■ Zengzhi Shi, an American communication scholar known as the father of communication, once said that once the media appears, it intervenes in all significant social changes. On October 1, 1999, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, "Southern Weekend" published a special issue titled "Our Country, Our Festival," which included an editorial article "From Subject Society to Citizen Society." This article did not attract widespread attention at the time and was even subject to considerable doubt.
Ten years have passed, and as we welcome the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, we gather at Peking University to hold the 2009 Peking University Public Welfare Communication Forum, following the mission of the 2008 Peking University Public Welfare Communication Forum: "Great Love in Action, Our Responsibility." We begin to explore more deeply the special program of CCTV’s Social and Legal Channel "Everyone's Opinion" 2009 China Charity Navigation, with the theme "Let Charity Be More Transparent, Let Love Be More Confident," emphasizing the rationality and ability of charity and public welfare, as well as communication and cooperation. This indicates that over the past decade, especially with 2008 being the first year of Chinese civil society, the increasingly emerging spirit of volunteering, citizen awareness, citizen participation, and self-recognition of citizenship have converged into a spontaneous and strong social concern, giving birth to an increasingly vibrant civil society.
Mass media plays a significant role in public welfare communication. Under the current circumstances, the development of new media has provided the possibility for communication activities to transcend time and space. This cross-temporal and spatial exchange breaks down the boundaries of interpersonal communication, group communication, organizational communication, and mass communication in traditional social structures. The breaking of these social boundaries has far-reaching implications. It signifies social transformation, not just a simple transition, but more so a discontinuous change in society, a systemic institutional change, and a profound transformation of social structure due to differences in the organization of social life. Social relationships will inevitably be reconstructed on this basis.
The Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan once pointed out that "the medium is the message." The internet, mobile phones, and other media have become important mediums in people's lives, changing and reshaping modern lifestyles. In a sense, media has become a vast social organization network, playing a role in communication and organizing society, becoming an indispensable force in social change.
The interaction between traditional mainstream media and emerging media has cultivated an open, pluralistic public discourse space. Public opinion and citizen participation are the most precious spiritual nourishment for the growth and development of Chinese civil society. From various media public events in recent years, we can see that the media is no longer a simple propaganda tool. The interaction of various media forms debates, discussions, and a "free market" for providing opinions. The emergence of self-media provides possibilities for individual citizens and social organizations to produce, manufacture, and disseminate information. Individual citizens and social organizations are not only recipients of information but can also become opinion leaders, influencing the agenda-setting of mainstream media. The advocacy of media and the construction of public space not only accelerate the development of Chinese civil society but also connect with the global civil society.
Creatively developing public welfare communication and promoting the public welfare cause has significant implications for the growing Chinese civil society. First, effective public welfare communication emphasizes the joint efforts of all sectors of society. Only in this way can public interests be greatly promoted. Relying solely on the "tear index" is difficult to gain societal trust. Charitable public welfare based on power and rules will enable Chinese civil society to go further. Second, effective public welfare communication usually designs and develops activities targeting specific audiences, easily attracting the attention and support of the audience, creating emotional resonance with the target audience, setting a good example, gaining legitimacy in action, and thereby awakening broader citizen participation. Third, through effective public welfare communication, citizens' social responsibility and dedication can be strengthened, enhancing social trust and encouraging the reconstruction of diverse social values. Fourth, citizens learn to listen and respect each other in dialogue and communication, promoting civic virtues and social unity. In summary, effective public welfare communication can not only boost the development of Chinese civil society but also relates to the construction of a harmonious society, media reform, public opinion supervision, the public sphere, democratization, and the legal process.
Public welfare communication is not merely the responsibility of mass media. In a transforming society, every day-to-day communication in people's lives embodies the concept of public welfare communication and achieves the goal of spreading public welfare. Citizens' self-enlightenment and self-governance are the tissues of civil society; mutual care and assistance are the essence of civil society. It is precisely on this basis that interpersonal interactions transcend geography, ethnicity, class, and culture, uniting every individual into a community with common ideals, pursuits, and mutual vigilance. The prosperity of charitable public welfare is the daily manifestation of humanity—integrity, tolerance, equality, unity, justice, sympathy, and concern—which become the foundation for the development of civil society.
The Wenchuan disaster relief and reconstruction efforts have shown us that the participation of civil society complements and boosts government actions. China's charitable public welfare cause has set sail, but in the ever-changing journey, we need vigilant guardians and accurate navigators.
Modern communication has characteristics such as decentralization, immediacy, and interactivity. We must profoundly realize that the changes in media itself and the interactions among various media cannot escape the limitations of what French thinker Pierre Bourdieu called the "field." Public opinion is the result of the combined effects and games of various forces in different fields that break through established social structures and institutions. The famous German scholar Jürgen Habermas distinguishes public opinion into two categories: "as a critical force or as a display and control force." Public welfare communication is formed by conflicts and turbulence in larger political, economic, legal, cultural, academic, and other complex field structures transcending time and space.
In the competition between fields, so-called public welfare media, public service advertisements, public welfare marketing, public interest litigation, public welfare venture capital, social enterprises, etc., will emerge, making public welfare communication a more complex, lively, and rich natural process. On the one hand, they make the dissemination of public welfare possible, while on the other hand, public welfare communication can easily be utilized by various social interests.
As Mr. Dao Feng He, Executive Vice President of the China Poverty Alleviation Foundation, stated, ideals evolve in the secular mire. Humanity's pursuit of its own better life will inevitably make choices to seek benefits and avoid harm. When the dissemination of public welfare deviates from the meaning of public welfare communication, it will undoubtedly increase the cost of social trust and harm the interests of individuals and organizations. In this sense, humans should learn to communicate and understand each other, learning understanding and tolerance. However, this also deeply warns us that public welfare communication and the dissemination of public welfare are beautiful pursuits of humanity, which must be realized in the process. Desires are beautiful, but the process is arduous. Humanity continues endlessly until today, precisely because public welfare communication is the result of humanity's eternal pursuit.
(The author is a professor at Peking University School of Journalism and Communication and the executive director of the Peking University Research Center for Civil Society.)