Emerging media, political protests, and government repression in autocracies and democracies from 1995 to 2012

Britt Christensen, Zayed University
Jacob Groshek, Boston University

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

International Communication Gazette

Publication Date

12-1-2020

Abstract

© The Author(s) 2019. This study empirically analyzed the relationships between emerging media as tools in fomenting anti-government protest as well as government repression of political opposition. Using a dataset of 162 democratic and autocratic countries over 18 years, potential differences between these phenomena were examined. The results of a series of analytic models suggest that higher levels of internet and mobile phones are positively associated with more instances of both political protests and political repression, which have increased dramatically in recent years. The differences between democratic and autocratic countries' emerging media and sociopolitical instability trends are explored and discussed.

ISSN

1748-0485

Publisher

SAGE Publications Ltd

Volume

82

Issue

8

First Page

685

Last Page

704

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

Democracy and autocracy, emerging media, liberation and repression, sociopolitical instability

Scopus ID

85061194424

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

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