UC EVENTS

Dr Michael Jensen who is an Associate Professor at the Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis, and an associate of the News and Media Research Centre at the University of Canberra, will presenting a seminar titled "Illiberal Media: WeChat, Identity Politics, and National Security".

Abstract: The Chinese (People’s Republic of China – PRC) regime of censorship extends beyond its borders through the extraterritorial application of its media regulations on popular social media platforms like WeChat. This research investigates the effects of the PRC’s extraterritorial control of online content on the identity narratives and norms communicated by comparing Australia’s Special Broadcast Service (SBS) Mandarin language news and news targeting Australian audiences published on popular WeChat Official accounts (OAs). We find significant differences in the news content between these two platforms with SBS providing more political content and a focus on political and cultural integration while WeChat pages tend to avoid political topics that are not otherwise press releases from the PRC and encourages strong cultural ties with Mainland China. Finally, SBS tends to both inform and cultivate democratic political identities and identification with the Australian political system whereas WeChat tends to differentiate the Chinese diaspora from the wider Australian community. We situate these findings within a wider understanding of PRC national security strategies and doctrine. WeChat OAs in Australia not only implement the PRC’s communication controls, the content on these pages challenge liberal democratic practices and norms and support foreign influence and espionage in Australia.