Page 82 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

commercialisation of blog services provides a space for celebrities from various fields

to share information and to meet the demands of their fans. There are also popular
bloggers who post journalistic reports or literary article for large audiences, who en-
gage instead in irony, parody and innuendo, enabling informed readers to ‘read between
the lines’ about the bloggers’ real point (Esarey and Xiao, 2008). It is a newly created

alternative approach for bloggers to avoid the censorship system. Though such an ap-
proach makes it possible for blogs to serve as a platform to form public opinion and
to exchange information, the Chinese blogosphere is still under the surveillance of the

Chinese government, which makes it different from the United States and other West-
ern countries in terms of blog’s relationship to government and media.

3.3.4 Social networking sites

Social networking sites are platforms for individuals to form and maintain online
friendships, taking advantage of the advancement of communication theory and the un-
derstanding of complex social networks. Individuals use the functions in SNS, such as

messaging and sharing information to extend their connections in the online world. In
SNS such as Facebook, Twitter and Renren, users create a profile to represent themself,
including information about their age, location and interest. They allow users to post

blog entries to keep as an online journal and to share with friends. Uploading pictures
and videos on SNS is another popular form of documenting and sharing one’s life.
Users can extend their connections through searching for people with similar interests.
Compared with the blogosphere, SNS focus on the increase and consolidation of online

acquaintanceships. A similar feature between the blogosphere and SNS is that users
in both environments can easily create and join groups or communities who share the
same interests and activities, but the messaging service and other communication chan-

nel in SNS empowers higher level of interactivity.
Social network theory is the foundation of SNS. A social network is defined as a
set of social entities that includes people and organisations that are connected by a set
of socially meaningful relationships and who interact with each other (Garton, Hay-

thornthwaite and Wellman, 1997; O’Murchu, Breslin and Decker, 2004). The tradition-

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