Comparison of Research on Social Media in China and Foreign Countries Based on Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

This paper aims to compare the similarities and differences of Chinese and foreign research on social media. Cluster analysis, co-word analysis and social network analysis have been used to compare the research trends, content relevance and network structure of research on social media. (1) Similarities: Social media is a hot topic for scholars both in China and foreign countries; the development of social network technology leads to many new areas; social media research tends to study privacy, commerciality and service; hotspots of social media research in China and foreign countries both include social media, platform and social network. (2) Difference: Chinese research mainly focuses on big data, Wechat and Weibo, while foreign research mainly focuses on Facebook, Twitter and other kinds of social network media; Chinese research is clustered while foreign research is extensive; Chinese research pays more attention on macroscopic perspectives, such as media convergence, big data and libraries; foreign research tends to microcosmic perspectives, such as emotional analysis, crisis information dissemination, social media marketing.