"The Strange Case of Twitter in China" (paper abstract)

As Weibo (weibo.com) gets all the media and academic attention nowadays, we should not forget that Chinese-language activism on Twitter continues to be important. Some netizens are amphibious. They inhabit both Twitter and Weibo and tweet in both Chinese and English, serving as information brokers and translators.

I have a chapter on Chinese-language Twitter activism forthcoming in Communication and Power in the Global Era: Orders and Borders, a volume edited by Marwan Kraidy. My chapter is titled "Power and Transgression in the Global Media Age: The Strange Case of Twitter in China." Here is the abstract:

"Using the strange case of Twitter in China – strange because Twitter is blocked in China but still accessed by tens of thousands, this paper analyzes how Chinese internet activists cross the virtual borders to engage in radical Twitter activism. I argue that when skilled actors take advantage of international opportunities and global media to negotiate a constrained domestic environment, they will be able to engage in transnational activism radical enough to challenge state power. Chinese-language Twitter activism thus occurs as a result of the combination of three conditions -- a favorable international political opportunity structure, a hospitable global media environment, and the techno-cultural creativity of skilled activists. The implication is that state power comes under siege in the age of global media, not just because of global information flows, or of international pressure on nation-states, or oppositional activism, but because of the combination of the three conditions."