Hegemony of the Hong Kong press in political transition : a Case Study of the South China Morning Post

Abstract

This dissertation is the first examination of how a news media outlet changed its hegemony voice during the political transition in Hong Kong. Using Foucauldian discourse analysis and Gramsci’s hegemonic apparatus, it examines how the South China Morning Post, the largest English-language newspaper in Hong Kong, changed from one hegemony (pro-British government) to another hegemony (pro-Chinese government),

This dissertation deploys three different methods to study how the SCMP gradually transformed from 1993, and the sale of the paper by Western media mogul Rupert Murdoch to Beijing-friendly Malaysia-Chinese tycoon Robert Kuok’s Kerry Media, to 2015 when the change of hegemony was completed after the paper was sold to Chinese tech giant Alibaba, founded and owned by Chinese Communist Party member Jack Ma.

By examining a series of scandals and controversies, the initial archival research documents how the newspaper slowly changed its editorial policies. Then a detailed discourse analysis on editorials regarding the 1989 June Fourth massacre in Beijing (a key indicator of press freedom in Hong Kong) between 1990 and 2014 (the year before the Alibaba acquisition) shows how the paper changed its tone, position and narrative to become more sympathetic to Beijing.

A second discourse analysis on editorials featuring universal suffrage in Hong Kong showed the SCMP was inherently supportive of the ruling class whatever its position: from

objecting to universal suffrage in the 1980s alongside the British Hong Kong government, to advocating democratic reforms in the 1990s when the last Governor Chris Patten pushed for further democratisation, to the 2000s and 2010s leaning towards the Chinese government as it repeatedly denied Hong Kong people the right to universal suffrage. All of the above showed how the paper transformed its content from one hegemonic voice to the other.

This dissertation attempts to reveal how such a change occurred. I examined six carefully selected incidents in the SCMP editorial department during the political transition: the banned extracts of a book about the Tiananmen Square massacre; a project to make the SCMP a “national” newspaper; a mix-up over the names of then Chinese President Hu Jianto and the prominent dissident Hu Jia; an investigation into a high-speed railway link between Hong Kong and China; the reportage of unrest in Xinjiang; and the coverage of the death of a prominent dissident. Interviews with people directly involved revealed increasing pressure from the new hegemonic voice (Beijing), and a correspondingly high level of resistance among editorial staff who used tactics such as direct refusal to work, exploiting bureaucratic flaws, using different writers to run dissenting coverage, and even exposing controversies to the press and the public. After Alibaba’s acquisition in 2015, I saw the completion of hegemonic change. The SCMP had moved from a national paper based in Hong Kong to an international newspaper promoting the voice of China, with journalists defending the paper against censorship controversies.

This dissertation shows a change of hegemony in a news media organisation is inevitable along with political transition but that flexible and smart tactics can bring highly effective resistance.