Abstract
The internet provides a free and convenient platform for the public to obtain political information and participate in political life. Meanwhile, there occurs fierce confrontation of various values and ideologies, shaping a complicated and changeable field of public opinion. The strategies of civic participation and the generation of public opinion show quite different characteristics in such a mediatized society. This article aimed to study civic participation in Chinese cyberpolitics and to find its patterns and the logic behind it. Due to the natural advantage of the environmental issues in its commonality, the internet events in the last decade related to the PX (para-xylene) project were selected as the research object. This study used grounded theory as the method and conducted a cross-case analysis on the original data captured on Weibo—one of the most popular social media sites in China. Finally, four patterns of civic participation in internet events were found and summarized, as well as the intervention and influence of media logic in different modes. However, it is political logic, rather than media logic, that reveals greater vitality in the civic participation of cyber deliberation. Mediatization does exist but is far from dominance. It has certain significance for the supervision and management of public opinion and the rational and harmonious development of civic participation in public issues.
Highlights
The internet is an important platform for public political participation
Through the grounded theory method and the cross-case analysis, this study found four patterns of civic participation in internet events and, afterward, came up with two different approaches of mediatized politics—‘action’ and ‘deliberation’
Regarding the role that the media played in the two approaches, it is significant that the media in the action approach is ‘empowerment’, while it is a ‘platform’ in the process of mediatized politics in the deliberation approach
Summary
The internet is an important platform for public political participation. Social media stimulates civic politics participation and interpersonal communication on the internet [1].The digital platform can support democratic politics and fulfill their role as a public realm [2]. The internet is an important platform for public political participation. Social media stimulates civic politics participation and interpersonal communication on the internet [1]. The digital platform can support democratic politics and fulfill their role as a public realm [2]. Some researchers believe that netizens change the model of public agenda setting through internet political participation [3]. During the Western environmental movement in the latter half of the 20th century, scientific environmental knowledge has become the consensus of the community as the basis of public debate. In China’s environmental protection movement based on social media, scientific knowledge, which is representatively ‘lizhongke’, a Chinese social slang that means rational, neutral and objective, has become the symbolic standard of ‘faction division’, and intellectuals have formed ‘party spirit’
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