Many have seen within the Internet and related digital media the potential for the widespread transformation of political control and participation, or the foundations for new grassroots movements, or even more simply, a tremendously large market for telecommunication and digital media services. As the Internet and related technologies have grown exponentially in the last several years, this interest has not been limited just to Chinese, but has been equally important in many other nations, either those that hope to facilitate rapid political evolution, or simply to provide markets for national telecommunications infrastructure providers.

There are several important facets to China’s relationship with information technologies, including governmental priorities and policies, a fear of political and social instability, the creation of a high tech industry, an education infrastructure to support that industry, and the social and political issues that accompany high tech innovation. In addition, the social consequences of information technologies, through phenomenon such as online dating, gambling, and interactive games have been the subject of innumerable press reports, raising the suspicions of political leaders, educators, and community leaders, as well as countless numbers of parents.

Previous academic analysis of the Internet in China has focused primarily on governmental control of the internet and the use of the Net by dissident movements and actors. However, as the Internet and related technologies are becoming more fully integrated into a wide spectrum of social life, there is need for a fresh look at digital media in China. Thus, the theme of the Fifth Annual Chinese Internet Conference is “New perspectives on the Internet in China.” Participants will seek to move beyond the simplistic portrayals, as well as the “cyberutopianism” of much of the early research. We will reassess first-generation analyses and develop more subtle, grounded theory and empirical research examining the wide range of issues associated with digital media in China. We invite participation from diverse voices, including both younger and senior scholars from Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, so as to understand the role of digital media in China in a more realistic perspective.

This is the fifth anniversary of the Chinese Internet Conference, which was initially hosted at the University of Southern California. Subsequent conferences have been organized by our co-sponsors at the University of California at Berkeley, Michigan State University, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Over its five year history, the annual conference has developed into a well-focused academic conference, featuring high quality research and stimulating discussions regarding the role of the Internet in Chinese society.

The conference will be hosted by the Institute of Pacific Asia and the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University. The co-organizers are Randy Kluver and Ian Weber.

The cosponsors of the conference include the Intellectual Property & Communications Law Program at the Michigan State University College of Law, the School of Journalism and Communication at Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Singapore Internet Research Center at Nanyang Technological University, the China Internet Project of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and the School of Journalism and Communication at Peking University.

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• Logistics
• Annenberg Presidential Conference Center
• About Texas A&M University
• Institute for Pacific Asia
• Department of Communication
• Paper Guidelines
• Submission
• Publication of Papers
• Student Award
• Host and Co-Sponsors
• CFP [download]