China's Internet Political Communication Research

The rapid popularization and wide utilization of internet in China has led to the accelerating reshuffle of China's system of political communication. China's traditional models of mass media political communication, represented by newspaper and periodical, broadcast and TV, not only increasingly fail to satisfy the requirements of modern decision-making and implementation, but also increasingly fail to satisfy the needs Chinese people pose on political participation, political deliberation, political expression and political supervision, and as a result, Internet-mediated political communication has risen very rapidly and prominently in China.In this dissertation, Internet-mediated political communication has double meanings. On one hand, it refers to a process in which political subjects holding certain political resources——governments, for example, transfer/receive or process political information via internet; on the other hand, it refers to behaviors that political subjects holding certain political resources——governments, for example, transfer/receive or process political information via internet. The entire process of internet-mediated political communication includes at least three elements, that is, Communicating subjects——communicators and receivers, communicating channels——internet and finally communicating objects——political informationIn political life, if political communication is regarded as the nerves of government, internet-mediated political communication, integrating the advantages of personal political communication and mass media political communication, will be the keenest and promptest nerve of all governments'nerves, and in contemporary China, internet-mediated political communication is also the nerve that Chinese people expect most to communicate and link themselves with their governments.To discuss the issue of China's internet-mediated political communication, this thesis holds, certain attention should first be paid to clarify the connotation, the characteristics, and the main forms of internet-mediated political communication, which should be followed by a new looking into the relevant communication theories in the context of internet-mediated political communication. Then,the overall states of china's internet-mediated political communication should be grasped, and so done the positive and negative influence internet-mediated political communication exerts on China's politic in s particular way. Finally, after a comprehensive analysis of the problems and causes of China'internet-mediated political communication, an overall proposition is going to be put forward aiming at establishing a benign mechanism for China's internet-mediated political communication. As a whole, the dissertation consists of an introduction and five chapters, which can be showed briefly as follows:In the introduction part, the backgrounds, characteristics and significance of selecting such a topic will firstly be discussed, and then, a survey of the literatures on such a topic will be analyzed and commented. In addition, the introduction will discuss and explain the research thought, the framework and structure, the key and difficult points, the research methods and innovating parts of the dissertation. Chapter One will set a comprehensive explanation on internet-mediated political communication. Such concepts as political communication, personal communication, mass media communication and internet-mediated political communication will firstly be elucidated in detail in order to lay a good foundation for the clarification of the dissertation's central concept, internet-mediated political communication. After an interdisciplinary definition of internet-mediated political communication, the connotation, characteristics and main forms of internet-mediated political communication will be discussed respectively. This chapter will also explain and analyze new changes in the gatekeeper theory, in the agenda-setting theory, in the theory of public opinion formation, and finally in the theory of information-gap from the perspective of internet-mediated political communication.Chapter Two will give a look into the origination of China's internet-mediated political communication. This chapter will not only discuss the era background in which internet-mediated political communication emerges all over the world, but also will describe and comment respectively in detail the states of internet-mediated political communication in such countries as USA, UK, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and Singapore, which is to demonstrate that the emergence of internet-mediated political communication in China is in comply with the world trend. In addition, this chapter will describe and analyze the technical basis of China's internet-mediated political communication, the main manifestation proving internet's involvement in China's political communication, and several stages which China's internet-mediated political communication has undergone. Finally, main reasons will be analyzed here which give rise to the emergence of China's internet-mediated political communication.Chapter Three will explore the opportunities and challenges that the emergence of China's internet-mediated political communication will bring about to China's politics. As for the opportunities, the positive influence will be analyzed and explained in detail that the emergence of China's internet-mediated political communication is likely to exert on the development of China's democracy, on the maintenance and consolidation of political order, on the scientific and democratic decision-making, on the promotion of the image of China's government, and finally on the realization of the political rights of China's citizens. As for the main challenges, the negative influence will be analyzed and discussed in detail that the emergence of China's internet-mediated political communication is likely to exert on China's political stability, political decision-making, governmental administration and national security as well.Chapter Four will mainly discuss the problems and causes of China's internet-mediated political communication. The main problems existing in China's internet-mediated political communication will be discussed in the perspective of commutation elements, process and effects , and the reason which give rise to such problems will be analyzed from the perspectives of economy, political mechanism, culture, ideology , techniques and finally education.Chapter Five will discuss the developing trend of China's internet-mediated political communication. This chapter will firstly put forward the basic requirements that the benign mechanism should meet, the basic principles that should be adhered to in china's drive to construct a benign mechanism of internet-mediated political communication, based on which a proposal will be put forward on China's construction of a benign mechanism of internet-mediated political communication.Meanwhile, the dissertation will forecast the coming trend of China's internet-mediated political communication, which can generalized as democratization, legalization, institutionalization, humidification and the realization of high efficiency. Finally, this chapter will present a proposal on how to create a beneficial condition for the development of China's internet-mediated political communication from the following macroscopic aspects, that is, economy, politics, culture and education, rule of law and technique. the innovation part is as follows, 1.innovation in the topic selecting, because there is still no systematic study of China's internet-mediated political communication at all; 2.innovation in the perspective to discuss China's internet-mediated political communication, because a dynamic perspective has been skillfully used to explore the states of China's internet-mediated political communication; 3.innovation in the research methods, because multidisciplinary research methods have been used comprehensively; 4.innovation in theory, for the discipline boundary existing the former political communication will be broken-through and integrated creatively.