Can Public Intellectuals Expand Social Influence by Using Social Media? The Case of China

• In Event: 209 - Theory Section Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Cultural Sociology 1

Abstract

Russell Jacoby posted a question that ‘where are the public intellectuals’, and public intellectuals’ credibility is dropping with the knowledge production theory posted by post-modern theorists. Simultaneously, Facebook and Twitter have become globally popular and get great influence not only in the virtual world but also in realistic society as the representative type of social media. Whether public intellectuals can expand social influence by using social media?

I choose Chinese public intellectuals and Weibo (similar to Twitter in China) as research subjects to represent public intellectuals and social media and use text analysis method. It is found that 65.9% of Chinese public intellectuals have opened Weibo accounts, the average number of followers of their weibo is near to 900,000, and that of being shared and replied to their newest weibo has exceed to 1000. It is showed that public intellectuals broaden their scope of public influence by using weibo. But it is demonstrated in public’s comment on their weibo that public opinion has divided into two different parts. Someone welcome public intellectuals and agree with their point, while someone disagree with their weiboes and even insult them.

By using Bourdieu’s field theory, ‘public intellectuals win more public attention but lose public credibility’ can be explained by fragmentation, populism, discourse violence as the distinctive rules of weibo field result in the totally different public evaluation. We cannot be too optimistic of public intellectual expanding social influence by using social media.

Author

• Zhou Dai, University of Warwick