Page 225 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 7. The Yihuang incident

Celebrities and popular accounts on Weibo frequently repost and disseminate in-

formation about house demolition and relocation cases. According to the survey result
(Figure 56), 40% of respondents held the opinion that the celebrities and public intel-
lectuals’ disseminations had a negative influence on the development and final result
of social events because they may not know the facts of the case. Any dissemination of
unauthentic and fake information can lead to the case developing in the wrong direc-

tion. But there were still 31% of the respondents who agreed on the positive influence
of celebrities’ involvement in the event because the celebrity and opinion leaders usual-
ly have large fan groups, which makes it easier for information posted on their account

to reach a wider audience.

Figure 57. Attitudes towards different media reports.
With all the potential problems stated above, there are still many netizens can be-
have rationally in the face of a social event via an online platform. During the Yihuang
incident, various versions of the case, process and results appeared in different media

209
209