Based on a nationwide survey, this study examines the mediated constructions of political ideology and its antecedents in contemporary China. The empirical findings offer insights into China’s future by examining political beliefs in the country. Our study found that most of the respondents share an inclination toward Liberalism, indicating that the general public harbors expectations not only for expansion of market competition to ensure the country’s successful entry into the world economic system in the age of globalization, but also for deepening political reforms, increased supervision of political power, and growing access to democratic participation. The study also investigated the relationship between media use and political ideology, as the former, together with new technology, predicts the latter to varying degrees. In addition, social psychological factors such as the motivation to use the Internet and trust in media were found to play significant roles in these complex relationships. Individuals’ social interactions and their political cognitions also help to explain the complexity of political ideology in a transitional society.
BaileyG.GayleN. (2003). Ideology: Structuring identities in contemporary life. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto.
5.
BennettW. L.SegerbergA. (2012). The logic of connective action. Information, Communication & Society, 15, 739–768.
6.
BowlerS.DonovanT. (1998). Demanding choices: Opinion, voting, and direct democracy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
7.
BurkhartR. E.Lewis-BeckM. S. (1994). Comparative democracy: The economic development thesis. American Political Science Review, 88, 903–910.
8.
CampbellA.ConverseP. E.MillerW. E.StokesD. E. (1960). The American voter. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
9.
CarneyD. R.JostJ. T.GoslingS. D.PotterJ. (2008). The secret lives of liberals and conservatives: Personality profiles, interaction styles, and the things they leave behind. Political Psychology, 29, 807–840.
10.
CastellsM. (2006). The rise of the network society (XiaZ. J., Trans.). Beijing, China: Social Science Academic Press (in Chinese). (Original work published 1996).
11.
ChaffeeS. (1982). Mass media and interpersonal channels: Competitive, convergent, or complimentary? In GumpertG.CathcartR. (Eds.), Inter/media: Interpersonal communication in a media world (pp. 57–77). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
12.
ChenM. (2001). Impression and analysis of the New Left. Chinese Book Review Monthly (Bo Lan Qun Shu), 12, 27–29 (in Chinese).
13.
ChenM. (2002). Conservatism: Thoughts and doctrine. Chinese Book Review Monthly (Bo Lan Qun Shu), 12, 33–36 (in Chinese).
14.
ChirumboloA. (2002). The relationship between need for cognitive closure and political orientation: The mediating role of authoritarianism. Personality and Individual Differences, 32, 603–610.
ClaassenC.TuckerP.SmithS. S. (2013, April11–13). Ideological labels in America: Self-identification of ideological positions on issues and the operational-symbolic ideology problem. Paper prepared for presentation at the Midwest Political Science Association meeting, Chicago, IL. Retrieved from http://taps.wustl.edu/files/taps/imce/claasentuckerpaper.pdf
17.
ConverseP. E. (1964). The nature of belief systems in mass publics. In ApterD. E. (Ed.), Ideology and discontent (pp. 206–261). New York, NY: Free Press.
DengZ. (2008). State and society: Study on civil society in China. Beijing, China: Peking University Press (in Chinese).
20.
DengZ. (2009). Development communication in the era of globalization: A review on Colin Sparks’ globalization, development and the mass media. Communication & Society, 10, 179–196 (in Chinese).
21.
DenzauA. D.NorthD. C. (2000). Shared mental models: Ideologies and institutions. In LupiaA.McCubbinsM. C.PopkinS. L. (Eds.), Elements of reason: Cognition, choice, and the bounds of rationality (pp. 23–46). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
DuckittJ.SibleyC. G. (2009). A dual-process motivational model of ideology, politics, and prejudice. Psychological Inquiry: An International Journal for the Advancement of Psychological Theory, 20, 98–109.
24.
DuckittJ.WagnerC.du PlessisI.BirumI. (2002). The psychological bases of ideology and prejudice: Testing a dual-process model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 75–93.
25.
EllisC.StimsonA. J. (2012). Ideology in America. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
26.
EriksonR. S.TedinK. L. (2003). American public opinion (6th ed.). New York, NY: Longman.
27.
EvansG.HeathA.LalljeeM. (1996). Measuring left-right and libertarian-conservative attitudes in the British electorate. The British Journal of Sociology, 47, 93–112.
28.
EvelandW. P.JrShahD. V.KwakN. (2003). Assessing causality in the cognitive mediation model: A panel study of motivations, information processing and learning during campaign 2000. Communication Research, 30, 359–386.
29.
FangK. (1997). Modern new Confucianism and Chinese modernization. Tianjing, China: Tianjing People’s Publishing House (in Chinese).
FedericoC. M. (2007). Expertise, evaluative motivation, and the structure of citizens’ ideological commitments. Political Psychology, 28, 535–561.
32.
FeldmanS.JohnstonC. (2014). Understanding the determinants of political ideology: Implications of structural complexity. Political Psychology, 35, 337–358.
33.
FoleyJ. M. (2012). Oral tradition and the Internet: Pathways of the mind. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.
34.
FriedrichC. J.BrzezinskiZ. K. (1965). Totalitarian dictatorship. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
GaoR. (2015). The changing spectrum: Modern neo-Confucianism from the perspective of social ideological trends study. Journal of Ren Ming University of China, 5, 2–9 (in Chinese).
GlennN. D.GrimesM. (1968). Aging, voting, and political interest. American Sociological Review, 33, 563–575.
39.
GongY. (Ed.). (2003). Ideology trend: The “New Left” and its influence in China. Beijing: China Social Science Press (in Chinese).
40.
GuntherA. C. (1988). Attitude extremity and trust in media. Journalism Quarterly, 65, 279–287.
41.
GuoS.ZhouB.LuY. (2006). Media literacy, political cognition, media function and media use: Exploration the theoretical relationship. Communication & Society, 1, 121–145 (in Chinese).
42.
HsiaoH. M. (2006). The changing faces of the middle classes in Asia-Pacific. Taipei, Taiwan: Academia Sinica.
HuangY. (2004). “Cultural Conservatism” review: Discussion with Mr. CHEN Ming, the Chief Editor of “Yuan Dao” Magazine. Academics, 5, 142–145 (in Chinese).
45.
HuntingtonS. P. (1991). The third wave: Democratization in the late twentieth century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
46.
InglehartR.NorrisP. (2009). Cosmopolitan communications: Cultural diversity in a globalized world. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
47.
InglehartR.WelzelC. (2005). Modernization, cultural change and democracy. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
48.
InkelesA. (1954). The totalitarian mystique: Some impressions of the dynamics of totalitarian society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
49.
IyengarS. (1991). Is anyone responsible? How television frames political issues. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
50.
JesseeS. A. (2012). Ideology and spatial voting in American elections. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
51.
JiangX. (1999). 1990s’ culture conservatism review. Teaching and Research, 11, 47–51 (in Chinese).
52.
JiangZ. (2006). Developing path of social ideology in contemporary China. Guangxi Social Sciences, 2, 9–13 (in Chinese).
53.
JonesD. M. (1998). Democratization, civil society and illiberal middle class culture in Pacific Asia!Comparative Politics, 30, 147–169.
54.
JostJ. T. (2006). The end of the end of ideology. American Psychologist, 61, 651–670.
55.
JostJ. T.FedericoC. M.NapierJ. L. (2009). Political ideology: Its structure, functions, and elective affinities. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 307–337.
56.
JostJ. T.GlaserJ.KruglanskiA. W.SullowayF. J. (2003a). Exceptions that prove the rule: Using a theory of motivated social cognition to account for ideological incongruities and political anomalies: Reply to Greenberg and Jonas (2003). Psychological Bulletin, 129, 383–393.
57.
JostJ. T.GlaserJ.KruglanskiA. W.SullowayF. J. (2003b). Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 339–375.
58.
KerlingerF. N. (1984). Liberalism and conservatism: The nature and structure of social attitudes. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
59.
KimD.JohnsonT. J. (2006). A victory of the Internet over mass media? Examining the effects of online media on political attitudes in South Korea. Asian Journal of Communication, 16, 1–18.
60.
KimJ. (2005). “Bowling Together” isn’t a cure-all: The relationship between social capital and political trust in South Korea. International Political Science Review, 26, 193–213.
61.
KnightK. (2006). Transformations of the concept of ideology in the twentieth century. The American Political Science Review, 100, 619–626.
62.
KumlinS. (2006). Learning from politics? The causal interplay between government performance and political ideology. Journal of Public Policy, 26, 89–114.
63.
LaymanG. C.CarseyT. M. (2002). Party polarization and “Conflict Extension” in the American electorate. American Journal of Political Science, 46, 786–802.
64.
LeighleyJ. E. (1990). Social interaction and contextual influences on political participation. American Politics Quarterly, 18, 459–475.
65.
LewisJ.JhallyS. (1998). The struggle over media literacy. Journal of Communication, 48, 109–120.
66.
LiC. (2005). Cleavage or fragment: An empirical analysis on the social stratification of contemporary China. Beijing, China: Social Science Academic Press (in Chinese).
67.
LiC. (2011). Pursuing change or maintaining the status quo? Measurement of the sociopolitical attitudes of the middle class. Chinese Journal of Sociology, 2, 125–152 (in Chinese).
68.
LiH. (2010). Debating China’s economic reform: New leftists vs. liberals. Journal of Chinese Political Science, 15, 1–23.
69.
LiL. (2003). The continuing of reproducing: Institution transition and social stratification. Beijing: China Renmin University Press (in Chinese).
70.
LiL.LuY.ZhouB.ShenF.ZhangZ. (2010). Chinese audiences in new communication form. Shanghai, China: Fudan University Press.
71.
LiL.PanZ.LuY.Survey Team. (2010). Social change and mass media in contemporary China. Shanghai, China: School of Journalism & Research Center for Information and Communication Studies, Fudan University. [Dataset owner and provider]
72.
LiL.ZhongZ. (2015). “Divided Post-Authoritarianism”: An analysis of the political value and its evolution in China’s transitional society. Open Times, 1, 172–191 (in Chinese).
73.
LiW. (2008). The crux, cause and influence of the resuming of cultural conservatism. Academic Research, 3, 33–45 (in Chinese).
74.
LiY. (2005). ‘White Collar’ and its function in social structure: A case study of Shanghai since 1990’s. Sociological Research, 6, 90–111, 244 (in Chinese).
75.
LieberA. (2013). The Chinese ideology: Reconciling the politics with the economics of contemporary reform. Journal of Chinese Political Science, 18, 335–353.
76.
LinzJ. J. (2000). Totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
77.
LipsetS. M. (1959). Some social requisites of democracy: Economic development and political legitimacy!American Political Science Review, 53, 69–105.
78.
LipsetS. M. (1960). Political man. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
79.
LipsetS. M. (1963). Political man: The social bases of politics. New York, NY: Anchor Books.
80.
LiuL. (2001). Review of culture conservatism studies in a decade. Philosophical Trends, 11, 21–25 (in Chinese).
81.
LiuQ.SunQ.ShiC.ChenY. (2013). Political ideology: Correlate factors, psychological causes, and implications. Advances in Psychological Science, 21, 2073–2081 (in Chinese).
82.
LuX. (Ed.). (2002). Research report on social stratification in contemporary China. Beijing, China: Social Sciences Academic Press (in Chinese).
83.
LuY. (2012). Media use, media evaluation, social interaction and the trend of three social ideologies in China. Journalism Quarterly, 6, 63–72 (in Chinese).
84.
LuY.GuoZ. (2007). Empowerment through media literacy: From interpersonal discussion to media participation intention. Mass Communication Research, 92, 1–36 (in Chinese).
85.
MaD.WangL. (2015). Chinese Netizen’s political ideology and their sources: An empirical analysis. Chinese Journal of Sociology, 5, 142–167 (in Chinese).
86.
MaoY. (1996). What is the economic liberalism?Reading, 12, 114–119.
87.
MarxK.EngelsF. (1970). The German ideology (ArthurC. J., Trans.). New York, NY: International Publishers. (Original work published 1846)
88.
McKuenM. (1990). Speaking of politics: Individual conversational choice, public opinion, and the prospects for deliberative democracy. In FerejhonJ.KuklinskiJ. (Eds.), Information and democratic process (pp. 59–99). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
89.
McLeodJ. M.ScheufeleD. A.MoyP. (1999). Community, communication, and participation: The role of mass media and interpersonal discussion in local political participation. Political Communication, 16, 315–336.
90.
McLeodJ. M.ScheuffleD. A.MoyP.HorowitzE.HolbertL.ZhangW.ZubricS.ZubricJ. (1999). Understanding deliberation: The effects of discussion networks on participation in a public forum. Communication Research, 26, 743–774.
91.
MierzejewskiD. (2009). ‘Not to Oppose but to Rethink’: The New Left discourse on the Chinese reforms. Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia, 8, 15–29.
92.
MillerW. E.TraugottS. A. (1989). American national election studies data sourcebook, 1952-1986. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
93.
MuellerM. L. (2010). Networks and states: The global politics of Internet governance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
94.
NapierJ. L.JostJ. T. (2008). The “Antidemocratic Personality” revisited: A cross-national investigation of working class authoritarianism. Journal of Social Issues, 64, 595–617.
95.
NeumannF. L. (1964). The democratic and the authoritarian state. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
96.
NewtonK. (2001). Trust, social capital, civil society, and democracy. International Political Science Review, 22, 201–214.
97.
NisbetM. C.MoyP.ScheufeleD. A. (2003, May). Religion, communication, and social capital. Paper presented to the Political Communication Division of the International Communication Association, San Diego, CA.
PanZ.ZhengJ.YanW.JingG. (2011, May26–30). Unraveling the significance of trust in a changing authoritarian society: Evidence from urban China. Paper presented at the 61st Annual Conference of International Communication Association, Boston, MA.
100.
ParsonsT. (1951). The social system. New York, NY: Free Press.
101.
PattersonT. (1994). Out of order. New York, NY: Vintage Books.
102.
PutnamR. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
103.
QinH. (2000). Liberalism, social democracy and “Issues” of contemporary China. Strategy and Management, 5, 84–92 (in Chinese).
104.
RenJ. (1999). Interpretation of the “New Left.”Frontiers, 1, 35–46 (in Chinese).
105.
RokeachM. (1968). Beliefs, attitudes, and values. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
106.
SaucierG. (2000). Isms and the structure of social attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 366–385.
107.
ScheufeleD. A.HardyB. W.BrossardD.Waismel-ManorI. S.NisbetE. (2006). Democracy based on difference: Examining the links between structural heterogeneity, heterogeneity of discussion networks, and democratic citizenship. Journal of Communication, 56, 728–753.
108.
ScheufeleD. A.NisbetM. C.BrossardD. (2003). Pathways to participation? Religion, communication contexts, and mass media. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 15, 300–324.
109.
ScheufeleD. A.ShanahanS.KimS. (2002). Who cares about local politics? Media influences on local political involvement, issue awareness, and attitude strength. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 79, 427–444.
110.
ShaferB. E.ClaggettW. J. M. (1995). The two majorities: The issue context of American politics. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
111.
ShaniD. (2012). Measuring political interest. In AldrichJ. H.McGrawK. M. (Eds.), Improving public opinion surveys: Interdisciplinary innovation and the American national election studies (pp. 137–157). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
SidaniusJ. (1984). Political interest, political information search, and ideology homogeneity as a function of sociopolitical ideology: A tale of three theories. Human Relations, 37, 811–828.
114.
SidaniusJ. (1985). Cognitive functioning and sociopolitical ideology revisited. Political Psychology, 6, 637–661.
115.
SidaniusJ. (1988). Political sophistication and political deviance: A structural equation examination of context theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 37–51.
116.
SidaniusJ.LauR. R. (1989). Political sophistication and political deviance: A matter of context. Political Psychology, 10, 85–109.
117.
SimmelG. (1950). The sociology of Georg Simmel (WolffK., Trans. and Ed.). Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
118.
SkipworthS. (2011, April). The consequences of trust in the media: A moderating effect of media trust on the relationship between attention to television and political knowledge. Western Political Science Association 2011 Annual Meeting Paper. Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1766887
119.
SmithK. B.OxleyD. R.HibbingM. V.AlfordJ. R.HibbingJ. R. (2011). Linking genetics and political attitudes: Reconceptualizing political ideology. Political Psychology, 32, 369–397.
120.
StennerK. (2005). The authoritarian dynamic. London, England: Cambridge University Press.
121.
SunL. (2003). Cleavage: Chinese society since 1990s. Beijing, China: Social Sciences Academic Press (in Chinese).
122.
SunL. (2006). Gaming: Interests conflicts and harmony of fractured society. Beijing, China: Social Science Academic Press (in Chinese).
123.
SunY.ChenA.LiY.FanH. (2006). The investigation report of the trend of New Left thought’s influence on undergraduate students. Journal of Nanchang Institute of Aeronautical Technology (Social Science Edition), 1, 30–33 (in Chinese).
124.
TedinK. L. (1987). Political ideology and the vote. Research in Micro-Politics, 2, 63–94.
125.
TkachevaO.SchwartzL. H.LibickiM. C.TaylorJ. E.MartiniJ. (2013). Internet freedom and political space. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corp.
126.
TsfatiY.CappellaJ. N. (2005). Why do people watch news they do not trust? The need for cognition as a moderator in the association between news media skepticism and exposure. Media Psychology, 7, 251–271.
127.
van der BrugW.SemetkoH. A.ValkenburgP. M. (2007). Media priming in a multi-party context: A controlled naturalistic study in political communication. Political Behavior, 29, 115–141.
128.
Van DijkT. A. (2002). Political discourse and political cognition. In ChiltonP.ShaffnerC. (Eds.), Politics as text and talk: Analytic approaches to political discourse (pp. 203–237). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.
129.
Van HielA.MervieldeI. (1999, July). The measurement of cognitive complexity and its relationship with political extremism. Paper presented at the Twenty-Second Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
130.
WangH. (1998). Ideological state of contemporary China and the issues of modernity. Debate of Literary and Art (Wen Yi Zheng Ming), 6, 7–22 (in Chinese).
131.
WangS. (2006). The heritage and the future of the New Left in contemporary China. Exploration and Free Views, 10, 12–14 (in Chinese).
WeberC. W.FedericoC. M. (2007). Interpersonal attachment and patterns of ideological belief. Political Psychology, 28, 389–416.
135.
WeiC. (2011). Debate of the New Left and Liberalism: Occurrence, distinctions and prospect. Innovation, 3, 23–26 (in Chinese).
136.
WienerR. L.RichterE. (2008). Symbolic hate: Intention to intimidate, political ideology, and group association. Law and Human Behavior, 32, 463–476.
137.
XiY. (2011). Liberalism, enlightenism and the intellectual: Discussion with “Liberalism and the New Left into 21st Century” by Mr. Xu Youyu. Tribune of Social Sciences, 4, 95–113 (in Chinese).
XiaoG. (2007). Ideological differentiation and political implications of contemporary Chinese intellectuals. Retrieved from http://www.cssm.gov.cn/view.php?id=12642 (in Chinese).
140.
XiaoG. (2011). From the late Qing reform thought the contemporary reform. Yan Huang Chun Qiu, 4, 23–29 (in Chinese).
XieY. (2003). Debate over the political science of “The New Left” and liberalism. Journal of Shanghai Jiaotong University (Philosophy and Social Sciences), 1, 19–23 (in Chinese).
YangY. (2008). Measurement of contemporary Chinese’s citizenship. Sociological Studies, 2, 58–72, 247–248 (in Chinese).
150.
YaoQ. (2008). Media use, postmaterialist values, and political interest: The making of Chinese environmentalists and their views on their social environment. Asian Journal of Communication, 18, 264–279.
151.
YuG.ZhangH.JinY. (2007). Media credibility: Research of dimensions and scales – The model based on China’s first national survey of media credibility. The Journalist Monthly, 6, 12–26.
152.
YuK. (2004). Historical evolution and basic characteristic of Chinese liberalism trend. Studies on Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping Theories, 11, 77–83 (in Chinese).
153.
YuK. (2008). Ideological change and incremental democracy in reform-era China. In LiC. (Ed.), China’s changing political landscape: Prospects for democracy (pp. 44–58). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
ZhangW.LiW.GaoG. (2004). Characteristics study on the composition of the new-middle-stratum in contemporary China. Jiangsu Social Sciences, 6, 100–107 (in Chinese).
156.
ZhangY. (2009). Is middle class a social stabilizer? In LiC. (Ed.), Formation of middle class in comparative perspective: Process, influence and socioeconomic consequences (pp. 231–251). Beijing, China: Social Sciences Academic Press (in Chinese).
157.
ZhengD. (2005). Several issues of culture conservatism studies in China. Tianjin Social Sciences, 2, 129–136 (in Chinese).
158.
ZhouX. (Ed.). (2005). Survey of the Chinese middle classes. Beijing, China: Social Science Academic Press (in Chinese).
ZhuX. (2006). Citizenship: Challenges and twists and turns in China. In ZhuX. (Ed.), The revolution in the study (pp. 328–343). Kunming, China: Yunnan Remin Publishing House (in Chinese).
