ABSTRACT
At the cutting edge of information technology (IT) development, Web 2.0 technologies and social media applications (e.g. Twitter, social networking services (SNS) and so forth) are enabling netizens and organizations to communicate and collaborate freely, openly and actively (McAfee, 2009). The rapid development of social media applications is also helping governments to better communicate with their peers and citizens (Hrdinova´ et al., 2010; Reddick and Wigand, 2010), and many scholars and government officials have posited Government 2.0 as the new shape of government (Eggers, 2007). The public sector in numerous countries and regions has adopted and leveraged these technologies to improve public service quality and elicit public participation, and government agencies in China are pioneers in this regard (Thomler, 2011). Government agencies at all levels throughout the country have launched official microblogs in the past two years (Ma, forthcoming 2012). As of the end of 2011, government agencies and civil servants had launched 50,561 official microblogs on China’s four dominant microblogging platforms, a 776.58 per cent increase over the beginning of the year, according to the 2011 China Government Microblog Assessment Report released on 8 February 2012 by the E-Government Research Center (2012) at the China National School of Administration.1 If 2010 can be regarded as Year One of the microblogging era, then 2011 is the first year of the government microblogging era in China. The unprecedented interest in and enthusiasm for microblogging amongst Chinese government agencies raises an interesting research question. What is driving the rapid diffusion and widespread assimilation of government microblogging in China?
