On the Mass Media and the Revolution in the Late Qing Dynasty

The trends of thoughts were closely related to the appearance of modern mass media in the Late Qing Dynasty. Before the 1894-95 Sino-Japanese war the Chinese intellectuals mainly made their voices known through writing books or presenting memorials to the emperor.After the war,however,they made good use of the modern mass media to spread their ideas as they came to find newspapers were very effective in publicizing their views on current affairs and politics.With the public opinion greatly influenced,the seriousness of the nation's crisis and the decadent nature of the government were successfully magnified and the idea of revolution spread far and wide among the people.Thus the mass media played a catalytic role in the coming revolution.