scholarly journals How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression

2013 ◽  
Vol 107 (2) ◽  
pp. 326-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
GARY KING ◽  
JENNIFER PAN ◽  
MARGARET E. ROBERTS
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
Social Mobilization ◽  
Source Analysis ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Substantive Content ◽  
Modern Computer ◽  
Media Services

We offer the first large scale, multiple source analysis of the outcome of what may be the most extensive effort to selectively censor human expression ever implemented. To do this, we have devised a system to locate, download, and analyze the content of millions of social media posts originating from nearly 1,400 different social media services all over China before the Chinese government is able to find, evaluate, and censor (i.e., remove from the Internet) the subset they deem objectionable. Using modern computer-assisted text analytic methods that we adapt to and validate in the Chinese language, we compare the substantive content of posts censored to those not censored over time in each of 85 topic areas. Contrary to previous understandings, posts with negative, even vitriolic, criticism of the state, its leaders, and its policies are not more likely to be censored. Instead, we show that the censorship program is aimed at curtailing collective action by silencing comments that represent, reinforce, or spur social mobilization, regardless of content. Censorship is oriented toward attempting to forestall collective activities that are occurring now or may occur in the future—and, as such, seem to clearly expose government intent.

Context, Gender and Intended Use of Mobile Messaging, Entertainment and Social Media Services

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Sell ◽  
Mark de Reuver ◽  
Pirkko Walden ◽  
Christer Carlsson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Mobile Services ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
General Context ◽  
Media Services ◽  
Context Of Use ◽  
Intended Use

The added value of mobile services is decided by the context in which they are used. In this paper, the authors study how the context-of-use influences the intention to adopt mobile messaging, entertainment and social media services. While doing so, the authors compare the intended use between males and females. The results are based on a large scale survey study among Finnish consumers. According to the findings, the context-of-use matters for mobile entertainment and messaging services, but not for social media services. Fit with social context is only important for social media services, whilst work-related context matters only for messaging services. In general, context-of-use is more decisive for men than women. However, while ubiquitous context-of-use is much more important for males, social and work context are relevant only for females. The results have important implications for service providers on how to develop and implement specific context-aware mobile services.

scholarly journals The performance of publicness in social media: tracing patterns in tweets after a disaster

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 584-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald Matheson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Communication ◽  
Stable Set ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Social Imaginary ◽  
Media Communication ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
Large Scale Analysis ◽  
The Social

This article sets out to contribute to the critical understanding of public communication in social media by studying the use of Twitter after a severe earthquake in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2011. It also sets out to contribute to methodologies for studying this particular kind of publicness. It argues that the contours of the ‘social imaginary’ of the public, which are usually so hard to delineate and can be approached only in fragments or typical form, can be identified a little more clearly in the traces that people leave behind in their social media communication at critical, reflexive moments such as in the aftermath of disaster. The article draws on computer-assisted discourse analysis, specifically a corpus-linguistic-informed analysis of half a million tweets, in order to describe four main public discursive moves that were prevalent in this form of public communication. This is not to claim to describe a stable set of norms, but in fact the reverse. The article suggests that empirical, large-scale analysis of public communication in different situations, media and places opens up a project in which the varying norms of public communication are described and critiqued as they emerge in a range of discursive situations.

scholarly journals How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, Not Engaged Argument

2017 ◽  
Vol 111 (3) ◽  
pp. 484-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
GARY KING ◽  
JENNIFER PAN ◽  
MARGARET E. ROBERTS
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Common Knowledge ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Controversial Issues ◽  
Information Control ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Strategic Objective ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Government

The Chinese government has long been suspected of hiring as many as 2 million people to surreptitiously insert huge numbers of pseudonymous and other deceptive writings into the stream of real social media posts, as if they were the genuine opinions of ordinary people. Many academics, and most journalists and activists, claim that these so-called 50c party posts vociferously argue for the government’s side in political and policy debates. As we show, this is also true of most posts openly accused on social media of being 50c. Yet almost no systematic empirical evidence exists for this claim or, more importantly, for the Chinese regime’s strategic objective in pursuing this activity. In the first large-scale empirical analysis of this operation, we show how to identify the secretive authors of these posts, the posts written by them, and their content. We estimate that the government fabricates and posts about 448 million social media comments a year. In contrast to prior claims, we show that the Chinese regime’s strategy is to avoid arguing with skeptics of the party and the government, and to not even discuss controversial issues. We show that the goal of this massive secretive operation is instead to distract the public and change the subject, as most of these posts involve cheerleading for China, the revolutionary history of the Communist Party, or other symbols of the regime. We discuss how these results fit with what is known about the Chinese censorship program and suggest how they may change our broader theoretical understanding of “common knowledge” and information control in authoritarian regimes.

scholarly journals Unfolding determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in China (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fulian Yin ◽  
Zhaoliang Wu ◽  
Xinyu Xia ◽  
Meiqi Ji ◽  
Yanyan Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Side Effects ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Vaccine Acceptance ◽  
Reproduction Ratio ◽  
Inactivated Vaccines ◽  
Chinese Social Media

BACKGROUND China is at the forefront of global efforts to develop COVID-19 vaccines and has five fast-tracked candidates in the final-stage, large scale human clinical trials tests. Layered on top of public engagement, making an informed and judicious choice is a catch-22 for the Chinese government in the context of COVID-19 vaccination promotion. OBJECTIVE In this study, public opinions in China are analyzed via public dialogues on Chinese social media, based on which the views on COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination of Chinese netizens are investigated. We recommend strategies for promoting vaccination programs in the most populous country based on in-depth understanding of the challenges in risk communication and social mobilizations. METHODS We proposed a novel emotional dynamics model SRS/I to analyze the opinion transmission paradigms on Chinese social media. Coupled with meta-analysis and natural language processing (NLP) techniques, the emotion polarity of individual opinion is examined in contexts. RESULTS We collected more than 1.75 million Weibo messages about COVID-19 vaccines from January to October in 2020. According to the public opinion reproduction ratio (R_0), the dynamic propagation of those messages can be classified into three-stage: the Ferment period (R_0,1.1360), the Evolution period (R_0, 2.8278) and the Transmission period (R_0, 3.0729). Significantly, the topics on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in China are emerging from the landscape of public opinion transmission, such as Price, side effects, and the like. From September to October, 18.3% people held the idea that the vaccine price is high and gets 38.1% “likes,” while 35.9% people regarded it as inexpensive with 25.0% “likes.” The netizen’s emotional polarity on side effects is also the aspect of our research. We got 47.7% positive and 31.9% negative comments. We also captured that the inactivated vaccines aroused much more heated discussion than any other type of vaccine. It accounts for 53% of Discussions of all types’ vaccines, 42% of Forwards, 56% of Comments, and 49% of Likes. CONCLUSIONS Most Chinese hold that the vaccine is cheaper than previously thought, while some claim they could not afford it for their entire family. The Chinese are inclined to be positive to side effects over time and proud of China’s development regarding vaccines. Nevertheless, they have a collective misunderstanding about inactivated vaccines, insisting that inactivated vaccines are safer than other vaccines. Reflecting on those collective responses, the unfolding determinants of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance provide illuminating benchmarks for vaccine-promoting policy-makings.

Chinese Diaspora and Social Media: Negotiating Transnational Space

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanning Sun
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Soft Power ◽  
Public Diplomacy ◽  
Chinese Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Chinese Diaspora ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Mainland Chinese ◽  
Chinese Migrants ◽  
The World

The period since about the late 1980s has witnessed the phenomenal ascent of the People’s Republic of China as a political, economic, and military power on the global stage. China’s rise has engendered an earnest, if perhaps not well-executed, agenda to promote a more attractive image of the country. In this period China has also experienced a rapid escalation in outbound migration to various parts of the world, with a small number of countries in the global West emerging as the preferred destinations for Chinese migrants, and, in some cases, China becoming their biggest source of new migrants. In the United States, China replaced Mexico as the top sending country in 2018. In Canada, mainland China has taken over from Hong Kong and Taiwan as the largest source of Chinese immigration, while in Australia, China now has the second-largest migrant population behind the United Kingdom, and has only recently slipped into second position behind India as the nation’s leading source of new immigrants. These developments have made China’s diaspora the biggest in the world. In the eyes and minds of the Chinese government, Chinese migrants are important potential assets in its efforts to push its global soft power agenda. The period of accelerated outbound migration from China coincided with the emergence of first the internet, and then digital media—in particular, the most popular Chinese social media platform, WeChat (Weixin in Chinese). Against the backdrop of these developments at the macro level, the topic of social media and the Chinese diaspora becomes a question of considerable significance. Some analysts argue that the dramatically enlarged mainland Chinese diaspora has effectively become an instrument of China’s soft power agenda, while others point out the positive role that members of this group play in their host communities. In particular, they highlight the potential of Chinese-language social media—and in particular WeChat, which is widely used by Chinese people both within and outside China—to have a beneficial impact on Chinese immigrants’ prospects for social integration in the countries where they now reside. The pursuit of these questions entails a brief foray into a number of research areas, including the Chinese diaspora, the history and transformation of Chinese-language diasporic media, the infrastructural and regulatory framework of WeChat, and public diplomacy via diaspora. Addressing these questions also has the benefit of broadening, and possibly enriching, the concepts of digital diaspora, on the one hand, and digital citizenship, on the other.

Change of Attitude, Technology and Practice: Identifying the Change for Increased Value Creation with Customer Co-creation

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-82
Author(s):  
Soumi Paul ◽  
Paola Peretti ◽  
Saroj Kumar Datta
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Product Development ◽  
Value Creation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Customer Orientation ◽  
Customer Relationships ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Management Competencies ◽  
Business Decisions ◽  
Prime Concern

Building customer relationships and customer equity is the prime concern in today’s business decisions. The emergence of internet, especially social media like Facebook and Twitter, changed traditional marketing thought to a great extent. The importance of customer orientation is reflected in the axiom, “The customer is the king”. A good number of organizations are engaging customers in their new product development activities via social media platforms. Co-creation, a new perspective in which customers are active co-creators of the products they buy and use, is currently challenging the traditional paradigm. The concept of co-creation involving the customer’s knowledge, creativity and judgment to generate value is considered not only an upcoming trend that introduces new products or services but also fitting their need and increasing value for money. Knowledge and innovation are inseparable. Knowledge management competencies and capacities are essential to any organization that aspires to be distinguished and innovative. The present work is an attempt to identify the change in value creation procedure along with one area of business, where co-creation can return significant dividends. It is on extending the brand or brand category through brand extension or line extension. This article, through an in depth literature review analysis, identifies the changes in every perspective of this paradigm shift and it presents a conceptual model of company-customer-brand-based co-creation activity via social media. The main objective is offering an agenda for future research of this emerging trend and ensuring the way to move from theory to practice. The paper acts as a proposal; it allows the organization to go for this change in a large scale and obtain early feedback on the idea presented. 

scholarly journals Public Awareness: What Climate Change Scientists Should Consider

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8369
Author(s):  
Mohammad Rahimi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Connected Network ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Valuable Addition ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
Design Solutions ◽  
Mitigate Climate Change

In this Opinion, the importance of public awareness to design solutions to mitigate climate change issues is highlighted. A large-scale acknowledgment of the climate change consequences has great potential to build social momentum. Momentum, in turn, builds motivation and demand, which can be leveraged to develop a multi-scale strategy to tackle the issue. The pursuit of public awareness is a valuable addition to the scientific approach to addressing climate change issues. The Opinion is concluded by providing strategies on how to effectively raise public awareness on climate change-related topics through an integrated, well-connected network of mavens (e.g., scientists) and connectors (e.g., social media influencers).

A Turbulent Silk Road: China's Vulnerable Foreign Policy in the Middle East and North Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Andrea Ghiselli ◽  
Pippa Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Horn Of Africa ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Significant Evidence ◽  
Chinese Workers

Abstract The nexus between China's human and economic presence abroad and its security policy is increasingly important. Within this nexus, this study statistically explores whether and to what extent Chinese contractors reduce the number of Chinese nationals they send to work in North Africa, the Middle East and the Horn of Africa when the security situation in host states worsens. We find no significant evidence that either warnings from Chinese embassies and consulates to leave host countries or expert perceptions of host stability influence the number of Chinese workers. Worker numbers appear to decrease significantly only in the aftermath of large-scale violent events. These findings suggest that Chinese companies are relatively acceptant of security risks and uncertainties, despite the decade-long regulatory efforts of the Chinese government to make them more security-conscious overseas and, thus, to reduce pressure to use diplomatically and economically expensive military means for their protection.

scholarly journals Social Media in and Around a Temporary Large-Scale Refugee Shelter in the Netherlands

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110249
Author(s):  
Peer Smets ◽  
Younes Younes ◽  
Marinka Dohmen ◽  
Kees Boersma ◽  
Lenie Brouwer
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Crisis Communication ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
State Policies ◽  
Refugee Crisis ◽  
Top Down ◽  
And Migration

During the 2015 refugee crisis in Europe, temporary refugee shelters arose in the Netherlands to shelter the large influx of asylum seekers. The largest shelter was located in the eastern part of the country. This shelter, where tents housed nearly 3,000 asylum seekers, was managed with a firm top-down approach. However, many residents of the shelter—mainly Syrians and Eritreans—developed horizontal relations with the local receiving society, using social media to establish contact and exchange services and goods. This case study shows how various types of crisis communication played a role and how the different worlds came together. Connectivity is discussed in relation to inclusion, based on resilient (non-)humanitarian approaches that link society with social media. Moreover, we argue that the refugee crisis can be better understood by looking through the lens of connectivity, practices, and migration infrastructure instead of focusing only on state policies.

Concrete Monsters of the Welfare State: Discussions of Brutalist Architecture on Social Media

2021 ◽  
pp. 120633122110193
Author(s):  
Max Holleran
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Welfare State ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Municipal Governments ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Welfare State

Brutalist architecture is an object of fascination on social media that has taken on new popularity in recent years. This article, drawing on 3,000 social media posts in Russian and English, argues that the buildings stand out for their arresting scale and their association with the expanding state in the 1960s and 1970s. In both North Atlantic and Eastern European contexts, the aesthetic was employed in publicly financed urban planning projects, creating imposing concrete structures for universities, libraries, and government offices. While some online social media users associate the style with the overreach of both socialist and capitalist governments, others are more nostalgic. They use Brutalist buildings as a means to start conversations about welfare state goals of social housing, free university, and other services. They also lament that many municipal governments no longer have the capacity or vision to take on large-scale projects of reworking the built environment to meet contemporary challenges.

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