| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中正大學 === 政治學所 === 93 === What role has the mass media played in Taiwan’s democratization process? This research shows that political magazines played a crucial role in Taiwan’s democratization process.
This thesis was focused on the political magazine Free China, which was published during the 1950s in Taiwan and provided a forum for native Taiwanese to express their opinions about the political environment and present their demands to the ruling government.
Free China was published at a time when Taiwan’s status in the international community was very unstable, and when the KMT was using an autocratic governing style to control dissent, violating the Constitution on many instances and disheartening many freedom advocates who had originally supported the KMT regime. They began to express their discontent and longings for freedom and democracy in Free China.
The political magazine achieved broad support among both native Taiwanese and mainlanders, which led to the formation of Taiwan’s first opposition movement. It was for this reason that Free China was suppressed by the KMT government in the latter part of the 1950s.
Free China, which originally supported the autocratic KMT government, became a pioneer of Taiwan’s budding democracy movement. The magazine attracted intellectuals and became the locus of Taiwan’s opposition movement, creating what Habbermas called a “public sphere” for public discourse and establishing a model for gathering support that later Taiwanese opposition movements would use during election campaigns.
Current President of Taiwan Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu both credit Free China with awakening their political consciousness and planting the seeds of the democracy movement.
Free China’s criticism of Taiwan’s political environment and its insistence on the principles of freedom led to a broad discussion of public affairs in the media and consolidated opposition to the autocratic KMT government. This research shows how the broadcast media and its expansion into the public sphere helped lead, organize, and act as a catalyst for Taiwan’s democracy movement.
The first chapter of the dissertation explains the motive for the research as well as its goals.And the limits of the thesis are laid out, and directions for future research are provided.
The second chapter looks at the research within the scope of the overall environment of the time, presents the theoretical foundations for the research, and then presents and explains the theoretical framework for the research.
The third chapter describes Taiwan’s political and media environment during the 1950s, which provided the platform upon which Free China was able to oppose the KMT regime. The fourth chapter gathers together various historical documents to show the special historical background of Free China, and to show Taiwan’s place in the international environment. It also includes an analysis of Taiwan’s media environment, and the important place that Free China held.
The fifth chapter discusses the interaction between Free China and the ruling KMT party of the time, and looks at the effect that Free China had on political parties, the election system, and the native Taiwanese and mainland factions, and at the way it acted as a bridge between freedom movements that preceded and followed it. The second half of chapter five discusses the way in which Free China established a public sphere that supported democratic thinking, as well as the effect that the arrest of Lei Jhen, founder of Free China, had on Taiwan.
The sixth chapter attempts to link together theory and case studies. This research revealed the important effect that the media had on Taiwan’s democratic process, which is this dissertation’s most important discovery.
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