Post-Truth Era: Gender-Related Reversal Events Taking the Case of Ying Liang and Guanjun Luo as an Example

Abstract

Given the high transmission efficiency and the vast loads of users on social media platforms, Weibo in China is used by victims to reveal immoral or illegal behaviors to the public. In the post-truth era, an individual's subjectivity on the Internet outweighs objective truths in exerting significant impact. Taking the event of 'Ying Liang and Guanjun Luo' as an example, this study analyzes how digital culture constructed and reinforced public opinion direction by citing statistics on https://ef.zhiweidata.com and several representative comments on Weibo. It can be concluded that the priming effect influences how people evaluate this case and the development of public opinions. Furthermore, this reversal event eventually caused a decline in public trust among netizens, created more obstacles for other female victims who genuinely needed help, and induced a discredit towards feminists radically participating in supporting the female victim.