Page 214 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

integration of various opinions. It caters for all social groups’ participation’ (Inter-

viewee 1) .
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The other interviewee expressed that
‘the reason why Weibo takes the leading role in the social media market is that it
solved the most practical problem: real-time updates of information. With the con-
venience provided by portable devices, such as mobile phone, Weibo becomes the

handiest application that allows every user to be the publisher on the first scene of
a social event’ (Interviewee 6) .
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As can be seen from Figure 47, among all respondents, 64.50% have heard about

the ‘Yihuang incident’ and 35.50% demonstrated clear knowledge of this case. Some
18.20% actually participated in the discussion of the incident through online and offline
channels.

Figure 47. Distribution of respondents’ knowledge of the Yihuang incident.
The survey also explored the channels of accessing information on the Yihuang
incident in 2010. As mentioned in Chapter 3, 2010 was the first year after Weibo was
launched. Major web portals were still the platforms where people searched for news
information, such as Tencent news, Sina news, NetEase news, and Sohu news. 62.70%

of respondents in Figure 48 indicated that they learnt about the Yihuang incident from
major news portals, which illustrates the extensiveness and pervasiveness of media
websites.
Corresponding to the result of the questionnaire survey, the internet is the major

information source of the Yihuang event. Interviewees in the media industry also high-
51 Translation provided by the author.
52 Translation provided by the author.

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