Page 231 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 7. The Yihuang incident

of user involvement in forming public opinion. Traditional media is no longer the ex-

clusive source of information. Weibo appears to be the first choice no matter it is for
information distribution or collection. It covers almost all fields of people’s life, be they
major incidents, disaster relief, civil rights, or social assistance. It is the most-frequent-
ly used platform for the distribution of important information, which in most cases has
vital influence in promoting the development of the events.

Combined with the current Chinese social context, the public expected that Weibo
would play an important role in the formation of public opinion, promoting the discus-
sion of hot social issues and other aspects in Chinese modern society (Gao, 2009). Mi-

croblogging has expanded the characteristics of the interaction between the We Media’s
decentration, personalisation and socialisation. It also has obvious advantages in pro-
viding more freedom of personal expression, more adequate right to know, and greater
public participation of both social and political aspects. From the perspective of tech-
nology, some scholars emphasised that microblogging has the ability to amplify public

opinion and empowers users to express themselves online (Zheng, 2008); ‘[i]t is not
only a simple network tool, nor a platform of new media, it actually became a medium
and an amplifier of public opinion, also can be treated as a laboratory of public opinion’

(Luan, 2010, p.101). From the observation of communication methods, Ren and Zhu
(2009) hold the opinion that microblogging could be the most democratic space for free
speech:
‘Weibo has pushed the social public participation of individual communication to
a climax, and it also builds up a real-time and three-dimensional social communi-

cation network which includes the interaction between public, media and govern-
ment’. (Ren and Zhu, 2009, p.27)
Weibo can also be seen as an extreme influential public space full of the guidance

of public opinion:
‘As a grassroots’ public sphere, Weibo would accomplish the integration of dis-
persed social aspects…and provide the convenience of political study for the
community of citizens in a democratic society’ (Liu, 2009, p.21).
Some scholars have even indicated that:

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