and the chief executive could be granted immunity from criminal penalty during his/her official term. Until 25 May over 20, 000 people took to the streets in opposition to the bill and demanded it be withdrawn. One day later, more than 7,000 people sat outside the Legislative Assembly when the lawmakers were supposed to have an article-by-article vote on the bill but instead of voting on whether to accept Chief Executive Chui Sai On's （崔世安） proposal they returned the bill to the committee for further discussion. According to police authority statements, the participants in both protests were less than 10,000. However, Chui suddenly announced the withdrawal of the bill on 29 May.
The two protests were the largest actions since 1989's assembly which drew about 50,000 participators to support the students' movement in Beijing19 and it was also the first time that over a thousand people surrounded the Legislative Assembly since the handover. After the protest on 27 May, flowers and bushes were planted in the square outside the Legislative Assembly to prevent any further protests from using it as a gathering point.
－5.15 ANTI GOVERNMENT’S DONATION OF 100 MILLION YUAN TO JINAN UNIVERSITY PROTEST （反利益輸送 崔世安下台）
However, almost two years later another important massive collective action also occurred in May in which the participants demanded the resignation of Chief Executive
19. 肥崔急撤《離補法》澳門人光輝五月 Retrieved from https://hk.news.appledail y.com/local/daily/article/20140530/18737608
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Chui Sai On and the public Macau Foundation to withdraw its controversial decision to donate 100 million yuan (estimated TWD 480.4 million) to Jinan University in Guangzhou. The activism aimed to protest against the transferring of benefits and demand Chui step down. A total of 17 local groups, comprising two ad-hoc alliances with about 5,000 participants took to the streets and opposed the system which allows
"pork barrels" by people or groups that are close to the key members of the foundation.
According to the police authority, about 1,100 demonstrators joined the two alliances.
Chui is a deputy chairman of the university's board of directors and the chairman of the Foundation's Council of Trustees. The protesters demanded Chui's resignation for alleged conflict of interest in granting the donation. Nevertheless, Chui neither resigned nor rescinded the decision. However, the unexpected consequence of this action was that directly-elected lawmaker Sou Ka Hou (蘇嘉豪) facing the risk of losing his Legislative Assembly seat. the so-call DQ (disqualified) lawmaker incident
－DISQUALIFICATION OF LAWMAKER （DQ議員）
In the demonstration against Macau Foundation’s donation, two key leaders of the protest Sou and Chiang Meng Hin （鄭明軒） had to attend the court to defend aggravate disobedience charges. The duo had been charged with disobeying a police order for having an assembly outside the residence of Chief Executive Chui Sai On after the end of the protest on 15 May. During the assembly activists had thrown paper planes into Chui’s residence’s gardens as they wanted to convey their appeal to Chui.
Sou, who was elected as a directly-elected lawmaker faced the risk of losing his seat if he was sentenced to 30 days in prison. Sou is one of the city’s 14 directly-elected lawmakers. Apart from those elected by universal suffrage there are 12 lawmakers that are elected by representatives from eligible association and seven appointed by the chief executive. Considering the importance of Sou’s case and how local media represented this case also shows how they view the democratic election system and what values they think that the city should uphold.
Within such short time from 2014 to 2016 and the two incidents had moved over several thousand participants to take to the streets although Macau economic situation was still fairly robust. Additionally, the participants asked the government for a response to their appeal. I believe the causes of the two incidents are worth investigating.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
During the process of the protests against the perks bill, we found that Macau Concealers (愛瞞日報))had come up with various ways to encourage netizens to take part in the protest on 25 May. Such behaviour had never been seen before. From these protests, we found that online media like Macau Concealers had not only been involved but also been one of the players. Another online media All About Macau (論 盡媒體) also seems to have lost its neutrality. Such a significant change from the traditional role that media should play such as being neutral to an active role in protests is worth looking into and investigate further. Furthermore, a possible consequence of the protest in 2016 could have been that a directly-elected lawmaker lost his post. I believe that online media in the city has a role affecting the matters and whole society.
In an attempt to look into such a change, I shall analyse how online media reports those events and what are the reasons behind their decisions in reporting them.
Considering limitations in human resources, I shall choose four local online media as research targets which have different political preferences regarding their content. The four online media outlets have been operating for a long period with a relatively high number of followers and their emphasis of news reports.
－PRO-DEMOCRACY CAMP All About Macau （論盡媒體）
All About Macau is an independent local news media. Initially in 2010, it was just did a weekly news reports about various social issues published in a local weekly newspaper Son Pou （訊報）. Son Pou is published both online and in print. All About Macau’s slogan is ‘independence, justice, conscience, diversity', and its aim is to ‘explore alternative methods and social practices that allow voices to be heard in Macau'. In 2012, All About Macau media was established as an independent media outlet and launched its website: AAMacau.com.
Except for the release of sports news on its Facebook page and the weekly report about various issue in Son Pou, from 1 May 2015, All About Macau has been
publishing the very first monthly journal, enriching the coverage gradually, including live reports, features, news analysis, art commentaries, interviews, sharing other news outlets' contents, constantly enlarging media space and increasing social impact. The
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
news outlet's Facebook page was set up in 2012 has gained 43,620 likes and 43,620 followers recorded in Februry 2019.
Macau Concealers（愛暪日報）
The first edition of Macau Concealers was published in November 2005 as the 31st issue of New Macau (a monthly journal published by the local political group －New Macau Association). Mimicking the design of Macao News Daily—the dominant Chinese language newspaper in the city— Macau Concealers, on the other hand, comments on news sarcastically. Macau Concealers endeavours to report on things that people do not know in Macau and started to publish independently in November 2010. Its Facebook page was set up in 2005 and until February 2019 it has obtained 103,869 likes and 106,189 followers. Except for the continuous release of the one-page printed publication, Macau Concealers has turned its focus to its Facebook page in which sports news, opinions and live broadcasts, as well as sharing other news outlets' contents. Now the print version of Macau Concealers has changed from being published quarterly to.
－PRO-ESTABLISHMENT CAMP UTV （澳門網絡媒體）
UTV has a website, Facebook page and YouTube channel. According to the records in February 2019, there have been 10,572 likes and 11,155 followers. Its YouTube channel, which was created in 2011, had up to February 2019, 298 subscribers. But it only started to release posts in April 2015. As described on its official webpage, UTV means Your TV and it is the first digital TV channel focusing on current social issues. Now it has three main programmes: “Neighbourhood Focus",
"Youth. Talk" and "Stories of a Small City" providing multi-angle views on what has happened in the city. In order to help local residents and Chinese people all over the world to better understand Macau, this online media promises that it will create more channels to provide news on hot issues and information about the city.
Unveiled on its webpage, “Neighbourhood Focus” places emphasis on the critics and opinions on current issues by inviting guests who are well-known in local society.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
Another programme "Youth. Talk" aims to provide a platform for local youths to take part in discussions on political matters and has guests such as lawmakers, scholars and government officials are invited to attend the programme to discuss political matters with local youths. The other programme "Stories of a Small City" covers stories about Macau people and tells people about hardworking and passionate local residents.
According to the website, one of its key members is also a board member of Macau's most influential association and pro-establishment group – Macau General Association of Neighbourhood Unions, commonly known as Kai Fong.
True. Love Macao（真·愛澳門）
As described on its Facebook page True. Love Macao aims to share information, produce a good page and construct a good society. It also states that “[If you] Love Macau please give it time to let it grow slowly.”
The Facebook page of True. Love Macao was founded in 2004 but it published its first post in May 2014, according to its Facebook page. Based on the record of February 2019 there have been 6,517likes and 6,542 followers. The page’s main emphasis is on sharing local news reports that were published in the city's Chinese language newspapers, the government-owned broadcaster TDM – radio and TV, CCTV and private broadcasters such as MASTV. Simultaneously, this page also shares news releases or videos by the local government. Not only sharing information the page also releases so-called "warm notices" in which it reminds people to take care of others and give help to those people who are in need or it publishes articles on various themes such information about the Macau SAR’s Basic Law.
These four online media have similar characteristics but are also differential from one other. According to an initial observation of the content of the four online media, All About Macau and Macau Concealers, seem close to Kuang’s view of "alternative"
while the latter two are closer to Kuang’s view of the value of the mainstream (Kuang 2015). All About Macau and Macau Concealers also prefer reporting “alternative”
voices from the marginalised groups including the non-local workers while the latter two prefer promoting government policies and measures and encouraging stories to promote “good things and good people”. Their standpoints often seem to be the same as the government when there are social conflicts.
‧ 國
立 政 治 大 學
‧
N a tio na
l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y
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.