Research On Women’s Issues In Social Media

From December in 2021 to May in 2022,the revision draft of the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women was introduced to public and to collect opinions from general citizens.It has been nearly 30 years since the law was last revised.For the revision of this law is closely related to half of the country’s population,it has sparked widespread discussions on Chinese social media platforms.With a large number of users,Weibo has played an important role in providing a space for public discussion and giving visibility to all parties involved.This study focuses on the public discussions on Weibo platform during the revision of the Law,using social network analysis on the reposting behavior of Weibo users and high-frequency word cooccurrence analysis on the content of discussions,in order to clarify who participated in the discussion and which kind of topics were mentioned during this period.Through the social network analysis on users’ reposting behavior,this study finds that the information from verified government account,the mainstream or commercial media,users who specialized in law,and some influencers is trusted,but they do not share the same visibility since they have different social relationship resources.The discussion could be classified as specific articles of the Law,calls for participation in the legislative processes and gender issues,which reflected at least four topics:Chinese women’s emancipation,gender consciousness,the real-life dilemmas faced by women and the landlessness of women group in villages.Through the analysis on the visibility of subjects,this study finds that the government is visible,leading the orientation of public opinion.Media organizations are visible,with mainstream media and commercial media competing for users’ attention.Individuals are visible:ordinary users could involve in discussions,but their voices are drowned out in cyberspace due to their lack of social relationship resources.Attention should also be paid to invisible population,such as the group living in rural areas or elderly people,women and other vulnerable groups in society.Through the analysis on visibility of content of discussions,this study finds that the state will is visible reflected by the law.The mainstream discourses from the government and mainstream media are visible.Diverse issues are visible such as women’s issues and sisterhood.However,it should also be noted that algorithm-controlled trending topis may affect the visibility level of public issues.And some users and their discussions are no longer visible due to factors such as content moderation from the platform.By objectively presenting the discussions taken place on Weibo platform during the revision of the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women,this study hopes to add a special perspective to the presentation of women’s issues on social media against the backdrop of China.