Publications

Publication details [#15039]

Li, Detuan. 2020. The Internet Metaphor and Capital Motive of Internet Platform Enterprise’s Media Practice: A Case Study on Ding Talk’s Begging for Mercy Event in Bilibili. Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication 42 (12) : 68–87. 20 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
Chinese
ISBN
10025685

Abstract

The event of Ding Talk’s Begging for mercy in Bilibili is the media Practice by Alibaba, a typical Internet Platform Enterprise, which is correlated with the Internet metaphor and capital motive. Based on the theory of mediatization process, together with Latour's Actor-Network-Theory (ANT) and Bourdieu's field theory, the aims of the paper, by means of the case study, are to explore the Internet metaphor, arranging the actors together in a series through the public relations crisis incident, and therefore to promote the network generation; prompting the actor meeting with each other through the translation, and therefore to build the network relationship; translating the obligatory passage points to grab the network power. On the one hand, Alibaba struggles for the symbolic capital inside of the field by following the autonomy pole of Bilibili. On the other hand, Alibaba infiltrates into the heteronomy pole of Bilibili outside of the field by the means of economic capital. In the end, it smartly achieves the balance of the media and capital logic, thereby implementing its capital motives. ANT highlights the importance of the media, as a specific actor, while Field theory embodies the influence of media, as an action field. During the embedding mediatization process, media practice makes network association to come true, which manifests changing processes inside and outside of media field.