How the media construct happiness under cultural perspective in China: Through collectivistic and individualistic values

Zhenhua Su, Qian Zhou, Yanyu Ye and Dongxiao Li

Social Science Quarterly, 2021, vol. 102, issue 6, 2619-2639

Abstract: Objective The attributes affecting happiness include endogenous material factors such as income and social comparison, and exogenous cultural factors like individual values and national ideology. And the latter is greatly affected by media in China. This study seeks to explore the influence path of media construction on happiness under cultural perspective in China. Methods Using Chinese General Social Survey 2015 data, we apply the ordered logit model to calculate the influence of the usage of television and Internet on happiness conspicuously. Results The use of television and Internet both have positive influence on happiness, and the influence path is that state media shapes collectivism and Internet shapes individualism. As the state‐controlled media in China, television continuously promotes nationalism and patriotism, thus strengthens audience's collectivistic value. Meanwhile, Internet which enjoys certain speech freedom in China boosts the user's individualistic value which makes a difference in promoting happiness. Conclusion The U‐shaped effect of “collectivism‐individualism” on happiness found in this paper empirically illustrates that collectivistic and individualistic values can both facilitate happiness, and also further shows that television and Internet can enhance happiness by influencing cultural values.

Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13073

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:socsci:v:102:y:2021:i:6:p:2619-2639

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0038-4941

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science Quarterly is currently edited by Robert L. Lineberry

More articles in Social Science Quarterly from Southwestern Social Science Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().