A Comparative Analysis of Social Media Studies at Home and Abroad:Bibliometric Study of Research Articles from 2009 to 2013

Through the content analysis of research papers on social media at home and abroad,significant differences are found between Chinese and foreign papers. In terms of the researchers,the international papers published by multi-authors( especially at least three authors) are significantly more than the domestic ones; while subsidized domestic papers( especially funded by governments)were remarkably more than the international ones. As for the research methods,empirical research methods are applied in the international papers more than domestic ones,including questionnaire,experiment and observation. Regarding the research content,the domestic research papers focus more on social media itself( especially on the theme of forms and technical issuesand economic and industrial issues),while the international papers concentrate more on audience analysis and media effect of social media.