Internet and Rise of Public Opinion 03/20/2017

Flatter world and thicker walls?

 Internet: a tool, not a cause of political change
 Blog: helping to enlarge the space for collaboration and conversation on subject not
directly
related to political activism or regime change
 More likely to involve political evolution – not revolution
 “China operates the most extensive, technologically sophisticated, and broad-reaching
system of Internet filtering in the world”

 Balancing openness with control

Internet is another plane on which the CCP wages its ideological battles against foreign
flies
Economic and social benefits outweigh
1) most Chinese Internet users seek out entertainment, not hard news
> ‘entertainment highway’
2) e-government strategy: using online mechanisms for citizen feedback
> bolster regime legitimacy
> safety valve: allowing enough room for a sufficiently wide range of subjects to let off
steam about government corruption before considering taking their gripes to streets
3) nationalistic diatribes and rants against Japan and the US are allowed as long as they
do not lead to offline protest activity that might be out of control
4) decreasing percentage of circumventing Internet censorship
5) easy to access information the Chinese government in a positive light
6) filtered view of the world
7) public opinion divided and compartmentalized
8) no existence of a viable offline movement

 History of Chinese blogging

Tutorial: China’s Internet 03/20/2017
 Internet uses: Human flesh search engines/ entertainment
 Balance Freedom or Control
Citizen Journalism 03/20/2017
Citizen Journalism in the Global News Arena
 In China, highly developed communication structure > provoke government attempts at
control
 1 outward case: Tibet Riots and Anti CNN.com, Olympic Torch Relay
 3 inward cases:
Wenchuan Earthquake
The South China Tiger
San Lu Contaminated Formula Issue

Parsing Framing Processes: The Interplay Between Online Public Opinion and Media Coverage
 Case: The BMW case in Harbin

Citizen Journalism:
Small scale media, Express own vision and opinions
Positive: Fact checking, Transparency?
Negative: Rumors, violate the ethical standards

The reason of Chinese netizens

patriotic
western media being not familiar with the social cultural economic context of China
Digital contention 03/20/2017
Social media and social movement
 “umbrella movement”
 Roes of new media technology
- publicity
- discussion facilitation
- news reporting: offer raw materials for news agencies
- information spreading