Page 148 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

dicated, ‘the internet, unlike any of the conventional media, was primarily invented as

a technology to eliminate the possibility of a central control mechanism’. It facilitated
information dissemination by exposing ordinary Chinese citizens to a brand-new and
broader environment. Zheng (2008) assessed the phenomenon as pressure for political
authority and social support for reform in China.
With the rapid development of ICT in China, government departments have to

deal with public affairs effectively and immediately, and also react to the controversial
impacts of online public participation skilfully and intelligently.

Figure 21. Whether the local government should take control or not?

In Figure 21, 60% of the respondents hold the opinion that local government
should not take control of media reports on the Sun Zhigang case. This is because neti-
zens at the time had already formed an awareness of seeking the truth and gaining more
reliable information about the story. The regulatory actions performed by the local
government seemed to be inadvisable and invalid in 2003, as the authority ignored the

power of the internet and did not appreciate the empowerment of the social networking
services.
However, the central government faced a background of a nationwide fight against

SARS, and conducted a series of immediate and effective measures to manage online
and offline public participation. At first, the central-level media quickly picked up the
story and gave full coverage of the Sun Zhigang case, which soon became a fixture in
daily headlines, and even the Study Times, said that ‘the case should not be glossed
over by processing it as an isolated incident’ (Hand, 2007, p.123) and appealed for an

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