From Opposition To Deliberation: The Change Of Government Response In Network Era

Network media develops rapidly in recent years, and it has many different characteristics from traditional media. It not only changed the traditional production and communication of news, but also provided a wider platform for us to receive information and express our opinion. Network media became the source of information in lots of unexpected incidents, which was inconceivable before. Compared with the comments in newspaper and television, the views in network media are so powerful to form the strong public opinion. So network media can promote the expression of public opinion, which gives citizens a new ways to participate in public affairs.At the same time, governments gradually changed their attitudes towards the public opinion in network media. In the traditional concept, the public can only accept government's decisions and actions passively, so the public voices are very difficult to attract government's attention. Network media increased the difficulties of blocking information, and changed the way of communication between government and the public.Deliberative Democracy Theory rose in the end of the 20th century, and it is a form of democracy to cure the non-democracy election in west. This theory encourages citizens to give their suggestion for public affairs by equally discussion, and exert influence to the public policy. Although the theory originated in the west, it gave us many useful experiences for promoting democracy.Taking the example of three public events from 2007, this text analyzes the advantage of network media and the change of government response. The purpose is to find the reasons behind the change of government response, and research how to promote the public expression through network media.