1 / 2018-09-25 20:41:25

A Study on Community Civic Participation from Digital Media Perspective ----A Fieldwork Research Based on Smart Community in Yinchuan city，Ningxia province

civic participation,community management,digital media

Civic participation has became a catchword in China's social life as urbanization continues to deepen. As a result, there's an inevitable confrontation between the traditional top-down vertical government-dominated governance model and the citizens' growing public spirit, awareness of rights protection and the demands of self-management produced by the social changes，therefore, a "fault zone" between community and citizens has been produced. The application of digital media, however, has bridged the fault with its two-way interactive function fulfilled by the construction of online community including forms such as Wechat Group, network platform and community official accounts and etc. with public topics initiated, community activities organized and news shared, it breaks the limitation of time and space and makes active civic participation in community management concerning citizens' vital interests such as education, medical care, supporting for the aged, and etc possible and feasible, and consequently make an impact on the community service model and policy making orientation. A fieldwork based on the practice of Smart Community Construction in Yinchuan,Ningxia was conducted and it shows that an "online public domain" has been created by various forms of network platforms which not only provide a new field to foster the integration of citizens' interpersonal relationship, affective interaction, interconnection of interests and values, and accordingly raise people's awareness as a community member and also enhance their sense of belongings to the community, but also ensures an effective channel guarantee for further participations in different dimensions including political, economic, cultural and leisure activities. Therefore a new governance model with multiple interactions which combines the government and citizens is generated.