Social media and internet public events

From Digital Culture & Society

Article Title: Social media and internet public events

Find article online: https://journals.scholarsportal.info/details/07365853/v34i0003/726_smaipe.xml

doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2016.05.024

Contents 1 Context 2 Overview 3 Strengths and Weaknesses 4 Assessment

[edit] Context

Social media and social change have been proven to be directly correlated. More than ever, China has been experiencing deeper reform and social transformation; and it is all being promoted and talked about through social media. Dong, Liang, and He claim what is just as important as having an open and free space to discuss public events, is using social media platforms for locating information and mobilizing people. The traditional means of communicating information through television and news sources are no longer reliable and have opened doors for the public to take matters into their own hands.

[edit] Overview

This article by Dong et al. (2017) delves into China’s relationship with social media and how society participates in internet’s public events. 97 articles covering 57 cases that fall under 15 concepts have been studied to be able to write this paper. There are three different types of media that trigger public opinions; traditional media, network media, and social media. With how China’s media is structured, traditional media is used as an extension of the governments voice. Network media is not an extension of the governments voice, but they do follow certain regulations and constraints placed on them by the government. Social media is the only space where Chinese citizens attain truthful information. The reason this happens on social media is because Traditional and Network media do not report and also hide information regarding political events and stories that take place. Dong et al. concludes that all 57 cases they have studied have been only sourced from social media. Cases like “My Dad is Li Gang”, “Guo Meimei Scandal”, South China Tiger Photos Scandal”, “Drag Racing Case in Hangzhou” cause heated discussions on the internet and remained unreported on traditional network media. This means that in China, people resort to social media for truthful information and no other source. They have created a system of mobilizing each other to transfer their online connections offline to extend the power of the internet into social reality and to further strengthen public opinion. The content of their discussions raise important questions that affect the Chinese people as a whole. Questions of social justice, law enforcement, governments integrity are raised and they turn transform beyond online forums to governmental pressures to investigate officials involved in cases being discussed. What is being demanded by the people in China through these actions is maintaining justice; and more than half of the cases studied, they manage to attract the attention of the government which later lead to changes of government policies and introducing new government policies.

[edit] Strengths and Weaknesses

The article carries out an important task of clarifying different cases that have managed to catch traction in social media platforms, mostly forums, and were able to catch the attention of the government to take action. This portrayed that having these conversations as a public has enough impact to cause societal change and influence law making/changing. The article highlights how important it is to take the political activism taking place online offline to make a greater impact The weaknesses worth noting with this article is that they discuss a certain percentage of approaches that managed to catch the attention of the government and another percentage that did not manage to do so as well. IT would have been an interesting study to look into the common patterns in the approaches that work and the approaches that don't work.

[edit] Assessment

In conclusion, unlike some countries, the people in China evidently cannot depend on their traditional and network media outlets to educate them or grow awareness regarding certain news truthfully. This is important to note, it highlights how essential these social media tools are to Chinese people's social growth. Through various cases, the social media approach has had the ability to cause political change.

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--Am16yp 11:46, 19 March 2019 (EDT)