The Public Agenda In The Internet Era

The fast development of the net technology hastens the coming of the internet era.The internet era subverts the mode of traditional information transferring, so the information transferring pattern got damaged. In the traditional media era, the public agenda is dominated by the media, which sets issues for the public according to the norm and nature of media, and the public has no channel to feedback. However, with the coming of the internet era, it is both real and possible that everyone can become the media. The public and the internet play double roles in the process of setting issues and development. Thus, the mode of setting public issue through the traditional media collapses, and the internet remodels the public issue setting.As to what the new characteristics of the public agenda are like in the internet era, as well as what factors drive the forming of the public agenda, trough empirical investigating the public’s media awareness and subjective evaluation about the " Shanghai the Bund stampede", this research analyzes the process of the public agenda setting in the internet era, the change of the public agenda mode and puts forward the involving policies about standardizing the public agenda in internet agenda. The research contributes to the maintenance of order and custom in the internet environment. What is more important, it does preparation for the study of the remolding the internet public agenda.This paper mainly falls into four parts:The first part is about the impact of internet’s appearance to the traditional agenda settings.According to Maxwell Mccombs and Donald L. Shaw, the stronger intensity the media reporting events, the more attention the public attention to this event. The one-way information media propagation results in the only way for the public to know the world. Internet era stimulates the birth of public news, and the information transmission changes to the net mode. The public’s knowledge about the world does not only come from the public media, and the role of the public&the internet playing in the public agenda setting has gradually surpassed the traditional media.The second part explores the formation mechanism changes of the public agenda in the internet era, through empirical investigating the public’s media awareness and subjective evaluation about the " Shanghai the Bund stampede". The paper will analyze the public agenda’s forming process by taking " Shanghai the Bund stampede" as an example. It divides the process of the public agenda into triggering phase, formative phase and catastrophic period. It will explore the factors driving the public agenda’s forming from the aspects of the internet’s spreading characteristics, the psychological characteristics of the network group, as well as the public opinion.The third part analyzes the positive social impacts by the public agenda setting in the internet era. The mode of public agenda setting in traditional media times is dominated by the media and accepted by the public---the one-way setting mode. The birth of the internet offers good platforms for the public to join in the issue setting and development. The public agenda setting of the internet era is influenced comprehensively by all kinds of factors like net, public, the traditional media and etc. The internet reconfigures the public agenda setting mode. The public agenda’s forming realizes the return of the public’s voice, deconstructs the traditional elite’s words, and guides the public opinion.The fourth part analyzes the negative social impacts by the public agenda setting in the internet era. The public agenda’s forming in the internet era weakens the effects of the traditional media. The internet’s anonymity transferring and zero requirement leads the public to spread information, net violence&net rumors at their will, and the public culture is consumed unduly. As to the issues brought up in the process of public agenda forming, the research offers strategies to deal with. The paper will seek for strategies to maintain the benign development of the public agenda respectively from the aspects of the laws and regulations system, media, agenda setting, information, real name, main body self-discipline.