Beijing (CNS)--In 2010, China became the biggest new media provider with over 450 million netizens and almost 900 million mobile users, according to the New Media Blue Book released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) on July 12.
The book showed that the number of net users in Chinese is only second to that of English. As the second most frequently used language, Chinese has gained more influence over cyberspace. However, it is also worth noting that there is still a huge gap between China and the West in Internet penetration and band width.
In the blue book, new media development is characterized by more native vitality, localizing itself in the Chinese sphere. New media has also added several national brands, such as Renren and Weibo, popular Chinese social websites. With challenges from the outside, China has been insisting on independent exploration of the domestic new media market, open flow of Western commercial capital, and active introduction of advanced foreign techniques.
New media has encouraged more political participation at the individual level, and has served as a tool for interest groups to impose pressure onto the political agenda, indicated the blue book. "It can be of use for good as well as evil, depending on your purpose," said Liu Ruisheng, executive chief editor and assistant researcher at the CASS.
An example was drawn in the blue book to illustrate that new media was taken as a means and frontline by Western groups led by the U.S. to coerce other countries for their own political good. Google planned their departure from China with the American government for political purposes. The U.S. expanded its cold war thinking and hegemony into cyberspace with smart power.
The blue book concluded that new media is the most popular and fastest developing media in 2010. Huge potential is still to be uncovered in its functions in spreading information and motivating public opinions.
However, commercial marketing and excessive consumption in this intermediary turned out to be unsubstantial. In 2010, the number of websites registered in China decreased by 1.32 million to 1.91 million, compared to 2009. "Some of them closed during the financial crisis, and some others were regulated or shut down because of their illegality," explained Liu.
