Universität zu Köln

Xu, Zhe ORCID: 0000-0001-5732-512X (2023). The mediation of humanitarian crises under authoritarianism. PhD thesis, Universität zu Köln.

PDF dissertationafterdefense.pdf - Accepted Version Download (6MB)

Abstract

Humanitarian communication has emerged as a novel scholarly field in media and communication studies, focusing on the public practices of meaning-making that represent human vulnerability as a cause of public emotion and action in contexts of need and risk. However, it is particularly striking that the field has, until now, barely focused on non-Western and authoritarian contexts characterized by different social realities and political phenomena. This dissertation takes a step toward ameliorating this gap in knowledge by examining the mediation of global humanitarian crises spawned by deep globalization and mediatization in the Chinese authoritarian context. Using a combination of qualitative social-psychological audience study, quantitative and computational framing analysis, and discourse and cultural analysis of social constructionism, the dissertation conducts four empirical studies to investigate whether mediated discourses and techniques can create a cosmopolitan public with a sense of social responsibility toward distant sufferers of whom they know nothing and will never meet. The dissertation has implications for expanding the epistemological and ontological horizons of the field of humanitarian communication that are currently embedded in Western spatial and ideological dimensions.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD thesis)
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Xu, Zhe zxu4@uni-koeln.de orcid.org/0000-0001-5732-512X UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-705297
Date:	25 July 2023
Language:	English
Faculty:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Fächergruppe 4: Außereuropäische Sprachen, Kulturen und Gesellschaften > Ostasiatisches Seminar
Subjects:	News media, journalism, publishing Social sciences Political science
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language audience UNSPECIFIED authoritarianism UNSPECIFIED Chinese media UNSPECIFIED distant suffering UNSPECIFIED global crises UNSPECIFIED humanitarian communication UNSPECIFIED journalism UNSPECIFIED mediated suffering UNSPECIFIED
Date of oral exam:	20 June 2023
Referee:	Name Academic Title Kramer, Stefan Prof. Dr. Kurfürst, Sandra Prof. Dr. Scott, Martin Dr.
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/70529