The discursive logics of online populism: social media as a “pressure valve” of public debate in China

This paper explores online bottom-up populism in China by examining the discursive logics of populism that emerge within expressions of populist discontent. Through a conceptualization of the affordances of social media that considers what they enable alongside what they constrain, it uses a computational grounded theory approach to examine individuals’ posts and the use of hashtags in online communication on Sina Weibo around the #DrivingIntoThePalaceMuseum case. Through its analysis, three discursive logics of online populism are identified: antagonistic logic, polarization logic and protest logic. However, while the affordances of social media enable populist discourse polarization, they also enable “depolarization” through the government’s censorship mechanisms. This results in a dynamic bottom-up populism articulation that reflects an awareness of China’s censorship mechanisms. Within the Chinese media environment, this functions as a “pressure valve” releasing the buildup of populist sentiment in a Chinese “social volcano.”