| Microblogging, which has become an important network platform for discussion ofpublic affairs since2010, is the first reporter of many breaking news and the perfectmedia for the formation of public opinion. The characteristics of Microblogging,openness, immediacy, interactivity and freedom, make "citizen journalism" andconsultation possible in the discussion of public affairs. Although microbloggingbrought phantom of "public sphere" as Habermas depicted, it is not qualified to fullymeet the characteristics and requirements of the public sphere.The existing limitations of microblogging are discussed, respectively, compared tothe four conditions of public sphere,"independent from authority","publicparticipation","rational discussion" and "general interest". It is found that themicroblogging is still under strict control of authority and self-censorship. Moreover,due to the limitations of the user group and opinion leaders, microblogging users canonly represent minority of people, and “Matthew effect” affects when social statusemerge differences. Furthermore, because of anonymous and lack of self-supervised,polarization is severe among users of microblogging when they express their views andemotions. Lastly, the “Navy”, say people who comment for economic reasons, not onlydistort public agenda, but also make false news, which brings bad impact. In short,microblogging still has a long way to go to be one of “public sphere”.Content analysis, questionnaire survey and participant observation are the mainmethods of this research. The “Guo Meimei incident” is studied as a case, and200questionnaires are sent out to200Sina microblogging users. This research also analyzesthe comments of one blog article, in order to examine the difference of opinionscompared to the results of questionnaires. The researcher also observes the relationshipamong microblogging service provider, the authority and commercial interests groups,closely in Sina Company as an intern. |
PDF Full Text Request