Page 224 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Figure 55. Perceptions on the influence of irrational emotion.
My survey result shows that 67% of respondents considered people’s hatred to-

wards the rich and the officials had a great influence on the media reports and public
opinion. A quarter of them believed that Weibo may have had influence in solving a
social event to some extent. Only 6% thought it had no influence at all. For the consid-
eration of forming rational public opinion, the authenticity of information on platforms
like Weibo needs to be distinguished either from the perspective of users, media market

or the government.

Figure 56. Celebrity influence.

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