Page 81 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 3. Contextual Background

ical order (the most recent entry appears first). The posts can be personal diary, article,

graph or video to document and share information. They became popular after the Sep-
tember 11 attacks in 2001. A blog is usually operated by an individual, or occasionally
by a small group with shared interest. They are known as bloggers. The comment board
is a place for readers to interact with the blogger or other audiences. As an important
part of social media, blogs represent a new way of life in the information era.

In China, there are three stages in blog development: the forming stage (before
2001), the rising stage (2002 – 2005) and the evolution stage (2005 – now). Sina was
launched in April 2005 by one of the largest web portals in China, Sina Network. The

‘star policy’ in Sina made it the most popular blog channel in China, featuring enter-
tainers, scholars, celebrities and popular grass-root bloggers. The key features of Sina
are its number of visitors, the ‘friend’ function, the message function, a comment board
and topic categorisation. It also includes a photo album, music, podcast and blogger
question & answer function.

Q-zone is a personal web space platform established by Tencent in April 2005.
The main function of Q-zone is blogging, but because it is linked with the user’s QQ
account, it reaches a wider user base. The customisable interface in Q-zone allows us-

ers to set personalise their site, which gives users a strong sense of belonging. Q-zone
has many features and functions which have greatly boosted its market share to 606
million active users (Tencent, 2017). Although initially similar to other platforms, it
gradually transferred the original blog site into a multi-functional social networking
site to meet the demand of internet users. Therefore, the number of Q-zone user kept

growing while blog sites experienced a decline. The development route of the blog has
changed from the earliest massification of grassroots blog culture to a niche space for
bloggers with specialised knowledge. As a result, the public shows a tendency in using

social networking sites with higher level of interactivity, such as Q-zone and Weibo.
Blogs and other forms of internet expression and discussion have created a new
realm for public discourse (Lagerkvist, 2005). However, bloggers in China live in a less
free and democratic atmosphere because of government censorship, which prevented
blogs from realising the full function of an alternative press (MacKinnon, 2009). The

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