The Internet and politics in China: The agenda-setting influence of online public opinion on media coverage and government policy

China has the largest Internet population in the world. The rapid development of the Internet has led to much discussion about the democratic impact of this new medium on China's authoritarian regime. Within the theoretical framework of agenda setting, this study adopted a multi-method approach to examine the effects of online public opinion on media coverage and government policy in China. First, a quantitative content analysis was performed to explore whether and how online public opinion influences the entire issue agendas of the traditional media and the government at the national level. The data showed that online public opinion did not have an agenda-setting effect on the government, whereas the government set the agenda of online publics on some occasions. Bidirectional agenda-setting influences were found between the online public agenda and the traditional media agenda. Second, case studies were used to examine the agenda-setting effects of online public opinion on media coverage and government decision-making in the development of individual issues. Two high-profile cases analyzed in this study demonstrated that online public opinion interacted with the traditional media to make a local accident quickly transform into a national issue, pushing the government to respond accordingly. Third, intensive interviews were conducted to understand how the major players in the agenda-setting process---including online activists, journalists and government officials---think about the power and influence of online public opinion. Overall, the evidence in this study suggests that online public opinion has become a competing agenda-setting force in contemporary China. It tends to play a bigger role in promoting the salience of a specific issue rather than setting the entire issue agendas of the traditional media and the government. Nonetheless, the influence of online public opinion in individual cases can have an incremental and long-term effect on the democratization of China.