| Drawn from the rich literature on the uses and dependency model and the conception of political liberalization, this study examines the impact of the Internet on political liberalization in China. In order to explore the significance of the Internet in China's politics, the study first looked at the influence that China's social system exerted on the media, including the Internet, and the Chinese people's use of the media from a historical perspective. At the same, it also explores the possibility that the Internet serves as a public sphere in China, bolstered by the use of the Internet by Chinese people, and their general attitudes toward the Internet.;By adopting a historical analysis, the study reveals how the media system developed under the political influence of the Chinese government over time and the effect it has had on individual's use of the media, particularly the Internet, as well as their opinions towards the Internet. Through a combination of content analysis and secondary data analysis, the study presents a general picture of Chinese Internet users in the context of political liberalization. The study answers questions about what users were interested in online, what political topics they were talking about, and what attitudes they held toward the government in their online political discussions. |
