Research Of Rural Grass-roots Democracy From The Perspective Of Mass Communication

With the quick development of China's socio-economy, the public becomes hungry for more information and the influence of mass communication is thus multiplied daily. Meanwhile, the media form has spread itself from the traditional newspaper, broadcast and television into emerging Internet and cell-phone, ushering the public into a new era of mass communication. As a major carrier in relaying information, mass communication has now become an indispensable power in the society and a crucial link in the advancement of China's democratic politics. In the West, mass media is a"fourth power"alongside the executive, legislative and judiciary. A typical example is mass media's function in the U.S., where it has been an activist during the presidential elections and public supervision and even in America's democratic process .In China, mass communication has changed from a disseminating agency in the initial stage of new China into the mouthpiece of the CPC and the public and an important part of public opinion. Its functions are fully used in China's democracy at lower levels of governments.In the opening part, the thesis analyzes the development of grass-root democracy in rural areas from the point of legalization of grass-root democracy and deepening of its development and practices. Furthermore, the thesis also analyzes the development of mass communication from mouthpiece of the CPC to the social public opinion in the process of grass-root democracy, thus pointing out that the shift of'gatekeeper'and audiences can have positive effects on grass-root democracy. The thesis then discusses the relationship between grass-root democracy in rural areas and mass media. From mass communication's influences on grass-root democracy, we can see that mass media can promote the construction of grass-root democracy, accelerate the dissemination of official opinion, influence the election process, enhance the ways of political expression, provide a communication channel and implement public opinion's supervision. The thesis also states the functions of mass communication from two points. Regarding the individual level, the mass communication can relay the awareness of democracy, shape political personality of an individual, guide the attitude and action of democratic politics and stimulate the participation of democracy. Regarding the social level of analysis, mass communication focuses on providing a development-friendly environment for grass-root democracy and popularizing people's expression. The third section of my thesis, from the perspective of mass communication, points out the reasons for the difficulties in China's grass-root democracy—inadequate information on democracy, broken link of mass media supervision and inappropriate use of mass media among grass-root cadres and villagers. Finally, using Lasswell's"5W", the thesis proposes solutions to problems in the process of rural grass-root democracy from the factors of communicator, communication activities, mass media and audiences.