New Media Technology Standards Formation And Diffusion In China

Technology and life are increasingly inseparable from each other, especially under the current social conditions. The formulation and popularization of the technological standards of the so-called New Media are of significant influence to the relevant industries and the society as a whole. However, due to many reasons, in the development of new media technology standards, especially in terms of innovation-oriented, there is still some room for improvement. In reality, the long anticipated integration of the three networks in China has been in ill development in the cases such as the uncoordinated upgrade from 3G to 4G, the rapid replacement of TD-SCDMA by TD-LTE and the serious deterioration of the CMMB mobile TV industry. Not only are these technological standards shaped by the practitioners in the New Media industries and research institutions but also the market, government regulatory bodies and even the popular mass media.My research is aimed to reveal the functional factors that can significantly shape the formulation and diffusion of the New Media technological standardsand indicate how they contribute to the whole process of the standardization, and in what ways via the intriguing interface between the technological standards and the wider society.These research purpose are addressed properly through multiple-case investigations including CMMB, TD-SCDMA, HTML5, etc. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with convincing conclusions and constructive suggestions are also proposed though the research. My thesis is cautiously divided into six sections:in the first section, a brief introduction to the research background and significance is given; the current research forefront is illustrated and the research questions are also introduced; the second section contains the critical synthesis of the relevant literature and the theoretical framework adopted to conduct the research; in the third section, research design and methods are elaborated in details, such as the selective criteria for the cases and assessment of the credibility and validity of the interviews; in the fourth section, the detail analysis is on the action of the focal actor and the response of the forum, while further discussions of the formulation stage and diffusion stage of the technological standardization of the New Media industries are elaborated based on critical applications of the ANT theory and in the last section, reflexive conclusion are developed from various perspectives of different actors in the network. Constructive suggestions are also given to guide relevant practice. By the very end of the thesis, limitations of the research are briefly summarized and academic implications to the prospective researches are also included.