New media and the new(s) civil society: a multimethod approach to understanding China's growing online public sphere

Abstract

Since the beginning of reform and opening up, Chinese society has gone from periodic upheaval to relative stability under China's one-party system. Parallel to this development is the steady growth of civil society organizations and state institutions for political participation. Looking beyond traditional neo-Tocquevillian links between formal civil society and democracy, this thesis investigates the role of informal, digital society in building a public sphere. Research is focused on developing empirical approaches to understanding China's online communities. This thesis employs survey methods, analysis of publicized electronic communications and NGO data, extensive reading of political microblogs, and social network analysis to address the size and political tendencies of digital communities. Given the realities of censorship and legal reprisal, much political speech occurs through selected retransmission of news stories. Additionally, the social network analysis approach developed in this thesis is able to identify ill-defined online communities for further research.