Guobin Yang Analyzes Chinese Internet Activism
Via Fons, Guobin Yang's latest research paper on Activists beyond Virtual Borders: Internet–Mediated Networks and Informational Politics in China.
"Primarily online–based networks in China differ in that they have an informal, episodic, and emergent character. In ordinary times, Internet–mediated networks are not advocacy networks. The dotcom companies that support online communities have no other explicit goal than to generate and maintain regular online traffic as a means of promoting their brand names. Yet these networks have a social structure. For social actors, the important thing is to be in the network structure and not left out of it. When critical social issues enter China’s Internet–mediated networks, they activate the network structure and transform them into advocacy networks."
