Abstract
New technology improves the decentralization of liquid journalistic practices. This chapter discusses how different online news outlets and users expressed their opinions regarding the news events and everyday life in North Korea. Our study constructed North Korea-related word cloud maps of messages on the social platform Weibo and the online Q&A community Zhihu. We also discussed the short video sharing platforms Kwai and TikTok. We found Weibo’s North Korea-related content was politicized, Zhihu’s content was more alternative and of a mixed character, and Kwai and TikTok’s short video content focused on daily life. This social media content helped Chinese citizens learn more about North Korea. The authority of institutional media news and the ease of instant sharing user-generated content (UGC) both help shape public knowledge of contemporary issues. The development of digital social media platforms has fundamentally altered the diffusion of information on complex political issues.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Chuyao Lai and Xuan Lan for their contribution to the English translation and the word cloud map designs in this article. The authors also would like to acknowledge the input of Dr. Luzhou Li for this article.
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Lu, Y., Zhou, R. (2021). One North Korea, Many Voices: Liquid Journalistic Practice in the Era of New Technology in China. In: Hollihan, T.A. (eds) Diplomatic and Mediated Arguments in the North Korean Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan Series in Global Public Diplomacy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70167-3_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70167-3_7
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