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| A METHODOLOGICAL DISCUSSION OF SPATIALIZED SOCIAL NETWORK: A CASE STUDY ON SOCIAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL NETWORK OF THE SHENZHEN MEDIA INDUSTRY |
| LI Lei-lei, SU Yu-shi, LIU Jing |
| College of Mass Communication, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China |
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Abstract This paper explores how to use the quantitative method of social network analysis and the popular software tool UCINET to visualize a specific type of social-geographical network embedded in the local economy from the cross-disciplinary perspective covering both socioeconomics and cultural-economic geography.The authors propose that the textual material of the Chronicle of Events in business or industry can be effectively utilized as a type of data-base for social-geographic network analysis.Based on the case study of the Shenzhen media industry,the paper shows in detail how to visualize the social and geographical networks for the further study of the trajectories,mechanisms and spatial relationships of the media industry.By content-coding the players or actors and their geographical locations at the level of the nations,regions or cities involved or appearing in each event text documented in the Chronicle of Events of the Shenzhen media industry from the year 1979 until 2009,the authors derive two types of relational matrix for social network analysis.The first of these analyzes all players' relationships.The second one analyzes the relationships of all geographical places'.These two types of networks can be further examined using some of the standard indicators provided in UCINET.The research shows that there are 72 domestic and international places that have influenced the Shenzhen media industry in the last three decades or so.The most influential five places are Beijing,Shanghai,Guangzhou,Hong Kong and the United States.The findings imply that media institution,geographic distance and the actors' functions all play a part in explaining the formation of the social-geographical network of the Shenzhen media industry.
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Received: 08 November 2012
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2013, Vol. 28 
