| Mediated contention originates from the two social waves China is undergoing in transition:new contention culture newly-formed in the early21st century and new communication revolution represented by the development of Internet technology.Mediatization, as a meta-process, has exerted profound impacts on the overall landscape of contentious conflict, becoming a new form of contention in the history of human contention. Under the command of media logic, mediatizaiton, taking its peculiar mechanism-process approach, helps to construct a new contention environment in which contention manifests a series of unprecedented features. Meanwhile, media, as the most important domain in mediatization, interacts closely with other social institutions. During this interaction, media makes continuous adjustments in its connotation and reshapes its framework which brings about great changes in the entire ecology of communication.With the theories of contentious conflict and mediated society as its theoretical basis, this doctoral dissertation will cite40cases of contention from the ten-years-contentions in housing demolition in China (2003-2012) to do a multi-case comparative study, displaying the transition and mechanism of mediated contention in contemporary China as well as the challenges it brings about. The dissertation also attempts to explore the structural tensions and media origins why such rich political phenomena can appear in a public culture as monopolistic as in China.Abandoning the static structural analysis of traditional studies on contentious conflict which regards media only as a tool for contention, this study will take a constructivist perspective and see changes in media ecology as well as the influence exerted by these changes on contention as a dynamic and diachronic process. This study will summarize the concept of "mediated contention" for the first time and systematically explore the roles mediatization plays in contention events as well as the mechanism it functions. This dissertation not only helps to point out a new direction for communication studies, but also provides a new angle, namely mediatization, to understand contentious conflict, offering references of national governance for China in transition. This study includes five parts:The first part is "Introduction". In this part, theoretical origins of the concept "mediated contention" as well as historical background under which this concept appeared will be introduced. It explains the reasons why this study chooses contention in housing demolition as the subject of research, and clarifies methodology as well as the significance of this study.Part Two, including3chapters, is "Transition". It explains what mediated contention is.Chapter One presents the historical changes of contention for rights in housing demolition and points out that contention in housing demolition has transformed from political contention to economic one. The means of contention have also changed from appeal and petition to newspapers and Internet. This chapter also identifies40cases of demolition and divides the mediatization of contention in housing demolition after2011into four stages.With the intermediary role of mediatization as a starting point, Chapter Two will focus on the differences between mediated contention and traditional forms of contention. The comparison will be conducted from the following seven aspects:the subject of contention, the object of contention, the target of contention, the weapons for contention, the repertoire of contention or contention performance, the organization or mobilization of contention, the globalization of contention.Chapter Three defines mediated contention and expands research attention of media studies from traditional media content to other aspects. It concludes such keys words as "enpowerment","framing","structure" and "belief" when defining mediated contention from the perspectives of media forms, media content, media system and media culture.The third part, Mechanism, includes two chapters. It focuses on explaining the forming process and generation logic of the concept mediated contention.Chapter Four attempts to apply Western theories of contentious conflict and the advanced QCA (qualitative comparative analysis), instead of traditional case study, to analyzing Chinese experiences, and manages to extract13generative factors. These factors have been categorized into two types, namely media logic and event logic, and applied to the40cases for a multivariate analysis. This chapter systematically examines the interaction of different factors and possible combinations of these factors during the whole process from mediated contention’s appearance to its success. It also explores the complex causes of contention events and the mechanism of the dominant media logic functioning on contention events.Based on the previous analysis of Chapter Four, Chapter Five conducts process analysis on the case of Yi Huang self-immolation incident, and reveals the disclosing, constructing, upgrading, dismissing and framing media mechanism. It examines how the mechanism of mediatization has transformed individual contention into contentious conflict.The fourth part is Challenge. Chapter Six explores various challenges posed by mediated contention from the perspectives of contention, media, citizen and nation. It helps to deepen our comprehensive understanding of the new landscape of contention.The fifth part is Conclusion. Chapter Seven points out the possible research direction in the future.The study has reached the following conclusions which can be furthef studied:1. The tendency of contention mediatization in contemporary China has come clearly into view. Mediated contention has become a new form of contention: firstly, media, as an important source of contention information, has become the main channel for both the subject and the object of contention to cognize contentions and observe the opponents. It also provides a perspective for participants to examine contention events and helps to construct a collective comprehension of contention events. Secondly, media has been increasingly involved in contention events reporting as well as in supervision by public opinion. Actions of media practitioners have become an important part of contention itself. Moreover, mediated contention experts appear. In addition, media logic has become the decisive factor in whether contention can gain victory or not. Contenders become increasingly compliant to media logic to cater to the demands of media in order to win the contention.2. Although politicization of contention in contemporary China has not realized yet, many successful cases of contention demonstrate that individual and lower-class contentions in China can potentially develop to be contentious conflict. The people at the bottom rung in Chinese society do not have the ability to realize the transformation independently. Mediatizaiton has become the driving force for the process of politicization which can enhance publicity of contention. China’s lower-class contention for rights through mediatization is enlightening. 3. Mediated contention, as a bottom-up political participation mechanism, originates from the unsound benefits-expression mechanism and empowerment of citizens by new media technologies. Mediatization has broken the unbalance of power relations. The contenders at the end of the communication chain soon gather strength and improve much in their game ability when facing the government or the nation, and the lower class tends to form an alignment with the emerging middle class. Pan-socialization of communication resources as well as universal communication rights has promoted the process of socialization of contention during which nation and society have been reconstructed by mediatization.4. Mediated contention, as a part of democratization of media, is not only a political issue, but a cultural process. China’s public spirit is gradually developing, but not without deformity. A rational and autonomous political culture is urgently needed under the diverse conflicts of interests. Citizens, nation, society and media, as complex and contradictory entities or domains, interact closely with mediatization and exert influences on the democratic space peculiar to China. Combining mediated contention with social structure and the core levels of social process to explore how mediated contention, a new form of contention, provides flexible space for a nation and a society, considering the various ideal models of democratic participation, echoing the worldwide wave of democratization of media can be further directions for this study.
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