"Affect" Performance In Public Opinion

In the course of history,rationalism has dominated the development of social civilization with absolute superiority and become a powerful magic weapon for mankind to pursue definitive truth and explore the ultimate mystery.It is also true for the history of the concept of public opinion.In the West,deeply influenced by the tradition philosophy,several concept innovations about the public opinion are based on the turning of people's attitude towards rationalism.Under the background of the Enlightenment emphasizing "innate human rights",reason was regarded as an innate ability of human beings.Thinkers such as Rousseau made public opinion beautified as the symbol of absolute truth.When comes to the period of Lippmann,the traditional view of truth and the epistemological framework of the binary opposition between subject and object which it relied on were questioned.The thoughts of rationalist evolved into the rules of instrumental reason.With the discovery of the "paradox of reason",rationalism was reconstructed by the theory of "rationality".On this basis,Habermas regards public opinion as "discourse consensus" generated by communicative rationality,while Rawls sees public opinion as "overlapping consensus" derived from public rationality.Looking back to China,since Liang Qichao introduced the concept of "public opinion" in the modern sense into local context,it has been endowed with the rational color of Enlightenment.The elite intellectuals not only regarded it as a kind of " recipe for national salvation " for the reform and strengthening,but also placed ardent expectations on it to establish a democratic society.Along with the profound influence of Marxism on the development of Chinese news and public opinion,more attention has been paid to the possibility of public opinion on the realization of social control,both in practice and theory.In the long historical concept,it is generally believed that the public opinion with affect is not conducive to summoning and cultivating a real sense of modern rational citizens,nor to promoting the benign development of public opinion.However,from an endogenous perspective,"affect" has played a vital role in the development of Chinese society.In particular,a typical and special Chinese-style "affect"-"simple sense of justice" is frequently exhibited in the current Internet public opinion,which has brought great impact on the western dualistic view of "emotion" and "reason" : It not only retains the value and order of Chinese traditional society,but also is endowed with social anxiety of transitional period.Besides,it contains people's eternal pursuit of fairness and justice.Through the observation and induction of typical cases,this thesis finds that the evocation of "simple sense of justice" is precisely based on the public's emotional resonance from the historical cognition of the archetype.For example,the public recognize Yu Huan and Zhang Koukou as dutiful sons,so they consider the revenge for their mother should have ethical obligation.When the public image Deng Yujiao and Yu Haiming as knight-errants,they think the personal violence should have moral rationality.In the same way,when the public regard Tang Hui and Jiang Qiulian as great mothers,they feel the requests for killing the criminals should have historical legitimacy.There may be deviations in the direction of "simple sense of justice" and judicial trials,but unlike purely emotional experience,it is given the value orientation of the times,endowed with certain forms of knowledge or concepts,deeply embedded in social and historical background.To go one step further,"simple sense of justice" not only interacts with law and rationalism,but also creates the possibility of mutual construction with the normative forces of multiple societies.At the practical level,the "will of our peoples" behind the "simple sense of justice" are forcing the public to rethink the standards of contemporary judicial trials,both "depending on the law" and " considering about the sentiment".At the conceptual level,the thought of revenge behind the "simple sense of justice" shapes the people 's cognitive style of fairness and justice in different times.Whether "private revenge" or "public relief",it may be the reflection on the justice system in a specific environment.At the action level,the "common sense" behind the "simple sense of justice" provides the social power of "untiy of action and knowledge",which promotes the mutual conversion between "public sympathy" and "public reasoning".To some extent,this kind of expression is a new paradigm for solving problems and interpreting meanings when the public facing the experiential world.From traditional ritual society to modern jurisprudential civilization,the "affect" has not only been proven to be unable to be eradicated and contained by rational control methods,on the contrary,it has been intensified with the growing of the Internet.In the face of thecontradiction between the historical precipitation of Chinese traditional social morality and the continuous differentiation of the current social structure,the western theoretical experience seems unable to explain many new problems in contemporary Chinese practice.Therefore,based on the media practice of "affect",this thesis finally introduces a new media research theory called "visibility" to reflect on the rationalist doctrine of traditional public opinion,and pays fully attention to the reconstruction power of "affect" to the Internet.Under the dimension of "visibility",the emotional of subjects,the overlap of the object and the diversification of ontology has become a trend.Then,instead of arguing about the eternal proposition of " possibility of public opinion",it seems better to change the standpoint to re-comprehend the question about "what is public opinion" in a new dimension and give more growing room for affect and reason in diachronicity and synchronicity.Maybe this kind of growth is not step-by-step,nor will it happen overnight,but the future is expected.In a nutshell,this thesis takes a typical and special Chinese-style affect— “simple sense of justice” as the core object of investigation,and embodies the abstract and empty concept of“affect” into a “affecting” performance in public opinion,hoping to make a little contribution in the following three aspects: On the practical level,to provide rich and diversified case experience for the benign interaction between public opinion and the judiciary,and promote the communication between modern legal rationality and traditional order and customs.At the academic level,to rewrite the connotation and significance of public opinion,and try to bring the affect back into public discussion.In a broader sense,to attempt to break the research methods of the representationalism and structural functionalism in the past,and open up a meaningful multi-dimensional space for researching media practice and Chinese issues in the age of Internet.