The Nature and Mechanisms of Self-censorship: Chinese Citizen Journalism and Its Boundaries

This thesis explores self-censorship as a routine practice of citizen journalism in China. Based on two cases, Cenci Journalism Project (参差计划 in Chinese) and #MeToo in China, I investigated the language use in citizen journalistic stories and conducted interviews with practitioners. This research suggests self-censorship is not only consciously practised due to an external censorship regime, but also happens without awareness. This research conceptualises citizen journalism as the public’s participation in social discussion to take on their social responsibilities and recommends not identifying citizen journalism practitioners as journalists. It is because, everyone can do journalism.