Page 267 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 8. Conclusion

during the social events.

Technological empowerment has cultivated the public’s growing awareness of
civic rights. It has revealed Chinese people’s appeal to be heard and their demand that
the government should respond to their needs. Intense public participation in the book
indicated that the silent majority, who were accustomed to being passive information
receivers and being represented, now have begun to voice their own opinions. It is a big

step towards a democratic society. This book has documented the factors contributing
to such a societal revolution through the analysis of online public participation in three
major events. In a broad sense, the outcome of this research is valuable in predicting

how Chinese society may develop and how the government may operate in the future.
As China is one of the largest economies with the largest number of internet users, this
research draws attention to internet activities for global business, as well as academics.
Moreover, the government’s evolving attitudes toward public participation and
social campaigns suggest a political change in China. It may shed light on research in

similar centralism settings, and extend the theme of political and social transformation
to a global scale. For example, the Arab Spring, also known as the ‘Twitter Revolution’,
in which social media contributed to the political debate and the spread of movements’

message across the world (Cottle, 2011; Howard et al., 2011; Lotan et al., 2011; Tufek-
ci & Wilson, 2012). Yet, as Lynch (2011, p.302) concluded that although social media
is an important instrument used by the protestors in their struggles, there is few rigor-
ous evident that can demonstrate that any of the outcomes in Arab Spring are caused
by the new media. Whereas, my book has demonstrated the functions of new media in

shaping public opinion and in mobilising social campaign which actually resulted in so-
cial change in China. Such contrast helps future researchers to better understand social
movements in countries with different cultural and social environments.

Finally, the book contributes to the comparative analysis with similar Media stud-
ies beyond China. Taking Russia for example, since blunt censorship and tight infor-
mation control is unavailable, the Russian government adopted ‘Digital Bonapartism’,
or using ‘populist rhetoric, combined with control over private enterprise and the legal
system, to marginalise the opposition and manipulate public opinion much more subtly

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