New media: A rising way for public involvement in China based on case study

Abstract

Because traditional forms of political participation, such as voting and membership in political parties in China is not as efficient as expected, new media to some extent has paved a new way for Chinese citizens to express their request and engage the process of public policy-making. As to the relationship between new media and public involvement, there are two kinds of theoretical framework, Competition framework and Promotion framework. In this paper, two Chinese cases has been introduced, describing and explaining how new media reshape Chinese public involvement in East China and proves that the promotion framework is suitable for analyzing China's case. In the end, it explains why new media is a rising way in Chinese public involvement and furthermore reveals some dilemmas faced by Chinese new media as the way for public involvement. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.