4. Discussion
4.1. Regulation
The moment of regulation serves as the defined starting point to understand public relations communication. Regulation takes three analytic levels, national, organizational, and individual, in the Starbucks case.
First, the politics of national regulation determines what information can be accessed from the Internet. The Chinese government has been successful at exercising centralized ideological control over the Internet to limit the flow of online content or information (e.g., Harwit & Clark, 2001). Censorship has been in place to regulate licensed blogsphere in order to mute negative or critical content. This regulation, however, tolerates and even encourages the overflowing of online nationalistic discourses.
Second, profit-driven regulations at the institutional level assist blogsphere owners by using commercial leverage to increase the viewership for a better return on investment. Since September 2006, Sina launched a blogsphere, informally called “celebrity blogs (mingren boke),” where most bloggers are well-known public figures such as performers, artists, and writers. Using a ranking system, Sina promotes certain celebrities’ blogs and downplay others. This has significantly improved search efficiency and the traffic of viewers for particular celebrities’ blogs. As a result, the ranking system has also successfully increased the viewing frequency for Sina's online advertisements.
Based on the mutually beneficial relationship between Sina, which boasts 100 million registered viewers ( Yuan, 2006), and its celebrity bloggers, Rui launched and advanced his own cause against Starbucks. Rui's argument was well boosted and spread due to the tremendous viewership derived from the public's curiosity about celebrities’ personal life or thoughts, as well as the strategic promotion of the celebrity blogs by Sina. Without using Sina as platform, Rui's voice would not have been so well received.
Third, this campaign took advantage of the cultural attributes of Internet use at the individual level in China. The Internet in the last decade has become a most popular channel for Chinese nationalists to vent their anti-West and anti-Japanese sentiment. In fact, given the degree of activism exhibited online, many international companies have considered China's online forums, including blogs, a unique business challenge (Fowler, 2007). The Starbucks case illustrates the power of (celebrity) blogs in influencing public opinions and stimulating nationalistic attitude towards global brands.
4. Discussion4.1. RegulationThe moment of regulation serves as the defined starting point to understand public relations communication. Regulation takes three analytic levels, national, organizational, and individual, in the Starbucks case.First, the politics of national regulation determines what information can be accessed from the Internet. The Chinese government has been successful at exercising centralized ideological control over the Internet to limit the flow of online content or information (e.g., Harwit & Clark, 2001). Censorship has been in place to regulate licensed blogsphere in order to mute negative or critical content. This regulation, however, tolerates and even encourages the overflowing of online nationalistic discourses.Second, profit-driven regulations at the institutional level assist blogsphere owners by using commercial leverage to increase the viewership for a better return on investment. Since September 2006, Sina launched a blogsphere, informally called “celebrity blogs (mingren boke),” where most bloggers are well-known public figures such as performers, artists, and writers. Using a ranking system, Sina promotes certain celebrities’ blogs and downplay others. This has significantly improved search efficiency and the traffic of viewers for particular celebrities’ blogs. As a result, the ranking system has also successfully increased the viewing frequency for Sina's online advertisements.Based on the mutually beneficial relationship between Sina, which boasts 100 million registered viewers ( Yuan, 2006), and its celebrity bloggers, Rui launched and advanced his own cause against Starbucks. Rui's argument was well boosted and spread due to the tremendous viewership derived from the public's curiosity about celebrities’ personal life or thoughts, as well as the strategic promotion of the celebrity blogs by Sina. Without using Sina as platform, Rui's voice would not have been so well received.Third, this campaign took advantage of the cultural attributes of Internet use at the individual level in China. The Internet in the last decade has become a most popular channel for Chinese nationalists to vent their anti-West and anti-Japanese sentiment. In fact, given the degree of activism exhibited online, many international companies have considered China's online forums, including blogs, a unique business challenge (Fowler, 2007). The Starbucks case illustrates the power of (celebrity) blogs in influencing public opinions and stimulating nationalistic attitude towards global brands.
การแปล กรุณารอสักครู่..
