Media capture in Hong Kong has distinctive characteristics. There is the uncensored media sector and open market economy, but the relatively small size of the region and proximity to the authoritarian markets and politics of China put pressures on the press, new research finds.

The article by Nicholas Frisch of Yale University, Valerie Belair-Gagnon and Colin Agur, of the University of Minnesota, examines the dynamics media capture in Hong Kong, with interviews from 34 journalists and researchers.

Financial rewards for businesses entering the Chinese mainland market have grown significantly since the 1980s. Also today, Hong Kong legacy media face similar economic challenges as their counterparts in Europe and North America. Hong Kong, and its media, is no longer able to maintain strong separation from China, the authors write.

Uncaptured social media and digital first outlets in Hong Kong work as alternative spaces for more skeptical views. The article concludes with a note on how “the power of money is used to capture a media sector without directly employing the traditional tools of authoritarian coercion.”

The article “Media capture with Chinese characteristics” was published in Journalism and is available online (free abstract).

Picture: untitled by Rikki Chan, licence CC0 1.0