Cultural Study Of New Media: Integration And Interaction Between Micro-blog And The Public Sphere

The public sphere poses significant and penetrating influence on many aspects ofsocial life. Jurgen Habermas defines the public sphere as a regulative area between thestate and the civil society, in which the public could express points of view anddiscuss social affairs without the intervention or limitation from the state authority.The public sphere facilitates the formation of the public consciousness, fosters thecriticism and supervision towards the state and the public power, and foremost,promotes social democracy by allowing the public to talk about the public affairs in afree but rational way. Thus, we should advocate the positive effects of the publicsphere theory when constructing the public sphere in China.Among various forms of modern mass media, micro-blog has a naturalintegration with the public sphere. Being a kind of new media in the present Internet,micro-blog changes the information dissemination pattern of the traditional media,provides an equal and liberal interactive platform for the public communication andcreates an unprecedented discourse space in the name of the public sphere. It indeedplays a vital role in constructing the public sphere in China. Admittedly, we shouldnot ignore the defects and weaknesses during the practical operation process ofmicro-blog.Through some typical examples and situational events of micro-blog, the authorproposes some suggestions on the basis of sufficient analysis on the integration and interaction between micro-blog and the public sphere. In addition, this thesis tries tomake micro-blog as a practical approach to make contribution to China’s publicsphere construction as well as to push forward the people’s participation in the publiclife in an orderly way, which will strengthen the construction of democratic civilsociety.