Page 97 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 4. Methodology

BBS/forum 58.26% 57.80% 41.82%
Blog 45.22% 39.45% 25.45%
Weibo 85.22% 84.40% 77.27%
Renren 61.74% 48.62% 50%
SNS using/registered
Q-zone 67.83% 74.31% 77.27%
WeChat Moments 98.26% 91.74% 90%
Douban 40.87% 35.78% 19.09%
Others 10.43% 6.42% 2.73%
The rationale of the questionnaire survey is to explore the mechanism of public

participation through self-declared data. In the second part of the surveys, a set of com-
mon questions were designed to gain an overall image of the patterns of public partic-
ipation. Questions regarding ‘the social networking sites that respondents are using or
have used before’ and ‘the events that they are interested in’ inform the respondents’

preference in new media platforms in the context of ICT development. Questions re-
garding ‘the reasons for pay attention to or participate in social events’ and ‘the ways
in getting involved in social events’ inform the dynamics and forms of public participa-
tion. Questions regarding respondents’ ‘experience and perception of censorship’ can

inform the general situation of government’s information control and attitude towards
online public participation.
The third part of the surveys were designed specifically for each selected case.
It involves questions regarding the ‘information dissemination channel in each case’

and ‘respondents’ judgement in the reliability of information source’, which inform
the application of new media platforms in each case in different political, social and
technological environments. Questions regarding the respondents’ ‘evaluation of the
event result and the influence of the event’ inform participants’ perception on ‘govern-

ment-public’ interaction in each case.
In addition to these common questions, each of the survey had its own emphasis.
In the survey of the Sun Zhigang incident, by asking ‘which medium the respondents
prefer to believe as an information source’, ‘their evaluation on the collaboration be-

tween new media and traditional media’, and ‘the ranking on the influential level of

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