How does the Chinese government use social media to react to social crisis: a content analysis

Professional project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Journalism from the School of Journalism, University of Missouri--Columbia.In order to examine the Chinese government's strategies and stances reflected on its social media account during a social crisis, this research uses a content analysis of 391 Weibo posts from four official government accounts. The researcher uses one-way ANOVA, Chi-square and independent-sample t test to compare the strategies and stance reflected in different phrases and between two types of government accounts. The results reveal that the Chinese government tended to adopt an accommodative stance towards social crisis. Among four government accounts, the posts from government-controlled media accounts showed a less accommodative stance. Moreover, posts from government-controlled media accounts are more likely to try explaining the cause of crisis, while the posts government-agency accounts are making promises for the future like establishing policies to secure a better environment and clean the air. Finally discussion focuses on the speculations that might lead to the results.Includes bibliographic references

Interaction Between Traditional Media and Social Media Coverage on Social Issues in China: A Content Analysis

Professional project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Journalism from the School of Journalism, University of Missouri--Columbia.To what extent does online public opinion and traditional media coverage interact with each other on social issues in China? This research employs a content analysis of 524 Weibo posts and 327 news articles regarding a social incident in China. The researcher uses Chi-square tests to compare the use of alternative media and the frame selection of social media and traditional media in different phases. Social media and traditional media react differently when covering social issues. Social media have a better interaction with traditional media while traditional media make less reference to social media. Additionally, social media and traditional media play different social roles when covering public affairs by selecting different frames. Even if the traditional media are partially free and under the government control, social media can hardly substitute the role of social responsibility of traditional media in defining the problem and issue treatment. Noticeably, the choices of frame in both social media and traditional media are not influenced by their interactions, but instead by different time frames. Discussion focuses on the changes in the roles played by media, government, and Chinese citizens.Includes bibliographic references

Online Distribution of English-Language TV in Mainland China

In the age of multiple screens, online video streaming has in the 2010s and present become the most significant way of consuming television content in mainland China. Among all the available content provided by Chinese streaming services, English-language television series stands out as an imported audio-visual product that is mainly distributed and circulated on the internet rather than television channels due to relevant media industry regulations and policies. Prior to landing on online streaming services as its legal distribution platform, English-language television series initially engendered its local audience base via informal distribution means, such as pirated DVDs and file-sharing and downloading websites; yet some of these informal services still exist in a grey area, since the content library formal streaming services possess is largely restricted in terms of size. From the perspective of media industry studies, this thesis deals with both formal and informal distribution platforms with a focus on formal distribution practices and the mechanisms behind them, which involve cultural, political and economic factors. This thesis first examines the streaming services themselves, studying distribution practices for American and British television series to understand the logic behind the localization of the business practices surrounding transnational television and to illustrate the features streaming services adopt to cater to online audiences based on local streaming consumption habits. The thesis then investigates how the current distribution pattern has been constructed by state supervision through cultural policies and censorship and by the historically dynamic relationship between formal distribution and informal distribution. I argue that the localized online distribution of English-language television series in mainland China is the result of the interplay among distributors’ business practices, Chinese authorities’ regulatory practices and Chinese viewers’ consumption habits and viewer practices. Putting the thesis in a global context, I contend that the development of online streaming technologies has created distinctive forms of media consumption in mainland China. Within the specific local political environment, the localized distribution pattern of transnational television content represents part of China’s response to the global television trade

Exploring digital discourse with Chinese characteristics: contradictions and tensions

Capitalism in China is under transformations. This research aims to register and interpret China’s discourse on network technologies, reveal the underlying ideologies, and tie this discourse to the transformation of China’s capitalism of which it is a part. Digital discourse, as this thesis defines it, is about the contemporary discourse on network technology under Capitalism with Chinese Characteristics. China’s state-led capitalism has gone through all aspects of changes that are enabled by network technologies, ranging from production, consumption and the market, to the relations between international capital, the State, domestic capital, and individuals are experiencing changes. Along with the economic, political and technological changes are ideological transformations. Digital discourse is part of the social process that is related to other social changes. This thesis will focus on the particular forms of digital discourse as a channel to investigate both social and ideological transformations in China’s digital capitalism. In particular, this thesis looks at the digital discourse from three social and political actors. It analyses discourse from the current central government’s information society policies and President Xi Jinping’s speeches, from CEOs of the dominant Internet companies in China, and from young workers in China’s ‘Silicon Valley’ Shenzhen. Through the lens of ideology, this thesis provides a critique of how digital discourse from different actors legitimate social relations in the current capitalism in China. In particular, at the international level, the government and BAT have appropriated a nationalist discourse to legitimate the global expansion of China’s capital and enterprises. At the domestic level, these actors have produced different types of discourse to legitimate the concentration of the market and the commercialisation of Internet platforms. At the individual level, there is a tendency among all actors to construct a consumer identity to replace a more politically active citizen identity. Through analysing digital discourse from these three actors, this thesis also identifies several features of ideology and the mechanisms of how ideologies work in contemporary capitalism. While the study illustrates the discrepancy of ideological discourse between by the dominant groups and subaltern groups, it also identifies one crucial ideology that legitimates, internalises and naturalises the dominant socio-political arrangements surrounding the commercialised Internet – This is no alternative. This finding suggests a double-layer and multi-dimensional understandings of the ideologies about China’s digital capitalism

THE SURVIVAL AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHINESE NEW MEDIA BUSINESS: AMONG STATE, MARKET, AND PUBLIC

Master'sMASTER OF ART

Online Film in China

The most recent major sale of a US film company was announced at the beginning of November 2016: “Wanda buys Dick Clark Productions”.1 Who would have predicted this announcement ten years ago? The Chinese Dalian Wanda Group is about to buy Dick Clark Productions for about one billion USD; and with it the broadcasting rights to television programs that attract tens of millions of viewers every year: The Golden Globe Awards, the Academy of Country Music Awards and the New Year countdown celebrations in New York. The latter, with an estimated reach of more than a billion, has become an iconic image of New Year’s Eve festiv- ities

The Customer Engagement Approaches of Influential Entrepreneurship : Based on business related Customer Engagement approaches emerged on Weibo

This study focuses on an emerging field of Influential Entrepreneurship to research the adoption of Customer Engagement Approaches as effective business strategies in China context. The aim is to establish an interactive framework combining theoretical findings and empirical evidence to illustrate the Customer Engagement Approaches enacted by Influential Entrepreneurs. The primary data is collected from expert Interviewees, and raw data is later interpreted, categorized, and grouped with thematic networks to display the logic and relationship of different terms. An interactive framework of Customer Engagement Approaches by Influential Entrepreneurs is put forward, and the framework sheds lights both on theoretical contributions and practical implications. Suggestions for future researches are discussed in the end to provide scholars with academic indications. The study confirms that Customer Engagement Approaches are vigorously employed by Influential Entrepreneurs as efficient business strategies. Influential position themselves as knowledgeable, informative, and communicative figures with commonality and attainability so as to establish profit-oriented intimate relationship via Customer Engagement Approaches. Customer Engagement approaches vary from case to case, and approaches include commoditization of contents production, management of persona, display of friendliness, presentation of perceived authenticity and intimacy, mostly through mixed social media related activities with a supplement in offline events. In this case, Influential Entrepreneurs exploit customers¡¯ desire from multiple perspectives and trigger contagion effects, leading to mutually amplified effects in economic returns, popularity, business opportunities, and communication effects. Specifically, Influential Entrepreneurs deems tangible value triggered interaction as temporary, while they consider relationship-oriented interaction as profoundly effective. Multi-channelling effects of social media platforms are particularly added to the scaling up of customer base. Influential endorsements are charged with emotional premium, which is similar with corporate charged brand premium