Page 94 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

form.com was chosen as it can be accessed freely in China and, as with wenjuan.com,

anonymity of the respondents is guaranteed.
To ensure the validity of the questionnaire, the link of the survey was put on the
commentary areas of major website portals such as NetEase, Sina and Tencent, BBS
and forums such as Tieba.Baidu.com, dzh.mop.com, BBS.Tianya.cn, zhihu.com, club.
kdnet.net, BBS.xmfish.com and Yihuang Forum. Popular social networking sites such

as Sina Weibo, Tencent Weibo, QQ groups were also used, and a link to the survey was
also sent directly to internet users who had commented, discussed or forwarded infor-
mation about the three cases on BBS/forums and Weibo platforms. These measures

guaranteed that the primary data was collected from members of the public who were
concerned about the three cases.
To demonstrate the reliability of the questionnaire, in the recruiting message
that sent to the potential respondents the following points were made clearly. It firstly
introduced the background information of the researcher and the research aim, with

a declaration that the questionnaire was only to be used for academic research. Blair
et al. (1977) and Andrews (1984) pointed out that if questions or groups of questions
concerning the same topic were preceded by a medium-length introduction (30 words,

Blair et al., 1977; 16 to 64 words, Andrews, 1984), the collected data quality could be
greatly increased. Hence, I briefly explained the specific case that related to the ques-
tionnaire. There was also a reminder for respondents indicating that only those who
knew the case or participated in its dissemination or discussion should answer this
survey. It also stated that all questionnaires would be destroyed when this research pro-

ject is completed. Considering the situation in China, these declarations can alleviate
respondents’ concern when answering and ensure a higher response rate.
Since it is impossible to collect data from every member of society, it is also nec-

essary to decide the portion of a population to be surveyed. According to Roscoe (2007),
a sample size between 30 – 500 is appropriate for most research. In the event, 115, 109
and 133 respondents answered the three questionnaires, with an average response rate
of 36%. Some of the respondents worried about the sensitivity of the three cases and
refused to complete the questionnaire (stated in their replies to my survey invitation).

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