Page 250 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

tion and dissemination process, which results in the popularisation of civic awareness.

Secondly, online platforms act as an open medium with the characteristics of equality,
directness, interactivity and efficiency. Thirdly, when confronted with socio-political
issues people quickly assemble on online platforms to share information, discuss and
debate, which suggests the possibility of fostering rational critical public opinion.
As discussed in the Sun Zhigang case (Chapter 5), collective power is vital in

the success of a social campaign. This includes spontaneous participation by netizens
and offline activities by practitioners such as lawyers and scholars who are able to file
formal petitions or investigation proposals. In contrast to other channels of public par-

ticipation, the anonymity of the internet offers protection for those netizens who were
engaged in the campaign. It changes the authoritarian hierarchy government-public
relationship to a more negotiable one. To examine the existence of the online public
sphere in China’s cyberspace, three main factors – public, public opinion, and public
medium – were examined through the case studies. In the Sun Zhigang case, the ex-

tensive online activism and public participation demonstrated a form of online public
sphere in China. This was reflected through the posts and debates on BBS/forums, on-
line chatroom discussions, and comments on major media portals.

Although the concept of civil society in the western sense has not formed yet
in China, this book has revealed the emergence of Chinese quasi-civil society. In the
Sun Zhigang case, the legal experts and lawyers formed a small civil society group
which filed a petition with the NPCSC and delivered the public voice to the authorities,
whereas the netizens’ discussion and participation during the incident can be considered

as ‘grassroots civil society’ that was empowered by ICT. In the Xiamen PX plant event,
Professor Zhao Yufen and other scholars represented civil society to negotiate with the
local government about environmental issues; and they finally submitted a petition with

other 105 CPPCC members’ signatures to stop the plant.
‘Civil society’ is often translated as ‘ 公民社会 ’ (gongmin shehui) in Chinese.
However, according to its cultural and contextual meaning in the western world, its
Chinese equivalence should be ‘ 公民组织 ’ (civic organisation) or ‘ 公民团体 ’ (civic
community). The main reason why civil society in China is regarded as quasi-civil so-

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