The Analysis Of Sense-making Function Of Internet As A Mass Medium

As one of the greatest technological revolutions in 20th century, Internet has entered people's everyday life with an unbelievably speed and is quietly changing people's daily life. With the penetration of Internet and its related concepts to ordinary people's life, nobody can ignore the great changes and impact that Internet brings on all aspect of social life.Internet audience's perception of external world and the knowledge gained through Internet are far beyond what he/she can personally experience. The virtual reality created by Internet Medium constantly influence, define and modify individual's value and behavior. To the young generation growing with the Internet environment, Internet Medium has much deeper influential force. Information provided by Internet as well as the interpretation of the information has gradually formulated the pictures of the reality in their heads, through which they judge and decide their behavior. From this point of view, Internet Medium has strong Sense-making Function.Using relevant theories of communication and social psychology as well as Constructivism,this thesis analyzed the sense-making process from the information production and communication perspective, clarifies the two stages of Internet Medium Sense-making: Stage one is that Internet information communicator complete sense-making through agenda setting and information sending. Stage two is Internet audience cognize the Internet information, digest the meaning of the sense made and transfer it into personal knowledge and concepts and gradually change personal attitude and cognition.On the basis of analyzing the functionality of Internet Medium Sense-making, the thesis further analyzed its characteristic and rules. From a social psychological view, it analyzed the psychological consequence to audience by Internet Medium Sense-making Function.