| This project systematically examines discussions surrounding a popular talent show in China, Super Girl, both in the official public sphere and the informal public spheres created by new media forums. With this comparison, I revise dominant conceptions and empirical perspectives in examining the public sphere and modern media, both old and new. I introduce cultural revisions proposed by theories of cultural citizenship and aesthetic public sphere, which are in urgent need of systematic empirical evidence. Through a close textual analysis, I argue that discussions about entertainment media experiences are often intertwined with serious civic discourses, as they extend into the expression of political values, social, and cultural concerns. This is a particularly significant finding for authoritarian political systems whose political public spheres are more tightly controlled.;Furthermore, the exploration of an aesthetic public sphere in online settings not only expanded current research perspectives about the democratic potential of the new media, but empirical findings about different narrative structures between mainstream newspapers and online forums and some extent of a reverse agenda-setting effect of the latter on the former reveal unique civic significance of the new media. These insights can lead to a more comprehensive perception about the debate of public sphere and modern media in Western contexts as well. |
