Mass Media and the Diffusion of Collective Action in Authoritarian Regimes: The June 1953 East German Uprising

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Crabtree ◽  
Holger L Kern ◽  
Steven Pfaff
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
East German

Economic Opportunities, Emigration and Exit Prisoners

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Carlo M. Horz ◽  
Moritz Marbach
Keyword(s):  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
West Germany ◽  
Political Prisoners ◽  
National Data ◽  
Economic Opportunities ◽  
East And West Germany ◽  
East German ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Identification Strategy ◽  
Cross National

How do economic opportunities abroad affect citizens’ ability to exit an authoritarian regime? This article theorizes the conditions under which authoritarian leaders will perceive emigration as a threat and use imprisonment instead of other types of anti-emigration measures to prevent mass emigration. Using data from communist East Germany's secret prisoner database that we reassembled based on archival material, the authors show that as economic opportunities in West Germany increased, the number of East German exit prisoners – political prisoners arrested for attempting to cross the border illegally – also rose. The study's causal identification strategy exploits occupation-specific differences in the changing economic opportunities between East and West Germany. Using differential access to West German television, it also sheds light on the informational mechanism underlying the main finding; cross-national data are leveraged to present evidence of the external validity of the estimates. The results highlight how global economic disparities affect politics within authoritarian regimes.

scholarly journals Implied truth, complementary media practices, and successful atomized activism in China

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yipeng Xi ◽  
Aaron Ng
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Resource Mobilization ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
The Government ◽  
Media Practices ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Ruling Party

While much research stereotypes mass media in authoritarian contexts as mouthpieces of the ruling party, we argue that successful social media–driven activism also requires the support of mass media, even in authoritarian contexts. To investigate the roles of social media and mass media on collective mobilization, we analyzed a case in Guangzhou, China, and conducted in-depth interviews to conceptualize the interconnected relationship between social media and mass media from the perspective of resource mobilization. Findings reveal that social media facilitated the mobilization of participants by providing less fungible and timely resources at the initial stages of collective action. However, it is the more fungible and enduring resources provided by the mass media that sustain the intensity of external pressures to the government. The complementarity between social and mass media in atomized collective action in China is in essence the configuration between exclusive and monopolized resources mediated by a middle-ground discursive mode—“implied truth.”

Spontaneous Collective Action: Peripheral Mobilization During the Arab Spring

2017 ◽  
Vol 111 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
ZACHARY C. STEINERT-THRELKELD
Keyword(s):  
Social Network ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Information Diffusion ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Core ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Models Of Disease ◽  
The Arab Spring

Who is responsible for protest mobilization? Models of disease and information diffusion suggest that those central to a social network (the core) should have a greater ability to mobilize others than those who are less well-connected. To the contrary, this article argues that those not central to a network (the periphery) can generate collective action, especially in the context of large-scale protests in authoritarian regimes. To show that those in the core of a social network have no effect on levels of protest, this article develops a dataset of daily protests across 16 countries in the Middle East and North Africa over 14 months from 2010 through 2011. It combines that dataset with geocoded, individual-level communication from the same period and measures the number of connections of each person. Those on the periphery are shown to be responsible for changing levels of protest, with some evidence suggesting that the core’s mobilization efforts lead to fewer protests. These results have implications for a wide range of social choices that rely on interdependent decision making.

scholarly journals Kontestasi Frame Surat Kabar National dalam Liputan “Aksi Bela Islam”

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 87
Author(s):  
Nfn Karman
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Legal Issue ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Problem Complexity ◽  
Daily Newspaper ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Daily Newspapers ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
The Media

This article deals with how daily newspapers of Indonesia frame reality of the collective action of Muslims. That action becomes a magnet for national and international mass media because involving a large number of Muslim, and has a problem complexity (legal, politic, religion) and political interests (contestation for Jakarta governor). The media gets involved in that complexity because they are harnessed as a political instrument, by conducting framing. This study aims to find daily newspaper frame by analyzing the content qualitativly. Those newspapers are Kompas, Republika, Suara pembaruan, and Media Indonesia during November 2016. By analyzing their editorials, we find that their frames regarding Muslim collective action are different to each other. Even, frames of Republika and Suara Pembaruan are contested. Republika regards the Muslim action as a respond to get justice and basic right because of their religion blasphemy. Republika considers it as a legal issue. Suara Pembaruan views the Muslim action as a political issue (governor election of DKI Jakarta), which makes use of religion issue. Media Indonesia sees the action as a political issue as well. Kompas regards it as political and religion issue. We conclude that although expected to be impartial –as part of democratic values, mass media keep in-partiality in crucial issues e.g., religion. This study gives our understanding that mass media can be partial in the certain contexts. Tulisan ini membahas bagaimana surat kabar harian membingkai realitas aksi umat Islam. Aksi tersebut menarik pemberitaan media massa nasional dan internasional karena melibatkan muslim dalam jumlah besar, memiliki kompleksitas persoalan (hukum, politik, agama, dan kepentingan), yaitu kontestasi pemilihan gubernur Jakarta 2017. Media terlibat dalam kompleksitas tersebutdan digunakan sebagai instrumen, yaitu politik pemberitaan. Kajian ini bertujuan menemukan bingkai surat kabar harian nasional dengan melakukan analisis isi kualitatif terhadap surat kabar nasional, yaitu: Kompas, Republika, Suara Pembaruan, dan Media Indonesia selama periode November 2016. Dengan menganalisis tajuk rencana mereka, kajian menemukan bahwa frame surat kabar di Indonesia berbeda satu sama lain. Frame surat kabar Republika dan Suara Pembaruan bahkan saling bertentangan. Republika menganggap aksi umat Islam sebagai respon untuk memperoleh keadilan dan hak asasi karena penistaan agama mereka (masalah hukum). Suara Pembaruan melihat aksi sebagai masalah politik (pemilihan gubernur DKI Jakarta) yang menggunakan isu agama. Media Indonesia melihat aksi juga sebagai masalah politik. Kompas melihat aksi sebagai persoalan agama dan politik. Kajian  menyimpulkan bahwa walaupun diharapkan tidak memihak sebagai bagian dari nilai-nilai demokrasi, media massa tetap saja memihak dalam isu yang krusial seperti agama. Penelitian ini memberikan pemahaman bahwa media umum sekalipun bisa menjadi media partisan pada konteks tertentu.

scholarly journals Russia's ‘Sharp Power’ Manifestations in Lithuania's Mass Media

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-102
Author(s):  
Gerda Jakštaitė-Confortola
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
The Third ◽  
Information Gap ◽  
Foreign And Security Policy ◽  
The Media ◽  
Informational Environment ◽  
Pass Through ◽  
Culture Education

Abstract The concept of ‘sharp power’ has recently emerged as a reaction to the assertiveness of authoritarian regimes. It serves to underline the complexity of challenges which are posed by authoritarian regimes, referring to diverse front lines in the overall ‘battle’, be they culture, education, or the media. The latter, according to Dmitri Trenin, “has become such a crowded battlefield”. This paper attempts to fill in the information gap regarding Russia’s ‘sharp power’ manifestations in Lithuania’s mass media and focuses on NATO related messages in particular. The paper presupposes that messages which evoke an air of support for Russia’s foreign and security policy tend to pass through to Lithuania’s mass media, and argues that, as a result of the insufficient activity by Lithuania’s mass media in terms of forming an independent perception of Russia vis-à-vis NATO, the preconditions for possible manifestations of Russia’s use of sharp power are therefore created. The article is organised into four parts. The first section sets out a theoretical framework for the analysis which focuses on the concept of sharp power. Then the research methodology is outlined. The third section presents features of the informational environment of Lithuania in 2016 and 2019. The final, and most elaborated, section investigates messages which apparently serve to support Russia’s foreign and security policy in terms of the NATO‘s topic in Lithuania’s mass media based on the aforementioned criteria.

When Do Private Actors Engage in Censorship? Evidence From a Correspondence Experiment with Russian Private Media Firms

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Quintin H. Beazer ◽  
Charles D. Crabtree ◽  
Christopher J. Fariss ◽  
Holger L. Kern
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Information Control ◽  
Media Firms ◽  
Private Actors

Abstract In authoritarian regimes, repression encourages private actors to censor not only themselves, but also other private actors—a behavior we call “regime-induced private censorship.” We present the results of a correspondence experiment conducted in Russia that investigates the censorship behavior of private media firms. We find that such firms censor third-party advertisements that include anti-regime language, calls for political or non-political collective action, or both. Our results demonstrate the significance of other types of censorship besides state censorship in an important authoritarian regime and contribute to the rapidly growing literature on authoritarian information control.

Grievances, Mobilization, and Mass Opposition to Authoritarian Regimes: A Subnational Analysis of East Germany’s 1953 Abbreviated Revolution

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (12) ◽  
pp. 1594-1627 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Group Structure ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Construction Workers ◽  
County Level ◽  
Communications Networks ◽  
Primary Driver ◽  
East German ◽  
Subnational Analysis ◽  
Level Analysis ◽  
Cross National

Mass opposition to authoritarian governments is caused by economic grievances and factors which facilitate mobilization. In this article, I explore these competing explanations of revolution with a county-level analysis of the June 17, 1953, uprising against the socialist dictatorship in East Germany. I argue that grievances can drive unrest, but only when they are disproportionately large and clearly attributable to a regime. Mobilization capacity is the primary driver of unrest outcomes, but depends on group structure and communications networks which are difficult to capture using cross-national indicators. Independent farmers with intense grievances attributable to the East German regime’s agricultural collectivization policies were associated with unrest despite significant obstacles to mobilization. Construction workers with strong mobilization structures and dense communications networks were significant instigators of unrest despite small numbers and moderate grievances. These findings raise important questions for both theoretical and empirical treatments of revolutionary threats to autocratic regimes.

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