I kolonialismens fotspår

Title: ”I kolonialismens fotspår” Author: Erik Holm Subject: Undergraduate research paper in journalism studies, Dept. of journalism, media and communication (JMG) Gothenburg University Supervisor: Jan Strid, JMG, Gothenburg University Pages/words: 26 pages/10 332 words Purpose: The purpose was to examine how independent the South China Morning Post reports on issues, particularly during the 2014 protests, if they are influenced by the western media or mainland China, to what degree censorship occurs and if their opinions reflect the opinions of the Hong Kong citizens. Method: Argument analysis and motive analysis Procedure: 24 articles from the period 26/9-­10/10 was analyzed and sorted by what side they were argumenting in favor of and the nature of the arguments. The arguments were also analyzed further to differentiate words that meant different things in specific situations. Results: The thesis showed that, compared to western and Chinese media, the Hong Kong press reports rather equal for both sides of the reform argument and does a big effort to keep it that way, inviting guest writers. The fact that more writers are writing in favor of the reform, even though the Hong Kong citizens generally are pro-­democracy, is explained by the nature of the arguments. The writers’ arguments are often economic-­oriented. The older generation generally priorities the economic growth, a remaining value from the days of colonialization. So in a way the newspaper’s articles does reflect the majority of the older generation of Hong Kong. At the same time a few factors indicates some kind of censorship, like an article against democracy without an author and less articles criticizing the Chinese government, than before the demonstration and the presence of foreign media.