Francis L. F. Lee - Media, Social Mobilisation and Mass Protests in Post-colonial Hong Kong

Since 2003, Hong Kong has witnessed a series of large-scale protests which have constituted the core of a reinvigorated pro-democracy movement. What drove tens of thousands of citizens to the street on a yearly basis to protest? What were the social and organizational bases of the protest movement? How did media and public discourses affect the protests formation and mobilization? How did the protesters understand their own actions and the political environment? This book tackles such questions by using a wide range of methods, including population and protest onsite surveys, media content analysis, and in-depth interviews with activists, politicians, and protest participants. It provides an account of the self-mobilization processes behind the historic 1 July, 2003 protest, and how the protest kick-started new political dynamics and discursive contestations in the public arena which not only turned a single protest into a series of collective actions constituting a movement, but also continually shaped the movements characteristics and influence. The book is highly pertinent to readers interested in political development in Hong Kong, and as a case study on the power of critical events, the book also has broad implications on the study of both media politics and social movements in general.

Francis L. F. Lee is Associate Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Joseph M. Chan is Professor of Journalism and Communication at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He also served as the Changjiang Chair Professor of Journalism at Fudan University, Shanghai.

The authors also co-edited Media and Politics in Post-Handover Hong Kong (also published by Routledge, 2008).

Series Editor: Stephanie Hemelryk Donald
RMIT University, Melbourne

Devleena Ghosh, University of Technology, Sydney; Yingjie Guo, University of Technology, Sydney; K.P. Jayasankar, Unit for Media and Communications, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay; Vera Mackie, University of Melbourne; Anjali Monteiro, Unit for Media and Communications, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay; Laikwan Pang, Chinese University of Hong Kong; Gary Rawnsley, University of Leeds; Ming-Yeh Rawnsley, University of Leeds; Adrian Vickers, University of Sydney; Jing Wang, MIT

The aim of this series is to publish original, high-quality work by both new and established scholars in the West and the East, on all aspects of media, culture and social change in Asia.

The power of a critical event

First published 2011
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2011.

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2011 Francis L. F. Lee and Joseph M. Chan

The right of Francis L. F. Lee and Joseph M. Chan to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.