The Analysis of Citizen Participation on Internet Forum: The Case Study of Xiamen PX

• Main Authors: Shang-jeh Tsai, 蔡尚哲
• Other Authors: Chih-chieh Chou
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/30243963333448789433

碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 政治經濟學研究所 === 97 === Considering to sustaining official ideology, the Chinese Communist Party tries to control mass media from 1949 for realizing efficient blockade toward external information. However, the emerging internet provides Mainland China’s population with a new communication tool and information platform. The Chinese Communist Party implements such measures to response the internet trend as formulating new rules, setting up “internet police” to investigate the illegal contents, and establishing filtration systems. Under the Chinese Communist Party’s internet control system, whether Mainland China’s population could express opinions aimed at public issues and information-gaining via internet would be a subject worthy discussing. Following the motives above, this study selects a public issue, “ Xiamen PX”, as a case. This study mainly searches for the articles posted on the internet forum to analyze the condition of “citizen participation” on the internet forum under the Chinese Communist Party’s internet control system. On the other hand, this study takes Habermas’ concept of “public sphere” and uses the following four observational dimensions as “the netizen’s standpoint of the speech”, “the forum’s information access”, “the netizen’s attitude of the speech”, and “the condition of the responding topic of the forum’s issue discussion” to analyze “Xiamen PX” on the condition of “citizen participation” on the internet forum, and further discusses internet forum’s space shaped and the degree of the internet forum’s discussing politics on Mainland China. Finally, the main findings of this study are shown as: first, the netizens’ interaction is built on the basis of internet characteristic utilization; second, the netizens’ online discussion content indeed links with the netizens’ offline behavior; third, although the Chinese Communist Party could still control opinion criterion and dissemination breadth on the internet forum, political discussion exists without doubt; fourth, the Chinese Communist Party might affect the degree of the internet forum’s discussing politics, but while “the accommodation official different standpoint ”, “the public information access”, “the rational neutrality”, and “the condensation issue attention strength” of the internet forum are shaped, it can also help promote the degree of the internet forum’s discussing politics. To sum up, this study finds that the internet forum’s discussing space has basic difficulty to eliminate China’s official control. However, this study also finds that when the Chinese Communist Party tolerates more about the discussion on the internet forum, it is more likely to shape the better discussing space and promote the degree of the internet forum’s discussing politics.