Why the everyday is essential: Navigating censorship and surveillance on WeChat in China.
This article examines everyday, non-activist forms of political communication on WeChat in the Beijing region. How is the communication of sensitive issues entwined with other daily communicative practices? And how do users negotiate the Chinese system of online surveillance and censorship? Examinin...
| Publicado en: | Media, Culture & Society Vol. 48; no. 2; pp. 229 - 247 |
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| Autores principales: | , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Sage Publications, Ltd.
Mar2026
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=191984573&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 191984573 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 01634437 MCS jtl: Media, Culture & Society issn: 01634437 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: Mar2026 vid: 48 iid: 2 pid: 2171 pub: Sage Publications, Ltd. artinfo: ui: 191984573 10.1177/01634437251380415 ppf: 229 ppct: 18 formats: tig: atl: Why the everyday is essential: Navigating censorship and surveillance on WeChat in China. aug: au: Kloet, Jeroen de Poell, Thomas affil: University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands su: China Beijing (China) WeChat (Web resource) Scott, James C., 1936- Censorship Political communication Activism Police surveillance sug: subj: Censorship Political communication Activism China Beijing (China) Police surveillance WeChat (Web resource) Scott, James C., 1936- keyword: censorship hidden transcripts politics surveillance censorship hidden transcripts politics surveillance ab: This article examines everyday, non-activist forms of political communication on WeChat in the Beijing region. How is the communication of sensitive issues entwined with other daily communicative practices? And how do users negotiate the Chinese system of online surveillance and censorship? Examining how WeChat users communicate sensitive issues, knowing that every word and image they share can be tracked, analyzed, and acted upon, we, bringing the work of James Scott in dialogue with Chinese internet studies, demonstrate how online contention is openly articulated, but simultaneously obfuscated and disguised. We focus on the sticky super app WeChat, being the central node of the Chinese internet, deeply integrated into everyday life. We argue that, especially in China and other authoritarian contexts, it is vital to situate, study, and analyze online contention within the flows of everyday communication. Confronted by ubiquitous surveillance and censorship, Chinese citizens constantly and consciously calibrate the way they voice or do not voice opinions on sensitive societal issues. By weaving sensitive messages through mundane exchanges on social media, they can hide in plain sight. Yet, we also show that these small forms of resistance are vulnerable, and certainly not bulletproof to state repression and online harassment. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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