網際網路與公共領域---特別以中國的情形為分析焦點

Abstract

少數人想看到網際網路建構起羽毛豐滿的公共領域。即使這可能是真的， 但對中國而言實現此一說法的阻礙是特別多的。甚至最樂觀的觀察者都同 意，網際網路最多只是一種｢初期的｣或｢興起中的｣公共領域。 網際網路中的互動和傳統公共領域中的互動非常不同。如果網際網路是公 共領域，那麼它是一種非常不同的公共領域。我們有必要透過本體論式的 研究思考中國的網際網路。我們不應該一廂情願地認為網際網路就是公共 領域，更不應該憑空認為中國有了網際網路就能形成公共領域。我們應該 透過適當的分析，研究中國社會既存的本體結構與網際網路既存的本體結 構如何關聯起來。只有如此我們才能理解網際網路可能對中國或其他地方 的民主化產生甚麼樣的影響。

There are few people who are willing to conclude that the Internet constitutes a fullfledged public sphere. Even this may be true about the Internet generally, but in China the obstacles are particularly high. As even the most optimistic observers agree, the Internet is at best an “incipient,” or an “emerging,” public sphere. Interaction on the Internet differs in crucial ways from interaction in a traditional public sphere. If the internet is a public sphere, it is a public sphere of a very different kind. An ontological investigation opens up new ways of thinking about the Internet in China. Instead of forcing the Internet to become a public sphere and forcing Chinese society to embrace it, a proper analysis should investigate the ways in which the existing ontology of Chinese society relates to the existing ontology of the Internet. Only in this way can we understand what impact the Internet is likely to have on democratization, in China as well as elsewhere.