:: Singapore Internet Research Center ::

SiRC Visiting Fellows - 2006

Period: 1 March to 11 April 2006

Name: Jens Damm, Assistant Professor

Affiliation: Free University Berlin, Institute for East Asian Studies, Germany

Project title: China's Internet as Signifier: Contradicting Discourses, Paradigms, and Interpretations

What are the underlying power-structures and existing societal paradigms which shape the differing perception of the role of the Internet in China in the "West" and in China?

My hypotheses and some preliminary conclusions could be described as follows:

Fundamental differences can be found between the discourses of Western analysts and the discourses of Chinese analysts regarding the social and political impact of the Internet in China. Recent research on the Internet in China carried out by the West has too often focused on questions of censorship, the blocking of websites, the democratizing effects of the Internet in China and on the use of the Internet by dissident groups. Western discourses have focused on democratization and political change, paying little attention to broader social changes. During the 1990s, a prevalent view in Western publications was that the introduction of the Internet would result in Western models of democracy and democratic participation taking root in Chinese society, but in recent years, the Chinese state/Communist Party has increasingly been viewed as successful in controlling the Internet. This discourse is, however, technology-deterministic and is only an "inverse" version of the former discourse.

Name: Irene Pollach, Assistant Professor

Affiliation: Vienna University of Economics and Business
Administration in Austria

Project title: Who Reads Corporate Websites? – A Cross-Cultural Study of Audience Behavior and Expectations

The premier advantage of Web-mediated communication for companies is that the content they disseminate on their Websites is not filtered by gatekeepers before it reaches its audience. However, this advantage is offset by the Web's pull nature, which implies that corporate messages disseminated on the Web may never reach their target audiences. Thus, it is critical for companies to know what information their target groups are interested in and how likely they are to look this information up on corporate Websites, so that they can dedicate space to those stakeholder groups that actually look for information on corporate Websites. To this end, this project investigates the readership of corporate Websites on the basis of a survey conducted in Singapore and Austria/Germany to shed light on whether anyone actually reads the information disseminated on corporate Websites and, in particular, whether anyone reads information targeted at no specific stakeholder group.


SiRC Visiting Fellows Year 2006 Year 2005	SiRC Visiting Fellows - 2006 Period: 1 March to 11 April 2006 Name: Jens Damm, Assistant Professor Affiliation: Free University Berlin, Institute for East Asian Studies, Germany Project title: China's Internet as Signifier: Contradicting Discourses, Paradigms, and Interpretations What are the underlying power-structures and existing societal paradigms which shape the differing perception of the role of the Internet in China in the "West" and in China? My hypotheses and some preliminary conclusions could be described as follows: Fundamental differences can be found between the discourses of Western analysts and the discourses of Chinese analysts regarding the social and political impact of the Internet in China. Recent research on the Internet in China carried out by the West has too often focused on questions of censorship, the blocking of websites, the democratizing effects of the Internet in China and on the use of the Internet by dissident groups. Western discourses have focused on democratization and political change, paying little attention to broader social changes. During the 1990s, a prevalent view in Western publications was that the introduction of the Internet would result in Western models of democracy and democratic participation taking root in Chinese society, but in recent years, the Chinese state/Communist Party has increasingly been viewed as successful in controlling the Internet. This discourse is, however, technology-deterministic and is only an "inverse" version of the former discourse. Name: Irene Pollach, Assistant Professor Affiliation: Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration in Austria Project title: Who Reads Corporate Websites? – A Cross-Cultural Study of Audience Behavior and Expectations The premier advantage of Web-mediated communication for companies is that the content they disseminate on their Websites is not filtered by gatekeepers before it reaches its audience. However, this advantage is offset by the Web's pull nature, which implies that corporate messages disseminated on the Web may never reach their target audiences. Thus, it is critical for companies to know what information their target groups are interested in and how likely they are to look this information up on corporate Websites, so that they can dedicate space to those stakeholder groups that actually look for information on corporate Websites. To this end, this project investigates the readership of corporate Websites on the basis of a survey conducted in Singapore and Austria/Germany to shed light on whether anyone actually reads the information disseminated on corporate Websites and, in particular, whether anyone reads information targeted at no specific stakeholder group.	Resources China Digital News Blog A blog maintained by the China Internet Project at the University of California at Berkeley. The China Digital News blog can be accessed here.