Social Media and the Reproduction of the Social Capital of the New Middle Class

Guo Jin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040453940
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

This book examines how China's emerging middle class uses social media platforms, especially WeChat, to build and maintain social networks that enhance their status in society.

It offers an insightful analysis of how digital interactions on platforms like WeChat serve as modern social currency, providing users with advantages and reinforcing social hierarchies. This book explores the relationship between traditional cultural values and contemporary social media practices, showing how these online interactions shape the identities and social dynamics of China's new middle class. By bridging cultural contexts, the study provides applicable perspectives beyond China and offers robust theoretical frameworks alongside practical examples of social media usage.

This book is essential reading for scholars and students of media studies, sociology, and Chinese studies. It also offers valuable insights for anyone interested in understanding the role of social media in shaping social stratification in contemporary China.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Key concepts and theoretical foundation
• 3 WeChat Moments: Social media use among the new middle class
• 4 WeChat groups: Use of social media among the new middle class
• 5 Social media: The “stage” on which the social relationships of the new middle class are reproduced
• 6 Media behavior: Sociological behavior aimed at social capital development
• 7 Conclusion and discussions
• Bibliography
• Index