Mobilizing Media Attention in the Era of Networked Publics: A Contentious Publicness Framework

ABSTRACT Guided by the framework of contentious publicness, this study examines the role of mass media organizations in facilitating digital activism during the 2019–2020 Hong Kong anti-extradition movement. We collected movement tweets targeting media organizations, conceptualized as public-media messages, to identify what media outlets and what narratives were likely to generate more engagement. Findings revealed that activists tended to mobilize media based on colonial history and legitimacy. Furthermore, topic areas, media type, and technological affordances were all related to message publicness measured by the number of retweets and likes. Implications are provided regarding the process of mobilizing for contentious publicness.