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Issues Of The Public Space And The Deliberativeness Of Citizen Journalism Blogs

Posted on:2011-07-22Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:L ShiFull Text:PDF
GTID:2178360308985027Subject:Journalism
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The Internet, with its openness and equality, can transcend the limitations of communication between traditional media and the public. The new modes and relationships of communication have impacted on the existing social systems and norms. Whether the Internet could facilitate the realization of democracy has become a disputed issue. Research on whether there is a public space on Internet for netizens to freely and rationally discuss on public affairs has been carried out from different perspectives. As a typical type of we-media, blogs fit better into the developing state of a plural society, with the question 'Is there a public sphere in the blogosphere?'drawing attention from the academia. Scholars from mainland China focus on describing the characteristics of blogs and discussing on the meanings of public sphere. Few empirical studies on this issue have been found.To fill in that gap, the current study examined the articles of the column Editors Recommendation of a citizen journalism blog website, my1510.cn, which were published in 2009.A content analysis of 319 systematically sampled entries was carried out to present the topics and comments of the articles and the interactive relationships between bloggers and responders, and to explore whether rational discussions existed.A text analysis of a purposive sample was added to explore how netizens obtained and transferred discourse power in a group discussion. An explanation on the silent majority was presented.It was found that netizens on the blog website were very interested in political and social events. Because of the media environment and the homogeneous structure of participants, people tended to interact with those with opinions similar to their own while ignoring or irrationally attacking those with different views. This is hardly beneficial for a group discussion.There is a huge gap between the desire of personal expression and rational public deliberation.
Keywords/Search Tags:public sphere, deliberative democracy, civil engagement, rationality, blogs
PDF Full Text Request
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