Page 200 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

tween the public and the media companies using a similar structure and procedure as in

the previous two cases, but with different emphasises in terms of the vehicle for instant
and spontaneous dissemination of a social event, and the changing roles between the
public and the media market in a social event.
The chapter begins with a discussion on the crucial changes in media communica-
tion. It then focuses on the main media platform in the Yihuang event – Weibo and how

the event developed in the media environment of Weibo, where it presents the analysis
of data and explores how Weibo empowers public participation. The discussion in Sec-
tion 5 focuses on the interaction between the public and Weibo by arguing that Weibo

acted as an online public sphere in the Yihuang event, highlighting three features of
netizens’ activities on Weibo demonstrated by public participation. It also considers
the possibility of safeguarding citizens’ rights through social media, the drawbacks and
risks. Finally, summaries are drawn in Section 6 from the case study, in terms of the in-
teractive relationship between the public and media companies in a social event.

7.2 The new media-public relationship: profitmaking as em-
powerment

For media communications in the traditional environment, there was always one

or several levels of gatekeeper to filter and process the information before distribution.
Figure 36 illustrates the communication and dissemination system in traditional media.
The gatekeeper could be an editor, senior administrator, or government official who
was in charge of censorship. The public, who remain completely passive in the tradi-

tional media communications system, could only receive the information that has been
pre-processed. Traditional one-to-one and one-to-many media forms are unidirectional
communication, in which public do not have the opportunity to interact with the media
market. They cannot choose how to access information and what kind of information

they want to receive. Therefore, it is a hinder to public participation. Because of the
layered censorship and filter system, the public are the last one who receive information
in the old communication flow.

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