Distorted Public Discourse and the Pseudo-Public in Chinese Public Sphere

• In Event: 365 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 06. Culture and Politics

Abstract

China’s media has been long tightly controlled by the government. However, the information technology has offered Chinese an alternative to give their voice. Facing the growing opinion gathering on microblog, the authority decides to apply “Real Name Policy”, which forced users to give their real name in the name of “build a healthy online environment”, to microblog users. By analyzing the contents from Chinese microblog and news articles from official news outlet which consist with newspapers, official websites and other related websites, we find that the attitudes on Real Name Policy from the unofficial sources that dominated by the general public are significantly different from those from official sources: the former is much more negative.
Accepting that there are different discourses of public in the Chinese Context, based on the theory of formal and informal public sphere we argue that the officials are trying to construct a pseudo-public. It is a sphere connected officials and the public, in which the official hired online commentators, as well as authority-controlled traditional media, disguised as common people and pretend to distort public opinion. In this way, the government aims to legitimate the application of Real Name Policy. Using this as a focal point, this research is also trying to explore the contradiction and connection between formal and informal public sphere in the Chinese context, and examine the potential threat brought by 50-Cent Party to online deliberation.

Author

• Muyang Li, State University of New York-Albany