On Internet's Reconstruction Of Public Sphere

The research on network public sphere is undoubtedly of great significance to exploring the ways of political socialization, accelerating process of democracy-building, enriching relevant theories of mass communication as well as the building of a harmonious society.Network public sphere is a kind of network carrier of public opinion. With BBS (Internet forum) and BLOG as its major forms and making public issues as subjects of discussion, network public sphere possesses basic functions and rules and ways of the working of public sphere.The article is made up of four parts. The first part deals with the relations between media and public sphere, starting with expounding on relevant theories in public sphere then exploring the relations between traditional media and public sphere, and lastly dwelling on the rise of network media and its impact on theories of public sphere. The second part focuses on reconstructing of public sphere and the roles of network media in the process. Firstly, it is about the roles of BBS in the reconstruction. Because of such features of BBS as anonymity, equality, autonomy, involvement and instantaneity, the concept of "gatekeeper" is fading, the hierarchy of the elite or the grass roots collapses and the theory of "agenda setting" is thus subverted. Therefore, "public sphere" is reconstructed. The part then goes on to examine the roles of BLOG in the reconstruction. The "face-to-face" information spreading pattern of BLOG facilitates shaping the role of "the public". Endowed with "clearing" instead of "door-keeping", BLOG provides citizens with a liberal rostrum to express themselves, drawing them from virtual space back to present world. The public can think rationally, so the network shared sphere thus takes shape. Lastly, the recently widely reported "South China Tiger event" (false photos to prove the existence of South China tigers in Shanxi Province) is taken to demonstrate the roles of network in the reconstructing of public sphere. The third part makes an analysis of features of network public sphere and the significance of its reconstruction by means of network media. Characterized by openness, independence, absence or anonymity, autonomy, sincerity, equal participation and publicity, network public sphere calls for mass participation and netted pattern of debates. So it is an unprecedentedly diversified sphere. The significance of reconstructing of public sphere by means of network media lies in that network public sphere offers people a means of integrating their different opinions, creates ways for political socialization, accelerates the pace of democracy, and returns the nature of mass communication. The fourth part concerns problems in network public sphere and countermeasures. Major problems are: 1) people involved in discussions are largely the young who are more familiar with network and their topics of discussion are relatively concentrated, so the discussion is not typical of the kind in terms of either people involved or topics; 2) anonymity is liable to result in irresponsibility; 3) sporadic discussions show no enough influence; 4) imbalance in spheres; 5) a real "public affairs discussion space" has not come into existence. And countermeasures to the problems are: 1) to continuously renew the ideas of network participants and raise the consciousness of the mass media; 2) to perfect media management system; 3) to improve ecological environment of the media; 4) to strengthen guidance over network discussion; 5) to popularize computer competence among ordinary people nationwide.Guided by Jurgen Habermas' theory of public sphere, the article rests on literature review and case studies, using a combination of theoretical frameworks and research findings in journalism, mass communication, sociology and philosophy. The author pays much attention to combining theory with practice in the research and analyzed in detail the reconstructing of public sphere by means of network media in real Chinese context, thus providing useful reflections and reference for the healthy development of network media in China .