During the past two months, I examined the use of the term “media ecology” by different scholars and reviewed some works on Chinese Internet. One school of study on the media ecology defines it in broader way, and focuses on its fundamental influence on the society as a whole, the impact on the culture and its potential to alter people’s way of thinking. I also wrote about how Chinese scholars approach the topic of media and civil society. They call for the redefinition of various terms such as “civil society””public sphere” and “political participation” in Chinese context and the stronger role of the state and the priority of economic development should not be neglected in our discussion. This week I have been working on a model to describe different types of civic actions in China and the role of media involved in the processes. Questions that are useful to pursue a bigger picture of ecology of civic media in China might include: What are new social movements in China? What is the concept of community in China? If no direct election, how people have a say in the community? How community is constituted from Confucianism and socialist ethics? What tools can impetus the formation of community? What tools can help institutionalize complaints of community? What aspects of ICT fail to address the problem of ordinary people? What is civic culture? What is the role of state? (role as symbolic or actual agency). The future plan of this project is that my focus will be on the earlier stage of actions generated from the community. It excludes the spontaneous events such as the uproar aroused by the crash of the high speed train, and individual extreme actions responding to social injustice. I do not mean they are not important for an emerging civil society like China, but I am more inclined to pay attention to how these complaints or common concerns can be or cannot be institutionalized on a routine basis.
