| The big-character poster, as a special political as well as cultural phenomenon, has existed from 1950s to 1970s in China. Without doubt it has caused a serious harm to the whole society. There exists no uniform definition of the big-character poster in the academic world up to now. Broadly speaking, it is a form of media which is published to the public by means of writing and pictures for propaganda or communication from the perspective of components and function. Narrowly speaking, in that special times, it refers to authoritative articles and pictures with big characters on them which are posted in public in order to express political views. Its characters must be big, which distinguishes the big-character poster from the corresponding the small-charcter one.With the "Cultural Revolution" coming to an end, the big-character poster in terms of the administration has disappeared gradually and at last has become a historical term. However, the big-character poster, as a transmission medium which has the function of issuing and exchange opinions, is not specific to those special times such as the Cultural Revolution. Hence the paper will dicuss the big-character poster based on its transmission meaning. Nowdays, in this era of information explosion, online network publishing based on Internet such as forum posts, blogs, microblogs, etc. has mushroomed in a short time. Despite diverse locations and historical backgrounds, they just own the similar fundamental characteristics as the big-character poster, which is characteristic of free expression as well as non-mainstream non-governmental media, which is public to all without a superviser and which have an equal right for free speech no matter who you are, the celebrities or ordinary people.Therefore, this paper, which regards the posts, blogs and microblogs as a new form of the big-character poster in Internet Age, will study the informational media from the perspective of communication based on the historical development of the big-character poster.The paper is composed of four parts.The first part dicusses the historical development of the big-character poster during 1957 and 1976. This period is divided into two phases including the Anti-rightist Movement and the Cultural Revolution. This part will review the history of the big-character poster, categorize the various forms of it such as poems, essays, cartoon, etc., and introduce the main content in order to analyze the its transmission enviroment during that period. The transmission of the big-character poster has prospered in such a enviroment that the pubilcity is strictly controlled. The dogmatic propaganda of Mao Zedong Thought, the instructions of Revolution and criticizing the "Capitalist Roaders" are the most basic content during this period.The second part dicusses the historical development of the big-character poster during 1978 and 1992. From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, the thought of reform encouraged the literate youth to organize and show their own ideals and pursuits. The big-character poster, as the medium for the expression of justice, has changed the transmission concept of the whole country. Its content has changed from the critique and revelation to the pursuit of democracy such as the appearance of the Democracy Wall in Xidan. In this part the Triangle---speech location in Beijing University should be noted. From the 1990s, the emergence of internet has made the campus BBS take place of the Triangle which has the function of academic information as well as political comments. It forecasts the coming of Electronic Age of the big-character poster.The third part dicusses the new development of the big-character poster form in the Internet Age. The Internet which is characteristic of richful information, wide scope, fast transmission, highly openness and great convinience has become the first channel for information and communication. Since the media has become popular in the Internet Age, blogs, posters and microblogs have inherited some features from the big-character poster and become its new form. It not only has more wider content from the revelation, the pursuit of democracy, self-show, public supervision to making friends, but also broaden the sources of information and richen the publicshing forms.The fourth part analyzes the transmission model of the big-character poster based on the relative theories. It studies the transmission feature from the perspective of the transmitter, the target audiences, the content, the channel and the effect. |
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