Environmental News Manufacturing and Digital Public Sphere: A Case Study about Releasing Whale Shark in Taiwan

• Main Authors: Chia-Hsun Chou, 周佳勲
• Other Authors: 林照真
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/7tp836

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 新聞研究所 === 103 === On March 11, 2013, the environmental group asked the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium to release the whale shark due to the size limit of the fish tank. After four month, the releasing of the whale shark led by the National Museum of Marine Biology Aquarium had failed, raising public attention and criticism. Not only did the mainstream media report the incident, there were a number of discussions took place on the Internet. Based on text analysis, the research analyzed news of the three whale sharks raised by National Museum of Marine Biology Aquarium in the past 9 years from the United Daily News, China Times, Liberty Times, Apple Daily News and Central National Agency to see how the whale sharks were presented by mainstream media. Furthermore, the research used qualitative research method and depth interview method to focus on how the digital users created their content, gathered the information, and interacted with others to see if it is possible that a digital public sphere is formed. The results show that the five traditional mainstream media are prone to apply human interest prospective into the stories. And, the animal protection prospective shows only until 2013. Also, the stories are lack of science and law point of views. On the other hand, the results also indicate that digital users provide different point of views than the mainstream media, and they have don’t trust the mainstream media entirely. Moreover, digital users value reasonable debate and some of their relations turn from virtual to real. Finally, the propaganda power of the digital sphere is strengthening gradually. Therefore, the digital public sphere is formed through the discussion of the public.