Page 208 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

homepage (Deng, 2011).

At 10 a.m., Zhang Guodong, a journalist from Southern Metropolis Daily, arrived
at the airport and helped the Zhong sisters to escape from the ladies’ room, where two
local female officers were on guard (Deng, 2011). At noon, Deng Fei received a phone
call from a staff member of Sina Weibo, notifying him that Weibo was under pressure
to delete the posts of the live broadcast of the Zhong sisters’ situation. Later, another

staff member from Sina Weibo, Liu Xinzheng, demonstrated that Weibo had been ac-
tivated by ‘the ladies’ room event’ on the day. A majority of opinion leaders and users
with verified identification were re-posting and commenting on the event. Sina Weibo

was filled with information of the ladies’ room battle. In addition, live broadcasts post-
ed by Deng Fei were gathered to a file and uploaded to Tianya, Kaidi community, Mop
and other forums.
The incident attracted a wide range of attention and became breaking news. Dur-
ing the forty minutes of being trapped in the ladies’ room, the Weibo broadcast attracted

a huge number of people which spotlighted the event. People from all levels of society
supported the Zhong sisters and condemned the local government. Realising the power
of media, the younger sister, Rujiu, opened Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo accounts on

17 September 2010 (Jiang, 2012). Her accounts immediately attracted more than ten
thousand followers. Deng Fei posted: ‘The 22-year-old girl will no longer kneel down
and bow her head like her father’s generation, she will use Weibo to defend her rights’
(ibid, p.136).
The Yihuang government and local officials became the targets of public criticism

as soon as the incident was exposed on Weibo. An overwhelming wave of public criti-
cism, supported by traditional media, public figures, public intellectuals and thousands
of ordinary netizens, exerted unprecedented pressure on the authorities. To quell the

public outrage, on 17 September, the day after the dramatic interception at Yihuang
Airport, the Fuzhou municipal government and the higher-level government of Yihuang
County announced that they would punish eight Yihuang County officials who were
responsible for the incident. One month later, the provincial government announced
that two officials would be removed from their positions. Six other officials were also

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