2021/05/09 by Yingnian Tao · 33 citations
Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Blame #Censorship #China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance #Content analysis #Context (archaeology) #Criticism #Discourse analysis #Frame analysis #Framing (construction) #Hate Speech and Cyberbullying Detection #History #Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies #Law #Linguistics #Media studies #Opposition (politics) #Philosophy #Political science #Politics #Psychology #Public discourse #Public opinion #Public sphere #Rhetorical question #Social media #Social psychology #Social science #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1177/09579265211013116
published in Discourse & Society 32(5), 622-638 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2021/05/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Previous studies on public opinion expression in communication, political science and discourse analysis are restricted to a censorship-/counter-censorship frame and focus their analysis on events with political agendas. This study explores netizens’ discursive practice by focusing the analysis on netizens’ language use in context per se, rather than from a censorship/counter-censorship viewpoint. It adopts a discursive pragmatic approach to examine a ‘mundane’ trending topic regarding a dispute between two public figures rather than ‘major’ events with acute social and political agendas. This study present evidence that Weibo users criticise public figures through indirect discursive strategies, including parody of name , constructed dialogues and rhetorical questions . It also highlights two prominent sentiments in Weibo public spheres during the COVID-19 pandemic – cyber nationalism and binary opposition between China and the rest of the world. The online backlash against Fang demonstrates how easily netizens can change their views towards a certain event.