Research On Power Relations And Games In Internet Media From The Perspective Of Foucault's Theory

With the birth and development of the Internet, the power of the Internet issues becomes the focus of political science, sociology, law, communication and other subjects. Internet revolution brought profound changes to society, it is now changing the order of the visible power which based on the traditional geographical units. Information and knowledge is gradually replacing physical resources as a form of power, the power of information becomes to be a standard as a measure of the basic scale.In Mid-20th century of the French, Michel Foucault(Foucault, M.1926-1984) is the most passion thinker who used genealogy, archeology to analyze the structure relations among power,knowledge and discourse. In the book "order of discourse" ,he firstly proposed a point of view which is " Discourse is power". Information or knowledge is to be a system as "pure writing words", system generate power, power generate knowledge, knowledge strengthen social relationships. System is an established social relationship, people are relationships. Discourse and power are inseparable, the real power is achieved through discourse. Knowledge, academic, discourse can become a form of power.In this article, I firstly sorted out Foucault's "discourse" theory and"power–knowledge"theory, then analyzed and explained the connotation of power and the relationships between power and knowledge and monitoring. Secondly, Foucault's discourse theory can be used to the two-dimensional analysis of Internet and power in post-industrial era. There are three major power relations in the new media, and mainly in three dimensions which are regime's power, the power of virtual enterprise, the power of public opinion. Combination of theory and case,the article reveals that the power dispersed and operated in levels of social relations, including the channels and the path of discourse, the expression and operation of the power. Finally, the various of power relations are not independent and decentralized, there is a game between them. Among them, the public opinion is an important power of the Internet, which played the role of checks and balances in the traditional political and economic power trying to extend its "hegemonic" state.