China's Internet Policy and Considerations for Migrants

I received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant to be a visiting scholar at the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) during the summer of 2009. CNNIC is overseen my the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and Chinese Academy of Science (CAS).

 I went in with the goal to better understand how Chinas internet policies and digital architectures influenced the communication practices of two important and growing populations of new usersyouth and migrants. I examined how the inter-personal communication patterns of youths and migrants were affected by these factors: (1) recent internet usage policies set by the Chinese administration and (2) cellphone and internet digital architecture. By the end of the summer, I visited several Chinese internet regulation agencies, spent time with the CNNIC research staff, and spoke to migrant youth and families.  

Although investigating internet policy-making is not a my research focus, a central aspect of my dissertation seeks to understand how youth and migrants use ICT's to communicate. Therefore, I thought it was very important for me to have a more authentic comprehension of how government led policies play a role in supporting the communication networks of the population I am studying.