Interactive media in social innovation

Abstract

Interactive media is playing an important role in social innovation. Various types of interactive media platforms are affecting and changing the life of people in China in significant ways. This paper presents a detailed survey on the interactive features of these platforms. We found a trend that they are all supporting more and more interpersonal and social interactions, which in turn contributes to the increase of their stickiness and brings new dimensions to the services they are providing. We further analyzed this phenomenon by looking at interactivity from a communication science point of view. The purpose of this paper is to provide inspirations for the design and development of new social innovation systems based on the understanding of the users from a social cultural perspective. The analyzed characteristics of interactive media in China will also be helpful for cross-cultural social innovation research. © 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.