Visual Narratives in Autocracies: Visual Framing of 2019 Hong Kong Protests

• In Event: Authoritarian Survival and Governance in China

Abstract

Protests often pose a threat for authoritarian regimes for its challenges to the regime authorities and instability coming together with protests. In response, authoritarian regimes apply various methods to counter collective action threats to sustain their rule. This study examines the role of visual media, specifically how images and videos are used to shape public opinions on protests and social movements under authoritarian contexts. While current studies have primarily used texts to study protest framing under authoritarian contexts, little scholarship has employed images-as-data approach to study the protest framing. Through building a dataset of images and videos from media content covering the 2019 Hong Kong social movement in China and major democratic countries, this research contrasts the visual narratives presented by authoritarian governments with those from democratic societies. It hypothesizes that compared to democratic countries, authoritarian states are more likely to report protests under their own countries as higher-intensity violence, less police brutality happening in the protests, and lack of mass support. A survey experiment is adopted to assess the effectiveness of the visual narratives. The explorations draw implications to political polarization across different political contexts and the mechanisms through which authoritarian regimes manage dissent, shape public opinion and maintain control.

Author

• Yuhan Hu, University of Oxford