Public Events Under The "Internet Scale"

The public events discussed in this article refer to major unexpected events of public significance,whose concentrating outbreak in recent years is a natural reflection of contradictions during the period of social transformation.Public events,although seemingly scattered cases,are arousing public issues in an unconventional way in essence.At the same time they produce group anxiety with disruptive consequences by virtue of the new media ecology after the intervention of Internet.When public events take place unexpectedly,the technical attributes of the Internet challenge information checks of the mainstream media,support multiple voices to enter the communication process,compete with each other and thus ferment during the process,which often "forces to restore" the facts that may have been cut in the past and create public opinion that affects problem solving.What’s more,the technical ethics of the Internet call the media and the individual to go into the field of public opinion in a way of conforming to it.But the reality is that both the media and the individual have the misunderstanding in knowledge and methods,which will weaken the progressive significance of the Internet in public events.In the face of public events,improper news ideas,media policy and communication practice will inevitably lead to conflict escalation,hostility diffusion and even class division.Deriving from the theory of media ecology and inducing from the concept of its classic writers,this paper tries to demonstrate that the Internet,as the latest form of media,provides modern times with a not-to-be-missed observation "scale"-------the so-called "scale" is the "extending range" and "scale of interaction" changed by humans for new information tools,which not only determine the moral bias of the Internet but also bring about a new symbolic environment and thus have mandatory attributes of redefining and structuring the world.Therefore,the study of public events closely related to the media information environment has to be placed on the "Internet Scale".From the point of view of the fission of the public opinion field in public events,this article also proposes that "the system is a hard framework that all media need to respect together,but the mainstream system itself is neither an obstacle to social development nor an excuse for the media to stand still",calling for a more reasonable policy atmosphere so as to solve the crux of the era uncovered by public events,and on the other hand,supporting the media and communicators to promote "allegation of public opinion" and in the meanwhile improve the policy atmosphere itself in the actual condition.Public events reveal social problems,while the focus of public opinion reflects the common people’s real thoughts.This paper insists that the spirit and value of the Internet should be set as the coordinates to correct our cognitive predicament and methodological stray,particularly emphasizes that it is not necessary for mainstream media to dwarf itself when seeking business breakthrough in the current media integration movement,because the public’s real expectation for what they hear,watch and read is "not to be absent","not to be dumb" and "not to be disqualified"in important issues,including public events.Media convergence should first of all realize the isomorphism and agreement of old and new media,only based on which can people interfere with spread in the way of conforming to the media laws and media ethics of the new era and finally contribute to a series of progress and change in culture,politics and so on,reduce the risk of public events and hence promote the harmonious development of society.