Page 51 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 2. Literature review

Since the long-term governmental monopoly on information was disrupted by

information technology, people have also gained access to first-hand or more original
information, allowing them to make their own rational judgements; they are then em-
powered with diverse means of public participation (Zheng, 2008, p.95).

2.5.2.1 Civic engagement in China’s physical world

Scholars share similar views of the definition of public opinion. Putnam (1993)
defined civic engagement simply as active participation in public affairs. Walzer (1980,
p.64) indicated that citizens’ ‘interest in public issues and devotion to public causes are
the key signs of civic virtue’, while Shao, Lu and Wu (2012) defined civic engagement

as all activities that citizens participate in to influence public policies and public life.
Plummer and Taylor (2004) believed that public participation in China started in the
1980s when many development projects were funded by international financial organ-
isations, because a primary requirement of these organisations was to conduct a public

participation exercise as part of their environmental impact assessment. Dong (2008)
used the term ‘civic engagement’ to describe the phenomenon in which individuals in
civil society voluntarily participate in social activities or public affairs. It is an opportu-
nity for citizens to become engaged in the implementation of public policy and to ask

for a more democratic society. The process of civic engagement implies citizens shar-
ing social responsibilities and achievements. Everyone has the opportunity to express
their opinions, to maintain their self-interest and to contribute for the sake of common
good (ibid).

Chen (2010) argued that the principle of public participation is that vulnerable
groups attempt to express opinions for their interests and take part in government deci-
sion-making, which is another form of power distribution. According to an official re-
port in China, the government would not have initiated policy changes in the past years

without intensive civic engagement on the internet (Yang, Han and Miao, 2004).
According to Li, Ng and Skitmore (2012), the Chinese government established a
‘principle of mass participation’ which is essentially different from public participation
in international discourse. They identified the distinction between the two as: the for-

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