培育劳工立场的在线“抗争性公共领域”——对一个关注劳工议题之新媒体的个案研究

Cultivating a Working Class Counter-public Sphere:A Case Study on a New Media Program Concerning Labour Issues

互联网语境下,劳工阶层之抗争性公共领域如何形成,又可能遭遇哪些困境?关注劳工议题的自媒体X网站及其微信公众号提供了一个"深描"样本。本文将其视为于主流公共领域之外建立另类共公领域的努力,从结构、表征和互动三个维度对个案进行考察。基本发现是:X确实构成了持续产制劳工阶层本位的社会正义话语的场所,致力于反抗资方和主流媒体话语的霸权,进行利益与身份政治的抗争;但是,X在培育能动的"抗争性公众"方面则受到局限,且缺乏稳定的结构性保障。这说明X具有成长和培育劳工阶层之抗争性公共领域的潜力,但面临诸多限制。这对于理解当代中国社会条件下另类公共领域的形成具有如下推论意义:一方面,新兴媒体技术的赋权能力、针对新兴媒体相对宽松的管制环境以及马克思主义思想传统等共同构成了抗争性公共领域浮现的基础;另一方面,不稳定的体制位置、缺乏可持续的财政基础以及"互联网生态"等共同构成了限制技术赋权的因素,约束着其发挥社会政治潜力。

This paper is a case study of a grassroots website（i.e.,X）concerning labour issues in China,and its ＂WeChat OfficialAccount＂.By conducting in-depth interviews,field observations as well as textual analyses,and exploring three dimensions of public sphere（a）structure;（b）representation;and（c）interaction,the author intends to offer a thick description of the case and argues that X has constituted a venue in China where the working-class-centred discourses of social justice are continuously produced,thereby potentially arousing resistance against hegemony of capital power and dominant discourses of mainstream media,and launching fights for interests and identities of the working class.The author has also found,however,that X is less effective in cultivating counter-publics.This case has significance in profoundly understanding how the counter-public sphere of the Chinese working class could be formed and what limitations it would be confronted with under the current Chinese social circumstances,especially the proliferation of the Internet.On one hand,the potential empowerment by digital technologies,a relatively loose regulation of new media by governments,and the legacy of Marxism have mutually constituted the foundation of an emerging counter-public sphere in China.The unstable and undecided position of we-media in authoritarian regime,the lack of financial support and the bias of the ecosystem of the Internet are increasingly becoming constraints of the empowerment by new technologies and its social and political rebellious potential.