What’s Behind Anti-Media Media in Hong Kong

Anti-media media practices are most straightforwardly explained as an outcome of media capture. Outlets become organs of the political actors who control them, ready to be deployed as attack dogs against regime critics, including other media. But this may not fully account for their behaviour. In many cases, such media have their own interests and sufficient autonomy to act in ways that are not simply reducible to following orders from authoritarian populist leaders. One factor is cultural: anti-media media sometimes feel historical grievances linked to a sense that they and their audiences have been marginalised for decades by liberal elite media. Another is political-economic: being in competition for status and resources, they may benefit from independently identifying, exaggerating, and neutralising threats as a way to demonstrate their utility to the regime. These dynamics are illustrated by cases from illiberal political systems, especially in Hong Kong.