Social media and internet public events

doi:10.1016/j.tele.2016.05.024

Telematics and Informatics

Volume 34, Issue 3, June 2017, Pages 726-739

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.05.024 Get rights and content

Abstract

Contemporary China is experiencing deeper reform and social transformation. The newly born social media have participated in the historical process of China’s reform and social change. Based on the existing literature of social media and internet public events, this article aims to study China’s internet public events through the perspective of social transformation theory, especially theories of the civic society and public sphere. This study has used case study to explore the role that social media play in social change in China through in-depth analysis of 57 typical cases. We found that social media are not only an important information source and means for online civil mobilization, but also provide citizens an open and free space for discussion of internet public events. The impact of social media in promoting social change was reflected in the supervision of governmental, judiciary and other public power; maintenance of justice and protection of disadvantaged groups; attracting the government’s attention, urging governmental information publicity and investigation of the events, and promoting social management innovation and institutional change. Social media are a helpful force in the construction of internet public sphere and civil society of contemporary China. Meanwhile, it is necessary to be cautious that social media is also likely to be a breeding ground for nationalist and populist discourses.

Introduction

Social media have opened up a new space for information exchange and opinion expression. They not only bring about profound changes in the field of public opinion, but also become an important driving force to promote social change. The relationship between social media and social change is an important issue. Internet public events are an ideal starting point to explore such a relationship. In this article, we will examine some typical Internet public events in the Chinese context to explore the impact of social media on social change.

Section snippets

Literature review and research questions

Social media and internet public events have become a hot academic research area in China and Western countries along with the concept of Web2.0 started in 2004. From the perspective of social media based on bibliometric analysis, it shows that changes in the number of papers published in this field are consistent with the trend of Price Curve (Xu et al., 2014, Tang and Ye, 2015). The themes of research in the West are varied, including social media users, the technological basis, the

Theoretical framework

As mentioned above, the studies of Internet public events, especially Internet mass events by Chinese scholars, are different from Western scholars in conceptualization and theoretical frameworks. More importantly, the practical context of the Internet public events in China is quite different from Western countries. Therefore, the first question to answer regarding Internet public events should be about the research perspectives, the context of theories, and theoretical frameworks.

Since the

Method

As Habermas (1996) pointed out, public sphere cannot be conceived as an institution and certainly not as an organization. It is not even a framework of norms with differentiated competence and roles, membership regulations, and so on. Although it permits one to draw internal boundaries, outwardly it is characterized by open, permeable, and shifting horizons. Therefore, it is more appropriate to use qualitative analysis rather than quantitative studies to study internet public events with public

Social media and Internet Public Events

According to Kaplan and Haenlein (2010), social media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user generated content. In general, social media include forms such as Blog, Weibo (a Chinese style Twitter), BBS, SNS, Podcast, Wiki and Content-community.

In order to find out what role social media play in internet public events, this study analyzes the process of 57 selected cases,

Impact on promoting social change

With the participation of social media, internet public events largely propagated in contemporary China. From a macroscopic view, the emergence of these internet public events is the result of social change in contemporary China interacted with the technology of information and communication. From a microscopic perspective, the development processes of internet public events have generated some degree of impetus to social change in China, resulting in remarkable achievements. Base on the

Discussion

The occurrence and development of internet public events cannot be separated from the internet media, as well as the traditional media. The internet media include network media such as portal websites and social media that was the focus of this study. Thus, media that participated in internet public events can be divided into three types: the traditional media, network media, and social media. We found that all the three types of media have taken part in internet public events as the first

Acknowledgements

The work was supported by The Key Project of Philosophy and Social Sciences Research, Chinese Ministry of Education (12JD020) and National Social Science Foundation of China (11BXW025).

The authors would like to thank Professor Kaibin Xu in the School of Journalism and Communication at Wuhan University for his help and valuable suggestions in revising and polishing for the English manuscript. We also would like to thank Associate Professor Fujian Fang of South-Central University for

References (40)

A.M. Kaplan et al.
Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media
Bus. Horiz.
(2010)
T.L. Becker et al.
The Future of Teledemocracy
(2000)
S. Chen
Folk pursuit and capture of cat abuse incident (in Chinese)
SDX Life Weekly
(2006)
J.L. Cohen et al.
Civil Society and Political Theory
Cornell University Empowerment Group
Empowerment and family support
Network. Bull.
(1989)
L. Dahlberg
The internet and democratic discourse: exploring the prospects of online deliberative forums extending the public sphere
Inf. Commun. Soc.
(2001)
T.C. Dong et al.
Discussions about the interactive agenda between traditional and internet media
J. Southwest Univ. Nat.
(2006)
T.C. Dong
The Internet age and the publicity of media in the Chinese context (in Chinese)
Press Circles
(2015)
T.C. Dong
From the internet collective behavior to the internet collective actions: theoretical reflections on the internet group events and related studies
Journal. Commun.
(2016)
J. Earl et al.
Digitally Enabled Social Change: Activism in the Internet Age
(2011)

S.G. Fang

The study about internet public sphere and its dual construction: to analysis a network event (in Chinese)

(2009)

R.K. Garrett

Protest in an information society: a review of literature on social movements and the new ICTs

Inf. Commun. Soc.

(2006)

J. Habermas

The questions and answers to the public sphere issues (in Chinese)

Sociol. Res.

(1999)

J. Habermas

Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

(1996)

H. Li et al.

Semiotics analysis: new research path of internet public events (in Chinese)

Journal. Bimonthly

(2012)

Y.J. Li et al.

Investigative reporting about the analysis of incentives and constraints in news production: taking the Wang Keqin’s investigative reporting about “Li Gang gate” incident as an example (in Chinese)

Journal. Rev.

(2011)

T. Li

The most arrogant wife of regimental commander was removed (in Chinese)

Beijing Youth Daily

(2009)

Y. Liang et al.

Research of internet empowerment: the process and problems

Southeast Commun.

(2013)

S.L. Lin

Literature review on social media in China and abroad (in Chinese)

J. Advert. Study (Acad. Ed.)

(2013)

Z. Lin

Internet Jianghu: emergence of China alternative public sphere

Chin. Media Res.

(2015)

Cited by (58)

Digital activism to achieve meaningful institutional change: A bricolage of crowdsourcing, social media, and data analytics
2024, Research Policy
Researchers have examined the impact of information and communication technology (ICT) on activism, finding that ICT improves connectivity, mobilization, and identity formation. However, such digital activism has been criticized for often failing to move beyond venting anger during the initial mobilization efforts. To better understand what makes digital activism more likely to generate meaningful institutional change, we examine the case of the Swedish Cabotagestudien, an example of effective and sustained digital activism that generated institutional field-level industry and policy changes. We examine the institutional work underlying a bricolage of crowdsourcing, social media, and data analytics through a longitudinal case study of Cabotagestudien, contributing to research on institutional change, innovation, and technology. Our case analysis reveals three mutually reinforcing forms of institutional work: infrastructure work, crowd work, and data work. As a result, we contribute a novel theoretical explanation of how these interrelated forms of institutional work can mobilize low-power actors into effective and sustained digital activism in the face of institutional resistance.
Does social media improve women's political empowerment in Africa?
2023, Telecommunications Policy
The use of social media has grown significantly in Africa over the past two decades and is the subject of recent literature. In this article, we examine its direct and indirect effects on women's political empowerment (WPE) in Africa. Based on a sample of 45 African countries, we specify and estimate a panel data model using the Pooled Ordinary Least Squares (POLS) method and the System Generalized Method of Moment (S-GMM) over the period 2009–2019. Our results show that social media, as measured by the Facebook penetration rate, significantly increases WPE. Their effects are channeled through the diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), electricity consumption, human capital and political stability. The robustness of the results is proven by alternative measures of WPE and social media. In order to strengthen WPE, public policies must increase women's access to social media.
Does the construction of innovative cities promote urban green innovation?
2022, Journal of Environmental Management
Citation Excerpt :
This can provide the impetus to improve the ecological service function and technological innovation capacity of cities (Shen et al., 2022). At the same time, emerging technologies such as the Internet, big data, and artificial intelligence can lay a solid foundation for the construction of innovative cities (Benaim, 2018) and strengthen the interaction between the government, enterprises, and citizens (Dong et al., 2017). In the context of the close connection between technology and society, the environmental protection industry can more easily access cutting-edge technologies related to its own development (Borsatto and Amui, 2019; Han et al., 2021), thereby accelerating the dissemination and application of green technologies.
As a typical example of an innovative governance environment, innovative city has become the focus of political and academic circles. Discussing the green innovation effect of this policy is beneficial in providing decision support for enhancing urban green innovation capability and solving the dilemma of urban resources. Based on data from 241 cities in China from 2005 to 2017, this paper takes innovative city construction as a “quasi-natural experiment” and uses the difference-in-differences method to empirically study the impact of China's innovative city construction on urban green innovation. The results show that innovative urban construction: has a positive effect on improving urban green innovation, and that this effect will gradually increase with time; promotes urban green innovation by expanding the scope of technology application, improving the efficiency of resource allocation and promoting the adjustment of industrial structure; and presents heterogeneity in cities' location, size and hierarchy. Finally, this paper proposes that the government should promote innovative policies in an orderly manner on the basis of following the principle of adapting measures to local conditions, as well as incorporating green innovation performance into the evaluation system for innovative city construction.
Uptake, polymorphism, and the construction of networked events on Twitter
2021, Telematics and Informatics
This study conceptualises networked events as a platform-oriented view of media events by initiating a taxonomy of bottom-up construction. Focusing on computer-mediated event construction that may involve live delivery, permeate digital platforms, and attract user engagement prior to, during, and after the occurrence of ceremonial or disruptive events, the study argues that networked events can be characterised by polymorphism— i.e., presence of distinct patterns of uptake and different interactional orientations within the same space of interactions, such as hashtags. For analysis, a network dataset was created using 221,105 retweets that included the hashtag #HimToo. This hashtag was used extensively during the US Senate judiciary committee hearing that investigated claims of sexual harassment against President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. The study demonstrates that three types of construction— i.e., actor-centric, memetic, and metaconstruction— causes polymorphism in Twitter engagement related to the event.
An institutional approach to analyze the multi-level policymaking system of online social networks: a case study of Iran
2024, Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance
How is public discussion as reflected in WeChat articles different from scholarly research in China? An empirical study of metaverse
2024, Scientometrics

View all citing articles on Scopus

¹: His research interests include Internet and new media.

²: Her research interests include Internet and new media.

View full text

Social media and internet public events

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Literature review and research questions

Theoretical framework

Method

Social media and Internet Public Events

Impact on promoting social change

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Bus. Horiz.

The Future of Teledemocracy

Folk pursuit and capture of cat abuse incident (in Chinese)

SDX Life Weekly

Civil Society and Political Theory

Empowerment and family support

Network. Bull.

The internet and democratic discourse: exploring the prospects of online deliberative forums extending the public sphere

Inf. Commun. Soc.

Discussions about the interactive agenda between traditional and internet media

J. Southwest Univ. Nat.

The Internet age and the publicity of media in the Chinese context (in Chinese)

Press Circles

From the internet collective behavior to the internet collective actions: theoretical reflections on the internet group events and related studies

Journal. Commun.

Digitally Enabled Social Change: Activism in the Internet Age

The study about internet public sphere and its dual construction: to analysis a network event (in Chinese)

Protest in an information society: a review of literature on social movements and the new ICTs

Inf. Commun. Soc.

The questions and answers to the public sphere issues (in Chinese)

Sociol. Res.

Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

Semiotics analysis: new research path of internet public events (in Chinese)

Journal. Bimonthly

Investigative reporting about the analysis of incentives and constraints in news production: taking the Wang Keqin’s investigative reporting about “Li Gang gate” incident as an example (in Chinese)

Journal. Rev.

The most arrogant wife of regimental commander was removed (in Chinese)

Beijing Youth Daily

Research of internet empowerment: the process and problems

Southeast Commun.

Literature review on social media in China and abroad (in Chinese)

J. Advert. Study (Acad. Ed.)

Internet Jianghu: emergence of China alternative public sphere

Chin. Media Res.