Page 186 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

The survival approach for both internet media companies and netizens

Unlike the liberal and democratic institutions in western countries, the CCP has to
put economic development in primary place, and this could guarantee the legitimacy of
the Chinese government and obtain support from public. It explains why the Chinese

government has treated the internet and ICT as technological support for economic de-
velopment over the last two decades. Zheng (2008) emphases the mutual empowerment
between the state and enterprises that resulted from the internet-driven economic devel-
opment which enables the Chinese government to provide goods to the public and thus

to keep and even reinforce its legitimacy.
The media in China evolved from the initial propaganda stage to today’s commer-
cial stage. The government is the invisible hand which pushed the development; it is

a requirement for economic development, and the government recognises its benefits.
The substance of media products is to provide a medium and channel for information
exchange among the public – to create an online public sphere which is rarely possible
in the real world. Media platforms consist of a public square with all kinds of voices,

and the government cannot listen to every voice in the square. Media companies are an
efficient medium to help the government hear the voices which might otherwise lead
to social instability. For instance, by tracking the QQ group in the Xiamen PX plant

case, the government stopped a potential assembly in the physical space. Here, I should
clarify that the Xiamen PX plant case is used only to explore the patterns in govern-
ment-media interaction, not to argue that the government is making good use of the
media market.

Another common and positive influence of such interaction is to spot problems
early and to provide timely and efficient solutions. One of the basic functions of media
companies is to push social news to millions of people so that it catches public atten-

tion. It helps media companies to make profits by increasing the click through rate (CTR)
and satisfies citizens’ need for public participation through venting on the media plat-
forms. The majority of internet media companies only have the right to re-publish news

rather than being a news source (Interviewee 1). Depending on the services the media

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