Page 39 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 2. Literature review

public sphere and its influence. Lu (2014) argued that Habermas’s concept of the pub-

lic sphere was centred on political action, which led to a risk that the communication
pattern may be affected or even damaged by political power. He then put forward two
standards that public opinion should meet:
• It is formed rationally on the basis of individuals’ self-awareness in identify-
ing and assessing the situation of issues; and

• It is formed through discussions or debates on the basis of critical judgement
and the continuous process of public rectification.
China’s cyberspace was still immature and inadequate, which hardly captured the

humanistic connotation, the spirit of rational and critical enlightenment, or the freedom
to reach a consensus that was embedded in the public sphere (Dong, 2010). This led to
what could be described as a semi- or quasi-public sphere (ibid). Other studies have ex-
plored the applicability of the public sphere in cyberspace and asserted that the current
so-called online public sphere is not the ideal prototype for Habermas’s public sphere,

neither does it fit the concept of ‘bourgeois public sphere’ in its level of commercial
consumption (Zhu and Liu, 2010). It is more likely to be a half-public sphere because
it only provides part of the functions of the public sphere; there is still much room for

improvement (ibid).
Previous research has investigated several typical spaces on the Chinese internet
and concluded that it is hard to achieve Habermas’s public sphere in BBS (Jing and
Yang, 2007), while blogs have their deficiencies as well, such as lacking rationality (Liu,
2009; Ding, 2008; Wang, 2006). Yuan (2010) detected the flaws in the construction of

public sphere on Weibo: commercialisation, collective unconsciousness, and capacity
for public attention which may hinder the formation of public consensus on such social
media platforms.

Other structural defected in the online public sphere in China have also been
spotted (Du and Cao, 2013). It seems that the online public sphere has already come
into existence, but that it may not function properly. The internet as an information
exchange medium can sometimes carry false or fake messages, which can weaken the
credibility of the online public sphere and even mislead the public and result in collec-

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