Page 186 - 《社会》2021年第1期

Abstract： Whether the Internet promotes political participation has always been a hot
topic among academia. However， the current research lacks an effective classification
of Internet usage， nor does it analyze its impact on different political participation.
Based on the data from the China Urban Governance Survey（2015 & 2018）， this study
offers an examination of Internet usage behavior of urban Chinese from the perspectives
of Internet involvement and information consumption， as well as a comparison of
different patterns of Internet use on conventional and unconventional political
participation. The result of this study confirms the “empowerment hypothesis” of Internet
use and shows that both“group鄄involvement鄄social information oriented” Internet use
have a positive effect on conventional or unconventional political participation of urban
Internet users. However， the study fails to support the“time displacement hypothesis.”
It shows that the“individual鄄involvement鄄entertainment oriented” mode of Internet use
has no negative effect on the conventional and unconventional political participation of
Chinese urban Internet users . Similarly ， the“group 鄄 involvement 鄄 entertainment
oriented” Internet use has no significant effect on unconventional political participation.
Taken together， the study shows that in general， Internet use has promoted Chinese
urban netizens’political participation but there are significant differences between
different types of Internet use. As a revolutionary medium， Internet not only provides
citizens with the convenience of obtaining and communicating information but also
brings more challenges to the state governance. How the government should deal with
different kinds of political participation in the Internet age will be an important research
topic in the future.
Keywords：political participation， Internet involvement， information consumption ，
empowerment hypothesis ， time displacement hypothesis

一、引言

信息技术革命是 21 世纪最重要的革新性突破，而互联网作为信息
技术革命最突出的成果， 其飞速发展的趋势与广泛的渗透范围已经超
越其技术特征，逐渐成为影响社会结构、重塑个体行为的重要因素。 中
国自 1994 年引入互联网技术以来，互联网已经逐渐取代书信、固定电
话，成为人们信息交流的主要方式。随着微博、微信、抖音等互联网社交
平台的蓬勃发展，网络空间超越传统信息流通的时空限制，形成了新的

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