Media Censorship in China: 1984 or Brave New World?

Date
-
Location
Encina Hall West, Room 400 (GSL)
Speaker

David Y. Yang, PhD Candidate in Economics, Stanford University

 

Abstract

Media censorship is a hallmark of authoritarian regimes. We conduct a field experiment in China to examine whether providing access to an uncensored Internet leads citizens to acquire politically sensitive information, and whether they are affected by the information. We track subjects' media consumption, beliefs regarding the media, economic beliefs, political attitudes, and behaviors. We find 4 main results: (i) free access alone does not induce subjects to acquire politically sensitive information; (ii) temporary encouragement leads to a persistent increase in acquisition, indicating that demand is not permanently low; (iii) acquisition brings broad, substantial, and persistent changes to knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and intended behaviors; and (iv) social transmission of information is statistically significant but small in magnitude. We calibrate a simple model to show that China's censorship apparatus may remain robust for a large number of citizens receiving unencouraged access to an uncensored Internet, given the low demand for, and moderate social transmission of, uncensored information.

 

Biography

David Yang is a PhD student in economics at Stanford University. He received BA in statistics and BS in business administration from University of California, Berkeley. His research interests center on behavioral and experimental economics, political economy, and economic history. His previous projects study how education and historical experiences shape citizens’ political beliefs and attitudes.