Tiananmen Square Protests - One of the Biggest Mass Protests in China in the 20th Century - Case Study Example

Abstract The effectiveness of a mass persuasion in activism or propaganda will depend on very many factors. There are factors which are tied so dearly to mass persuasion and cannot be ignored at any given time. How an activist presents his or her information or argument can predict the outcome of the public response as a success or failure. Mass persuasion involves getting into the heads of people and drawing a picture of the activist’s world, therefore, making people think like them. Activism is a drive that comes from within a person, activist, to show other people that things are not happening as they should. For activism to exist, the activist must create a hostile environment for “us” against “them”. It is the responsibility of the activist; if preparing for success; to ensure that the masses feel their rights are being abused or somebody is taking advantage of them. Normally the government is on the receiving end of activism but sometimes it is the other way around. In a liberal society, the people control the system directly or indirectly. Authoritarian societies, however, power belongs to a central group or figure. The activism practices, processes, and outcomes in the above-named societies are very different. Introduction The paper will have an in-depth look at one of the biggest mass protests which took place in china in the 20th century. China is a big country found in the Asian continent. Just like any other country in the world, it has had tough times when it came to matters of mass action. China‘s government system has evolved a lot and in the late 1980s it’s form of governance was more authoritarian than liberal. Since the beginning of times, the Chinese system of governance involved a centralized power system. In 1989 Hu Yaobang one of the leaders who worked extra hard to try to move china to a more democratic inclined country died. This was a big blow to the whole country but that was not enough as his death changed china either for the best or worst depending on one’s argument. To those who viewed Mr. Hu as the only hope of democracy in china, there is no way they would agree his efforts to die with him (Zhao, 2004). Thousands of university students camped in Tiananmen Square; a historic site for china; to mourn his death. That is where a movement against the government was born. The students who had gathered in the square called on more and more students to join them and their voice was too loud for the government not to hear. The demands of the protesting students were to see china a more democratic country. After 25 days of peaceful protests, the government had offered nothing. The unsatisfied students decided it was time to try a more forceful way because the government seemed deaf to their pleas. The students started a hunger strike, first a few and then more and more joined. After the commencement of the hunger strike, the number of people in the square increased exponentially now attracting even nonstudents. The international community was witnessing all these from a distance. It took six days after the dawn of hunger strike for the government to speak. As things appeared, the masses needed explanation and answers and were going to stop at nothing. The secretary general of the Chinese communist party came in Tiananmen Square to address the protesting people. This show how powerful mass persuasion can be. Many events happened including the declaration of martial law in Tiananmen Square and blocking the broadcasting of the protests by international broadcasters including CNN. When the time came for the government to deal with the protests, propaganda was the best weapon of choice. From the barracks, soldiers who had been kept in the darkness of what was happening were informed that the students wanted to overthrow the government. Propaganda is the lie perceived true. Literature review Propaganda is used daily for several diverse reasons. One of the tasks of propaganda is to sell a war. When the soldiers in the barracks were fed with misleading information they had to do what they have been trained to do; to protect the nation from enemies. Propaganda is a powerful tool and is normally used by the people we trust much. Propaganda can make a person hate, like or even have sympathy for the other. Propaganda has three main pillars, to sell products, ideologies, and politicians (De Sola Pool, 1973). When used to sell products, propaganda encourages consumption. When used to sell ideologies, the perceived truth becomes the pure truth. When used to sell politicians, propaganda makes the politician dear to all (Hawthorn, 1987). Mass persuasion has a solid link with media as a mode of communicating its message to the desired target. Researchers have documented that among all message representations, images have a better way of communicating propaganda or persuasion information (Walder, 1993). Researchers argue that messages presented in print media; books and newspapers; are not as efficient in persuading people because they give people time to think and reflect on the subject. Propaganda media include Television, films and radio messages. This is because messages spread through non-print media do not give one time to reflect on the message. The message is normally always digested and all one needs to do is to absorb it. In the print media information, one has re-read as many times as they wish to give them enough time to reflect on the information (Kornhauser, 2013). Methods Context analysis is a method used to review recorded information to give it a new angle of argument. During the context analysis the authors may chose to critic or take a different angle on the original material. The purpose of context analysis is to ensure the material written is well informed. The section will analyse the methods employed in the mass persuasion of the Tiananmen Square demonstrations. The main aim of campaigns is to attract as many people as there can be. The protests attracted some students who did not actually subscribe to the idea of demonstrating the death of Mr. Hu (Jowett, 2014). The leaders of the protests encouraged the reluctant students to join the protests just for the sake of solidarity with the students who were actively involved. The leaders had put in place structures to ensure the students who were not participating in the protests felt the gap between them and the protesting students (Zhao, 2004). This would make reluctant students join the protests to feel included in the group of the protesting students. This is a very effective method especially when people who share a common goal are aiming to get maximum numbers in their campaigns. The media items used in the campaigns call upon more students and more universities; which had not yet joined the campaigns to stand and join their fellow comrades in their protests (Zhao, 2004). When the media reported that the students were protesting, the students in universities which had not yet joined the protests felt the need to join the campaign (Zhao, 2004). When things heated up, and the leaders of the protests needed more people in his book Zhao, (2004) states that there were poster messages which called the students who were not part of the campaign ;government sympathisers. In their quest to search for a front to be associated with, the students joined the campaign in large numbers. Findings The Tiananmen Square campaign was up for a good course. The protestors were well aware of what it meant to stand for what they believed was right. Till the beginning of the protests, China had always had an authoritarian system of governance. The protesting students were demanding for democracy in the country. The culture of the Chinese people was one that believed in one solitary power at the top. The demands for democracy by students, who are normally viewed by the general public as naive and reckless, were absurd. At the beginning of the protests, no one not even the universities which had given permission for the protests believed that the students had the zeal to take the protests to the far they did. To reach students in more universities and to amplify their voices to the people of China, the protestors primarily used posters. The media played a big part in seeing the success of the protests, the coverage of the event saw more students join the protests. When the international media superpowers like the American CNN came to cover the incident for the whole world to see, the Government of China could not ignore the students anymore. The protesting students through their leaders like Mr. Wang Dan used their vocal capabilities and gifts to mobilize more and more students to the Square. The activists encouraged the people of China to stand and challenge the government to adopt democracy. The trigger to the Tiananmen Square protests was the death of Mr. Hu Yaobang; a Chinese national leader. The early stages of the protests saw messages spread through posters like the famous Wei Jinsheng poster which had paintings of the leaders in power crossed in red lines to show the disappointment in the leaders. The posters at the beginning were solely dedicated to the honouring the death of Mr. Hu. It is important to note that the protests did not have one central group which controlled it. Due to the lack of a central body controlling the protests, the leaflets and posters changed where some were promoting propaganda about the death of Mr. Hu while others called upon the government to take responsibility. Big posters were used to communicate messages to students in the square. Other media used to communicate with the protesting students was the songs which called for solidarity. The songs largely encouraged the students to continue with the protests promising a better later day. The well-rehearsed speeches and art in all its diverse forms were used to communicate with the students. The communication was not complicated because it involved people of the same age group. Just as in many protests and mass persuasion campaigns, the art of well-rehearsed speeches was one of the most effective means of communication. Good speeches give a renewed energy and hope to the protesters. The Tiananmen Square protests were purely political. They were triggered by the death of a political leader Mr. Hu Yaobang. The government was at the receiving end of the protests. The protests called upon the government to address issues which purely defined the governing of the country. The protesting students used all means to get the attention of the government and when the government seemed stubborn, the students started a hunger strike which proved to the government the seriousness of the matter. When things seemed out of hand, the government came to the protestors to call for an end to the protests. At the long run, it is the government which took the final decision of using force against its own people. In the cases involving protest with a political agenda, in a liberal government, the protestors are sure to get some if not all of their matters resolved (Brady,2009). In an authoritarian government, however, the result of political protests lies fully on the will of the government. The Tiananmen Square protests started off very well, the messages were well defined and the information being spread could be argued to be true. As the protests advanced the first thing that happened is that the original idea of mourning Mr. Hu faded in the minds of the protesters. The later information about democracy which came to be the main agenda of the protests can be argued to be misleading. The idea of protesting about the way of administration of the government was misleading. This is because the leaders of the protests argued that by standing for what the late Mr. Hu stood for would be a good way to honor his memory (Zhao, 2004). This should have been planned as a different protest and different from the original idea of mourning Mr. Hu. The activists who were determined to see the protests till the end misled the students and aligned their minds to see as if the protest was one. The protests had stages and variations but the planners had a well-mastered craft to see that the protestors saw the protests as one big protest for a good idea. The Tiananmen Square mass protests although well planned and organized did not go well. In an authoritarian society, however, things do not always go well for the common man. After the protestors engage the extreme methods to force the government to hear them out, the government went to the extreme of showing its power. The government sent the army in tankers as they were prepared for a small war within their fellows. Many protestors were arrested and sent to prison like activist Wang Dan. Many people lost their lives. The lucky few activists like Chai Ling escaped narrowly out of the country. The protests did not yield much on the side of the activists as the government denied using force to quell the protests. The government went ahead to reward the generals who led the army to clear the square on national television naming them national heroes. At the end of the day, Propaganda won. As much as the story was done and forgotten, the method used by the national government of China to influence the army to use force against its citizens is wrong. Through card stacking, the army was fed with a lot of half-truths which made it make wrong conclusions. The political purpose of the protests never saw the light of day Conclusion The line between mass persuasion and propaganda is very thin and at some point, the two lines meet. Propaganda can lead to mass persuasion. For an effective mass persuasion practice, it is best to let the people think that they came up with the original idea. Give the people information whether misleading or not and let them think they are in control when actually they are not. In the case of pure propaganda, the best method to involve people is through bandwagon. Before taking part in a mass protest against the government due to mass persuasion it is good that an individual takes note on the kind of government that exists. In a liberal government, the risks are low compared to an authoritarian government. References 1. Zhao, Dingxin. The power of Tiananmen: State-society relations and the 1989 Beijing student movement. University of Chicago Press, 2004. 2. Walder, Andrew G., and Gong Xiaoxia. 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Herman, Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing consent (1994): 1-35. 10. Herman, Edward, and Noam Chomsky. "A propaganda model." Media and Cultural Studies (2006): 257. Read More