A Communication Study Of How The New Generation Of Migrant Workers Germinate Civic Consciousness

In contemporary political theories,the concept of migrant worker is excluded from citizen.When discussing the issue of citizen,we are used to ignoring the migrant workers,even though they are an important part of the citizens.Taiwan scholar Jie-min Wu believes that in a mature political community,every ordinary person could enjoy equal statue and civic right.That’s common sense in our modern democratic society.In fact,the new generation of migrant workers are building new networks,accepting organizational regulations and reshaping their individual characteristics in pluralistic communication environment.Pursuing the civil right has become a driving force to integrate themselves into the fabric of city-life.Moreover,we hold the opinion that modernization,industrialization and urbanization cannot smoothly come true without the formation of young peasant-worker’s citizen awareness.In this paper,we will observe the growth process of the new generation of migrant workers’civic consciousness and analyze how different means of communication affect this process.Our study finds that,the formation of civic consciousness is a complex procedure,it mainly includes three stages for the young peasant-workers.Firstly,they learn to understand who they are and what their real social identities are.After that,they begin studying organization rules and join communities or social groups and participate in their discussions and activities.Eventually,they come into contact with public philosophy and obtain civic awareness or citizenship.In the entire process,the interpersonal communication,the organizational communication and the mass communication perform different roles in different phases.In the first stage,interpersonal relationship plays a key role.Parents,friends and colleagues help them realize their identities.In the second stage,the organizational communication have the greatest influence.They learn to follow all kinds of rules in firms and unions.Lastly,they use the mass media and the internet to acquire the ideas of public issues.We believe that changes of the communication environment dramatically affects the young peasant-worker’s citizen awareness and citizenships.