"Neck Warmer": Using What To Warm Masses?

Since the close beta test of Sina Micro-blog in 2009, micro-blog has quickly penetrated into every aspects of Chinese life. Based on the definition and background of micro-blog, this thesis first analyzes the characteristics of micro-blog, and then discusses its cultural functions in actual operation. In the last section, the problems related to micro-blog are presented along with proposed solutions and hopefully, those solutions would shed light on the future researches.The body of this thesis has five sections: first section is an introduction to the research background, research significance and methodology; second section focuses on the definitions and the development of micro-blog which paves the way for synthesizing its characteristics; the third section discusses the characteristics of micro-blog from the body, content, mode and effects of communication; the fourth section is also the hard core of this thesis, highlighting the cultural functions of micro-blog reflected through social (speech freedom, in particular), political (the public areas as theoretical framework), media (the innovative 4A model of micro-blog) and written cultural (the construction of micro-language and micro-literature) elements; the last section concentrates on the status quo of micro-blog: the rampant rumors, the imbalance of stars and grassroots, the imbalance payment and the solutions we proposed to strengthen the positive impacts of micro-blog on the society and culture.