Study On The Expression Of The Public Sentiment In Weibo Public Opinion

Compared with the traditional mass media era, mico-blog's public opinion represents some unique features, the most important and influential of which is the distinctive expression of the rich public sentiments. This dissertation, from the perspective of psychological theories, is devoted a study on the sentimental factors in expressing the public opinion by focusing mainly on four aspects. Firstly, the paper will define the concepts of micro-blog's public opinions and micro-blog's public sentiments; secondly it will study the ways to express public sentiments in micro-blogs; thirdly, the public sentimental expressions will be studied from a sociological perspective; the last but not the least, suggestions will be put forth for managing the negative effects aroused by the expression of public sentiments in the micro-blogs.It is found through the study that public opinion ecology has undergone important changes with the continuous development of the internet, especially the sudden emergence of micro-blogs. The study suggests that the public opinions expressed in the weibo have the same characteristics as that of structural narratives, methods to produce micro texts, ways to manifesting conflicts and weak contact network structure and so on. The di-characteristic of public and private narratives makes the micro-blog go beyond the idea of "public domain" conceived by Habermas. In examining the existing bases of public sentiments in micro-blog public opinion, we find that changing of the group identity, especially the characteristics of group identity in the micro-blog era, has an important influence on the formation of public sentiments. At the macro level, the ever-changing social realities,-alternating cultural trends and-developing of new technologies build a solid foundation for the expressing public sentiments through the micro-blogs; at the micro level, the roles and the social status of the individual blogger also have an important impact on the generation of public sentiments in the micro-blog's public opinion.The public sentiments expressed in the micro-blog's public opinions framed by a broad social context is associated closely to the political economy, hence, the politics concerning sentiments can serve as the theoretical basis and a proper means for the study of micro-blog public opinion. In sorting the knowledge of political sentiments spectrum, we discover that the application of sentiments can gain greater inherent advantages over that of rationality in reality. If put in the category of politics, the sentiments are actually part of the superstructure and even part of the political domination, going beyond the traditional cognition of "public ideology". The public sentiments influence the micro-blog public opinion either following the top-down or the bottom-up direction. Mainly there are two typical modes for expressing public opinions:social mobilization and social resistance. The study uses specific cases as starting point to investigate how we can apply the sentiments of micro-blog public opinion to social mobilization, including the strategies for showing openly the weakness and anger, grief and so on. Based on previous studies concerning collective behaviors and sentimental struggles, we discover a spreading framework for constructing sentiments, including the broadcasting path for carrying the same discourse meaning, identity information and emotional connotation; and the functional analysis of annotation capabilities, attribution and ideographical expressionThrough studying the micro-blog's public opinions, we have found that the public sentiments are mainly owing to the rise of the network society, the changing mode of the mass communication and the kill of the traditional discourse power. In the micro-blog public opinion, the constructive sentimental elements consist mainly of the common-interest groups being formed, the public issues continuing to be spread and the comparatively free cyberspace emerging. In terms of the public tendency, micro-blog public opinions are made up of the sentimental criticism, populism, nationalism, pragmatism, patriotic impartiality and so on, which are socially represented through the choice of silence according to the situation(the Spiral of Silence phenomenon), the extremely rapid spreading(the Butterfly Effect), the blind following(Herding Effect) and the psychological resent. From a psychological perspective, the public sentiments in the micro-blog public opinion consist mainly of fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, etc., and in the expression, the public express the sentiments through the direct expression, private language and other ways.The public sentiments expressed in the micro-blog public opinion have some impact on society. From the functional point of view, the public sentiments expressed function to reflect the individual's living conditions, influence human socialization and regulate the group concerned. Meanwhile, the micro-blog sentiments also have the functions of informing, communicating, supervising public opinions and increasing social integration, which can lead to two types of effects:the positive impacts including the convenience for social participation, the benefits for interactive communications between the authoritative and the public, the construction of citizenship and the just social atmosphere; the negative effects including the low tipping points, the large quantities of false information and the inclination to disrupt the public opinion ecology; networks irrational remarks are more likely to cause public opinion violence; netizens likely to be dominated by simplistic thinking, and deal with complex social issues in a simple way; public opinion replacing justice trial to intervene judicial fairness; the big interference from online water army in the micro-blog public opinion ecology and the short duration of the public opinion. The cause for the deviation of the public sentiments arises out of the social transformation, the missing gatekeeper, the micro-blog information being fragmented and superficial, enthusiastic pursuit of attention, and so on. The sentimental expressions may influence the politics, the economy, the media and the public. It is also likely to have an effect on policy, the power structure, economic development, media agenda setting and the public psychology.The end of this study will focus on the response to the negative sentimental effects resulting from the public sentimental expression in micro-blog public opinion. The paper suggests that the negative sentimental effects are produced and judged from its path and criteria, and we need to deal with the negative effects in the micro-blog public opinion. In the reacting process, we should follow the principles of the immediate response, creating a space tolerant of different opinions, being of affinity and self-centered. We should also build a service-oriented government and develop a three-dimensional propagation pattern, mainly establishing the mechanism of monitoring, early warning and feedback.