Page 24 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

migrant worker; it investigated the relationship between the public and the government,

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and raised the possibility of the existence of an online or quasi- public sphere in Chi-
na. The Xiamen PX plant case focused on the problem of environmental protection in
China, and particularly the relationship between the media companies and the official
sectors. The Yihuang case was mainly about the situation of urbanization in China, and
it discussed the relationship between the public and media companies. Through the re-

view and discussions about this incident, I have explored the core operation process of
online public participation via different kinds of social networking site (SNS).

1.4 Book structure

Chapter 1 is the introduction to the book. It includes a brief background informa-
tion, an outline of the key concepts relating to this book, the researcher’s motivation,
and the research questions. It also briefly introduces the research methods.
Chapter 2 provides the theoretical framework of the book. It reviews previous

studies on similar topics and elaborates the structural transformation of ‘public sphere’
in western countries and in China. It then reviews the development of civil society and
the historical context of public sphere in both China’s physical world and cyberspace.
An analytical framework about the ‘government-media-public’ triangular model is pro-

posed. Finally, this chapter discusses the information regime theory and its adaptability
in the Chinese society.
Chapter 3 discusses the contextual and technological background of the book.
First, it considers the specialty of the introduction and popularisation of the internet

in China. It then compares the characteristics of the main media platforms along the
development of ICT. This chapter serves as a reference to better understand the media
platforms involved in my case studies.
Chapter 4 describes the main methodological approaches of the book. Three

research methods have been employed to collect primary data, including three ques-
tionnaire surveys (one survey for each main case), semi-structured interviews and three
representative case studies. It explains the sampling procedures, the collection of data,

3 ‘Quasi-’ means ‘similar to, but not exactly the same as’.

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