ABSTRACT
Introduction The rapid development of mobile and social media has greatly broadened people’s social networks, allowing for the possibility of more diverse interactions. Social media in particular have facilitated the expression and exchange of political views, including calls for action against states and other authorities as seen in the Arab Spring, the 318 Sunflower Movement in Taiwan, and the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. The significance of social media goes beyond its potential as an alternative channel for information not otherwise available via traditional media. The terrain and architectures of social media are themselves political and their uses and meanings still are being negotiated. This section presents a comparative landscape of social media in three East Asian nations-South Korea, Japan, and the People’s Republic of China. Each of the chapters describes active struggles to determine the uses and define the scope of social media and each recounts the creation or maintenance of “national borders” in social media spaces at specific cultural-historical junctures.
