Page 234 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

possible for the form of public opinion. For example, in Figure 49, 45.50% of the re-

spondents to my survey indicated that they participated in the Yihuang incident because
they feel sympathetic to the victims and 35.50% felt they were part of the case as same
problem can have happened to them.
The degree of participation. It refers to the scale of discussion; that is, the ex-
tent to which users engage in opinion exchange and information dissemination. Public

participation in hot topics on Weibo usually goes through the spread process of the one-
to-many and many-to-many dissemination effect. The degree of participation directly
influences the scale of the media space. In the Yihuang case, it starts from the former

journalist Deng Fei to spread what had happened in the Zhong family, and the infor-
mation was passed to his followers, to next-level of followers, consequently, more and
more people were involved in the case.
The extent of traditional media intervention. The majority of traditional media
have opened official Weibo accounts. They use Weibo to collect and process informa-

tion to further leaven social events; and by setting social events to a Weibo hot topic,
they help intensify the strength of public opinion in a ‘Weibo-nised’ approach. For
example, after the Yihuang incident fermented into a public event on Weibo, tradition-

al media began to interview the stakeholders of the event, such as the TV programme
– Social Visibility from Phoenix Television, and newspapers from Southern Weekly,
Guangzhou Daily and Modern Express.
The attention paid by opinion leader. In a human network, people who actively
pass information to others and influence others’ perception of public events are seen as

‘opinion leaders’, also known as famous ‘verified’ accounts on Weibo (Yan, 2014). Re-
lying on a large number of followers and powerful effect, comments and reposts of so-
cial events made by opinion leaders are quickly updated within their fans group, which

radiates opinion and information relating to the event to a broader and deeper range. It
is another influential factor. For example, Deng Fei and Liu Chang in the Yihuang case.
The involvement of opinion leaders in a social event also has impact on the general
public’s degree of participation.

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