Countering online ‘regional blackening': interventions for province-targeted hate speech in the Chinese digital sphere
Tianru Guan, Xiaodong Yan, Tianyang Liu · Asian Journal of Communication · 2024
While political communication scholars usually debate whether the internet and social media are democratizing forces for China, scarce attention has been given to the role of digital media in mediating and amplifying old and new forms of prejudice, discrimination, abuse and hate in China’s cyberspace. We focus on a context-specific stereotype and insult that attacks people based on their place of domicile – ‘regional blackening’. Based on social identity theory, this study examines the effectiveness of three audience-focused countermeasures (inducing empathy, constructing collective national identity, and increasing intergroup contact) in mitigating the negative influences of hate narratives and in promoting online civic intervention, and investigates the moderating role of multiculturalism.