Page 140 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

case. Though the forms of their participation are considered to be relatively moderate

compared with the conventional forms of social campaign in the physical world, online
activism and public opinion were formed with the assistance of the offline activities
performed by professionals in law and academia. The key turning point was the two
rounds of real-name petitions filed by legal experts and scholars. On 14 May, three
legal scholars filed an innovative legal petition focused on the C&R regulation. On 23

May, another group of five legal experts filed a second petition, which ensured the issue
of migrant workers stayed in the spotlight. These real-life activities also included the
articles published by journalists and intellectuals under their real names. Direct partic-

ipation was more powerful and influential than indirect participation in promoting the
development of the Sun Zhigang case. While citizens engaging in such activities could
be put in a sensitive position or even receive a warning from government officials, it
was these pioneers that inspired the massive online movement and facilitated the out-
come of public participation.

To sum up, the forms of public opinion expressed in the Sun Zhigang case went
through two phases: firstly, the dissemination of the Sun Zhigang’s story via the in-
ternet and the formation of online contention; secondly, individuals transferring their

online public participation to real-name activities, which in turn, further promoted on-
line discussion and information exchange to create a deeper level of public opinion in
demanding that the government reveal the facts of the Sun Zhigang’s death and investi-
gate whether the government’s regulation was lawfully justified or suitable for Chinese
society. Direct participation forms detailed public opinion with specific demands, while

indirect participation promotes the dissemination of public opinion.

5.3.2.4 Online or quasi-public sphere in China’s cyberspace

Wang (2013) indicated that the bourgeois public sphere appeared in the period of

laissez-faire capitalism. Along with the emergence of the modern state and advance-
ment in commercial trade, the modern type of public sphere was formed (Wang, 2013).
‘Civil society’, as a new stratum, involves judges, doctors, priests, teachers, merchants,
bankers, publishers, manufacturers and other professionals. They are presented as ‘the

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