[T]his book offers an important reflection on the role of conventional media (e.g. traditional television and newspaper platforms) and the limits of digital media in movement mobilization. Given an emerging discourse on how conventional media will be replaced by digital media, this book shows that conventional media was still crucial to the mobilization and organization of a social movement. ... The greatest strength of this book is that it situated the [Umbrella
Movement] in a larger political and social context, thus enabling the authors to clarify the multiple factors and stages that contributed to the emergence of the UM. Without these historical and contingent elements, the role of conventional and digital media cannot be fully evaluated. This book is
therefore an excellent example of contextually sensitive research on social movements that would not exaggerate the immediate effects of the media in movement mobilization.
Francis L.F. Lee is Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the author of Talk Radio, the Mainstream Press, and Public Opinion in Hong Kong and co-author of Media, Social Mobilization, and Mass Protests in Post-colonial Hong Kong. He is also associate editor of Mass Communication & Society and the Chinese Journal of Communication.
Joseph M. Chan is Emeritus Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has published extensively on political communication, journalism studies, and international communication. Among his works, he is co-author of Media, Social Mobilization, and Mass Protests in Post-colonial Hong Kong. He was elected a Fellow of the International Communication Association in 2014.