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Cited by 130Misinformation and Its ImpactsMedia Influence and PoliticsSocial Media and Politics

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 156 of the 158 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Capturing Clicks: How the Chinese Government Uses Clickbait to Compete for Visibility

Lu, Yingdan, Pan, Jennifer·2021·Political Communication
DOI 10.1080/10584609.2020.1765914
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Abstract

The proliferation of social media and digital technologies has made it necessary for governments to expand their focus beyond propaganda content in order to disseminate propaganda effectively. We identify a strategy of using clickbait to increase the visibility of political propaganda. We show that such a strategy is used across China by combining ethnography with a computational analysis of a novel dataset of the titles of 197,303 propaganda posts made by 213 Chinese city-level governments on WeChat. We find that Chinese propagandists face intense pressures to demonstrate their effectiveness on social media because their work is heavily quantified–measured, analyzed, and ranked–with metrics such as views and likes. Propagandists use both clickbait and non-propaganda content (e.g., lifestyle tips) to capture clicks, but rely more heavily on clickbait because it does not decrease space available for political propaganda. Government propagandists use clickbait at a rate commensurate with commercial and celebrity social media accounts. The use of clickbait is associated with more views and likes, as well as greater reach of government propaganda outlets and messages. These results reveal how the advertising-based business model and affordances of social media influence political propaganda and how government strategies to control information are moving beyond censorship, propaganda, and disinformation.

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Metadata

Authors
Lu, Y., & Pan, J.
Affiliations
Stanford University (US)
Corresponding author
Pan, Jennifer
ORCID
Venue
Political Communication
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2020-07-20
Volume
38
Issue
1-2
Pages
23-54
ISSN
  • 1058-4609 (ISSN-L)
  • 1091-7675
DOI
10.1080/10584609.2020.1765914
OpenAlex
W3045397880
Cited by
130
References
158
Citations by year
2026: 18 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 40 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 9
FWCI
21.02
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Political Communication (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Science Foundation (1831481)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
  • Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
Keywords
clickbait, political propaganda, state propaganda, WeChat, social media visibility, information control, censorship, disinformation

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