Communication Mechanism Research Of The Virtual Public Sphere In The Period Of Social Transformation

Being the leading communication technology in the21st century, Internet has brought human beings into an era of’digital life’, and the lifestyle of being on the mouse has been sweeping across the world. During the last twenty years, China has witnessed that Internet had been adopted by most of ordinary families, which has greatly reduced the cost of information and ideas dissemination, but also aroused citizen’s enthusiasm on social life and public discussion. As the appearance of various public opinion years, the public are able to spread their ideas, discuss and protect rights in public debates online, which is as common as breath. Under this circumstance, the virtual public sphere has emerged with features of grassroots. The virtual public sphere, distributing’the right to express’to ordinary people as a positive platform for public opinion, has participated into the transformation of Chinese society and put in-depth influence on the operation of society in China.Facilitated by the network media technology in web2.0era, Interest competition and the delegation of powers to lower levels within the government, the virtual public sphere has been emerging in China during the period of social transformation. It has been granted chances to grow independently as it come into being and the communication mechanism has been increasingly mature. Firstly, the communication elements of public cyber space consist of four aspects:the public constituted by diverse heterogeneous subjects, the multi-tiered public space of network media, the public topics in the form of hot issues and the network consensus differentiating from public opinions, which has also reflected uniqueness of public cyber space. Secondly, the research of virtual public sphere propagation mainly focuses on the information source, topics, formation mechanism of public opinions and realistic care. Thirdly, the virtual public sphere has been irrevocably flourishing in the transformation of society, whose effects of communication should be viewed dialectically. On the one hand, it has been promoting settlement of social problems and guarding the moral bottomline of society. Through putting pressure on the public authorities, the virtual public sphere are becoming more negotiated and critical, pushing positive operation of the society. On the other hand, the irrational expression and rumors on line have also caused a series of social problems which threat the social stability. Lastly, on the guiding of communication mechanism of virtual public sphere, it is suggested that the government can be the main body to lead the public opinions on line by institutionalizing the public opinions, holding the mainstream of public opinions actively and advocating the Network Real Name System. Additionally, the network service providers could strengthen self-discipline, and run network service with a responsible manner. And internet users also need to improve their own quality, surf online legally. A positive environment for public cyber space will be built by the cooperation of the three subjects.As a new type of the public sphere, the virtual public sphere will grow towards being institutionalized and civilian. However, it should not be too demanding for the functions of virtual public sphere in the context of China. The power of network is limited. It will be a slow process to build public sphere broadly.