Page 117 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 5. The Sun Zhigang incident

a social campaign with the support of new technology. Three conditions were required

for this social campaign to be successful: firstly, wide accessibility of information and
communication technology for ordinary people; secondly, a platform provided by the
commercialised media industry, such as Sina and NetEase; and the general socio-po-
litical space formed after the reform and opening up in which the public could express
concerns and engage in public events.

The Sun Zhigang case was not an accidental event. It was the result of the condi-
tions being in place. It seems to have been a spontaneous event that rose from collec-
tive efforts; however, there were deep socio-political, technological and commercial

conditions. To begin with, the reform and opening-up policy had changed the previous
situation of citizen engagement in which the central propaganda policy played a dom-
inant role. There was little space for the public to develop an awareness of civil rights,
to give voice and to achieve citizen engagement. Since the internet was introduced in
China, along with the commercialisation of the media industry and other markets, the

public have gained the opportunity to gain diverse information instead of Party-guided
information. Awareness of democracy and civil rights have been gradually cultivated,
and technological development has provided easily accessible information channels,

which the average working salary class can afford. Another condition is the unintend-
ed consequence of the commercialisation of the media market. The media products
launched by internet companies have provided a platform for people to express views
and to exchange information; 2003, when the Sun Zhigang case took place, is a point of
qualitative change in Chinese society and this change required all of these conditions to

come together, and so in the Sun Zhigang case, the final result was not accidental.

5.3.1 From message receivers to information producers and dissemina-
tors: the establishment of a bottom-up communication approach

The Sun Zhigang incident was included in the 2003 Yearbook of Guangzhou, as
it had a lot of influence on Guangzhou, and in 2004, a number of major web portals
chose Sun Zhigang as one of the ‘Ten Chinese characters of 2003’, with the comments
such as ‘Sun Zhigang’s death led to the abolishment of the “evil law” and started a new

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