Response to Post on Chinese Social Media

In response to http://csmt11.posterous.com/csmt-blog1

This post (I wish I knew who wrote it!) intrigued me because, in America, it is rare to hear about social media platforms in other countries. Even in articles we have read for this class, they are often given a brief mention, however language and translation issues plague further discussion. Hearing about these platforms first-hand is interesting and revealing, especially given the unique Internet censorship issues within China.

The author of this post mentions that Renren started out as a near clone to Facebook, but over time has developed unique features such as the "footprint" left on visited pages. These developments are along the lines of what danah boyd refers to in her article "Friends, Friendsters, and MySpace Top 8." She writes of social networking service Friendster and how, despite starting as a dating site, its actual use was to connect with friends: "Much to the chagrin of the developers, the early adopters of Friendster framed the social norms, not the system’s designers" (14). This suggests that, perhaps for the Chinese audience, a feature dictating which pages a user has visited is an in-demand feature while American audiences on Facebook are likely more used to the privacy of "stalking" pages with no social repercussions. Thus, the platforms that started out similar grow apart and, in ten years, will probably be vastly different creatures than one another.

Use of Twitter-clone Weibo as a voice for the people is more along the lines of social media use for social change. The author of the post writes that in the wake of the Chinese high speed rail crash, the service served as a voice to the media to give fair coverage to the crash and the questions it raised regarding safety of the burgeoning rail network. However, this is for an issue that probably doesn't face mass politicization. Stories might be about government cutting corners on infrastructure development, but it is unlikely going to be a trigger for mass revolution. And, indeed, highly politicized stories have faced censorship in Weibo, such as "words with the slightest linkage to [dissident artist Ai Weiwei]" in the wake of his release following three months of detainment by police. This suggests that Weibo is not an infallible voice for the Chinese.

Clarke B