Replication Data for: Information from Abroad: Foreign Media, Selecive Exposure, and Political Support in China

What kind of content do citizens in a developing and authoritarian country like to acquire from Western free media? What are the effects of their potentially selective exposure? Through a survey experiment with 1200 Chinese Internet users from diverse sociodemographic backgrounds, we find that Chinese citizens with higher pro-Western orientations and lower regime evaluations are more inclined to read content that is positive about foreign countries or negative about China. More importantly, reading relatively positive foreign media content about foreign countries can improve rather than worsen the domestic evaluations of citizens who self-select such content. We argue this is because reputable Western media's reports are generally more realistic than overly rosy information about foreign socioeconomic conditions that popularly circulates in China. Consequently, foreign media may have a corrective function and enhance regime stability in an authoritarian country by making regime critics less critical. Along the way the article also introduces a new variant of the Patient Preference Trial design that integrates self-selection and random assignment of treatments in a way useful for studying information effects.对于像中国这样的发展中威权国家的民众而言，他们更倾向于从西方自由媒体获取何种内容？这类带有选择性的信息接触行为可能产生何种影响？本研究针对1200名来自不同社会人口学背景的中国网民开展调查实验，结果发现，亲西方取向更强、对现有政权评价更低的中国公民，更倾向于阅读对外国持正面评价、或是对中国持负面评价的内容。更为关键的是，阅读这类针对外国的相对正面的西方媒体报道，非但不会降低，反而会提升主动选择此类内容的民众的国内政权评价。我们认为，这一现象的成因在于，信誉良好的西方媒体所发布的报道，通常比在中国国内广泛流传的、对外国社会经济状况过度美化的信息更为写实。因此，西方媒体可发挥修正性作用，通过降低政权批评者的批判烈度，从而助力威权国家的政权稳定。此外，本文还引入了一种改良版的患者偏好试验（Patient Preference Trial）设计，该设计将自我选择与实验处理的随机分配相结合，可有效用于研究信息传播的影响效应。