Page 93 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 4. Methodology

for public participation. Revisiting the reports of the related events uncovered initially

little-known background information and indicated how public opinion was formed.
Thus, such materials supplied data from different perspectives for the case study, which
helped in the analysis of the three cases in a comprehensive and logical way. It served
as a supplement for the primary data and enhanced the objectivity and thoroughness of
the book.

4.3 Questionnaire surveys

Questionnaire surveys were used to investigate how the public perceive the op-
portunities offered by ICT, how they make use of them, their views on three well-

known ICT-mediated public participation cases, and their opinion on the government’s
old and new regulations in information control and media market. Because Chinese
citizens do not enjoy real freedom of speech, this anonymous survey allowed people to
express their views without further worries. The questionnaires were designed directly

corresponding to the research questions, and was the easiest and most effective way to
get answers from the public.

4.3.1 Design of the questionnaire

The questionnaire surveys were conducted on two professional survey websites,
wenjuan.com (a domestic Chinese site) and typeform.com (a Spanish online survey

site). To explain why questionnaires were held on two different sites, it is necessary
to bring up the censorship mechanism of the Chinese survey website. Since network
access is limited and under government control, many foreign websites are difficult to
access in China. To avoid network connection problems, I decided to conduct the sur-
vey on a domestic Chinese website. Questionnaires regarding the Sun Zhigang case and

the Xiamen PX plant case went through the survey site’s internal investigation process
successfully. However, the questionnaire regarding the Yihuang case was censored as it
was held ‘inappropriate to disseminate’. An employee of the survey company suggested

deleting the third questionnaire as it might be blocked or banned in the data collection
process. Therefore, an alternative way was sought. After investigation and testing, type-

77
77