Towards SoMoLo journalism and SoMoLo activism: case studies of Macau netizens’ digital practices

SoMoLo journalism

The influence of social media on journalism has long been a key topic in media and journalism studies, and many scholars have undertaken a comprehensive investigation of the ways in which social media has affected the changes in journalism (Bossio, 2017). Specifically, scholars have developed many concepts, such as ‘digital journalism’, ‘civic journalism’, ‘citizen journalism’, ‘grassroots journalism’, ‘public journalism’, ‘participatory journalism’, ‘network journalism’ and ‘democratic journalism’, to explain and interpret the emerging phenomenon of the collecting, reporting, commenting, distributing and sharing of news on social media by members of the public who are armed with digital cameras, laptops, cell phones and other portable handheld devices (Atton, 2002; Baase, 2008; Couldry, 2000; Deuze and Witschge, 2017; Downing, 2000; Gillmor, 2006; Rodriguez, 2001; Verklas and Mechael, 2008; Witschge et al., 2016).

These new patterns of journalism blur the boundary between news production and consumption and simultaneously transform the traditional media audience into news producers, promulgators and consumers – or ‘prosumers’ (Bruns, 2009; Rosen, 2008). This new journalism paradigm of ‘readers-turned-reporters’, ‘consumers-as-producers’ and ‘control-shift-engagement’ is argued to be not only a response and opposition to the traditional mainstream media but also an alternative way of redefining journalism itself (Atton and Hamilton, 2008; Gillmor, 2006).

More recently, increasingly ‘smart’ mobile phones (or ‘smartphones’) since the launch of the ‘iPhone’ – a distinctive moment and historical juncture that marks the rearticulation of the relationship between technology and media practice (Goggin, 2006, 2009a; Hjorth et al., 2012) – have initiated the new question of the ‘mobility’ of journalism in the mobile age (Thornham and Cruz, 2017). Smartphones, along with the mobile Internet, cameras, compasses, GPS and thousands of ‘applications’ (Apps), serve as ‘the Swiss Army knives of connectivity’, providing ‘myriad affordances’ for both media organizations and ordinary users and opening up new mobile interactive spaces for mobile communication practices (Wellman, 2010). As Goggin (2009b) argues, the mobility that is brought by smartphones is becoming important because ‘mobile communications form part of a reconfiguration of the relations between different media, their genres and the media practices of users’ (p. 153). Kjetil Vaage Øie (2013) also argues that ‘new possibilities for journalism arise by virtue of the emergence of an “always on” generation of mobile device users’ (p. 558). Some scholars have even coined a new term, ‘mobile journalism’ (MoJo) (Mills et al., 2012: 669), to interpret the new journalism paradigm in the ‘age of smartphones’ (Watkins et al., 2012: 667).

Indeed, after several years with online journalism based on social media, mobile journalism has gained a foothold in the changing media ecology (Westlund, 2012). Most mainstream media, such as the BBC, CNN, NBC and Sky News, have developed their own mobile applications and mobile platforms for gathering, editing, processing and distributing their news (Väätäjä, 2012). Therefore, most recent research on ‘mobile journalism’ mainly focuses on how mobile media facilitates mainstream media organizations from the perspective of the journalism industry rather than from the standpoint of the ordinary smartphone users who can publish mobile journalism across mobile phones by themselves (Mills et al., 2012; Peters, 2012). Furthermore, most previous studies on mobile journalism emphasize the process of mobile journalism being performed remotely from the traditional newsroom (Väätäjä, 2012), which shows their concern that the ‘spatial turn’ of journalism is moving ‘away from concentrating upon content, what people read/listen to/watch, to focus upon the where and how’ (Peters, 2012: 699). However, the issues that surround the spatiality of mobile journalism still need further exploration.

Therefore, behind the emerging ‘mobility’ of journalism, many scholars have further explored ‘a localized notion of mobility’ of journalism (Watkins et al., 2012: 667). For them, journalism ‘is not just something we do, it is something we do in a particular place’ (Peters, 2012: 697), a place ‘as lived and imagined, geographic and psychological’ (Watkins et al., 2012: 667). Specifically, the spatiality of mobile journalism is constructed with an array of important characteristics of location, locality and localism, which indicates not only the space and place of journalism but also the social relations, cultural meanings and political powers that are associated with this space of place (Goggin et al., 2015; Wilken, 2012). As Jesper Falkheimer and André Jansson (2006: 14) note, ‘Communication as common knowledge and experience is also a turn towards the meanings of place and the places of meaning, which are continually shared through communication. It is, we may summarize, a turn from text to context’.

However, most existing studies on the spatiality of mobile journalism rely mainly on the specific concepts of ‘locative journalism’, ‘locative news’ and ‘locative media’ rather than on the whole meanings of location, locality and localism (Goggin et al., 2015; Øie, 2013, 2015; Schrøder, 2014). These innovative concepts used to be heralded by journalism educators and scholars as ‘the future of mobile journalism’ (Goggin et al., 2015: 42), but they only refer to location-specific, location-based, location-aware and location-dependent journalism and ignore the locality and localism of journalism in context (Higgins, 2004; Martin and Wilson, 2002). In particular, traditional ‘local journalism’ (Franklin, 2005; Nielsen, 2015) and ‘hyperlocal journalism’ ((Bruns, 2005; Kurplus et al., 2010) have become under-investigated and under-theorized issues in the mobile age because we focus too much on the grand narratives and macro structures of globalization, deterritorialization and connectivity in the mobile age, while we ignore the subtle narratives and micro-structures of localization, reterritorialization and disconnectivity.

Based on the literature discussion above, this study, therefore, does not use any solo concepts of ‘social media journalism’, ‘mobile journalism’ or ‘local journalism’. Instead, this study chooses the expression ‘SoMoLo journalism’ in attempting to comprehensively examine the new emerging and changing phenomenon of journalism in the mobile age in the specific context of Macau. Specifically, this study aims to explore Macau netizens’ local practices of journalism with their mobile smartphones on social media platforms. This study also further explores the implications of SoMoLo journalism, especially its relationship with activism in the SoMoLo context.

Activism in the SoMoLo context

The relationship between media and activism has long been a key topic in academia and is most prominently associated with scholars such as Todd Gitlin (1980). However, the traditional research on media activism in the West is usually rooted in a persistent critique of mainstream media that argues that news production in the media only reinforces the existing power relations (Clark, 2013). Media activists, it is argued, seek to challenge the current media landscape and claim an ‘alternative vision to hegemonic policies, priorities, and perspectives’ (Downing, 2000: v). The development of social, mobile and local media has been argued to influence the mobilization, organization and coordination of activism in a hybrid media context, which proposes a newer alternative vision and a more inclusive environment that primarily serves as a venue for participation, speech, interaction and creativity (Castells, 2012; Chadwick, 2013; Lin, 2017; Mattoni and Treré, 2014).

Similarly, journalism is also argued to always overlap with activism and to aim not to cover the world but to change it (Russell, 2017). Journalism represents one of the main sites of communication power (Castells, 2012) through which ordinary citizens can directly shape the news and mobilize their activism (Russell, 2017). In this sense, journalism represents not only the right to know but also the right to act. In particular, with the development of social, mobile and local media, journalism has also become a key precursor to collective and connective political action (Clark and Marchi, 2017).

Many scholars have studied social media and mobile media’s great influence in activism (Castells, 2012; Ganesh and Stohl, 2013; Juris, 2012; Tufekci and Wilson, 2012). These digital media are argued to further expand people’s access to and efficiently enable the exchange of information, which can motivate online civic discussion and enhance political participation (Bennett et al., 2008). In some cases, social media and mobile media not only promote the access and exchange of information but also reduce the cost of communication and participation, and even helps to foster identity and create community in activisms (Castells, 2012; Juris, 2012; Tufekci and Wilson, 2012). Social media and mobile media are also prominent tools to present and represent the diverse contentious repertoires both online and offline, and even become sort of electronic repertoires itself (Jordan, 2008), which even blurs the notion of media activism itself (Van de Donk et al., 2004). Social media and mobile media are also argued to shape media activism on the decentralized structure, with hubs at the centre of activities and links to other centres (Castells, 2012; della Porta, 2011). Particularly since 2011, a year of numerous revolutions, various optimistic scholars have asserted that network journalism has become a game-changer for media activism (Ghonim, 2012; Tremayne, 2014), which drives the global population to a new era of media activism (Tufekci and Wilson, 2012). These previous studies contribute much to the traditional research fields of ‘media and movements’ and ‘journalism and activism’, especially in the changing context of the development of social media and mobile media, but do not pay enough attention to the local media and local actions in the more dynamic context of SoMoLo journalism as we have discussed above.

Therefore, this study attempts to rejuvenate the older ‘media and movements’ and ‘journalism and activism’ traditions in the newer SoMoLo context to explore how SoMoLo journalism coexists interdependently with SoMoLo activism. This article specifically examines how the actors of both SoMoLo journalism and SoMoLo activism collect, report, comment and distribute news to steer information flows that are suited to their goals to mobilize, modify and enable other actors’ agency in the reflexively connected fields of journalism and activism in Macau’s specific SoMoLo context.

Traffic issue

According to fieldwork observations, traffic was an issue of such concern for SoMoLo journalism in Macau that many Facebook newsgroup pages were established to scrutinize drivers’ bad behaviour and traffic accidents that involve public buses. For example, the Facebook group ‘inspection team on drivers’ bad behaviour in Macau’ was established on 8 February 2012, and it emphasized its ‘watchdog role’ on its homepage:

Macau has too many cars and too few roads. We are watching drivers’ bad behaviour in Macau. We hope everyone will be civic journalists and record drivers’ bad behaviour and post it on this Facebook page. The law cannot do this kind of thing, but we can do it because of our collective conscience.

This ‘inspection team’ was so welcome by Internet users that it quickly received 4571 ‘likes’ and once had 1454 members simultaneously browsing the page on 9 August 2012. Most of the posts on this Facebook newsgroup page were uploaded by its group members via mobile phones, and almost every message received hundreds of feedback messages. These posts related to different aspects of the traffic issues in Macau, from traffic jams and personal illegal parking to running a red light and even pedestrian jaywalking. For example, on 14 July 2012, a bus driver parked his bus on the side of the street and left to purchase a meal at McDonald’s while the bus still had approximately 10 passengers. This process was recorded by someone at McDonald’s via a mobile phone who then used the photos to complain to the bus company; however, because this person received no reply, he exposed the driver’s bad behaviour on this Facebook page.

Another typical example of watchdog Facebook newsgroup pages on the traffic issue was the ‘reports on the traffic accidents of Reolian Bus’. Reolian Bus, also known as Green Bus, is one of the three public bus transport operators in Macau, along with Transmac Bus and TCM Bus. People frequently complained about Reolian Bus drivers’ impolite attitudes, the late arrival of their buses and its traffic accidents, as it had far more than the other two bus companies. Some Internet users therefore established a Facebook newsgroup page on 4 July 2012 to record ‘how many traffic accidents the Green Bus would cause in the next six years’. By 31 March 2014, the Facebook page had 631 followers, who served as civic journalists to report the accidents that they encountered and to share the news about Reolian Bus’s traffic accidents or violations.

However, this type of SoMoLo journalism regarding the traffic issue did not merely remain in watchdog ‘inspection’ mode; rather, it also led to SoMoLo activism. On 29 June 2012, Macau’s three bus companies, led by the Green Bus Company, submitted an application to the Macau Transportation Bureau to raise fare prices by 23%. The application became widespread news on social media and led to many parodies and a series of online polling and signatures that finally resulted in offline protests. A ‘Protesting Green Bus Price Raising’ action was initiated, mobilized and organized online and was then conducted offline through street activism, which was simultaneously reported online via the mobile phones of the protestors themselves and was discussed online for the many Internet users who did not participate in the street activism in person. Because of this SoMoLo journalism and SoMoLo activism, the Macau government had to make a concession to suspend all approval processes and immediately dismissed the Green Bus Company’s application.

Telecommunication issue

Another issue that emerged during our fieldwork was the telecommunication issue. Although Macau is a very small city, it has its own telecommunication system, which mainly relies on CTM, the largest telecom and Internet service provider in Macau. CTM obtained a monopoly franchise licence from the Macau government and monopolized the communications market with a mismatch between services offered and charges applied, which caused widespread public dissatisfaction among Macau netizens. In 2011 and 2012, CTM’s Internet service had four major network faults during which users were disconnected from the Internet for several hours every time. Due to CTM’s government-backed and monopoly position, the traditional media, most of which is government-controlled, only reported the news briefly and cited only CTM’s source who blamed the accident on a ‘rare global network attack’ (Lei and Huang, 2015). Internet users were outraged at the disconnections and disappointed in the traditional media’s reports; therefore, they became civic journalists themselves and reported the news on Facebook newsgroups and more importantly, expressed their grievances regarding CTM’s service. For example, Macau Concealers’ Facebook newsgroup designed and posted a parody poster called ‘Disconnected’ that spoofed a famous movie at the time called Connected to criticize the network-caused outages. The parody was so welcome by Internet users that it received 2370 likes and 1059 shares on Facebook within 7 days (Figure 2).

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Figure 2.

Internet users spoofed the poster of ‘connected’ into ‘disconnected’.

In order to further express their grievance, the netizens in Macau established a Facebook newsgroup page ‘Macau Internet Users Cursing CTM’, which was not only dedicated in collecting CTM’s dark side news but also mobilizing, planning and promoting the offline activism ‘Planking CTM’ that Internet users expressed their grievance through a planking post in front of CTM company (Figure 3). ¹ The offline action was also reported online in real time by civic journalists, which received more than 3000 pieces of feedback online, most of which expressed support for the action. Because of this SoMoLo journalism and SoMoLo activism, CTM had to dispatch managers to negotiate with the protestors.

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Figure 3.

Internet users’ ‘Planking CTM’ activism in 2011 (left) and 2012 (right).

Parody, or ‘egao’, a typical genre of cyber culture which combines different tactics of satires, has become kind of popular ‘culture jamming’ in Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China (Harold, 2007; Liu, 2013), as demonstrated on the two cases of traffic issue and telecommunication issue above. It usually draws on a wide range of cultural resources and then combines and transforms the unrelated but interesting symbols from different resources into unexpected, ironic and humorous culture forms such as images, puns, songs and videos, with dramatic effect (Liu, 2013). In recent years, this kind of innovative practice develops in a resonant manner with the development of SoMoLo media in Macau, with specific pattern that SoMoLo journalism drawn public attention online first, then provoked public discussion and waves of culture jamming online through the parody work of Internet users, and finally shifted from online to offline, developing into street SoMoLo activism.

Education issue

The last key issue that we discovered during our fieldwork was the education issue. We found that all universities and most secondary schools in Macau have established their own journalism spaces on Facebook to cover the news that relates to their schools. These journalism spaces were usually ‘secret spaces’ and usually comprised ‘school name + secrets’, such as ‘Shcces Secrets’ (which comprised students from the Shcces middle school) and ‘UM Secrets’ (which involved students at the University of Macau), to guarantee the necessary anonymity to encourage ordinary students to become civic journalists and digital watchdogs and to propose anonymous news.

On one hand, the producers were anonymous, and they only reported the news that they wanted to share through special website links that completely erased their personal information and kept them absolutely anonymous. On the other hand, only members within the same community could read and comment on the news anonymously. For example, the Facebook newsgroup page ‘UM Secrets’ was established by students at the University of Macau to encourage everyone to report secret news, gossip and even rumours concerning the University of Macau. This Facebook page had been liked by 5700 persons and had posted 10,688 ‘secrets’ by 4 April 2014; all of the interviewees from the University of Macau said that they were followers of this Facebook page and had posted some news in this secret space. As one of the interviewees Mary explained,

Um secrets provides us a public sphere for opinion expressing and ideas sharing. The anonymity protects us from unnecessary trouble for posting sensitive news, like the sexual scandals of the professors, the corruption of the administrators and the emotional disputes of the students. Just like a ‘tree hole’, it really encourages us to speak out what we could not say in public, and makes sure that there is always someone else would like to listen these secrets.

Similarly, this SoMoLo journalism did not remain in ‘watch’ mode online but rather led to street ‘action’ offline. In May 2016, most of the ‘secret spaces’ reported the news that the Macau government was going to donate RMB 100 million (approximately MOP 123 million) through the public Macau Foundation to Jinan University in Guangzhou rather than to local universities in Macau. Again, this news was not reported by traditional media but was exposed by the SoMoLo media, which criticized the perceived conflict of interest of Chief Executive Mr Chui who had been the president of the Macau Foundation’s council and the vice-chairman of Jinan University’s board since 2000. Because of this SoMoLo journalism, Macau netizens began to accuse Chief Executive Mr Chui of ‘abusing’ his positions and of a ‘notorious’ lack of transparency. SoMoLo journalism finally led to SoMoLo activism: some SoMoLo media launched offline campaigns to collect signatures to urge Mr Chui to resign over the donation, while other SoMoLo media established a specific Facebook page to mobilize a march against the donation. This time, however, they targeted not only the event itself but also the Chief Executive and the entire political system, and their slogan appeals read ‘Refund, Resign, and Reform’.

These cases illustrate that the SoMoLo journalism in Macau did not act in a radical way but rather focused on Macau’s daily, concrete and specific issues. However, this lack of radicalism did not necessarily mean that the practice of SoMoLo journalism in Macau was so trivial and passive as to not provoke any activism in the real world. Rather, SoMoLo journalism empowered Macau netizens not only with the right to know but also the right to act. In this sense, Macau netizens developed a particular trajectory from SoMoLo journalism to SoMoLo activism in Macau’s SoMoLo context.