Cyberdualism in China by Shiru Wang

Author:Shiru Wang [Wang, Shiru]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138218048
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2017-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Never (1) 655 51.17

Occasionally (2) 595 46.48

Often (3) 26 2.03

Almost every day (4) 4 0.31

Total 1,280 100

Exposure to pluralist horizontal information sources online

Habermas’ (1989) critique of the Internet as the public sphere is that netizens are often divided into isolated public issue areas in separate chat rooms. Simultaneous exposure to multiple online information sources or venues is one way to counteract the tendency of fragmentation, maintain pluralism in cyberspace, and probably increase democratic orientation. Thus, this study documents the four types of online activities acquiring information about public issues and affairs, namely, reading news, searching a web encyclopedia, reading blogs or microblogs, and discussing on BBS forums. Each type of activity is coded dichotomously to capture horizontal Internet exposure. The blogs or microblogs of government officials are a part of e-government. Although netizens are likely aware that what they read is from an affiliate of the Chinese government, official bloggers initiate a conversation with netizens intentionally in a personal and nonhierarchical manner as an individual instead of as an institutionalized authority. Therefore, exposure to the blogs or microblogs of government officials is taken undifferentiatedly as one of the diverse sources in horizontal communication. In the meantime, communicating with government-affiliated commentators via these four horizontal venues cannot be differentiated from that with ordinary netizens either.

The survey data show that around three-quarters of the respondents routinely read news online; 57 percent read blog or microblog articles pertaining to public affairs and issues on financial and economic, social, and environmental issues; 40 percent discuss public affairs and issues on some BBS forums; and 60 percent search public issues and affairs with regard to politics, finance and economy, military development, culture, geography, and environment through a web encyclopedia. An additive index is generated to capture the degree of Internet exposure to horizontal political communication by specifying the number of the types of Internet venues that one opens for information and ideas. The results indicate that the exposure of an individual to horizontal political communication is significant among university students. Approximately half of the subjects have a score of “3” or “4.” One-quarter have a score of “2,” and 17 percent have a score of “1.” The Internet is not a source for information or a venue for political communication for the remaining 9 percent of this sample with a score of “0.”

The four aspects, namely, Internet time, Internet age, exposure to e-government, and exposure to horizontal information sources online, comprehensively describe Internet exposure to (political) communication.

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