The Road to Cynicism: The Political Consequences of Online Satire Exposure in China
| Published date | 01 May 2019 |
| Date | 01 May 2019 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/0032321718791373 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/0032321718791373
Political Studies
2019, Vol. 67(2) 517 –536
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0032321718791373
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The Road to Cynicism:
The Political Consequences
of Online Satire Exposure
in China
Li Shao and Dongshu Liu
Abstract
This article examines two competing theories explaining the effects of political satire on citizens
in an authoritarian context. The “activism” proposition argues that political satire works as a form
of resistance to erode people’s support for the regime and encourages collective action. The
“cynicism” proposition argues that while satire discourages regime support, it also discourages
political participation. Our online survey experiment on young Chinese Internet users provides
evidence supporting the cynicism proposition. Satire consumption reduces audiences’ political
trust, deflates their political efficacy, and discourages them from participating in politics, as it
reduces the perceived severity of political problems and implies that audience participation is
useless. We conclude that the dissemination of political satire may stabilize the authoritarian
regime temporarily but induces it to become erosive in the long run.
Keywords
political satire, online activism, experiment, China, authoritarianism, political effect
Accepted: 6 July 2017
Introduction
For a long time, political satire has been considered as a weapon to resist authoritarian
rule (Oring, 2004; Pi-Sunyer, 1977; Zlobin, 1996). O’Donnell and Schmitter (2013: 57)
argue that “[t]he talent and courage of … satirists poke holes in the regime’s pretense of
incarnating supreme ‘national values and virtues,’ often by subjecting this pretense to
ridicule and humor.” Such a notion is also applied to understand online political satire in
China—especially because satire provides an indirect and creative form of expression
that is difficult to be detected clearly by the censorship mechanism. Therefore, satire
helps Internet users evade censorship when they criticize the government (Lee, 2016;
Department of Political Science, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
Corresponding author:
Dongshu Liu, 100 Eggers Hall, Department of Political Science, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
Email: dliu105@syr.edu
791373PCX0010.1177/0032321718791373Political StudiesShao and Liu
research-article2018
Article
518 Political Studies 67(2)
Yang, 2009). In other words, citizens’ political criticisms of authoritarian regimes may
survive as the form of satire in the public realm, which could in turn destabilize the
regime’s rule.
However, the consequence of online satire exposure has yet to be tested empirically
under authoritarian regimes (Yang and Jiang, 2015). The previous literature suggests two
competing explanations. The “activism” proposition contends that satire yields further
resistance. After reading satire, audiences will be more concerned about the problems of
dictatorship and willing to participate in contentious politics to resist the regime. This
speculation, however, is challenged by studies from both the Soviet Union and the United
States (Baumgartner and Morris, 2006; Davies, 2007). These opposing voices suggest the
“cynicism” proposition: satire leads to low political trust and unwillingness to participate
in politics, such as voting and protest.
We argue that these seemingly contradictory findings may originate from how satire
differs from other types of criticism in that it has an additional humorous component.
When the critical component aggravates audiences’ perception of the government’s prob-
lems, its humorous component reduces the estimation of severity and impairs confidence
to influence politics.
To examine the effects of satire, we distinguish between these two components. We
compare the effects of satire exposure and those of formal critique exposure within the
same policy topics. Our survey experiment randomly assigned Chinese Internet users to
read passages of political satire, formal critiques, and nothing on the topics of corruption
and pollution. We investigated the between-subject differences in their policy confidence,
political trust, political efficacy, and participation willingness. We found that satire did
not have a consistent effect on their confidence in specific policies, but it reduced peo-
ple’s trust in the regime and discouraged their online political participation, regardless of
whether “institutional” or “noninstitutonal” forms were used.
Our findings confirm the “cynicism” proposition and reject the “activism” proposition.
The effects of the humorous component of satire can overwhelm those of the critical compo-
nents, thus discouraging audiences from trusting the government or participating in politics.
In China, due to censorship, satire is a more prevalent form of political communication than
formal critiques. Satire discourages political participation and thus stabilizes the regime in
the short term. In the long run, however, satire gradually erodes popular support of the
regime. Meanwhile, satire also discourages the kind of participation that is desirable to the
regime and thus weakens the regime’s capability to collect information. Therefore, when
serious criticism is suppressed, satire can be detrimental to authoritarian rule in the long term.
The Effects of Political Satire: Activism or Cynicism
Political satire is a specific form of criticism that ridicules political figures, events, or
phenomenon (Baumgartner and Morris, 2006; Oring, 2004). Compared to formal criti-
cism, satire carries critical messages more implicitly, which facilitates political discussion
when open political dissent and criticism are restricted (Sorensen, 2008; Yang, 2009). The
forms of political satire vary. In a democratic context, satirical TV programs and dramas
are usually carried out by professional comedians, while online user-generated posts and
memes are more popular in non-democracies.1 Nevertheless, the effects of satire in a
nondemocratic context remain relatively unexplored (Yang and Jiang, 2015).
Previous studies suggest contradictory arguments on the effects of political satire. One
group of scholars argues that satirical TV programs, such as The Daily Show, “may dampen
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