Micro-Blogging Policy for Local Governments in China: A Critical Analysis

This study aims to address, how the government of China’s adaptation of microblog does impacts social contention and local governance? This study assess the extent to microblogging can serve as:  1) a virus bringing unexpected outcome; 2) a battering ram for spearhead reform and 3) as an authority of reinforcer of existing power, such as politics as usual.  The research studied WEIBO in depth perspective of local governance. The author also found that microblog of government in the short run is resulting in organizational change.  Perhaps, Chinese local government microblogs operate largely as “beta-institutions” experimenting with respect to negotiation and corporation with their microblog services and micro public providers aimed at enhancing political legitimacy and social management. Furthermore, local government is engaging progressively from service providers to ‘service predictors” with improved abilities of delivering individualized services and institute state surveillance via business service providers. These improvements warrant further investigations of the long haul ramifications of microblogs as a major aspect of the administration data nature Furthermore, for the prospective of comparison, the study will help a healthier understanding of the way microblogging is diffused over the globe as part of neighborhood government political tool compartment as the need to have more comprehensive and mindful organizations which can offer a space for conveying among government and subjects is an aggregate concern. Keywords: Government, Communication, Micro-Bilogging, Administration, Development

Government and Social Media: A Case Study of 31 Informational World Cities

Social media platforms are increasingly being used by governments to foster user interaction. Particularly in cities with enhanced ICT infrastructures (i.e., Informational World Cities) and high internet penetration rates, social media platforms are valuable tools for reaching high numbers of citizens. This empirical investigation of 31 Informational World Cities will provide an overview of social media services used for governmental purposes, of their popularity among governments, and of their usage intensity in broadcasting information online.Comment: In Proceedings of the 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 1715-1724). IEEE Computer Society, 201

Book review: China’s contested internet edited by Guobin Yang

Looking for more films that pass the Bechdel Test? Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema is a fiercely political overview of a new generation of feminist filmmakers from Sophie Mayer. Turning its attention away from commercial film, this book offers an alternative narrative for understanding contemporary feminist cinema beyond the mainstream. Although the number of films covered – nearly 500 – prevents more detailed analysis of individual examples, Sofia Ropek Hewson salutes this comprehensive introduction to feminist cinema, which should contribute significantly to the watchlists of those interested in contemporary film, gender and feminism

Towards a More Proactive Method

Drawing upon policy analysis and textual analysis of official microblogs, this paper describes how Xi’s new leadership regulates public opinion and public emotion in Chinese microblogs. The paper argues that the advent of the Xi Jinping administration demonstrates much more aggressive ideological demands. On the one hand, the new leadership has increasingly ramped up its efforts on censoring information and repressing critical public opinion. On the other hand, however, it has paid more attention to proactively guiding public opinion on the Internet. New strategies, represented by cultivating self-discipline among Internet users, repressing the insubordinate and wooing obedient public opinion leaders, establishing cooperation between official microblogs, and eliminating emotional outpourings in the microblogsphere have been used in Xi’s new ideological campaign to repress Internet rumours and sanitise critical public discourse

Information Technology and the Future of the Chinese State:: How the Internet Shapes State-Society Relations in the Digital Age

Bis Ende 20 werden 0 Prozent aller Chinesen über einen Internetzugang verfügen. Die Möglichkeiten für eine größer werdende Anzahl von Chinesen, online zu kommunizieren und zu konsumieren, hat eine Reihe von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern dazu inspiriert, sich mit Themen wie Zensur, Überwachung und Nutzung von sozialen Medien zu beschäftigen. Ein Großteil dieser Forschung baut auf der Prämisse einer antagonistischen Beziehung zwischen Staat und Gesellschaft auf. Allerdings weiß man bisher nur wenig darüber, welche Auswirkungen die staatlich geförderten und internetbasierten Kommunikationskanäle zwischen Regierungsbeamten und chinesischen Bürgern auf die Transformation der autoritären Einparteienherrschaft in China haben. Der vorliegende Artikel beschäftigt sich mit dieser Frage, indem er Chinas E-Government-Strategie einerseits zu globalen Entwicklungen in Beziehung setzt, andererseits im Kontext der sich verändernden Anreize untersucht, die politische Reformen in China in den vergangenen zwei Jahrzehnten ermöglicht haben. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Bemühungen der chinesischen Einparteienregierung, die Interaktion zwischen Staat und Gesellschaft zu digitalisieren, großes Potenzial dafür birgt, das Wesen des chinesischen Staates zu verändern. Allerdings stellen diese Veränderungen keinen Paradigmenwechsel dahingehend dar, wie China regiert wird. Der wichtigste Aspekt dieser Veränderungen ist, dass sie die Möglichkeit bieten, das oftmals als „Diktatoren-Dilemma“ bezeichnete Problem zu lösen: Menschen in nichtdemokratischen Regierungssystemen haben Angst davor, den Herrschenden gegenüber ihre Meinung auszudrücken, und entziehen so dem Staat eine wichtige Informationsgrundlage. Es wird gezeigt, dass die Entwicklung hochintegrierter E-Government-Plattformen, wie sie sich die Technokraten der Kommunistischen Partei Chinas vorstellen, bestehender institutioneller Logik folgt und dringende Probleme zu lösen vermag. So wird die Chance darauf erhöht, dass diese Plattformen nachhaltig eingeführt werden