Research On Opinion Expression Of Weibo Users Based On The Spiral Of Silence Theory

In recent years, the new media technology plays an important role in the way that Chinese citizens express their opinion and ideas. The evolution of social networks give Chinese people the opportunity to express themselves in an easier and more direct way.Based on studies dealing with the expression of public opinion, the spiral of silence theory is a very important part of the communication academic field. Starting from the21 st century and as the media environment changes, scholars both at home and abroad raised doubt on whether the spiral of silence theory works in the network environment.They tried to expand the relevant theoretic and empirical research and different conclusions made; including the assumption that "The theory still works” or in contrast" The theory does not work ". In addition to these two, another double spiral of silence appear " in the network environment. In recent years, some foreign scholars put the theory to the context of social network environment such as Facebook, Twitter and many more and trying to investigate its applicability both theoretically and empirically.Domestic scholars also raised doubt whether the spiral of silence theory works in the social network in China, such as Weibo. However, only few began empirical studies.Based on the spiral of silence theory, this study begins empirical investigation on the opinion expression of Weibo users by trying to explore the following questions:Firstly, how does the spiral of silence(The original variables) theory changes in Weibo environment? Secondly, what other factors will affect the strategies of opinion expressions in Weibo context? Thirdly, are there any difference that these factors affect the different strategies of opinion expressions in Weibo context?On the basis of these questions, from the perspective of the users, firstly, this study reviews the production and development of spiral of silence theory and explains and analyzes the concept of public opinion expression and the opinion expression characteristics in Weibo. Secondly, the author puts in sort the literature reviews of the spiral of silence theory and expression and public opinion expression based both on local and also foreign researches, especially by reading the articles of the spiral of silence theory research in network context or social network context in detail. By extracting some factors that affect opinion the expressions of Weibo users based on researches available, some hypothesis were risen according to the research variables.According to the requirement of Neumann in the spiral of silence theory, the author finally choses the event of "Dog-meat festival of Yulin" as a study-case in Weibo,designs a questionnaire about the factors to form opinion expressions of Weibo users based on previous studies. Additionally, the author collects the content of the questionnaires several times, then puts the questionnaires in a professional survey network platform for data collection. Following data collection, this study analyzes the data by using statistical methods.The results show that the effect of the variable isolated fears in spiral of silence,was decreased significantly on opinion expression in Weibo context. The variable consistency of opinions remains an important factor in user’s opinion expressions. The variables of interest, knowledge and attention to the topic have relatively positive(strong) influence on the user’s opinion expression. However, the sense of significance of the topic in Weibo and the Weibo-efficiency variables have relatively less(weaker)positive influence on the user’s opinion expression. The sense of risk to express in Weibo, the willingness to self-censorship, the cognition of flaws of Weibo have weak or no influence on opinion expression and have weak positive influence on their silence.The study also finds some factors affecting the users’ opinion expressions in real word more than in other social networks.Finally, on the basis of results of testing the hypothesis, this study analyzes factors affecting opinion expression of Weibo users, and explains the change and development of the spiral of silence theory in Weibo context. In combination with the case of "Dog-meat festival of Yulin", the study puts forwards some suggestions for users to express opinions better in Weibo context.The author hopes to provide some theoretical basis to the traditional communication effect theory in the present media environment and in extend to give Weibo users more options and capabilities when they express their opinion in Weibo.