Page 119 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 5. The Sun Zhigang incident

ars, Southern Metropolis Daily also opened discussions on the C&R system. A series of

in-depth analyses was conducted which had constitutional implications. Overall, in the
Sun Zhigang case, the Southern Metropolis Daily played a prominent and irreplaceable
role in terms of continuous in-depth investigation, expression of public opinions, and
the re-examination of the constitutionality in China’s law system.
Compared with the Southern Metropolis Daily, although Yangcheng Evening

News and Guangzhou Daily did not carry out as many independent investigations, they
re-published articles from other sources, and the Nanfang Daily covered Sun Zhigang
incident for the purpose of government remedy. It did not make any report to expose

the incident, which differentiated it from the other three newspapers, but highlighted the
decisive policy-making by the government, all its duties originating from the traditional
role as the Party newspapers. In most of the cases, the aim of the articles was to relieve
public sentiment, reduce condemnation of the government, protect the authority of the
Party and government, and facilitate the government’s social management agenda (Li,

2008).
However, the emergence of the internet broke the long-term information monop-
oly on information channels. From the comment areas of the major web portals to con-

tent providers on the BBS/forums and blogs and today’s social networking websites,
instead of asking for help from traditional media, individuals can directly give voice
to a broad range of audiences without geographical limitation. It is inevitable that the
transformation of media channels will change the way content is processed.

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