Full Description
Introducing the concept of state-sponsored platformization, this volume shows the complexity behind the central role the party-state plays in shaping social media platforms. The party-state increasingly penetrates commercial social media while aspiring to turn its own media agencies into platforms. Yet state-sponsored platformization does not necessarily produce the Chinese Communist Party's desired outcomes. Citizens continue to appropriate social media for creative public engagement at the same time that more people are managing their online settings to reduce or refuse connection, inducing new forms of crafted resistance to hyper-social media connectivity. The wide-ranging essays presented here explore the mobile radio service Ximalaya.FM, Alibaba's evolution into a multi-platform ecosystem, livestreaming platforms in the United States and China, the role of Twitter in Trump's North Korea diplomacy, user-generated content in the news media, the emergence of new social agents mediating between state and society, social media art projects, Chinese and US scientists' use of social media, and reluctance to engage with WeChat. Ultimately, readers will find that the ten chapters in this volume contribute significant new research and insights to the fast-growing scholarship on social media in China at a time when online communication is increasingly constrained by international struggles over political control and privacy issues.
Contents
Contents Acknowledgments Introduction. Social Media and State-Sponsored Platformization in China-Guobin Yang Part I. Platforms App Radio: The Reconfiguration of Audible Publics in China through Ximalaya.FM-Yizhou Xu and Jeremy Wade Morris Assembling Alibaba: The Infrastructuralization of Digital Platforms in China-Lin Zhang Firewalls and Walled Gardens: The Interplatformization of China's Wanghong Industry-Junyi Lv and David Craig This Is Not How a US President Should Behave: Trump, Twitter, and North Korea in Rhetorical Constructions of US-China Relations-Michelle Murray Yang Part II. State Media Convergence Culture and Professionalism Practices in the Short-Form News Videos of the Beijing News-Fengjiao Yang and Xiao Li The News as International Soft Power: An Analysis of the Posting Techniques of China's News Media on Facebook and Twitter-Qingjiang (Q. J.) Yao Part III. Engagement and Disengagement Mediating Agents on WeChat: A Local Turn in the Personification of State-Society Intermediaries-Wei Wang Social Media Art Practices as Prefigurative Politics: Echoes from China-Zimu Zhang The Lure of Connectivity: Exploring US and Chinese Scientists' Use of Social Media to Address the Public-Hepeng Jia, Xiaoya Jiang-Dapeng Wang, and Weishan Miao All in One Place? Reluctance in Everyday Mobile Communication in China-Lei Vincent Huang Contributors Index
