The Transition Of Network Discourse Power In The Development Of Network Media

The research of discourse power has been a hot area in humanistic studies. Some western scholars explored this area from their own perspectives– Antonio Gramsci's Leadership,Michel Foucault's Power of Discourse,Jürgen Habermas's Legitimation, Roland Barthes's Pan-symbolization,Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra. These ideas greatly enriched the discourse theories and in particular laid a foundation for the study of media discourse power. With the development of media,discourse (especially by means of media) has been greatly changing the way of human life. Modern mass media are more than their material properties. The have become an organizer of social discourse,the most advanced system for meaning expression and thus a discourse site for which various social organizations and forces compete. In traditional mass media,audiences were missing from the dominant position because discourse power was always in the hands of media organizations and social authorities. However,the emergence and popularity of network media brought about a fundamental change. After the mid-1990s,network media developed more rapidly than the traditional media. With their openness,interactivity,anonymity and low technology threshold,network media have become important platforms by which people participate in public affairs and express opinions. Networks have opened a door to the freedom of speech by breaking traditional media's rigid control over the production and communication of discourse,and in a real sense made discourse subjects diverse and the use of discourse individualized. From the time of Web1.0 when common subjects began to freely express their opinions by discourse to the time of Web2.0 when the position of individual discourse became prominent and discourse interaction was strengthened,and the time of Web3.0 when the discourse Global Communication is a tendency,online media has fully freed individual discourse power and brought about a era of civilian communication. The transition of discourse power,as a result of the development of network media,are bound to break the traditional public opinion control mechanisms,alter the current media pattern and furthermore establish a new order of media discourse. This paper is to discuss the transition of discourse power in the development of network media. It consists of four sections. In the first section,two important concepts,discourse and discourse power, are illustrated in detail. The second section focuses on the early stage (the time of Web1.0) of the development of networks and provides a summary and analysis of the features of online discourse power. Taking the development stages of networks as a clue,the third section focuses on the performance of discourse power in times of Web2.0 and Web3.0,and explains the changes of discourse power and their causes and effects. The last section discusses power anomie and regulation problems in the transition of network discourse power.