衰退的公民媒體：澳門的網路媒體對公民行動的再現與影響 - 政大學術集成

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(1)政治⼤學國際傳播⼤學傳播英語碩⼠學位學程 International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies College of Communication National Chengchi University. 碩⼠論⽂ Master’s Thesis. 政治大. 立衰退的公民媒體：. ‧ 國. 學. 澳⾨的網路媒體對公民⾏動的再現與影響. ‧. Declining Civil Media: The online media’s representations and impacts on civic activism in Macau. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. e. i. i n U. v. c h Ian Sio Tou 研究⽣：甄⼩島 n g Student: 指導教授：劉昌德 Advisor: Prof. Liu Chang-De. 中華民國⼀〇⼋年二⽉ Feb 2019. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(2) 衰退的公民媒體：澳⾨的網路媒體對公民⾏動的再現與影響 Declining Civil Media: The online media’s representations and impacts on civic activism in Macau. 研究⽣：甄⼩島. Student: Ian Sio Tou. 政治大. 指導教授：劉昌德 Advisor: Prof. Liu Chang-De. 學. ‧ 國. 立. 國立政治大學. ‧. 國際傳播英語碩士學位學程. n. al. y er. io. sit. Nat. 碩士論文. Ch. A Thesis. i n U. v. e n g cMaster’s h i Program in Submitted to International International Communication Studies National Chengchi University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement For the degree of Master of Arts. 中華民國⼀〇⼋年二⽉ Feb 2019. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(3) Acknowledgement I am most grateful to my advisor, Chang-De Liu, for his constant guidance, patience, inspiration and encouragement. I would like to express my thanks to professor Nien-Hsuan Fang and Hsin-Hsing Chen for giving me advice in refining the content and English academic writing. Enormous gratitude to all my interviewees, namely Chao Teng Hei, Chiang Meng Hin, Choi Chi Chio, Lei Kuok Keong, Loi Man Keong, Ng Sio Ngai and Sou Ka Hou. Without their assistance this paper could not have been finished. I would also like express my sincere gratitude to those I met on Chengchi University campus who had been shoulders to cry on during my times of frustration and anxiety, as well as sharing. 政治大 Finally, I would like to thank to my friends and family, without their support I could 立 my happiness and excitement during the journey to complete this longstanding thesis. not have started my studies in Taiwan or completed them.. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(4) Abstract This study examines how different viewpoints, political preferences in which can be simply considered as pro-establishment and pro-democracy, of online media in Macau affect social movements, particularly civic activism against the government in the city. Posts from four online media in Macau, how they represent significant social issues and the related civic activism that occurred in 2014, 2016 and 2017 are analysed. Moreover, this paper explored the attitude of key people of the online media outlets towards social movements and civil society, as well as main players of those campaigns through in-depth interviews. The findings of this research reveal that online media in Macau can be roughly classified as two main camps – pro-democracy and pro-. 政治大 they play or the contents they released, as well as their starkly opposite attitudes 立 establishment and they have been becoming more diversified, regardless of the role. towards civic activism in the city. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the influence. ‧ 國. 學. of the pro-establishment camp seems to be growing while the latter seems to be declining due to the skyrocketing economy due to the booming gaming industry so that. ‧. many public resources have been allocated to pro-establishment groups to run their. y. Nat. online media. Interviewed members of two media camps stated that it is difficult for. sit. online media to mobilise people to become involved in any massive actions opposing. al. n. influential in building local civil society.. Ch. engchi. er. io. the government, while interviewed activists also regard online media as not being. i n U. v. Keywords: civic activism, civil society , online media, social movements. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(5) TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................1 1.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................1 1.2 Research Background........................................................................................5 1.3 Research Purpose and Thesis Structure ........................................................... 14 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................... 17 2.1. The Development of Social Movements ......................................................... 17 2.2 The Interaction between Social Movements and Online Media ........................ 25. 政治大 3.1 Research Questions ......................................................................................... 34 立. CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODS ............................... 34. ‧ 國. 學. 3.2 Research Methods ........................................................................................... 40 CHAPTER 4 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ..................................................... 47. ‧. 4.1 Online Media Operations and Development .................................................... 47. sit. y. Nat. 4.2 Two Online Media Camps Represent Civic Activism & DQ Case ................... 59. io. er. 4.3 Online Media Impact on Civic Activism ......................................................... 70 4.4 Activists’ Views on Online Media Influence and Online Media and Civil Society ............................................................................................................................. 79. n. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION ................................................................................ 96 5.1 Summary of Findings ...................................................................................... 96 5.2 Limitations And Future Research .................................................................. 100. REFERENCES ..................................................................................................... 103 APPENDICES ...................................................................................................... 107. i. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(6) List of Tables Table 3.1. Online Media Interviewees ……………….……………………………..44 Table 3.2. Civic Activism Interviewees ………………….…………………………46 Table 4.1 Reports about the Cases by each online media ..........................................60. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. ii. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(7) CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 INTRODUCTION It is believed that the massive protest on 25th May 2014 not only shocked Macau government with its huge number of the protestors but also awakened the government and the whole society to think about how and why it occurred and was supported by many people. This largest protest after Macau returned to mainland China in 1999, in which the organiser claimed that over 20,000 participants sat in front in the Legislative Assembly (AL), expressed their outrage at a government-drafted bill regulating the welfare and benefits for retired high-ranking officials including the chief executive. However, according to the police authority, there were just about 7,000 people took. 政治大 Apart from its social and political meaning, how this protest, or anti-perks bill 立. part in the rally.. protest as called by Macau media in general, had been reported in traditional media and. ‧ 國. 學. online media as well as drawing the public’s attention. Such a massive social campaign not only impressed the general public with its numbers and its appeals but also how the. ‧. local media interpreted and represented it. However, there has not yet been much. y. Nat. research comparing the online media and traditional print media in reporting the. al. er. io. contents and forms of print media and online media. sit. incident. Nevertheless, a stark difference between both was seen when comparing the. v i n online media outlets reported it,C I found online media outlets, namely Macau h e nthatgtwo chi U n. Taking this protest as a case in comparing the way the print media outlets and. Concealers(愛暪日報) and All About Macau (論盡媒體), continuously updated their. social network -Facebook page on the latest developments in the protest, while the former even had live-streamed the protest. These two online media outlets kept updating netizens about the protest with text, videos and photos on their Facebook pages. However, most print media outlets just released news about the protest the next day. According to the data provided by All About Macau, on the day the protest occurred, it had composed six posts and released 53 photos updates of the latest development of the march during the demonstration which lasted about eight hours. Those updates received 4,520 likes, 518 shares and 15 comments. Facebook functions not only allow people to express their views, ideas and comments but also, they are able 1. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(8) to express their emotions with emojis and interact with others. One of the comments stated that “If I don’t take part in this protest I will regret it for my whole life”1 and other response stated “Overthrow corrupted officials”2. Through the social network site, people not only showed their attitude towards the protest but it also allowed them to interact with others. Within such new form in receiving and reacting to contents from the media, whether or not there it affects an on-going incident, whether such change can become a power to move people to express their opinions and even take online action and whether such a space can become a public sphere for people to discuss social issues and policies, all these questions need to be addressed. On the same day, another online media Macau Concealers had also composed six. 治政 and photos received 19,355 likes, 1,206 comments and大 994 shares. Besides the posts 立 and photos, Macau Concealers also released two videos which lasted a total of about posts and 20 photos to update people on the latest situation of the march. Those updates. ‧ 國. 學. five minutes, which received 4,400 likes and 353 shares. Among the comments one stated that "We must continue taking action to show them our determination," 3while. ‧. another stated that "Today's incident strongly shows us that sheep-like people produce the wolf-alike government"4.. Nat. sit. y. However, a total of eight articles were published the day after the protest by eight. er. io. local Chinese language newspapers including two opinion articles. Of the eight print media outlets only newspapers – Macao Daily News(澳門日報), Seng Pou (星報) and. al. n. v i n Cheng Pou (正報) put the protest C has their front pageUheadline while the three other engchi newspapers –Vakio Daily(華僑報), Shimin Daily(市民報) and Taichung Daily (大眾. 報) put three lawmakers calling for a review of the bill as their front page story while Sanvaou Daily (新華澳報) and Exmoo News (力報) published opinion articles about. 1. Source : https://www.facebook.com/allaboutmacau/posts/661541847244323. Also, see screenshot NO.1 on Appendix A. 2. Source : https://www.facebook.com/allaboutmacau/posts/661541847244323. Also, see screenshot NO.2 on Appendix A. 3. Source : https://www.facebook.com/macauconcealers/photos/a.538666702869102. 1073741826.153478958054547/655275611208210/?type=3&theater. Also, see screen shot NO.3 on Appendix A. 4. Source : https://www.facebook.com/macauconcealers/photos/a.538666702869102. 1073741826.153478958054547/655275611208210/?type=3&theater. Also, see screen shot NO.4 on Appendix A. 2. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(9) the protest. When just simply comparing the quantity and form of the contents of the protest that online and print media published, there were very obvious differences found. When such a stark variance is just directly clashing with the print media outlets, it is necessary to carry an in-depth study on the emergence of the online media and their impact on the traditional media and the media ecology, as well as to society. Liu and Lou (2010) mentioned that the eight government-subsidised Chinese language newspapers have not fully utilised their role of supervising the government. They urged that with the diversified ways of using the Internet the city's netizens have become empowered to make dialogue and take part in actions (Liu & Lou, 2010). While another scholar said that the most representative online alternative media in Macau are. 治政大 are the research targets of this study. 立 However, regarding such a massive protest, some online media including True.. Macau Concealers and All About Macau Media (Su, 2017) and these two online media. ‧ 國. 學. Love Macao (真・愛澳門), which is also research target of this paper did not report anything. Even from May 7 to July 10 there was no news or shares about this incident5.. ‧. With using the case of action against the perks bill, we can find how different the traditional print media and online media work regarding the form and content when. y. Nat. sit. reporting the incident. However, there are different online media outlets, which have. er. io. different viewpoints from Macau Concealers and All About Macau, that seem to lean. al. towards being pro-establishment and establishment. Now I take a case that occurred. n. v i n late in 2017 about a directly-elected Ka Hou （蘇嘉豪） facing the C h lawmaker Sou U engchi possible disqualification from his post to show that online media had a different standpoint when dealing with the incident and what comments were left on their Facebook page. The issue of disqualifying a lawmaker was one visible consequence of the protest against the government’s donation to Jinan University in 2015. Sou was one of the key leaders of the anti-Jinan donation campaign and he was elected in 2017's legislative election. At the time of writing this thesis, he was suspended from his position in the Legislature because of the charge of the aggravate disobedience since he was accused of disobeying orders issued by the police authority in the protest against the donation decision. Sou resumed his duty in July 2018.. 5. Source : https://www.facebook.com/pg/true.lovemacao/posts/?ref=page_internal. Also, see screenshot NO.5a,5b & 5c on Appendix A. 3. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(10) On 13 November 2017, True. Love Macao released videos and an opinion article titled “lawmaker violates law must be punished like an ordinary person” and two comments stated, "[He] deserves it”.6 The video titled “Use 2.5 minutes to understand why ‘lawmaker who violates the law must be punished like an ordinary person'". Furthermore, the opinion article has been published twice. 7Meanwhile, another online media UTV（澳門網絡媒體）, which is also a target research media for this paper just shared a post from Macau Cable TV about Sou and there was no follow-up information about the ongoing case8. A comment left under the post was “[He] deserves it”.9 However, All About Macau and Macau Concealers paid continuous attention to the development of the case. Further elaboration about the differences that the four online media made while reporting this case will be further discussed in Chapter 4.. 政治大 and expand the way for people to voice their opinions on public issues. With the rise of 立 online media which have a starkly different standpoint and whether they will become The emergence of online media is usually expected to improve the “public sphere”. ‧ 國. 學. forces to propel local civil society to develop healthily, and provide the general public with more channels to supervise the government in a more transparent way or the. ‧. opposite, should be addressed in this paper.. However, as observed it was seen that there has been very little academic research. y. Nat. sit. about the impact of online media on Macau's civil society. Thus, in this paper, I am. er. io. going to investigate whether the city's online media has a role in promoting people to. al. take part in massive social campaigns or movements and propel the development of. n. v i n civil society for the benefit of the In this thesis, I shall focus on some of Clocal U h e society. i h n c g them including the four online media outlets mentioned above to see how they develop, their limitations, how their news reports or the information they share, is distinguished from each other, as well as looking into the association between their news reports and significant social issues and the related social campaigns, which mainly occurred between 2014 and 2017, namely the anti-perks bill and anti-Jinan University donation.. 6. Source: https://www.facebook.com/pg/true.lovemacao/posts/?ref=page_internal. Al so, see screenshot NO.6 on Appendix A. 7. Source: https://www.facebook.com/true.lovemacao/videos/vb.756251414437439/1 619605791435326/?type=2&theater. Also, seescreenshot NO.7 on Appendix A. 8. Source: https://www.facebook.com/true.lovemacao/videos/vb.756251414437439/1 619605791435326/?type=2&theater. Also, seen screenshot NO.8 on Appendix A. 9. Source: https://zh-tw.facebook.com/pg/utvmacau/posts/?ref=page_internal. Also, se e screenshot NO.9 on Appendix A. 4. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(11) 1.2 RESEARCH BACKGROUND In an attempt to find out the answers to these questions, the first thing I needed to do in my thesis was to explore Macau society, its political system and economic situation.. 1.2.1 MACAU’S SOCIETY, POLITICAL SYSTEM AND ECONOMY Macau is a small city with a high-density population and currently there are 648,500 people living and working in the city of 30.5 square metres. Excluding nonlocal residents and non-local students working and studying in the city, there were 537,018 local residents in August 2016, up by 10 percent from 2011. Non-resident. 政治大 up by 67.7 percent and 89.2 立percent respectively, together accounting for 17.5 percent. workers and non-local students living in Macau totalled 104,464 and 9,352 respectively,. ‧ 國. 學. of the total population. The official data also show that population of Chinese ethnicity totalled 575,585, accounting for 88.4 percent of the total population, down by 3.8 percentage points from 2011. Meanwhile, those of Portuguese ethnicity totalled 9,024,. ‧. with its proportion in the total population rising by 0.5 percentage points from five. y. Nat. years ago to 1.4 percent. Due to an increasing number of people coming to work, study. sit. or reside in Macau, the proportion of the population of non-Chinese ethnicity went up. er. io. from 7.7 percent in 2011 to 11.6 percent in 2016, and the majority were Filipinos and. al. n. v i n C h 577,107, taking population of Chinese ethnicity totalled e n g c h i U up 88.7 percent of the total Vietnamese, comprising 4.6 percent and 2.4 percent of the total population. The. population, down by 3.7 percentage points from 2011. Those of Portuguese ethnicity totalled 11,715, with its proportion in the total population increasing by 0.3 percentage points to 1.8 percent. When reviewing the history of the development of Macau's population this city has a strong connection with mainland China. Regarding the composition of Macau population, Chinese ethnicity is the dominant group. China resumed its rule over the Portuguese colony of Macau on December 20, 1999, after Portuguese sailors first claimed this "fishing village" as their home territory more than four centuries ago. Basically, the history of Macau is one of immigration and immigrants. Academics have different views on when people started to settle in Macau. Chang (2000) said officials and soldiers from Fujian and Zhejiang fled to Macau and from then people formally settled in Macau from the end of the Song Dynasty. However, 5. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(12) scholar Tan (1996) said that there was no historical evidence supporting the conclusion that there had been people formally settling down since a group of officials and soldiers of the Southern Song Dynasty moved in (Shi, 1996). Tan (1996) also said based on the current popular crucial viewpoints of Chinese and non-Chinese academic groups that Macau had been a port between 1535 and 1557 in the Ming Dynasty. Historian Huang (1987) said in his research Macau was leased to Portugal in 1564 (Huang, 1987). In their book: Analysis on Macao’s New Immigrants from Mainland China, the authors Wong and Cheng said that people living on the island were the immigrants from the regions nearby or the result of internal migration (Wong & Cheng, 2005). Macau had experienced rise and falls in population growth since it became a port, when in 1640 its population reached 40,000, Macau’s population reach a peak for the first time.. 治政大 in 1743 the Qing Dynasty the instigator of Macau reaching its golden age. However, 立 government further restricting Portuguese activities in Macau which resulted in the Meanwhile, the introduction of production technology brought with the Portuguese was. ‧ 國. 學. first-ever huge reduction in its population and the number decreased to 5,500 while about 3,500 were Portuguese traders. Macau had also been a transition hub for unskilled. ‧. labourers from the mainland China trafficked to European and American countries during the Ming Dynasty.. Nat. sit. y. The city even recorded its population as being more than a hundred thousand,. er. io. amounting 193,175, in 1924 as many refugees from mainland China fled to Macau due to an uprising in Guangzhou (Chang, 2000). During the Second World War as Portugal. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. declared its "neutral" status thus Macau became a shelter for refugees from mainland. engchi. China and thus its population increased from 140,000 in 1938 to 400,000 in 1940, reaching another historical peak (Chang, 2000). Zhang (2003) said in his research that the number of refugees increased twice from 120,000 to 245,200 within three years from 1936. During the 1960s and 1970s during the mainland’s “Cultural Revolution" many mainlanders immigrated to Macau legally or illegally. Mainlanders continued to immigrate to Macau after China opened its doors (Chan, 1999). Simultaneously, a great number of overseas Chinese from Southeast Asian countries were forced to leave their homes vis-à-vis the unstable political situation while some of them chose to settle in Macau. Wong and Cheng (2005) said in their book that there were 55,000 overseas Chinese entering Macau in the first half of 1962. From 1960 to 1993, Macau’s population recorded an increase of 226,000 while 122,800 of them were immigrants. 6. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(13) After the mainland China government started its open-door policy in 1979 Macau recorded it’s first-ever high number of so-call “new immigrants” from mainland China. Quoting Penny Chan’s definition of “new immigrants” which referred to those mainlanders who entered Macau illegally or legally after 14 January 1979, following the former Chinese communist party leader Deng Xiaoping setting the train in motion for the transformation of China's economy when he announced a new "open door" policy in December 1978. However, Wong and Cheng defined “new immigrant” as those “who migrated from China legally and had settled down in Macau less than 7 years” (Wong & Cheng, 2005, p.14). In their research about illegal immigration Shyi and Weng (2003) said between 1979 and 1981Macau’s population increased a lot and many of them were. 治政大of illegal immigrants from was the official record of their numbers. The arrivals 立 mainland China increased Macau population but failed to be shown in 1982's illegal immigrants from Guangdong and other provinces of mainland China and there. ‧ 國. 學. Population Census in which a population of only 241,729 was recorded since those people were hidden. Nevertheless, Macau government corrected the figure and replaced. ‧. it with 295,300 (Wong & Cheng, 2005).. Much research stated that Macau is not only a city of immigrants but also an. Nat. sit. y. associational society. According to the latest official figures, there were 7,533. er. io. associations (shetuan, or non-governmental organisations, non-profitable organisations) registered in 2016 while in 1999 there were 1,730. Based on the total of the local. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. population recorded in 2016, the ratio between the local population and the number of. engchi. associations is about 140 associations per ten thousand people or an association for every 71 people. “Associations, comprising groups of like-minded citizens sanctioned, recognised and funded by the government, have long occupied a unique position within Macao’s polity” (Lam & Scott, 2011). Lou (2013) said the ratio between the local population and associations which is calculated based on 2012's figures every 103 people have an association and such a ratio could compete with western countries which have a well-developed civil society. The scholar also said the roles of Macau associations was diversified and they have social and political functions and some of them have "quasi-government" and "quasi-party" roles. The Macao Chamber of Commerce, the Macau Federation of Trade Unions (Gung Luen), the General Union of Neighbourhood Associations (Kai Fong) and the Women’s General Association of Macau (Fu Luen), are regarded as the four most influential, 7. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(14) conservative and pro-Beijing government associations in the local community, have been in existence for decades and those associations were established to “serve as bastions of political and social stability and act as a bridge between the government and citizens and they have specific characteristics related to the role” (Lam & Scott, 2011, P.75). Such associations have high representation in a variety interests in the city and they have continued to “be embedded and important in the post-1999 political order although not to the same extent as they had been under the colonial system. Historically, they mediated between Portuguese political elites and the Chinese community and were an important voice in the Legislative Assembly with many of their leaders elected for the functional seats where they controlled the vote” (Lam & Scott, 2011, P.75). In delineating local associations’ history in political participation local lawmaker. 政治大 Portuguese polity was too far 立away for the local Chinese community or associations to Ng Kuok Cheong said that from the mid-20th century although the reality that Macau-. ‧ 國. 學. reach but they had their own source for political participation, which was the result of the agnosticism between the Chinese communist party and Kuomintang. Thus, the local Chinese community which supported the Beijing government had been active in. ‧. associational activities and being against local associations supported by the. y. Nat. Kuomintang government in Taipei. In late 20th century, the pro-Beijing camp had. n. al. Ch. er. io. associations began registering (Ng, 2013).. sit. started openly participating in local politics thus many pro-Beijing or leftist. i n U. v. The four associations have representatives in the city’s important electoral. engchi. committees and advisory councils such as the Chief Executive Election Committee. They also have representatives in Legislative Assembly, taking both directly and indirectly-elected seats. Those associations receive huge annual subsidies for welfare services and their operations. In Macau only eligible associations have the right to vote for the representatives in the Election Committee and indirectly-elected lawmakers. According to the latest official figure, 865 of those associations have right to vote for indirectly-elected lawmakers and take part in the election of the chief executive.In terms of the explanation of Keane's definition of civil society, non-governmental institutions play an important role. However, in his article, Lou also mentioned that Macau associations were facing many problems and challenges including low representation because of the reduction in members (Lou, 2013).. 8. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(15) Although China resumed rule over Macau the city still keeps it social and political systems in accordance with the principle of "One Country, Two Systems". Macau retains its capitalist system, legislative assembly and supreme court while the chief executive is top official of the city. Under "One Country, Two Systems" Macau administrative hierarchical structure is composed of chief executive, secretariats, bureaus, departments and divisions. Lou (2013) stated Macau had changed its status of being a colony to “land under the governance of Portugal” since the promulgation of Macau Organisation Statute, in 1975. Although Macau has a legislative assembly, not all lawmakers are elected directly. According to the official websites of the committee for the Legislative Assembly election, the city's top legislative body increased by 10 members from 1999, the 1st. 治政大 and seven appointed by legislators comprise 14 directly-elected, 12 indirectly-elected 立 the chief executive after the amendments to the current election regulation in 2012.. Legislative Assembly after the handover in which there were 23 members. The 33. ‧ 國. 學. The website of the committee for the chief executive election states that currently there are only 400 permanent residents who have the right to vote for the city's top. ‧. official and those were elected from eligible associations from various sectors including the labour, business and professional, as well as some lawmakers and local. Nat. sit. y. representatives of the National People’s Congress (NPC). The first chief executive of. er. io. the Macau Special, Administrative Region was elected by just 300 members of the Chief Executive Election Committee. According to the latest amendments, a total of. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. 400 Macau residents have the right to vote for the chief executive now. In recent years,. engchi. Macau people have continuously been appealing for universal suffrage in the chief executive and legislative elections. Macau's economy has been experiencing ever rapid development since after it liberalised the gambling sector by issuing more licences in 2002 by increasing five more new licenses. The official data shows that the city’s gaming sector has about 80 percent of the city’s gaming revenue. in December 2017 the city’s gross gaming revenue recorded 22,699 million patacas (estimated TWD 83,711.64 million), an increase of 17.9 percent year-on-year. The city’s median wage is 15,000 patacas (estimated TWD 55,308). According to the latest official figures, the city's GNI per capita recorded in 2015 was 520,004 patacas (US$64,725.41, estimated TWD 1,979,467.5) while it was just 282,295 patacas (US$35,137.54, estimated TWD 1,154,619,56) in 2008. According to 9. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(16) the figure released by World Bank Macau's GNI per capita recorded at US$ 68,030 (estimated TWD 2,015,250.3) in 2017, ranking 10th among 216 countries or regions. Meanwhile, the price of properties in the private market has been continuously increasing and more and more local residents have difficulty purchasing a flat in the city.. 1.2.2 MASS MEDIA AND ONLINE MEDIA IN MACAU According to the Government Information Bureau (GCS), there are a total of 66 periodical publications registered in the bureau10. Over the past decade, not only the print media but also the online media in this city have developed quickly at unexpected. 治政 Internet has a role in the social movement, as well as on大 civil society. The existing literature立 proposed that Macau’s mainstream media including the. rate. There is a great deal of existing literature proposing that the development of the. ‧ 國. 學. traditional print and digital media often employed a conservative reporting strategy to ignore, dilute or object to these social movements when they responded to these. ‧. grassroots social movements in order to maintain the legitimacy of the ruling class (Tam, 2003, Liu and Lei, 2008).. Nat. sit. y. In recent years Macau media have not only changed in quantity but also in their. io. er. form of spreading information. The development of digital technologies resulted in various forms of media and meanwhile online media, which has sprung up around the. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. world and such alternative media or independent media, have also appeared in Macau.. engchi. Macau launched its public telecoms service in 1977 and four years later it privatised it, according to a statement about the development progress of the city’s communication and information technologies published on the official website of Macau Post and Telecommunications Bureau (CTT) - the city’s regulator of telecom services. Macau has fully digitalised its phone service network in 1991, three years later after the launch of the city’s mobile phone service or 2G service while the 3G mobile phone service was launched in 2007. 10. According to GCS, there are 18 daily newspapers, 13 in Chinese, two in English a nd three in Portuguese, 20 weekly journals and 17 monthly journals while in 2001, the re were only 46 in total. As mentioned in the government's 2008 Year Book that “alth ough Macau was small its media industry was quite “prosperous” and over the past de cade the number of a daily newspaper in the Chinese language has increased from nin e to 13 nowadays, about 30 percent. 10. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(17) Meanwhile, two more telecom companies started in 2001 and terminated the monopoly of the city's telecom service - Companhia de Telecomunicações de Macau (CTM) – which had been existing for 31 years de facto although officially the company was given a 20-year monopoly. The Internet service has been in Macau since 1995 and five years later the broadband Internet service came in to use and the high-speed fibre Internet service was started in 2010. According to the latest official figures from the DSEC, Internet subscribers were recorded at 397,000 and grew by 9.1 percent year-on-year in December 2017. The duration of the Internet usage was 108 million hours in December 2017 and went up by 14.7 percent year-on-year. Ten years ago, the number of Internet subscribers was just 128, 502 while the duration of the Internet usage was just 252, 912. 治政大 rate was 81.6 percent, 499,900, up by 6.2 percent year-on-year; the Internet penetration 立 up by four percent. in 2008.DESC data showed that in 2016 Macau Internet users aged 3 and above totalled. ‧ 國. 學. According to the 18th annual report about the Internet usage of Macau residents conducted by Macao Association for Internet Research (MAIR) showed that there were. ‧. about 510,000 netizens, an increase of about 20,000 compared to 2016 (MAIR. 2018). WeChat, Facebook, YouTube and forums were the most popular social network sites. sit. y. Nat. (SNS).. er. io. It seems that there has not been much research about the development of the city's online media and there has been no official record of the exact number of online media.. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. However, the development of the online media and their influence are undeniable and. engchi. unignorable. As observed, there are a number of online media and one of them has even recorded over 100,000 likes and followers on its Facebook page. With the search engine WiseNews using the keywords - Macau online media in Chinese characters – to search all Chinese language newspapers included in the engine from 2001 to 19 February 2018, the first time the term Macau online media appeared in a newspaper was on 12 December 2014. The newspaper is Chinese language newspaper in Hong Kong Ming Pao Daily News. Meanwhile, the first time the term appeared in a local newspaper was on 12 May, 2015, and then the newspaper was Journal San Wa Ou. On 29 December 2015, the term appeared for the first time on Taiwan’s Yahoo webpage and on 17 December 2017, it was found in Taiwan Apply Daily for the first time. The term has been also found in other Chinese language. 11. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(18) newspapers in Hong Kong including Apple Daily and Oriental Daily News during the period. The number of times the term “Macau online media” appeared on WiseNews was only 13 and in 2015 they appeared at the most five times while in 2017 it was fourtimes while in 2016 it was three times. It appeared in the Hong Kong Apply Daily at most five times, followed by Ming Pao Daily News with four times. With the other popular search engine Google using the same keywords the results showed that there were a total of 30 searches by 23 February 2018, and the earliest time the term appeared was on 1 August 2014.. 1.2.3 MASSIVE SOCIAL MOVEMENTS/CAMPAIGNS IN MACAU. 政治大. There are several remarkable social movements or social campaigns recorded by. 立. the high number of protestors in Macau history, including 12.3 incident and the Mayday. ‧ 國. 學. protest in 2007 which ended up with a shooting and one person hurt. As existing literature stated online media have interacted with mass social movements somehow. sit. Nat. － 12.3 I NCIDENT （ 12.3 事件／反殖民）. y. ‧. over the past years as the rapid development of the social media grew.. er. io. The 12.3 incident refers to a riot in Macau on 3 December 1966, when local. al. residents protested against the then Portuguese Macau government for its delay in. n. v i n issuing permit for the construction C ofh a private school inUTaipa. Many researchers stated i People's Republic of China. Red e n g cinhthe that it was inspired by the Cultural Revolution. Guards took part in the protest which lasted for more than two months and the people of Zhuhai supported Macau residents and the government was forced to sign a confession statement after the People’s Liberation Army surrounded Macau. The incident is often referred to as "12.3", with reference to the date of the riots in which eight people died, 212 people were injured and 66 people were arrested according to official figures. Lee argues in his research about the 12.3 incident that the seed of nationalism was planted in Macau and the mainland China government had been recognised and even obtained the ruling power somehow after the incident (Lee, 2001). There have been various large protests with different aims organised since 1966 including an annual sit-in to mourn the victims of 4 June Tiananmen Square massacre. 12. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(19) and calls for a reassessment of the incident since 1990 the year after the tragedy. Except for the 4 June sit-in, there is also the annual Mayday protest. Ho (2014) said that the annual Mayday protest which started in 2006 called for better protection for local employees, a ban on the importation of non-local employees and this was first Mayday protest organised by several unions and in which the grassroots have taken part since 2004 in which year the government called for the establishment of a harmonious society. Local pro-democracy political group New Macau Association (新澳門學社) often organises a protest on 20 December the day Macau was returned to the mainland in 1999 to demand a democratic political system.. 政治大. － M AYDAY PROTEST AND SHOOTING （五一遊行及開槍事件）. In 2007 the annual Mayday protest finally ended when five shots were and one. 立. man shot in the neck while riding a scooter passing the area near the clashes between. ‧ 國. 學. the protestors and police officers. The protest had drawn more than a thousand middleaged local people appealing for better labour protection and an end to corruption in the former Portuguese enclave. Some also demanded the resignation of the then chief. ‧. executive Ho Hau Wah (何厚鏵), Macau’s Beijing-appointed leader.. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. － 5.25 & 5.27 A NTI - PERKS BILL PROTESTS （反離補反特權） On 25 May 2014 Macau experienced the largest social movement since its. Ch. i n U. v. handover to the People's Republic of China, appealing to cancel a government-drafted. engchi. bill regulating the retirement package for the incoming, current and outgoing chief executive and other principal officials. This contentious perks bill proposed granting lavish retirement packages to top officials. According to the local security forces, there were about 7,000 people taking part in the protest and assembled in the square in front of the Legislative Assembly. However, the organisers said around 20,000 people were there. After the massive protest, the government decided to withdraw the bill and up to now the government has not decided how to deal with the bill. Thousands of people sat in front of the Legislative Assembly on May 27 to force the government to withdraw the bill completely.. 13. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(20) － 5.15 A NTI GOVERNMENT ’ S DONATION OF 100 MILLION YUAN TO J INAN. U NIVERSITY PROTEST & D ISQUALIFICATION OF LAWMAKER （反利益輸送崔世安下台及 DQ 議員） Another significant event was a citizens' protest on 15 May 2016, opposing the Macau government and public entity Macau Foundation for donating a vast sum of money, 100 million yuan (estimated at TWD 480.4 million or 123 million patacas), to the mainland-based Jinan University, where Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On is one of the board members, suspicions of advantage transfers arose. This protest is generally known as anti-donation of 100 million to Jinan University. This protest caused directly-elected lawmaker Sou Ka Hou (蘇嘉豪) to be summoned to court on a charge of aggravate disobedience and that could have led to him losing his legislative. 政治大. seat. Sou resumed his post in July 2018. Macau Foundation's funding comes from the city's gaming tax and it always plays a significant role in supporting local associations'. 立. development with financial support. Over the past decade, the number of the city’s. ‧ 國. 學. association recorded quadrupled in number. However, the increasing number of associations does not seem to further propel Macau residents to take an active role in. ‧. expressing their views on social issues, instead of being a part of the pro-establishment camp. Associations are the key component of civil society; however, the increasing. io. y. sit. to civil society.. Nat. number of the city's association seems to fail to play an active role in propelling Macau. n. al. er. The four massive social actions, the two former ones occurred in the time before. i n U. v. information technology was as prominent as nowadays while the situation had. Ch. engchi. undergone swift changes when the latter two incidents occurred. Therefore, in this paper I will only focus on the latter incidents and their related civic activism and how they interact with online media.. 1.3 RESEARCH PURPOSE AND THESIS STRUCTURE Macau has been experiencing unbelievable changes over the past two decades, especially since 2004 when the monopoly of gaming industry was liberalised. While witnessing many significant changes, both good and bad, have imposed tremendous changes on the society and myself over the years. During the past decade I had been wandering the city as a confused reporter, trying to figure out my role, my position, and. 14. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(21) how should someone like me record these changes with our privileged yet underrated role — privileged to report news as a kind of truth, and yet unable to persuade people the kind of truth we convey is the kind of truth that leads to reflection and a better society. Those changes and questions have haunted me and pushed me to re-position myself to deal with these changes and consider how to re-adjust the role the media, particularly news outlet should play. It is with these questions in mind I embarked on my journey in Taiwan as a graduate student and coming up with this topic—something that is quintessential in our time to record the picture of Macau and to reconstruct the idea of “Macau People.” When surfing social network sites, the term “Macau people” is often seen in netizens' comments. Such a term also prompts me to rethink who and what "Macau people" are.. 治政 “Macau people” should do about it. I am an immigrant,大 not born in Macau and yet have 立 been living in this city for more than two decades and it has become my hometown. Within the writing process, I hope I can find what Macau society should be and what. ‧ 國. 學. Being a reporter, I want to know whether or not the city’s online media will tend to be homogeneous or heterogeneous and how they develop and their attitude towards some. ‧. social movements. Being “Macau people”, I hope this thesis will give an answer to my question: what kind of society should Macau head towards becoming?. Nat. sit. y. Macau is a small city and it has been always "neglected" in academic terms.. er. io. Furthermore, there has not been a lot of English research about Macau, particularly about online media, social movements and civil society. I believe my thesis will fill this. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. gap, as well as benefiting both people outside and in Macau to better understand this society.. engchi. For me, I believe the completion of this paper will be the biggest pleasure in my life, as a perfect full stop to my career of 10 years of being a reporter. Furthermore, I believe I will better understand the meaning of the term “Macau people” and better understand the latest situation of the city’s civil society after finishing it, and I hope this thesis will at least inspire and give hope to “Macau people” who are confused and would like to search for an answer and let them know they are not alone. Last but not least, the thesis will be served as a caesura and the summary of my 10 years’ as a reporter regardless of whether I will continue to be a journalist or not, this thesis will be a record of my thoughts, my pursuits, and my love for the city. There will be five chapters in this thesis –introduction, literature review, research questions and methods, results and conclusion. In chapter 1, with the protest against 15. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(22) the perks bill, I outlined a rough contour of Macau’s online media and traditional print media regarding the quantity and different forms of content. Meanwhile I also simply compared four online media' attitudes towards the protest when they reported it. In order to understand Macau’s online media better and the situation of social movements without knowledge of its society, economy and political system thus a brief history of the three aspects are included in this chapter. As this thesis is about the association between the online media and social movement, particularly those civic activists, thus a brief about some influential social movements including 12.3 incident and anti-perks bill protest are part of the chapter. Whether such association has an impact on the development of civil society in Macau is another main importance in this paper thus in chapter 2 I focus on the literature about. 治政大 of the online, social Apart from them I also cover the specific characteristics 立 movements and civil society in Macau. online, social media and civil society, as well the association between the three aspects.. ‧ 國. 學. In chapter 3 I focus on research questions and method. There are two main research methods – discourse analysis and semi-constructed in-depth interviews –. ‧. applied in this paper. Considering the association between the online media with different standpoints and social movements is what this paper is going to investigate. Nat. sit. y. thus the question design will be divided into two parts. One part is about the basic. er. io. information of each of the four media outlets while the questions in the second part are aimed at investigating the association between the three elements. Apart from them, I. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. also outline the main characteristics of four online media which will be helpful to get a. engchi. rough contour of online media in the city.. Chapter 4 and 5 are the discussion and conclusion.. 16. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(23) CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1. THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS In this chapter, I will address the concepts of social movement and online media and what characteristics of their can be found in Macau. There is a lot of existing literature describing positive connection between civil society and social movements. The former can be viewed as “nutrition” for the latter while the latter also can be the force to compel the former. Therefore, before delineating the changes of concept of social movement I will first give a brief introduction of the concept of civil society in the following section.. 政治大 2.1.1 CIVIL SOCIETY 立 AND SOCIAL MOVEMENTS. ‧ 國. 學. What is civil society? Is civil society important and why? There is no generally accepted definition. Scholars gave different definitions of this idea. One of the. ‧. definitions of civil society by John Keane states, “civil society, as I used the term and still do so, is an ideal-typical category (an ideal type in the sense of Max Webber) that. sit. y. Nat. both describe and envisages a complex and dynamic ensemble of legally protected nongovernmental institutions, that tend to be non-violent, self-organising, self-reflexive,. io. n. al. er. and permanently in tension with each other and with the state institutions that ‘frame',. i n U. constrict and enable their activities" (Keane, 1988, P.6).. Ch. engchi. v. Regarding Keane’s definition, civil society is non-violent, self-organising and reflexive, ensures legal of non-governmental organisation and always in tension with the state institutions and constrict their activities. While Seligman argued civil society is: "an arena where free, self-determining individuality sets forth its claims for the satisfaction of its wants and personal autonomy" (Seligman, 1992, p.5). Some literature stated that civil society is one of three sectors while the other two are market and state. The trio are separate from each other but sometimes overlapping in the middle (Edwards, 2009). When summarising the history of the concept, Edwards (2009) pointed out that in classic thought civil society and the state were seen as indistinguishable and both referred to as “a type of political association governing social conflict through the imposition of rules that restrained citizens from harming one another”. Reflected in the 17. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(24) concept of Aristotle’s polis, which was an “association of associations” so that only those few individuals were qualified to rule and be ruled. In this sense, the state embodied the “civil” form of society while “civility” had been the requirements for a good citizenship. However, the concept of civil society had experienced fundamental changes in response to the crisis in the ruling social order since the rise of the market economy11 (Edwards, 2009). There have been three contrast schools of civil society, one considers civil society as a part of society which focuses on associational life, another one considers civil society as a kind of society which is characterised by positive norms and values and aims to meet a particular goal. The last one is to treat civil society as the public sphere.. 治政大German was formulated by. The essence of civil society is collective action, negotiation and struggle. The concept of “public sphere”. 立. philosopher and. sociologist Jürgen Habermas. Public sphere is composed of individuals who engage in. ‧ 國. 學. rational debate and held in a space where the public may freely meet to discuss and articulate problems. (Chang, 2016).. ‧. When highlighting the importance of civil society, Ma said that generally speaking “a strong civil society alters the balance of power between the state and society,. Nat. sit. y. disciplines and monitors the state, redefines the rules of the political game along. er. io. democratic lines, and acts as an intermediary between the state and society” (Ma, 2008, P.157). Scholar Li Fan proposed that a self-governing civil society is a base for the. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. development of democracy (Hao, 2013). A democratic society, although much research. engchi. proved it is not the perfect one, is still the best so far. In the sense of Li, civil society seems to be the means of promoting a democratic society. According to Chang (2016), the characteristic of civil society is related to public interests, non-governmental, associational and self-organised. He also said the key components of civil society, namely the arena, outside of the family, the government, 11. In that time the relations between the civil society and the state went in opposite directions and the thinkers of Enlightenment consider such society as a "defence against unwarranted intrusions by the state on the newly realised individual rights and freedom through the medium of voluntary associations." (Edwards, 2009, p.7). A new school, which viewed civil society as a self-regulated universe of associations committing to the same ideals that needed and maintaining role to resist the state, appeared. Later scholars in the USA including John Dewey and Hannah Arendt took Gramsci's idea about civil society as "an arena for contestation and developed around them a theory of the ‘public sphere' as an essential component of democracy" (Edwards, 2009, p.9). 18. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(25) and the market; the arena of uncoerced collective actions around shared interests, purposes and values; composed of the totality of many voluntary social relationships, civic and social organisations, and institutions. The concept of civil society varied. Following previous studies described in this section I consider civil society connecting with public sphere and voluntary, interestshared collective actions when I discuss it. These two should be considered key components of civil society. Nevertheless, collective actions in the sense of many scholars’ view equal social movements. Dylan Taylor said that “social movements will be important players in the fight to overcome the crisis of democracy” (Taylor, 2017, p.1) and they challenge established power. He cited Marx and Engels that social movements are seen to be “historical. 治政大history” (p.2). organised groups seeking to influence the “movement of 立 While reviewing previous studies about the social movement, this concept has movements” and drivers of social change. Thus “social movements are seen to be. ‧ 國. 學. been given various definitions and it has been defined or conceptualised with different perspectives over past decades. Diani said that “a social movement is a network of. ‧. informal interactions between a plurality of individuals, groups and/or organisations, engaged in a political or cultural conflict, on the basis of a shared collective identity”. Nat. sit. y. (Diani,1992, p.13). Diani (1992) listed various scholars and theories or approaches. er. io. adopt for the studies about social movement including collective behaviour perceptive (Tuner and Killian), resource mobilisation theory (Zala & McCarthy), the political. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. process perceptive (Tilly) and ‘New Social Movements” (Touraine, Melucci). He. engchi. further pointed out the first three have a big impact on the USA while the fourth has been mainly related to European scholars. However, according to Gamson and Wolfsfeld, social movement means “sustained and self-conscious challenge to authority or culture colds by field of players-organisations and advocacy networkssome of whom employ extra-institutional means of influence” (Gamson & Wolfsfeld, 1993, p.115). They further stated that they varied in many ways and they often have a distinctive evolving culture that perhaps, in various ways, conflicts with media and mainstream political culture. Fang said so-called social movement means that a group of people, who share one collective identity and solidarity, carry out collective and continuous actions to pursue or resist a specific social change. In quoting Aberle the author also said that as social movement was the means for social change thus there are four kinds of social 19. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(26) movement namely alternative movements, reformative movements, redemptive movements and transformative movements (Fang, 2013). Lee (2002) said a new trend of social movement appeared in the 1970s and 80s in western society, which was considered as “new social movement”. She listed some difference between the social movements and “new social movements”. According to Lee, the appearance of the “new social movement” accompanied with "post-industrial society” which emphasises fighting for a personal lifestyle and how to uphold the autonomy of embodying ones' values, as well as fighting against cultural suppression. In the previous literature studies, social movements have been regarded as force by the collective, unconstitutional action from people of a shared identity to challenge the established power or authority, even conflict with media and the mainstream. 治政 Wolfsele, 1993). Thus, social movements or new social大 movements are regarded as the 立 possible power to make social change and even promoting a more just society and civil political culture and seeking for social change (Taylor, 2017, Fang, 2013, Gamson &. ‧ 國. 學. society but engaged in a political or cultural conflict which is on the basis of a shared collective identity (Lee, 2002, Diani, 1992).. ‧. After giving a brief introduction to the changes in the concepts of civil society and social movement, in the following section I shall concentrate on civil society and social. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. y. movements in Macau and investigate what the main characteristics of both have.. i n U. v. 2.1.2 CHARACTERISTICS OF MACAU CIVIL SOCIETY AND SOCIAL. Ch. MOVEMENTS/CAMPAIGNS. engchi. In a book edited by Hao titled “Civil society: Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan”, 12 all authors who focus on Macau society admit the existence of civil society in the city (Hao, 2013). One of the authors Ho wrote: "Macau has a high ratio between the population and associations, with many varied types of non-governmental organisations but there has been a contradictory phenomenon that the degree of mature of its civil society is quite low" (Hao,2013, P125). In the sense of viewing civil society is one of three sectors while the other two are market and state, Hao (2013) used the four dimensions – structure, values, environment. 12. The book comprises a collection of articles about the civil society in the four places which has been published at various times. 20. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(27) and impact – which are often used to measure the degree of civil society13 to compare with Macau’s situation. He pointed out that there was no data about the four dimensions thus it was hard to tell the real situation in Macau, but he believed that it was better than the mainland but less developed than Hong Kong and Taiwan. Hao also said that there are also some sub-indicators under the four dimensions. Regarding the structure indicator, it is mainly related to associational participation. The environment indicator involves various aspects including political context, basic freedoms and rights, socioeconomic, socio-cultural and legal context. Values refer to a set of beliefs including democracy, transparency, tolerance and environmental sustainability. The impact dimension includes various sub-indicators including people's influencing power on public policies and the empowerment of people. The scholar pointed out although the. 治政大in association activities. The number was high, locals did not seem keen in taking part 立 city’s associations were not diversified and those groups placed an emphasis on number of associations in the city reached 5,000 and the ratio between the residents and 14. ‧ 國. 學. criticising politics and those advocating it were few. Regarding the environment dimension, most legislators were not directly elected by citizens and division of powers. ‧. were not ideal. The value dimension and its sub-indicator have shown that there had been problems affecting democracy, tolerance gender equality and transparency.. Nat. sit. y. Meanwhile, regarding the aspect residents’ influence on public policy he said that civil. er. io. society has not much power to impact them.. Ho (Hao, 2013) affirmed Hao’s views and pointed out that civil society in Macau. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. is not mature although Macau have various associations and every 10,000 residents. engchi. have about 100 associations. The ratio was higher than France, the USA and Japan the ratio in the three countries were 11.5 /10000, 5.18/10000 and 9.72/10000, respectively. Ho also said that many local associations received government subsidies and failed to supervise the government which is what non-government organisations do in western. 13. According to CIVICUS, the structure of civil society, the external environment in which civil society exists and functions, the values practised and promoted in the civil society arena and the impact of activities pursued by civil society players (CIVICUS, n.d). 14. A survey carried out in 2008 showed that 82 to 84 percent of residents had not taken part in any social, religious or political activities. Furthermore, due to the overlapping of leaders and members thus the actual number of residents taking part in the associations was low (Hao, 2013). 21. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(28) civil society. "Traditional" associations 15 have important social and governing functions as they have been considered the main power of "love country, love Macau" camp. Thus, those associations have strong a say on public issues. Ho said that during the process of the legislation of national security those traditional associations had the role of supporting the regulation of Article 23 of the Macau Basic Law on national security and undermined the opposition. The scholar further pointed out those associations still have an important role in Macau’s civil society and implied that the homogeneity of such associations seemed to make more "pro-establishment" voices heard. One function of civil society is to give residents the ability to express their views on political issues. However, the case of Article 23 showed that opposition voices were suppressed. In the conclusion, Ho pointed out the development of civil society in Macau. 治政 In the sense of Hao and Ho's views, associations 大 in Macau failed to exercise the 立 functions to facilitate the development of civil society. Hao (2013) also said that was still “uncertain”.. ‧ 國. 學. traditional associations have gradually lost their autonomy and are becoming “government organised non-profit organisations” and that weakened their role in civil. ‧. society.. Tsoi (2014) said that in recent years the participators of protests in the city have. Nat. sit. y. become diversified. The main participators of the mass movements that occurred in the. er. io. early period after the handover were grassroots unemployed workers and local parents who fought for the right of abode for their adult children who were living in the. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. mainland. On one side, the size and the number of the social movements have increased,. engchi. as well as having increasing numbers of participators. The number of participators taking part in the movements basically reached 1,000 and the largest number 3,000. From the frequency and the number of participators implied that more residents preferred making their grievances known by joining social movements. The existing literature about the massive actions in Macau has not given clear distinctions among the concepts such as social movements, civic activism and protests. Thus, this study includes relevant papers in which those concepts are found.. 15. Traditional association usually refer to the four old and influential association including Macau General Union of Neighbour Associations (commonly known as Kai Fong), Macao Federation of Trade Unions (commonly known as Gung Luen), Macau Chambers of Commerce (ACM) and Macau Women's General Association (Fu Luen). 22. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(29) Moreover, since 2007 young people have been the main group involved in the social movements and in recent years the city's professionals such as teachers, social workers, doctors, public servants and reporters have become a part of the protests (Tsoi, 2014). The author also pointed out that the groups initiating those movements varied, which from the newly-emerged unions and democratic-livelihood associations to different kinds of associations, included the newly-established youth groups and community associations. Comparing those with the mass movements before the return of Macau to mainland China or the early in the period just after the handover, Tsoi further elaborated the theme of the protests in 2009 to 2013 as being diversified and involved various topics such as political system development, culture, community. 治政 Tsoi’s view, some social movements have seemed 大 to lean towards being issue立 orientated in recent years and there has been a "shadow" of "new social movement”. environment, press freedom, law and regulations and animal protection. Based on. ‧ 國. 學. Lee (2002) elaborated that new social movement was issue-orientated and the issues involved were universal. According to Lee, all new social movements have the basic. ‧. belief, which is to respect individual freedom and oppose unjust social manipulation and central control and civil society is the avenue for new social movements. Those. Nat. sit. y. movements aim at changing cultural values rather than transforming politics or. er. io. economic systems and they cover various themes such as environmental protection, women's rights and gay rights. Compared to new social movements, Lee said that those. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. movements occurring in industrial societies were mainly concerned about politics and. engchi. economics and such social movements were "class orientated" and fought for material gain from the vested interest as the social conflict in an industrial society. However, Leung (2012) said that the main players of social movements in society were still grassroots people and marginalised groups and the main issues for concern in those movements were related to livelihood such as anti-illegal workers, reducing the number of non-local employees and building public housing. He further said that protests involving labour gripes still appear frequently over recent years due to the working class not benefiting from the government policies aimed at promoting resident’s livelihoods quality. Regarding the themes, main players and organisers involving social movements over recent years, Tsoi and Leung raised slightly different views. Tsoi (2014) pointed out the three elements tended to diversify and seem to have a trend of “new social 23. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(30) movement” which have been emphasising the fight for personal lifestyles and how to uphold the autonomy of embodying ones' values (Lee, 2002). However, Leung (2012) said the main players and organisers are still mainly related to workers and the themes involved in mass actions were still uniform. In fact, when observing the social movements that have occurred over the past decades, regardless of their themes, the players and organisers have tended to be more diversified and have leanings towards the "new social movement". However, in criticism, protesting against or demanding the government or the authority to make changes were the still mainstream voices heard in those movements. Therefore, the tendency of the new social movement should not be the main concern in this chapter. Simultaneously, social movements which are initiated through Internet groups. 治政大 have become an important the Digital Era, access to and familiarity with technology 立 resource for a successful movement (Rolfe, 2005). Leung (2012) pointed out that. seems to be popular, according to Tsoi. Echoed by Rolfed who said that nowadays in. ‧ 國. 學. although social movements have been increased there has been no connection between the protest organisers, which were newly-emerged groups. Those movements were. ‧. fragmented and separately organised by individual groups.. In reviewing civil society in Macau various scholars including Hao and Ho. Nat. sit. y. (Hao,2013) see that local associations have not fully developed their role when. er. io. associational life has been the focus of the civil society since those associations have overlapped many of their key leaders and particularly the traditional associations prefer. n. al. Ch. i n U. v. to be with the government thus they have played a role in undermining opposite. engchi. opinions. Thus, the scholars pointed out that civil society in Macau is less developed compared to Hong Kong and Taiwan while it is better than the mainland but its development was still uncertain. However, Tsoi (2014) pointed out that there has been a new force in social movements in city which came from the newly-established associations including youth group and those groups have diverse issues on which they are concerned. In the sense of Tsoi’s view, new associations in Macau tended to diversify and that has possibly become new power to propel civil society in the city. Indeed, it is a fact in Macau that social movements, which last for a long period of time fighting for the same goal, have not often been seen in local society. However, some civic activism such as protests have been seen often over the last few years. Thus, in this study, civic activism is the research target.. 24. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(31) 2.2 THE INTERACTION BETWEEN SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND ONLINE MEDIA There has been a lot of research investigating the correlation between social movements and online media. Before getting into it I shall first give a general idea about online media. Then I shall focus on its effects on social movements in general in the context of Macau society in the following part.. 2.2.1THE DEVELOPMENT OF ONLINE MEDIA AND SOCIAL MEDIA － ONLINE MEDIA. 政治大 as the “new agents of information 立 and entertainment, similar to traditional media such. What are online media, Kayany & Yelsma (2000, p.215) considered online media. ‧ 國. 學. as television, radio and print”. The two researchers also said there has been aggregative attention to the impact the new communication technologies have on society and social institutions while the popularity of the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) have. ‧. been continuously increasing. As result, the computers connecting to the global. y. Nat. telecommunication network have become powerful tools of instantaneous. sit. communication around the world. Considering that since computer-mediated. er. io. communication (CMC) has created new channels for interactive, two-way. al. n. v i n Ch conferencing and asynchronous communication i Uthe two scholars proposed that e n g c hthus. communication that rival telephone conversations in their capacity to sustain CMC should also be considered online media. Online media should be included in the public service mission because online media could be considered a “relevant mass media outlet for a growing number of internet users who inform themselves about the latest news by surfing news websites” (Trappel, 2008, p.313). They are a “new mass medium that has been established with distinct structural features regarding its institutionalisation, newsroom routines and journalistic approach” (Trappel, 2007a, p.123). Chang (2005) said that online media and public opinion formation in Korea where new technological developments that support online media are rapidly changing the nature of communications. Trappel (2008) furthermore proposed that the fully digital mode of production and distribution was the biggest distinction between the online media and other mass media 25. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

(32) while other scholars raised the differences between both in which could be summarised as five features, namely digitality and ubiquity, immediacy, multimediality, interactivity and hypertexuality16. Meanwhile, Hess (2014) pointed out that online media have attained a considerable reach in many countries and they are still gaining popularity. According to Hess, online media are characterised by the three well-known characteristics, namely the bi-directional, multimedia-based and low entry barriers. The scholar elaborated the bidirectional which contrasts to unidirectional by allowing a dialogue between communication partners. The feature of multimedia-based in online media which contrast to print companies and broadcasters may be used to transfer all kinds of content while the low entry barrier referred to capital investment in contrast to printing or. 政治大. broadcasting which requires substantial investments such as the purchase of licences (Hess, 2014, P.4).. 立. Lee (2016) gave a broader definition of online media. He proposed that they. ‧ 國. 學. generally refer to a mediated communication tool based on Internet technology including various websites, online forums and communication Apps. It is undeniable. Nat. y. ‧. that social media should be also included.. sit. － S OCIAL MEDIA. er. io. In recent years, the central source for dispersion of news has been shifting from. al. n. v i n C hprovided by KaplanUand Haenlein, social media is 2014). According to the definition engchi. the "Internet as public sphere" to "social network sites as public sphere" (Liu & Weber, regarded as a “web-based” as well as a “mobile-based” Internet application, which enables the “creation, access, and exchange of user generated content” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Considering all of this, social networking sites (SNS) provide opportunities for users not only to interact with people within their immediate, first-order social network, 16. According to Trappel (2008), digitality and ubiquity mean the universal availability of online media with constraints as to time and space. To online media, immediacy implies that information can be provided instantaneously while multimediality means the content provided by online media varies and it is an integration of text, pictures, graphs, animation, moving image and sound. Interactivity to online media refers both to the exchange of ideas between journalists and users and among users and hypertextuality refers to non-linear narrative structures of texts and users are allowed to give their own, personal analysis of texts. 26. DOI:10.6814/THE.NCCU.IMICS.002.2019.F05.

衰退的公民媒體： 澳門的網路媒體對公民行動的再現與影響 - 政大學術集成

衰退的公民媒體：澳門的網路媒體對公民行動的再現與影響 - 政大學術集成