Military’s public relations practice in the social media era: Exploring the Chinese military’s use of WeChat and public engagement

Wei Huang; Yuan Wang

doi:10.1080/01292986.2023.2257226

Author(s)

Related Research Unit(s)

Department of Media and Communication

Detail(s)

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	592–610
Journal / Publication	Asian Journal of Communication
Volume	33
Issue number	6
Online published	13 Sept 2023
Publication status	Published - Dec 2023

Link(s)

DOI	DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/01292986.2023.2257226 Final Published version
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Attachment(s)	Documents 165987358.pdf Post-print, 488 KB, PDF Publisher's Copyright Statement COPYRIGHT TERMS OF DEPOSITED POSTPRINT FILE: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in ASIAN JOURNAL OF COMMUNICATION on 13 Sep 2023, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01292986.2023.2257226.
Link to Scopus	https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85170654499&origin=recordpage
Permanent Link	https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/en/publications/publication(11bfbab4-27f3-4d40-a4a7-3223010e6f8c).html

Abstract

Militaries worldwide have adopted various social media platforms to influence, inform and build relationships with strategic publics. Guided by the organization–public engagement framework, this study conducted a content analysis to examine the Chinese military’s social media practices for reaching out to the public. It analyzed the content patterns, message features, targeted publics, and engagement levels on WeChat. This study discovered that the Chinese military mainly used WeChat for information dissemination, promotion, mobilization, and interacting with intended publics (e.g. its internal servicemen). It also found that WeChat articles that used the promotion strategy, emotional appeal, fear appeal, conversational tone, and vividness strategy generated higher levels of public engagement. Theoretical and practical implications were also discussed. © AMIC/WKWSCI-NTU 2023.