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Fall 2021 Panel:
Hosted by the Social Media Narratives Class
Contemporary Media Environments Contemporary media environments consolidate the central role that attention plays in the digital economy. Given the definite nature of attention as "focused mental engagement on a particular item of information," ¹ it is no longer the seeking of information but the competition for attention, created by an information explosion, that drives the economy. The practical need of internet businesses to monetize user attention, the technological features of new media, and the individual’s desire for self-expression foreground the significance of attention in the digital age. Studies of digital media in China have adequately addressed the prominent role of the Chinese state and business corporations. The less told story, however, is how the Chinese internet has created a space for diverse voices and cultural innovation. As of June 2021, China had over a billion internet users, who are active content contributors. What kind of content do Chinese internet users contribute online? What kind of space do they access, and how do netizens navigate digital spaces to make sense of their everyday life? And what role do internet corporations, state sectors, and commercial media play during China’s drastic transformation into digital society? These are the questions that I address in The Evolution of the Chinese Internet: Creative Visibility in the Digital Public (Stanford University Press, 2020). In contrast to the flourishing of research findings on what is made invisible online, such as monitored, censored, and removed content, we know little about the driving mechanisms that grant visibility to particular kinds of user-generated content. I propose “the network of visibility” to examine the mechanisms behind the vibrancy of online culture in China. I analyze the network of visibility through the process of competition for (1) user attention, and (2) content authority among internet corporations, media outlets, and individual players in the cultural realm. These two dimensions of competition, one emphasizing the economic rule of monetizing user attention and the other focusing on the possession and acquisition of authoritative voices, weave the network of visibility that shapes what is seen online, by whom, and in what way. By delineating the process of competition for discursive power among multifarious players, I show that the vitality of Chinese digital culture is rooted in the dynamic process of negotiation, collaboration, and contestation enacted by the interplay of diverse agents, including the state, cultural institutions, commercial entities, and internet users. In doing so, this book highlights the pivotal roles that cultural history, technological platforms, and individual agency have played in shaping the sociopolitical meanings of the Chinese internet. 1. Davenport, Thomas H., and John C. Beck. The Attention Economy: Understanding the New Currency of Business. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001. P. 20. |
Panelists
Meredith D. Clark
Shaohua Guo
Mark Marino
Jeff Nunokawa
Élika Ortega
Abraham Richie
Katrin Tiidenberg
SAIC ATS Class in Social Media Narrative Host: SAIC ATS Part-time Faculty: Judy Malloy/b> |
Shaohua Guo is Associate Professor of Chinese at Carleton College. She received her Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests focus on contemporary Chinese studies, digital media studies, and cultural studies. She is the author of The Evolution of the Chinese Internet: Creative Visibility in the Digital Public (Stanford University Press, 2020). Her articles have appeared in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture, Media, Culture and Society, Communication and the Public, Journal of Contemporary China, and Journal of Chinese Cinemas, among others.