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The thing that many people in the West do not realize is that exposure to Western media actually hardens Chinese perceptions. There are many examples of Chinese
by Leary 7y ago
The thing that many people in the West do not realize is that exposure to Western media actually hardens Chinese perceptions. There are many examples of Chinese students who lived many years in China whose perceptions of their homeland is far different than what they see is being portrayed on CNN/Fox, etc. The reason why this occurs is not that CNN/Fox are factually incorrect but that they tend to focus on sensationalist/negative stories about China.
Therefore it is somewhat naive to think that bringing uncensored information to the Chinese will somehow change their mind. Just look at the inability of people to change pro-China posters in this and many such posts on HN, who presumably have access to uncensored information, and who are often suspected of being "shills" or robots that are part of a Chinese disinformation campaign.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoMost news focuses on sensationalist or negative stories about anywhere. Otherwise why would people watch it? It isn’t like 7pm in China when all tv stations are playing news about what uplifting things Xi said today. PRC Chinese have been conditioned into a certain mindset about news that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
- zwaps 7y agoIf you like "toy models" of these phenomenon, you will love this paper https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yves_Zenou/publication/228284014_Formation_and_Persistence_of_Oppositional_Identities/links/5b5fa216a6fdccf0b20264e7/Formation-and-Persistence-of-Oppositional-Identities.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yves_Zenou/publication/...