COM 650
Zhenzhen Lyu
The new media, different from television, magazines, books or paper-based publications, is a new form of mass communication, which contains technologies that enable digital interactivity. For example, websites, video games, Internet all belong to the new media. Currently, the new media is becoming increasingly popular and sharply changing people’s life. The advent of Weibo in China is one of the most prominent examples, which is also the topic I am going to analyze in this passage.
Chinese Weibo, similar to twitter used worldwide, is a micro blog, by which people can post words, pictures and videos on the Internet. The general public or the organization can create their own account easily and share things with their followers so they can communicate freely with each other. Some celebrities and government officials also own weibo accounts and in this way, weibo helps to create a two-way communication between famous people and Chinese Internet users.
Research showed that people spend at least one hour per day checking Weibo messages on their cellphones or on their laptops, while spend only fifteen minutes on reading newspapers. It is very common in current Chinese society to see people using weibo every day to check the latest news, share daily life, or chat with friends, etc.
Nearly fifty percent of the Internet users in China have Weibo accounts and use it regularly. Among these people, most of them are from the younger generation who are more open-minded to the new technology.
This paper consists of two parts. The first part aims to understand the effects weibo has made ten years from now on Chinese society. The second part talks about Chinese government policy and the progress China has made reflected by the proliferation of weibo.
Speaking of the impact of this new media, weibo has impressively changed the traditional mass media. Prior to the turn of the century, only journalists with an official degree