Introduction to the special issue: social media interaction between public and government in Asia-Pacific

Abstract

Some argue that the label ‘Web 2.0’ is problematic, as it constitutes a dominant discourse by which professional elites define ‘what is associated with the Web today as common sense’ and ‘what enters the public discourse about the impact of the Internet on society’ (Scholz, 2008; see also Allen, 2013). Despite the controversy over the term, nevertheless, what can be safely said is that with the rise of whatever is labelled as Web 2.0 platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and the likes, and their permeation into people’s everyday lives in recent years, social media1 have become an indispensable milieu for political interactions.