Isaac Mao discusses some of his work over the past 7 years since his first blog post in 2002.
The Internet has influenced each level of the traditionally rigid social layering in China. A big question for the highest leaders now is how can certain parties access new, not just traditional, types of media? The better informed these leaders are, the more able they are to be able to control content and curb activist work, for example, in lower layers. They have to be diligent to satisfy their supervisors, but they are not well connected.
IM thus classifies two groups based on whether they are better or less connected. He suggests that we must examine how people are able to pull others from the unconnected to the connected groups. This can be the future hope for the Chinese social system, by encouraging the emergence of new communities that can bridge between connected and unconnected groups.
IM is also seeing another change from Western media which has traditionally relied on a few sources to report back to their media formats. Now, more reporting organizations are relying on reports from more sources and more citizen journalists. With this change, there is hope that we can provide more of a voice for the average citizen.
Chinese media is also changing their attitude to social media. In the 3rd CIRC, he saw more resistance that the blogosphere could be a realistic critical mass to change media; now, attitudes have changed, and more and more journalists in China are switching to bloggers. They are relying on alternate forms of media to express themselves. Other professionals – lawyers and businessmen, for example – are also using their blogs for multiple uses. IM hopes to dig into this aspect, to see how Chinese communities and social relations with each other are changing in the social media sphere.