The Social Effect Of Shenbao's Public Opinion In Late Qing Dynasty

Since the newspaper appeared in the world, it has played an important role in the progress of civilization development either at present or in the past. It is well-known that the public opinion in the press has become more and more closely related with social political system and ideological system. At peaceful times, the social influence of the newspaper is hard to detect, but at times of unrest, it is enormous. One of the reflections of the social development in modern China is the social influence of newspaper which becomes more and more remarkable and the unique influence of the public opinion in the press to social changes can not be neglected. It depends on supervision by public opinion to restrict state power and promote democracy and rule of law in a country. The beginning of supervision by public opinion in China was the report in Shenbao. Thus, we should explore the history of supervision by public opinion in China from the angle of Shenbao when "supervision by public opinion" is popular as an expression. Two cases in Shenbao between 1872 and 1876 were cited to analyze the impact of public opinion on the development of the cases. Then, the influence on the public, the state power and the press itself can be deduced; therefore, we have a good insight into the power of changes of newspapers in late Qing Dynasty.The people were attracted to care about and take part in social affairs when they read the report in Shenbao and they expressed their opinions on Shenbao. Indirectly, a public opinion space was established in Shenbao; meanwhile, the existence of public opinion space supports the legality of public field. From then on, the people in the Qing Dynasty changed into new citizens who have sense of participation and publicity. The public opinion in Shenbao not only has the influence of supervision by public opinion but also criticizes the criminal system in ancient China. Furthermore, Shenbao discussed the abuse of criminal system in ancient China getting help by introducing western law system. The people in the Qing Dynasty accepted modern western laws and changed their idea of justice. The reports and comments on Shenbao played the most important role in reexamination and change of Yang Naiwu's case. As is known, these reports on Shenbao had supervision by public opinion, which is realized by sending messages and changing the thought of people. Furthermore, we can understand the power that other social organizations can not compared with Shenbao in thoughts enlightenment, consensus mobilization and change of the public policy.This thesis consists of three parts: the introduction, the body and the conclusion, the body is organized into three chapters. Chapter One takes Shenbao for example to analyze the public opinion of the press and its influences on newspapers of the late Qing Dynasty by the reports of Yang Yuelou's case and Yang Naiwu's case. Chapter Two analyzes the reason why the public opinion of Shenbao have an influence on these two cases, it consists of epoch factor, geographical factor, social factor and newspaper factor itself. Chapter Three studies the impact of newspapers in late Qing Dynasty on citizens and the ruling group. Under such circumstances, people changed into modern citizens, the ruling group changed its public policy and press had more and more influences on social change.