Page 52 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

mer forced the people to cooperate in and support the implementation of governmental

policies, plans or projects; whereas the latter focused on ‘the rights of people to be in-
formed, consulted and heard in the decision-making process’ (ibid, p.9). According to
the notion of public participation in the West, the government is obligated to inform the
people about proposed policies, plans or projects, to supervise the implementation pro-
cess, and to provide open access to information and decision-making to the public (Zhao,

2010).
However, public participation in China’s real world seems to be much more dif-
ficult than in western countries. Shao, Lu and Wu (2012) argued that communication

structures have been a crucial factor because China historically lacked a social system
that promoted horizontal communication among citizens. Since the long-rooted vertical
communication system was usually controlled by the government, citizens’ active ex-
change of views was limited (ibid). Because information is a source of power, the gov-
ernment has to control information flow to ensure its position, and so restricts citizens’

access to information (Wang and He, 2004). Shao, Lu and Wu (2012) found that there
were two major problems that had long plagued civic engagement in Chinese society:
civic disengagement and civic disorder. The former refers to citizens’ indifference to

public affairs, and the latter to various forms of disturbance led by certain groups of
people such as illegal parades, sit-ins, sabotage, and riots (ibid).
However, these factors began to change with the rapid economic development in
China. Radical social transition put Chinese citizens under growing pressure from local
governments, big companies or special interest groups, which fostered people’s in-

creasing demands for expression to defend their civic rights (Shao, Lu and Wu, 2012),
and which enhanced their awareness of public participation. Civic engagement has
now attracted extensive attention in China, which ‘not only resonates with deliberative

democracy that represents the latest development of western democratic theory and
practice, but also consists of the most important part of China’s efforts in developing
democratic politics’ (ibid, p.76).

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