The Study On The Influence Of Social Relationship Type On The Expression Of Chinese Controversial Public Issues

Modern society is no doubt a controversial society. It is especially true for China in a transformation period. In the process of promoting social reform, interests of all levels of society differentiate and recombine constantly, which makes interest conflicts among interest groups inevitable. Frequently occurring controversial public issues have become a remarkable sign of China’s transformation. The controversial issues are mostly closely connected with public interest and social problem, and public expression and spread of different opinions of social groups often have extensive social influence. What influence do different types of social ties have on the expression of China’s controversial public issues? To find out the answer,Granovetter’s “strong – weak” ties theory is introduced and systematic study has been made in combination with Fei Xiaotong’s “the structure of grade” theory in this paper.In this paper, social ties types are firstly divided into strong social ties, weak social ties and missing social ties according to Granovetter’s strong – weak ties theory;questionnaire and interviewing methods are used to make qualitative and quantitative study to the influence of different social ties types on the expression of China’s controversial public issues. It is believed that in traditional social ties, among the most representative ties with strangers, colleagues, friends, relatives and parents,individuals show the most frequent but selective expression willingness with strong ties objects, strongest expression willingness with weak ties objects and lowest expression willingness with missing ties objects on controversial public issues; the reason for the different influences of social ties types on China’s controversial public issues expressions mainly show the influence of paternity and filial piety culture, the weakening concepts of “clan” and “extended family” in modern society, the western concept of “individual” changing interpersonal communication ways and the exposure to China’s “low-trust society”; from the aspect of future development trend, the ties with strong-tie objects are weakened in an anonymous network mechanism, scope of communication objects of weak-tie is expanded and the controversial public issues expressions become entertaining, especially when factors restraining opinions expression are decreasing; the Internet changes the traditional expression pattern,network builds brand new interpersonal ties, and the “strong- weak” interpersonal ties are not fixed in online relationship and are not based on blood or geographicalrelationship. In the Internet, the reconstruction of interpersonal ties brings huge changes in individual opinion expression. Anonymity breaks the wall of reality for subjects of network expression, and they have more sense of security than they are in a real society; however, the openness of network environment brings not only improved individual expression willingness, but also diversified expression motivations on controversial issues.