Page 253 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 8. Conclusion

consolidate its regime and supervise public opinion. The governmental departments act

as regulators and represent the official power of law enforcement in the media indus-
try. At the same time, in China’s online/quasi-public sphere, media companies merely
play the role of operators by providing technical products such as social networking
platforms for netizens to exchange information and to form public opinion. They rely
on user activity to survive in the market, and the level of information traffic from their

users is directly associated with how much profit the media companies make. Yet,
the problem is that, following a sensitive public event, the high volume of traffic on
a website draws the government’s attention. The government either uses it as a tool

to collect public opinion or uses it to suppress social campaign. For example, the Sun
Zhigang incident represents the transition from bottom-up communication between the
government and its citizens. Media companies provided the alternative approach of
government-public interaction through the technological empowerment. Citizens, es-
pecially for the grassroots, they have grasped the opportunity to determine the content

of information that they wish to consume. However, the Chinese government still takes
the leading role because it can adjust policy and regulation to constrain media compa-
nies and thereby control public activity, so that social stability and the continuity of the

government operation is ensured. Whether it is the interaction with the government or
the public, media companies are passively influenced by the two parties. Therefore, in
China’s online public sphere, the ‘media’ is seen as the operator, the central ‘government’
is the monitor and the ‘public’ represents the main participants.

8.2 Research findings

The major purpose of my research is to investigate the role of ICT-mediated pub-
lic participation in China’s social and political development given the ubiquity of inter-
net in today’s society. As discussed in this book, I found that the ICT-mediated public

participation has played a vital and indispensable role in China’s social and political
development. On the one hand, under the current online environment in China, massive
online public participation influences the process and the result of exposed social events
in dynamic and vibrant ways. It disseminates the public cases effectively, more impor-

237
237