This book explores the relationship between social mentality, public opinion, media, and other factors through mixed methods in China, especially since the 21st century. The book deploys qualitative and quantitative research and adopts a multi-disciplinary perspective and diverse research methods. The studies are built on and contribute to the burgeoning literature seeking to anatomise the relationship between social mentality, media, and public opinion from the point of view of sociology and communication. It also aims to explore how media can be used to appease public opinion. As the first systematic study of the interconnection between social mentality and public opinion, this book provides empirical support and a theoretical framework for both areas. It will thus be a great read for students and scholars of communication, sociology, and social psychology, especially for those with a focus on China and new media.

This book not only seeks to theoretically analyze the concept, chief characteristics and framework of “social mentality”, but also explores the influence of social mentality on such elements of social functioning as individuals, groups, societies, markets and countries, and the influence of such elements as cultural, social, economic, political and mental factors on social mentality. Besides, this book discusses the structure of social mentality, tools for measuring it, and an indicator system. What’s more, it explores the role of the social mentality mechanism in the construction of harmonious societies.

Starting from a history of new media, this book presents the development of network technology and media applications in China, while also examining the relationship between new media and politics, economy, culture, lifestyle, traditional media, law, knowledge, etc. As of 2014, China had been connected to the Internet for 20 years. During those two decades, China has witnessed drastic changes, from its national makeup to people’s daily lives. The book analyzes the changes in China brought about by the new media on the basis of large-scale data. Further, through comparisons with international trends in new media development, it seeks to clarify the new media development in China and comprehensively demonstrate the revolution and brand-new faces of Chinese society over the past two decades in the wake of new media. As such, it outlines the bright future of new media by revisiting and summarizing the developmental courses of new media and Chinese society.

Redefining the concept of new media in China, this cutting edge book discusses the impact of social media on Chinese public life. Examining its characteristics and the different forms of social media, such as internet and mobile phone media, weibo, wechat and micro-blogging, it considers how public opinion evolves through this media and its interaction with traditional media. It also offers a unique analysis of growing new media platforms, the challenges of government management and the impact of micro-blogging on journalism in China. Through quantitative research, the book also analyses new media user behavior in China, offering a ‘butterfly effect’ model for public opinion based on new media. It also shows the relevance of the sociological Matthew Effect and addresses issues such as the ‘20 million’ phenomenon and the Internet Water army (Wangluo shuijun), groups of Internet ghost-writers paid to post specific content online. Finally, it scrutinizes the the issue of mass disturbance in new media in China, researching evolutionary mechanisms and academic models of mass disturbance through a series of case studies. Written by a leader in the field of Chinese new media, this book constitutes a valuable read to scholars of media and communications studies, and all those interested by the development and the increasing impact of new media in China.

This book discusses the connotation and function of social governance and elaborates on social governance thought in classical Marxism, Mao Zedong’s social governance thought, and social governance thought in socialism with Chinese characteristics, especially in Xi Jinping’s New Era. Together, these components constitute the basic theory of social governance in China. Moreover, the book clarifies ancient and modern social governance thought in China and analyzes institutional innovations, practices, and experiences of Chinese social governance. It depicts the evolution and reform of social governance in China both vertically and horizontally. In turn, it addresses the overall system, fundamental institutions, hierarchy, field, and mode of China’s social governance, as well as its connection to national security. It discusses major issues and their causes, together with enhancing mechanisms. In closing, it outlines future trends in Chinese social governance, and its role in and effects on the global governance system.

The 2008 volume of The China Society Yearbook, the third volume in the annual China Society Blue Book series to be translated into English, contains important statistics and analysis from Chinese scholars on a wide array of social issues in China. Topics explored in this volume include employment, social security, national health insurance, labor security, political participation, the internet, food safety, corruption, and quality of life.

As the Internet has reshaped the way we communicate, people’s reading has become more fragmented and attention has been directed to a more concise and general form of language that outlines the most important information. This language of the internet, a language system that concentrates on the content of events and public emotions, has emerged and received wide currency. This monograph is one of the first books to examine the language of the internet in the Chinese context. By analysing content and discourse, the author examines Chinese website buzzwords since 2010. She reveals the mechanisms of generation, the cultural nature and political characteristics of the network language, analyzes the causes of its emergence and popularity, and highlights its social and academic significance. Meanwhile, she argues that research in the area is essentially interdisciplinary, involving not only perspectives from Journalism and Communication Studies, but also Philosophy, Culture, Linguistics and Sociology. Students and scholars of Communication Studies and Journalism, as well as Culture Studies should be greatly interested in this title.