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Prosumers in a digital multiverse: An investigation of how WeChat is affecting Chinese citizen journalism

Yan Wu Orcid Logo, Matthew Wall

Global Media and China, Volume: 4, Issue: 1, Pages: 36 - 51

Swansea University Author: Yan Wu Orcid Logo

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Abstract

WeChat is China’s most popular multi-purpose messaging and social media application and has been gaining popularity globally since its first release in 2011. In this article, we examine how the use of WeChat is affecting digitally-enabled citizen journalism in China. To achieve that purpose, we gath...

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Published in: Global Media and China
ISSN: 2059-4364 2059-4372
Published: SAGE 2019
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa48811
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first_indexed 2019-02-13T18:50:52Z
last_indexed 2020-06-16T19:01:23Z
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spelling 2020-06-16T15:50:42.5789946 v2 48811 2019-02-13 Prosumers in a digital multiverse: An investigation of how WeChat is affecting Chinese citizen journalism fcb0b08dd7afa00f6899a02d4cb66fff 0000-0002-5741-6862 Yan Wu Yan Wu true false 2019-02-13 AMED WeChat is China’s most popular multi-purpose messaging and social media application and has been gaining popularity globally since its first release in 2011. In this article, we examine how the use of WeChat is affecting digitally-enabled citizen journalism in China. To achieve that purpose, we gathered data from 3 focus-group interviews with Chinese WeChat users. The findings suggest that WeChat’s integration of multiple communicative networks renders it a multiversal space where citizen journalistic practice can transverse across public, semi-public, and private spheres. The diverse communicative affordances of WeChat could facilitate ‘metavoicing’ practice as a form of citizen journalism, and enable news production and consumption to converge. Consequently, users’ experiences of news and news story lifecycles have been affected. WeChat offers both opportunities and challenges to the practice of citizen journalism: it is a space where information exchange could be constantly monitored, where the tone of current affairs coverage is often sensationalized, and where the reliability of content can be difficult to discern. Journal Article Global Media and China 4 1 36 51 SAGE 2059-4364 2059-4372 WeChat, China, Citizen journalism, digital multiverse, metavoicing 31 12 2019 2019-12-31 10.1177/2059436419835441 COLLEGE NANME Media COLLEGE CODE AMED Swansea University 2020-06-16T15:50:42.5789946 2019-02-13T09:29:51.6204379 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR Yan Wu 0000-0002-5741-6862 1 Matthew Wall 2 0048811-01042019114438.pdf 48811v2.pdf 2019-04-01T11:44:38.4000000 Output 260875 application/pdf Version of Record true 2019-03-31T00:00:00.0000000 Released under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (CC-BY-NC). true eng
title Prosumers in a digital multiverse: An investigation of how WeChat is affecting Chinese citizen journalism
spellingShingle Prosumers in a digital multiverse: An investigation of how WeChat is affecting Chinese citizen journalism
Yan Wu
title_short Prosumers in a digital multiverse: An investigation of how WeChat is affecting Chinese citizen journalism
title_full Prosumers in a digital multiverse: An investigation of how WeChat is affecting Chinese citizen journalism
title_fullStr Prosumers in a digital multiverse: An investigation of how WeChat is affecting Chinese citizen journalism
title_full_unstemmed Prosumers in a digital multiverse: An investigation of how WeChat is affecting Chinese citizen journalism
title_sort Prosumers in a digital multiverse: An investigation of how WeChat is affecting Chinese citizen journalism
author_id_str_mv fcb0b08dd7afa00f6899a02d4cb66fff
author_id_fullname_str_mv fcb0b08dd7afa00f6899a02d4cb66fff_***_Yan Wu
author Yan Wu
author2 Yan Wu
Matthew Wall
format Journal article
container_title Global Media and China
container_volume 4
container_issue 1
container_start_page 36
publishDate 2019
institution Swansea University
issn 2059-4364
2059-4372
doi_str_mv 10.1177/2059436419835441
publisher SAGE
college_str Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
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hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Culture and Communication - Media, Communications, Journalism and PR
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description WeChat is China’s most popular multi-purpose messaging and social media application and has been gaining popularity globally since its first release in 2011. In this article, we examine how the use of WeChat is affecting digitally-enabled citizen journalism in China. To achieve that purpose, we gathered data from 3 focus-group interviews with Chinese WeChat users. The findings suggest that WeChat’s integration of multiple communicative networks renders it a multiversal space where citizen journalistic practice can transverse across public, semi-public, and private spheres. The diverse communicative affordances of WeChat could facilitate ‘metavoicing’ practice as a form of citizen journalism, and enable news production and consumption to converge. Consequently, users’ experiences of news and news story lifecycles have been affected. WeChat offers both opportunities and challenges to the practice of citizen journalism: it is a space where information exchange could be constantly monitored, where the tone of current affairs coverage is often sensationalized, and where the reliability of content can be difficult to discern.
published_date 2019-12-31T03:59:28Z
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score 10.998093