The Influence Of Social Media On Public Service Communication From The Perspective Of Media Environment

As the "new new media" of Web2.0era, social media is not only a form of media but also a media technology. The rise of social media profoundly changed the whole information environment of the society. At the same time, it also brought irreversible changes to China’s public welfare dissemination and practice. Traditional public welfare dominated by the elite is converting to "micro-public welfare" that everyone can participate in. Many small social forces are slowly converging, constructing the social life full of love.This article from the theoretical perspective of the Media Ecology, which is one of the three major schools of Communication Studies. By adopting the combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, the study explores the impact of social media on the Chinese public welfare from the dimension of the media technology, and analyzes the change of the public welfare dissemination promoted by social media bias. At the same time, in view of the negative influence brought by social media to the public welfare dissemination, this paper refers the ecological perspective of the Media Ecology, and suggested that through building a positive relationship with various social subjects such as government, media, schools, social media services and the public, to achieve a balance between social media and the man, and to build a harmonious environment for the public welfare dissemination.In the first chapter, the author discussed the history of social media in China firstly, and analyzed its current situation, characteristics, forms and classification.The second chapter set forth the view of "Media is the Environment" from the theory of Media Ecology, and studied the effect of social media’s inherent structure, symbolic form on the nature of the information. What is more, it also elaborates the role of social media in shaping the whole social information environment from three aspects of the cognitive environment, the symbol environment, the social environment, offering a new media environment to public welfare dissemination.In perspective of the theory of "The Bias of Media", the author researched the influence of the social media bias on the public welfare dissemination. Embodied in four aspects, democratization bias makes communicators increasingly diverse; micro-content bias makes the content individualized; fused scene bias makes the ways varied; emotional bias makes the effect enhanced. In the information environment of the social media, the forms of public welfare dissemination has changed, that influenced the practice of public welfare in China, traditional public welfare dominated by the elite is converting to "micro-public welfare" that everyone can participate in.In the chapter four, in the guide of the theory of "Media Neutral Theory", the author explored the negative impact that social media brings to the public dissemination. Reflected in the following areas, grassroots propagation makes content regulatory difficulty, information asking for help is difficult to distinguish; fragmented information makes the public welfare information overloaded, the public began to weary; Excessive dependence on opinion leaders have an adverse effects on the sustainable development of micro-public welfare. To solve these questions, the author drew on the ecology perspective of the Media Ecology, suggested that through building a positive relationship with various social subjects such as government, media, schools, social media services and the public, to achieve a balance between social media and the man, and to build a harmonious environment for the public welfare dissemination.