The Social Attitude to Genetically Modified Crops in Contemporary China: a Data Analysis of 1800 Weibo Users Hui Yu Sociology Department of Fudan University, Shanghai

Introduction Thirty years of reform and opening up in China : Chinese social structure changes, especially economic and social structure; Class differentiation; Interests diversification;

Great changes have taken place in social psychology, such as relative deprivation

The origin of this study Social attitudes polarized to some extent. Social media has become an important expression platform of social attitudes.

How about people's social attitude in various aspects?Corruption, house price, redistribution, environmental protection, hukou and so on. what are the major factors that influence people's social attitude in present China? it is a complex question People's social attitude changed and polarized During the past few years, we concentrated on the sub group’s social attitudes in social media.

Method

People's social attitude information collected via social media(Weibo) Why it could be possible? First, a great numble of people can read, express and disscuss with others on the social media. Second, netizen independent expression through social media reflect their social attitude. Third, social media provides a way for the wide dissemination and alienation of social attitude.

Data collection Probability proportionate to size sampling (PPS) –We obtain 1800 Sina weibo users of 36 social status groups, recently. Traced blog post fromJuly, 2013 to July, July, questionnair: 7parts, 345 variables 1 month for data collect. Observational method Content analysis method

Netizens' Social Attitudes in Social Media Genetically Modified Crops Class Identity Social Emotions 12 hot issues and so on

Social Attitude Toward Genetically Modified Crops in Contemporary China For Example

Background, two fuse: 1 、 Cui Yongyuan and Fang Zhouzi, from network debate to abuse, then on the court. 2 、 CCTV said trace transgenic ( ) Former CCTV television host: Cui Yongyuan Fang Zhouzi Some information of the debate, abuse and the news on the court have been deleted.

GM crops debates in China The GM crops supporters: we believe in science, or shortage of food need GM crops, and so on. opponents: some support maybe bought by interest group. The subtext is that the interest group grow stronger in the process of reform and opening up,

In social media, GM crops not science or technology problem At present: Rumors proliferating. Anti-GM crops in social media became someone's vocation. Some people attempt to be well-known through reverse GM crops in social media. Government afraid to be related to GM crops. The work activity of researches who major in GM crops have been cracked down.

Measurement What is the social attitude of weibo users toward genetically modified crops? –support; –reverse; –unable to determine. Other influences have been measured in our questionnaire.

Results of the exploratory analysis

Attitude Toward Genetically Modified Crops(N=287) more opponents than supportors

Age and Attitude Toward Genetically Modified Crops No significant correlation between age and attitude toward genetically modified crops.

Living Area And the Attitude Toward Genetically Modified Crops No significant correlation between living area and attitude toward genetically modified crops.

Education And The Attitude Toward Genetically Modified Crops No significant correlation between education and attitude toward genetically modified crops.

Different social status Groups Have Different Attitude Toward Genetically Modified Crops However, significant relationship between social status and attitude toward genetically modified crops in statistic

Media trust is a key factor Food security feeling, political trust and interpersonal trust havn't significant correlation to the social attitude toward genetically modified crops. however, media trust significant, trust media and reversal gene crops. when controlled other individual characteristic variables in regression model, media trust still significant.

Different Media Trust, Different Attitude Toward Genetically Modified Crops Significant correlation between media trust and attitude toward GM crops.

How about the interaction between social status and media trust? Significant relation: –social status –Media trust

In the sample: Distrust media, social status havn’t significant influence; Trust media, social status have significant influence. social status would influence people’s attitude toward GM crops, and it’s effect partly explained by the media trust.

Conclusions and Discussion Media trust significantly affect people’s attitude toward transgenic, and it's an important factor on the formation of people’s attitude.

Looking Ahead It's a exploratory analysis, media trust maybe a key variable that can explain social attitude toward different social topics. More work need to be put into this subject.

Thanks!