Page 89 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 3. Contextual Background

3.5 Summary

The first part of this chapter demonstrated that the internet is developing at a stag-
gering rate in China. Internet access has become easier, faster and more flexible and
there has been a huge increase in internet users in China. During the initial stage, the
Chinese internet imitated ICTs from developed countries, but by the SNS stage, China

had established a variety of internet companies which brought advanced and creative
technological products and applications with their own characteristics. The second part
of this chapter focused on the era of Web 2.0.
Overall, this chapter has presented the contextual background of the book through

an analysis of the historical development of ICT in China, to enable a better under-
standing of the role that it played in the three case studies. As will be explained in the
following chapters, BBS/forums played a significant role during the development of
the Sun Zhigang incident; in the Xiamen PX plant event, blogging represented a vital

online platform to mobilise a grassroots campaign; and in the Yihuang incident, Weibo
was used by the victims and their representatives to appeal for justice.
This chapter has covered popular online platforms, which are the main technol-
ogy supports for public participation in my case studies. Therefore, it facilitates the

readers of my book to better understand these online products, as they are mainly used
by Chinese netizens. This chapter has also discussed the fundamental issues of internet
governance and information monitoring systems in China, which will help the readers
to grasp the unique situation of the Chinese internet environment.

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