Page 133 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 5. The Sun Zhigang incident

was less than ¥21,000. This may because 24.76% of the respondents were students

without a stable income.
Li (2006) objected to Habermas’s premise that individuals should be ‘propertied
and educated’ before accessing the public sphere as it imposes restrictions that fail to
include all sectors of the society as ‘the public’. However, education background and
income level are two properties of the public who are engaged in Sun Zhigang case.

The results of the survey indicate that the majority of individuals who have participated
or are concerned about the Sun Zhigang case received higher education, and more than
half have an annual income that exceeds the average level in developed cities.

A noteworthy contextual background for the Sun Zhigang case is that it took place
during the nationwide fight against SARS in 2003. In the spring of 2003, the internet
became the main channel for information exchange as people were confined at home to
avoid infection, which set the stage for national participation in the Sun Zhigang case.
Because news of SARS was initially blocked by the government, people already had

doubt with the government and questioned the media’s failure to provide timely cov-
erage. Therefore, when the Sun Zhigang incident happened, many people felt a strong
will to participate in online or offline activities in various forms (Yu, 2006).

This background set the scene for people to have the time, space and dynamic to
get involved in the Sun Zhigang case. The incident crossed a variety of topics, includ-
ing the inequality of reasonable rights, the legality of government regulations and the
misconduct of civil servants, which naturally provoked the public’s eagerness in learn-
ing the truth, and an empathy effect that motivated people to offer help via online or

offline participation. In particular, given that China is a country with a huge number of
migrant workers, what happened to Sun Zhigang could happen to any of them, which
further provides a reason for public participation in the case at the time. People began

to realise the need to prevent such a tragedy happening again and to change the situa-
tion of legitimate rights in China.

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