Public Opinions On Media And Political Situations Of The Early Republic Of China

The early the Republic of China (ROC) is a transitional period from the feudal autocratic system to the democratic republican one. In such special political ecological environment, democratic ideas got spread and freedom of speech was written in the law. Meanwhile the old and new political system separately led by Yuan shikai and revolutionaries demonstrated a fierce war of public opinions for political interests. In this historical background, press was unprecedented active and complicated, being unique scenery of press history. Studying the relationship between press and political changes in this transitional situation is significant for us to understand the social features of the early republic of China and discover the social functions of press.This transitional society is also a crisis society. From the perspective of the news media and through the reports of folk newspapers about social crisis, this article aims to observe the unrest and complexity of the political environment of that time. Financial crisis and political crisis were the most obvious. "After-care big loan" can be said to be the reflection and direct consequence of the financial crisis; what's worse, this might become the bait for foreign powers, which would definitely become the primary problem of the whole nation. And naturally it became the focus of the press. It was also one of the"three events"of this article. The political crisis of the early ROC could be seen in three aspects: endless violent agitation, the eruption of the Second Revolution and party disputes. The author carefully analyzed the three aspects and thought that Zhang Zhenwu case and Song Jiaoren case was the key of typical events. Besides, the violent unrest started from the Zhang Zhenwu blood case, and then spread after Song Jiaoren blood case. The Second Revolution developed from the Zhang Zhenwu blood case and reached the beginning stage of its climax was due to the Song Jiaoren blood case. Party disputes were also the happening of these two events. So, Zhang Zhenwu blood case and Song Jiaoren blood case were the points of this article.Discovering the relation between public opinion on media and political conditions is the theme of this article. From the perspective of the press, we studied the three events that affected the political situations and deeply analyzed the political participation of the public opinion on media in different occasions. Each event contained one or several times of political and public opinion agitation. On one side, by putting their own views and statements into public agenda, various interest groups, politicians or political parties used the press as one of the channels of political socialization. At this time, the political functions of newspapers directly influenced the development of political situations, showing the influence of public opinion on media on the early ROC. Three events was an important step for the transition of the early ROC, from democratic republic to dictatorship; it was also the key for Yuan Shikai to realize dictatorship in economic, military and political. Three events, as the center of the public opinion, by studying which in detail, can help us to reveal the relationship between public opinion on media and political conditions of that time: they were mutually influenced. First, the government's press conference system and the propaganda on democratic republican by public opinion, block the process of Y's dictatorship; inappropriate words and deeds of party newspapers and press conflict, made it necessary to have a strong government; Y just made use of this and changed the political situation. Second, after the three events and the establishment of Y's dictatorship let the majority of the journalists(who used to support Y and wrote for him) recognize Y's true colors, who supported the republic on the surface but actually aimed at dictatorship, so they began to fight against him; under Y's dictatorship, the news and public opinions was controlled intensively step by step, violent cases like banning the newspaper office, arresting and killing reporters springing up often, and thus the prosperity of press disappeared and never return.The complex and changeable relationship between the news and public opinions and political situations of the initial stage of ROC highlights the unique social outlook of that time and also give a more comprehensive and scientific explanation for the failure of trying democracy in the initial stage of ROC.