通风报信:一次课堂点名的实地研究

Furnishing Secret Information:A Field Study of Class Roll Call

通风报信是中国社会一种颇具特色的传播行为。人情、关系、面子、报等可能是理解这一传播行为的重要本土概念。通过对高校的一次课堂点名进行了实地研究,发现在场的学生有2/3参与了通风报信。信息传受双方普遍将之视为人情往来,涉及差序格局中的“关系”判断;相对于冒名顶替,通风报信只是举手之劳,不转告更可能引起好友不满;人情大小和对关系的影响是考量重点,个人内心是否情愿并不重要;传受双方遵循报之规范,一欠一报,来来往往,形成了生生不息的信息动力场;对其他在场者会放出风声的心理预期,导致多数在场者争先恐后报信,以此为自己赢得最好的人缘。现场的通风报信者和未报信者在社会疏离感的自我疏离感和不可控制感维度上存在统计上边缘显著的差异,报信者得分偏低,他们更喜欢社会交往和搞好关系。在“通风报信”这一新的情境中重新验证了人情的相关理论,发现了人情在通风报信中的重要作用,或有助于从传播学的视角进一步理解信息作为交换物时人情运作中的一般规则和特殊性质,从而进一步丰富人情等本土理论探索的信息与传播之维。更有助于于生活细微处感悟文化,从而提升“文化自觉”,进而为卓有成效的借鉴与建设展开可能,推动社会往更美好的方向发展。

Furnishing secret information is a characteristic communication behavior in Chinese society.Renqing,guanxi,mianzi,and bao may be important native concepts for understanding this communication behavior.This article conducts a field study on a classroom roll call in colleges and universities and found that 2/3 of the students in the class participated in the furnishing secret information Both parties in the information transmission regard it as a social exchange,which is relevant to the judgment of the“relationship”in the differential order.Instead of masquerading furnishing secret information is easy,while not telling is more likely to cause dissatisfaction with friends.The size of the favor and the impact on the relationship weigh over the individuals’willingness.The two parties follow the principle of reciprocity,forming an endless information dynamic field and affecting other people’s psychological expectations.It leads to the majority of people in present scrambled to furnishing secret information,hoping that they might win the best popularity.There are significant differences between whistleblowers and non-reporters in the dimensions of social alienation,sense of self-estrangement,and uncontrollability.The scores for the whistleblowers are low,referring that they prefer social interaction and good relationships.This paper re-examines the relevant theories of renqing in the new situation of“furnishing secret information”,and discovers the important role of renqing in furnishing secret information,which may help to further understand the operation of renqing when information is exchanged from the perspective of communication.The general rules and special properties of renqing further enrich the dimension of information and communication in the exploration of local theories such as renqing.It is more helpful to understand the culture in the subtleties of life,thereby enhancing“cultural awareness”,and then opening the possibility for effective reference and construction,and promoting the development of society in a better direction.Limitations and future research directions of this paper are also discussed.