Abstract
This essay applies a Foucauldian perspective in a modern Chinese context to analyze how power affects a health social movement’s protest tactics and media selections in addition to its core aims. In the first section, Foucault’s concept of biopolitics is applied in illustrating pandemic biopolitics in China during the COVID-19. The next section introduces the formation and dissemination of the White Paper Movement and its internal discourse, particularly as reflected in its media choices and protest tactics. This is followed by an explanation of the data collection process and the rationale behind it. Since mainland China has prohibited discussions about the White Paper Movement, mainstream journalism have been heavily regulated. This leads to the access of materials on independent media and social media platforms for analysis. In the analysis and discussion section, the initial focus is on how the effects of power are targeted as an aim. Afterward, an investigation of how power, by influencing social relations, produces both media choices—specifically the decision to protest offline using physical presence—and protest tactics of holding a white paper in the White Paper Movement. Through a Foucauldian lens to examine the White Paper Movement, we may gain a comprehensive insight into how power generates resistance within social relations through its productive nature.
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Social Movement, Media Choice, Activism, Foucauldian Perspective, Power Relations
