CTS organises two talks by Dr. Francis L.F. Lee on the role of digital media in civic movements in Hong Kong
Dr. Francis L.F. Lee is a Professor at and Director of School of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. An International Communication Association fellow, Dr. Lee’s research interests are around journalism studies, political communication, public opinion and public discourse, media and social movements, and changes in cultural values. His recent work focuses on press freedom and political change, media and collective memory of political events, media and political scandals, and postmaterialism in Hong Kong.
The Role of Digital Media in Large-Scale Protests in Hong Kong
(May 23, location TBA)
Abstract
Much has been written in the past two decades about how digital media could facilitate and empower social protests, whereas more and more scholars have also noted how digital media could undermine social protests either because of problematic online phenomena or because of the state's capability of appropriating the Internet for political control.
This talk will review the experience of Hong Kong throughout the 2010s, examining Umbrella Movement, June 4 Commemoration, and the Anti-Extradition Protests. In the case of the Umbrella Movement, the digital media strengthened social mobilization yet also introduced forces of decentralization, leading to a "tactical freeze" that hampered the movement in the end. On collective remembering of the 1989 Tiananmen student movement, digital media served not only as a channel for mobilization but also a memory archive. But at the same time, the state also perpetrated their narratives through online platforms. The result is memory balkanization and polarization of attitudes toward the Tiananmen Incident. In the Anti-Extradition Bill protests, digital media became even more central to an even more decentralized formation, but digital media also contributed to the spread of rumors, the practice of doxxing, and the perpetration of prejudices. The problems became particularly conspicuous when the movement started to lose momentum.
Beyond the Peak of Mobilization: Understanding Movement Continuity in Hong Kong, 2014 to 2022
(May 24, location TBA)
Abstract
Many scholars have noted a troubling tendency for social movement scholars to focus on moments of extraordinary mobilization rather than movements with ups and downs, twists and turns. In the case of Hong Kong, while the Umbrella Movement in 2014 and the Anti-Extradition Protests in 2019 captured the world's attention, what happened in-between the two peaks of mobilization? And what happened after 2019 and the establishment of National Security Law in 2020?
This talk will discuss three different types of processes during movement abeyance. First, the Umbrella Movement led to the outburst of social and political energy, which sedimented into new organizational and associational forces after the movement, strengthening the abeyance structure of the pro-democracy movement. Second, the Umbrella Movement also led to the increasing appeal of localism, and the relational dynamics between the state and the pro-democracy movement contributed to an ideological shift among the public. Third, while the Chinese state's hardline approach to governing Hong Kong after the protest events 2019 and 2020 has prevented these two processes from recurring, what emerges is a politics of preservation as pro-democracy citizens and activists strive for ways to maintain their values, identities, and connections in covert and disguised manners.