| With the deepening of reform and opening-up,Chinese society is undergoing a profound transformation: the further growth of the market economy,the development of diverse social culture and concepts,the governmental power devolution and function transformation,the strengthening of the power of non-governmental organizations,etc.This profound transformation also makes social issues occur,e.g.,the contradictions in benefit allocation,the exacerbating social injustice,the widening gap between rich and poor,etc.These social problems not only arouse citizens to thinking about their own developments and others' destinies,but also arouse the questioning to public power.In this transitional society which is full of confusion and tension,the public eagerly needs a platform to express their views and exchange ideas,but the traditional media has been obviously unable to carry the rapid increase of citizens' desire to express.At the same time,China's internet has also developed rapidly with the support of Chinese Government,and the rise of new media and the transformation of Chinese society are just in the same historical interval.Under the mutual influence of these factors above,the number of citizen expressions which focus on social issues in new media platforms has soared,even appearing a large number of “internet public events”.73 “internet public events” have selected as samples and this study will utilize the theory of “empowerment” in sociology,trying to observe,to describe and to explain the empowerment of new media to citizen expression and the subsequent changes.This research focuses around “citizen expression”,from the microscopic,mesoscopic and macroscopic level to unfold the problem.Firstly,at the micro level,the right of citizen expression,as a fundamental right of law,how does its execution be influenced by new media,and how does it be activated due to the effect by new media empowerment? How does the connotation of expression e.g.,the channel of expression,the subject of expression,the way of expression,the content of expression and etc.,change compared with the right of citizen expression in the traditional media period? Can the ultimate pursuit of citizen expression-freedom of expression be realized? Secondly,on the meso-level,can new media empowerment promote the realization of the value of citizen expression? In addition to the values in the traditional perspective of perfecting personality,enriching democracy and supervising public power,what is the new expansion of the function of citizen expression by the new media empowerment? Finally,at a more macroscopic level,how does the empowerment by new media reconstruct the relationship between citizen,society and country by reconstructing the citizen expression? How does the citizen expression produce the tangible connection with the current Chinese social transformation due to the effects of new media empowerment in the key stage of Chinese society when the economic system reformation,the social structure transformation,the interest pattern adjustment and the ideological diversity are in progress?In other words,can it promote the communication between society and country? Can it promote the communication and understanding among multiple interest subjects and achieve well-interaction and harmony between different interest groups? And whether it can really promote political civilization and social progress? All of them are the questions we tried to answer in this study.This research is divided into seven chapters,the first chapter reviews the related researches of “empowerment”,“citizen expression” and “internet public events”;explains the “event-process” analysis and case study methods;shows the reason and process for case selection;introduces the value,the difficulties and the novelties of this research.In the second chapter,this study examines the process of the new media to citizen expression empowerment from three levels,i.e.,“institutional environment”,“information environment” and “expression channels”.Firstly,from the “Sollen level” of the institutional environment,citizen expression is a basic human right recognized at the national level;from the perspective of “statutory level”,citizen expression is a fundamental right of citizens protected by the constitution and other laws.Secondly,based on the perspective of “right to know”,this study compares the difference of citizen expression between the new media information environments and the traditional media period.In general,the new media is fast,convenient,anonymous and characterized by other technical properties,which expands the way to be “informed”,improves the ability to “know” and changes the state of “informed” for citizens.Firstly,the new media has improved the situation that lack of information for people and,to a certain extent,filled the information gap between citizens,which makes people's “inform” of government work and social environment on the same level to “dialogue”;Secondly,the new media has broken the message monopoly of traditional media and becomes an important source of information for citizens;Moreover,by “collaborative knowledge production” with new media,citizens have made the contents of “informed” not only include information,but also knowledge and truth.The way of “informed” from passive reception to active exploration has improved,thus further enriching citizens' right to know.Through the empowerment by new media,citizens can also have faster access to information on public affairs,which has also become an effective means of urging the government to make information disclosure,thus creating a good information environment for citizens to further practice their right to express,participate and supervise.Thirdly,the study examines the changes in the channels of citizen expression from the perspective of “access to press”.The study found that the empowerment effect of new media broke the media resources that had been monopolized by traditional media in the system in the past,increased the possibility of citizens approaching the media,encouraged citizens to use the media;at the same time,the empowerment by new media greatly enriched the content of “access to press”,which was not only a platform for citizens to express their views,but the complex platform for collection of information,production of information,dissemination of information and screening of information;based one the these,the empowerment by new media also makes the impact of views expressed by citizens more extensive and far-reaching.The third,fourth and fifth chapters of the thesis are carried out based on the research conclusion in the second chapter,that is,the changes about connotation of citizen expression in an innovative institutional environment,information environment and expression channels.The third chapter pays attention to the citizenship establishment-process of the expression subject by the new media empowerment.First of all,the new media constructs a new “public context” which is different from the traditional media,making the citizens no longer blindly worship the “authority” and no longer believe easily the views expressed by them,but establishing the basic spirit of questioning and the consciousness of exploring the truth,and thus gradually growing into a citizen with modern political personality.Secondly,the expression subject also grows from “negative citizen” to “active citizen”: that is,citizens produce a kind of psychological identity and rational consciousness as realizing that they are the main body of national politics,economy,culture,judicature and so on,thus,they can enter public life,participate in public policy and carry out political supervision with a more positive attitude.In addition to paying attention to the subject of expression on the integral level,the third chapter also focuses the vulnerable groups,a special component of the subject of expression.The study believes that the new media activates the awareness and ability of vulnerable groups to express their interests.Mainly shows in: the awareness of the rights of vulnerable groups,the new media compensates for the shortages of institutionalized expression,and becomes the most important and effective way for vulnerable groups to express their interests.Under the role of new media empowerment,vulnerable groups no longer passively wait for the policy to “give”,but take the initiative to safeguard their own rights and interests,re-rebuild the dignity of the self.The fourth chapter examines the empowerment influence of citizen discourse,which is the core content of citizen expression by the new media.The study has the following findings: firstly,under the psychological effect of the new media anonymity mechanism,citizens are more daring to show their true feelings and real views,in many internet public events,fierce collision of multiple views can be seen and the characteristics of “freedom of opinion” can be showed.Secondly,through the investigation of 73 internet public events,the author finds that although the citizen discussion in the new media is not fully consistent with the patterns of Habermas' “communicative rationality”,it has also found out a unique way to reach consensus.In reality,the citizen discussion is the combination of “resorting to rationality” and “resorting to sensibility”.Some citizens can always maintain rational discussion,listen to others patiently and have spirit of introspection simultaneously.But some irrational expressions need to be guided by the mainstream media.Under the guidance of public opinion in the mainstream media,irrational expressions will gradually become rational with the progression of events.Although rational discussion is more helpful to obtain consensus,the expression of “resorting to sensibility” will also gain the “empathy” of others,thus bringing passion and vitality to the discussion in the public sphere.In general,the greatest significance of the new media empowerment to citizens is not to form a strictly “rational conversation” on every issue,but to focus on equality in the process of communication,thus forming a free and open “discourse situation” in which the views of each citizen can be displayed in a legitimate process and the emotions can be felt in the process of discussion.Thirdly,the new media empowerment make citizen discourse show the character of “public”,and most of the topics focus on the public interest,achieving consensus more rapidly especially on topics related to “public security” and “social justice”.And these discourses not only resent the “injustice” brought about by the division between the rich and the poor,the unequal distribution of benefits and the curing of social strata,so that to advocate the “justice of distribution”,but also resent the “injustice” in another way,that is,the discrimination suffered by vulnerable groups,so that to advocate the “justice of endorsement”.The fifth chapter focuses on the new relationships between citizen expression and public power after the new media empowerment.“Restricted relationship” refers to the way in which citizens express their “right to restrict power” and form supervision over public power through the power of public opinion in new media: firstly,citizens' right to know can urge the government to make information publicity;secondly,citizens can expose and criticize the misconducts in public power;thirdly,citizens have the right to advise and supervise the decision-making of public power.“Common-faith relationship” refers to the citizen expression by the new media empowerment is an effective way to construct the trust between officials and people.Under the pressure of public opinion,the public power department will initiate the internal supervision mechanism,so as to optimize the political team,enhance the administrative efficiency;and citizens' reasonable “demands of interest” are also the way for the government to understand the public opinion and optimize the political decision-making,which will help the citizens to revive their confidence in the government and bridge the gap induced by improper political decision making.In addition,the public opinion formed by citizen expression can also act as a buffer zone of social contradiction,and become the relief valve for social pressure and the window for conversation between different interest subjects.The sixth chapter discusses the realization and the expansion of value of citizen expression by the new media empowerment.First of all,based on the perspective of interaction between “public” and “private”,the research finds that the value of citizen expression by the new media empowerment is close to the “public opinion” proposed by Habermas from the aspects of expression in channel,subject,content and relationship with public power,and its value is embodied in a kind of “relational” and dynamic function,which mediates and communicates circularly between the private right and public interest,the “private sphere” and the “public power sphere”,the society and country,and plays a role in the “internet public sphere” so that alleviate “tension” between different stakeholders and stimulate them to seek consensus in a good “conversation situation”.Moreover,the internet public sphere formed by public opinions is a kind of “pipeline” public sphere,which plays the role of “pipeline” for the communication between citizens and the public power of the state.Secondly,the citizen expression by new media empowerment is not only the “empowerment” for citizens or the “de-empowerment” for government,but a process of highly contextual,“bi-directional empowerment”.In the process of dealing with citizens' “demands of interest”,the government can gain the trust of citizens and improve its own credibility,so as to realize the effect of “bi-directional empowerment”.The seventh chapter draws the conclusion of the research,analyzes the problems in citizen expression such as network violence and consumerism tendency,and looks forward to the direction of future research. |
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