ABSTRACT
Soaring social media use worldwide as manifested in the expanding variety of platforms and applications of social networking services (SNSs) has fundamentally transformed the landscape of information production, dissemination and consumption. Like everywhere else, the penetration of social media into every aspect of Chinese society has dramatically redefined China's communication environment. It is useful to foreground social media in the broader context of China's media and information ecology. The Chinese media has been a direct part of the state marketisation drive in the past three decades, and journalists have gained more breathing space in responding to societal demands and audience interests in their day-to-day reporting. Academic deliberations of impression management on social media have been usefully informed by Goffman's dramaturgical model of everyday interaction. Entertainment pop stars comprise the vast majority of the top 50 Weibo celebrities. Entertainers, by nature, are master communicators, as their jobs directly involve interacting with the audience.
