Advances in Earth Science ›› 2012, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (12): 1353-1362. doi: 10.11867/j.issn.1001-8166.2012.12.1353

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A Study of Internet Information Asymmetry Relations Among Chinese Cities Based on the Micro-blog Platform

Chen Yingxue 1,Zhen Feng 2,Wang Bo 2,Zou Wei 1   

  1. 1.School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing210093, China;
    2.School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University, Nanjing210093, China
  • Received:2012-04-11 Revised:2012-07-11 Online:2012-12-10 Published:2012-12-10

Chen Yingxue,Zhen Feng,Wang Bo,Zou Wei. A Study of Internet Information Asymmetry Relations Among Chinese Cities Based on the Micro-blog Platform[J]. Advances in Earth Science, 2012, 27(12): 1353-1362.

The study of spatial relations and information flows in cyberspace lays the foundation for the study of geospatial evolution under the influence of ICTs. Information flows among several cities can be obtained through the microblog platform. The research deals with statistics collected from Sina micro-blog as follows. First, select 51 representative Chinese cities to a certain standard taking the easy access of research data into account. Second, select 20 Sina micro-blog users in each of these 51 cities and record their geographical attribute statistics. Then analyze Internet information contacts state and spatial configuration among these Chinese cities from the perspective of geography. This paper uses the flow analysis to project the abstract spatial relations on the concrete geographical space and compare the spatial configuration of Internet information contacts among Chinese cities with the spatial pattern of regional economic and social development so as to explain the formation mechanism. The results demonstrate that: The Internet information relations among Chinese cities present a “one superpower and many” polarized spatial asymmetric configuration. The information asymmetric configuration in cyberspace has close correlation with the distance and the social and economic development levels in geographical space, which expresses as: The Internet information asymmetric degree of one city to the others is relatively consistent with the economic and social development levels of it; With the distance between two cities rising, the impact of the economic and social development gaps on their Internet information asymmetric degree will reduce; At a certain distance, the Internet information asymmetric degree between two cities is relatively consistent with their economic and social development gap; The Internet information asymmetric relations among the eastern, central and western China are relatively consistent with their economic and social development gradient.

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