Page 236 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Media. Because the public often take sides in the face of a social event, which can in-

fluence the direction of public opinion.
To gain recognition and amplify one’s own opinion, netizens would like to in-
tentionally spread the event in the virtual space. Opinions that are self-collected and
self-analysed by netizens would be published on Weibo, and sometimes even quoted by
the traditional media. The intellectual group on Weibo integrates various opinions and

promotes the debates to a more intensive and in-depth stage. Consequently, it puts pres-
sure on the stakeholders of the social events, the government departments in particular.

7.5.3.2 The ‘fissionable’ feature

The ‘fissionable’ feature represents a communicational process through Weibo
users’ activities such as subscribe, repost, and comment. Once the first microblog of a
social event is posted, it would be viewed and might be reposted by the followers who
will further spread the information to their next-level followers. This pattern pushes the

case to the ranking list of hot topics on Weibo and substantially increases the exposure
and visibility of the incident, which attracts more netizens to take part in the dissemina-
tion. Then this accumulation of all users’ activities advances the ranking position of the
topic, which additionally attracts more attention and participation.

There are two key points of the ‘fissionable’ feature. The first one is the assembly
of the public. Individuals interact through social networking sites for the mutual inter-
ests and goals. If the interaction is maintained at a certain density and duration, a social
network is formed in the cyberspace (Rheingold, 1994). During the evolving process

of Weibo to become an online public sphere, topics that are strongly stimulating, pecu-
liar, and novel usually gain high popularity and are more likely to be sought after and
eventually turned into a ‘carnival’ for netizens. A virtual community is thus formed on
Weibo.

The other point is the aggregation of the discourse. The form of an online space
for public opinion usually occurs with the popular words on Weibo. It is an aggrega-
tion process of the discourse. When netizens are discussing social events with sensitive
topics, they create ‘argot’ to avoid restrictions and censorship. When the discussion

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