The Pragmatics of Media and Identity Politics

. Politics of identity and social media have essential impacts on the public discourse. Analyzing the use of social media by different groups of people and how it changes people’s identity recognition and linguistic behaviour is essential for scholars to predict the future rhetoric environment of social media and the development of linguistic behaviour. To further understand social media users' self-identity and linguistic behaviour, this study used social research and digital image analysis to find the relationship between people's self-identity and factors affecting their interest perception, moral attitude, cognition, and emotional structure. Individual characters such as gender, age, education background, cultural background, and value orientation are also considered in the analysis. The study found the common social perspective on politics, culture, and public policies to be crippled or even crumbled. Under the catalysis of such division, the use of language makes itself the warm bed for the extreme evolution of confronts of identity interests and opinion contradiction. Therefore, the transformation and integration of diffident perspectives and the possibility of reshaping language communication bring new hope to public culture.


Reasons for Topic Selection
The polarization of viewpoints on social media has become more prominent in recent years, resulting in various speech games. Changes in media communication have also heightened public attention and people's understanding of identity politics. The intersecting group boundaries among groups are more prominent, and poor communication has become a significant barrier to instigating social media conflicts. Languages are the foundation for social activities and human connections in culture, social groupings, and social institutions. Thus, concerned about the phenomenon, this article analyzed the issue from the standpoint of pragmatics, paid particular attention to the influence of media culture and identity politics on the content of public expression, and conducted in-depth research on the linguistic issues that underpin these phenomena by integrating their own experience.

Topic Significance
Language comprehension must be contextualized in terms of social, political, and cultural elements to explain the meaning of a speech adequately. In political research, there has been a linguistic shift since the 1980s. Researchers began examining political writings in terms of discourse analysis, attempting to uncover the psychological motivations and ideological paths that underpin them. However, linguistics study focuses mainly on the viewpoints of critical discourse analysis, functional linguistics, pragmatics, etc.
The literature review revealed that there were currently few studies on media and identity politics from the pragmatic standpoint in China. In Critical Vision: A Literature Review of Media and Gender Studies, Cao Jin claims that the pragmatic expression of media will generate a great influence on people's cognition of society and recognition of personal identity and that people who are frequently exposed to the same information will become increasingly occlusive [1]. In Carnival of Performances: Individual Self-presentation and Communicative Behavior in Network Society, Chen Jingqian not only attaches great importance to the fact that the intergroup-interaction role of individual regularly changes due to self-identification and communication with others in a certain period of time but also proposes that the media can be regarded as one of the important ways of expression of the intergroup interaction, with the pragmatics based on social media reflecting a reinforcing effect [2]; In the Social Basis of Virtual Identity and the Limitation of Identity Politics, Yao Xiaoou argues that individuals tend to develop social resistance due to their demands for identity recognition that goes beyond the demands of society as well as the social motives, and that the pursuit of identity on social media has greatly reflected the changes of the society and language [3]; In Cultural Rationality in American Political Discourse: A Cultural Pragmatic Perspective, Zhao Xin and Mao Yansheng contend that cultural rationality in the context of social media is regarded as the dependence and belongingness of a cultural group on the culture of its own group. In other words, assuming that the consistency of communication and interaction within the community is utilized to rationalize political discourse to connect social media, identity politics and pragmatics to a certain extent, media pragmatics will evolve into a political tool in this scenario [4]; In Who We Are: the Construction of the Collective Identity of New Social Movement by Mass Media, Sun Wei proposes that mass media will form new social movements and shape individual identity as well as enlighten modern civic awareness through the construction of collective identity, thereby deepening the public's cognition of rights and obligations [5]; In Media is Ideology: On the Media Control Thought of Frankfort School, Shao Peiren and Li Liang mention that media, as one of the forms of content expression, is in a position to manipulate content through specific language and vocabulary and then realize the unification of society and standardization of content, with its operation essentially controlled by the government rather than being completely subject to the people [6]; In Can New Media Make Us Encounter the Whole World, Li Jing expresses the view that, although publicity requires the constant presence of others, the expression opportunities that social media can easily realize are not enough to confirm the certainty of publicity and personal identity, and there must be a common object to bring everyone together [7]; In Super Connection, Disciplinary Power and Digital Life Politics, Li Yingqi denotes that, in view of the considerable subjective impact of modern media technology on individuals, we should regard people as the subject of rights and catch sight of people's self-identity in the appearance of technology to realize the liberation of individuals in the field of communication activities [8]; In From the Utilization of Media to the Participation of Media, Zhou Baohua and Lu Ye reckon that there is a significant correlation between the mass media literacy and the social structures and media organizations they come into contact with, whereas their expressions and comments on social media also largely depend on the norms provided by the media platform, further confirming the correlation between media, identity and language expression [9]; In Research on the Influence of Preference and Duration of Media Use on Residents' Political Participation, Li Changle and Peng Jian argue that the duration of media utilization has an important influence on individuals' political participation and expression of their political views. In other words, the longer the media utilization, the stronger the users' sense of existence and desire to express themselves in political activities [10]. This research is solely dedicated to compensating for this shortcoming.
Using the pragmatic expression of social media users on Weibo and Twitter, this study aims to investigate the internal characteristics, pragmatic structure, and expression of discourse in the field of identity politics on social media from the perspective of discourse and the macro, meso, and micro contexts, and explore the interplay between media culture and identity politics and discourse expressions.

Research Objectives
This research examines how individuals see and discern identity politics differently due to their use of media platforms and how this affects social media's intensive discourse behaviour. It also helps to identify trends in the development of social media language by examining which factors of class, age, gender, occupation, education level, and ideology value are most likely to influence people's discourse choices in the context of intermediary discourse, as well as provides a methodological guide for political discourse cognition and media discourse analysis.

Questionnaire
The questionnaire is divided into four sections. To begin with, the respondents' gender, age, educational background, occupation, and income are gathered to learn about their self-identity. Second, their preferences, frequency and purpose of social media platforms used, and sensitivity to discourse boundaries are investigated. Third, the respondents' agreement with perspectives on current social issues is investigated to see how their identification influences their assessment of social media discourse. Fourth, it has been investigated whether respondents will have a strong sense of selfidentity when utilizing social media platforms to post their views and whether this process will have an impact on their perspectives concerning such aspects as moral feelings, cognition, and interest judgment.

procedure
154 cases of subjects were collected, excluding 3 invalid questionnaires, for 151 subjects, 84 males, 39 females, 28 genderqueers, mostly aged between 18 and 50 years old, young and middle-aged groups, with generally higher education levels, the specific information is as follows.

Analysis
Responses from Chinese people of diverse genders, ages, education levels, occupations, and incomes were collected in a questionnaire and graphically analyzed below. This poll will help us better understand how identity politics, media, and discourse expression interact. It will also look into how people's use of media platforms affects their cognition and perceptions of identity politics, as well as how this influences their intensive discourse behaviour on social media.

Data processing
Demographic characteristics with relatively small numbers of subjects were merged, and subjects aged 50-60 years were merged with subjects aged 30-50 years into subjects aged 30-60 years. The educational level of respondents was converted to less than a bachelor's degree (n=42) and a bachelor's degree and above (n=109). In addition, income levels were divided into middle and highincome groups (n=103) and low-income groups (n=49). In terms of residence area, overseas subjects were excluded from the analysis due to a limited number of four cases. 154 respondents were questioned in this study, of which three invalid questionnaires were excluded. Therefore, 151 questionnaires were collected, registering a 98.1% effective rate. The survey subjects were 55.6% male, 25.8% female, and 18.5% genderqueers, according to the descriptive statistics. Most people were between 30 and 50 years old (62.9%), had an undergraduate education (66.9%), and earned a middle-class income. The majority of the subjects are from the Mainland of China. Setting variables aimed to understand the relationship between social media use and political identification behaviour. By studying the respondents' social media behaviour, we were able to identify all the influences of the variables on their political identification behaviour. This would also be a fair study of the respondents.

Descriptive statistical analysis of participant identity
In this questionnaire, the selected participants' region of residence is mainland China. As we aim to evaluate the background and the media's influence on Chinese political identity, the study, therefore only deals with the perspectives of Chinese people living in mainland China. In the graph above, people from all age groups were involved. We chose to group the respondents into 18 to 30 year olds, 30 to 50 year olds, and 50 to 60 year olds to discuss the influence of all of these people on political identification behaviour, as measured by their social media usage status. The majority of respondents were between 30 and 50, and they were more concerned with political matters. In terms of educational level, the participants came from varied educational backgrounds. And the majority of the participants were from the middle class, a group whose opinions were being studied. As the country's largest group, they are more focused on political decision-making criteria and have an impact on the political climate. They are more politically aware and use social media frequently. They also provide constructive feedback. As a result, people's perceptions of political identity are shifted, representing how the media shapes people's political identities. The subjects were from different walks of life in terms of occupation, with the biggest number of personnel from social affairs and associated sectors chosen to generate a more equitable result. Because we have included more people from all occupations, opinions will undoubtedly differ.
At the stage of the participants' identification survey, we have chosen to do so to establish a link between social media use and political identity behaviour. This will be a fair evaluation of everyone who has participated in the survey, allowing us to make an objective decision.

Figure 2. Participants' common use of social media
Regarding the number of users on each social media platform, QQ has the largest number of users (65), accounting for 43%, while Wechat has the least (32), accounting for 21.2%. Users from Weibo, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms are also present.
We got the participants from almost all the available sites to know about their concentration. This shows how frequently they use those sites and how connected they are. These are the main sites that most of the users browse and get the information from. These have huge impacts on political views as well. The reasons for using social media software varied among the subject groups, with the majority focusing mainly on news events and articles, accounting for 82% and 77%, respectively.

The purpose of using social media software
This graph shows that the participants mostly use social sites for following hot news and information. This is a great point to prove that people get influenced by the perceived information and news. And then they use these sites to see articles. This is also a positive point to prove the impact

IEMSS 2022
Volume 20 (2022) of media on political identity. This shows that people use those sites to know more about the political arena, affecting their views on political matters. Some people also use it for personal entertainment. However, most people are using these sites to get information and news, which indicates that media has a huge impact on political identity formation. Regarding topics of concern, the most frequently followed topics on social media by male and female run as follows: real-time coverage (44%, 46%) and comments on articles (38%, 41%), whereas the least ones are emotional issues (11%, 5%) and life philosophies (10%, 0%). Additionally, genderqueers are most concerned with real-time coverage (46%) as well as entertainment news (46%), the least concerned are emotional issues.

Topics that are followed by the participants
This shows that people mainly use to see the article comments, which shows how they are interested in others' views. Thus, it points to the fact that the people are using these sites to have a solid political view. Furthermore, real time coverage is also about the hot news all over the world. This also shows the interest of these people, which affects their political thoughts. The majority of individuals (63.6%) "strongly agreed" with displaying users' IP addresses on social media platforms, with only 15.2% strongly disagreeing. There was no difference between the gender of the respondents on whether they agreed with the display of IP addresses on social media platforms (X2=6.819, p=0.148). The graph data suggested that there were significant differences in the attitudes of respondents of different age groups on this issue (X2=6.019, p=0.048, see Figure 4).

Participants' sensitivity to free expression and the boundaries of speech
According to the results of a survey on how displaying a network IP address would affect users when posting comments on social media, 59.6% of the respondents revealed that they would hold a cautious attitude in posting and actively avoid sensitive topics, 27.3% said they would be almost unaffected and would post as usual, 10.4% claimed they would set the visibility and time of posting to achieve a small spread, and 3.3% of the rest indicated that they would not post any more topics after the policy was implemented.
Based on the available data, it appears reasonable to conclude that the majority of the population has a positive attitude toward social media displaying IP addresses, with only a small minority having a negative attitude, and that those over 30 years old have a higher level of agreement with the rule. The information suggests that most of the survey participants are adults who use social networking sites for more than just browsing the web and making friends. Meanwhile, most participants claimed that displaying IP addresses would make them re-examine the boundaries of their speech and the scope of their communication when expressing views. This demonstrates that people use social media on a regular basis to make the best use of it. Simultaneously, they seek new information, stories, news, and other important political information to supplement and support their views. As a result, the information on these websites is more likely to affect their opinions. Furthermore, when commenting on what they are familiar with, people will unconsciously assess their viewpoints, considering the limits of the social media discourse environment. This suggests that the political context significantly impacts people's language expression and identity. Therefore, these results provide confirmatory evidence.

Comparison of different age groups
At different age levels, individuals aged 30-60 years had a higher level of agreement with the following opinions compared to those aged 18-30 years: "I think homosexuality is an emotional cognitive disturbance", "Russian-Ukrainian war has nothing to do with us", "Boys should be masculine, girls should be gentle", "How can it be possible if you don't get married", "It's perfect if the elderly help the young with babysitting", "Keyboard warriors generally receive little education", "I will make a complaint when the takeaway is delayed".

Comparison between different educational levels
At different levels of education, compared to individuals with primary and secondary school education, individuals with a bachelor's degree or above more agree with the following opinions: "This celebrity must be banned for doing things wrong", "Sex education is a must for children", and "Do what is appropriate for your age". Seen from hot social issues, although different groups differ in approval for hot social issues, age group and education level exert relatively higher influence on the public's value and emotional judgments about hot issues. However, most people share the same belief and desire for the right to fairness and free expression, as well as the right to identity. It also speaks to the fact that individuals influence the whole country and the people, which reveals the effectiveness of solidarity. Therefore, it can be deduced that many people or participants agree on this. Namely, although not all people disagree with it, most people share the same beliefs, hold out for the right to freely express opinions and form self-identity. It also indicates that expressions on social media significantly impact the whole country and people. This is also an important sign that if people are convinced that something has a large sphere of influence or intention, they will have the ability to lead further social transformation by expressing their viewpoints and judgments in the sense of identity.  Based on the investigation of the behaviour of respondents after posting comments on social media platforms (see Figure 5), we found that most people usually view and like relevant comments, while the number of those who modify or directly delete comments or argue heatedly over opposing views remains significant. By analyzing the association of identity variables with this item, we found that there were small differences (ps>0.05) among individuals of different genders, ages, levels of education, and permanent residence areas concerning this aspect. In contrast, there was a significant difference in the behaviour of individuals with different income levels (X2=11.50, p=0.022, see Figure 6). Among them, the middle-income class is often regarded as the most influential group in a country because they are more concerned about the quality of life and political decision-making criteria. Simultaneously, they also exert a profound impact on the political environment. Accordingly, the middle-income class usually pays more attention to whether their expressions are agreed upon by the public after commenting and would refer to related statements for proofing and judging purposes. In most cases, they use social media to understand the impact of social events on the daily lives of the general public and, more importantly, to offer constructive opinions. These results provide confirmatory evidence that the media influences people's perceptions of politics and the definition of their identity, as well as their expressions on social media.

Do participants with different identities associate their real-life identities when posting opinions?
On the question "Do you associate your real-life identity when posting opinions or viewpoints on social media?" The mean score was 2.38, with a standard deviation of 0.728, and the results of the one-way ANOVA exhibited that respondents from different regions illustrated considerable differences in this variable (t=-2.270, p=0.025), as individuals from Mainland China (2.30±0.731) less associated with their real-life identities when posting their opinions or feelings on social media than individuals from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan (2.62±0.731). Individuals in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan usually had stronger identities that were primarily related to the pluralistic discursive environment on social media and sharper attention to political and social events. This has also fully demonstrated that the media environment could substantially impact people's linguistic expressions and political identities.

Differences in the influence of social media among different respondents
When analyzing from the perspective of educational background, the following icons depict that those with a bachelor's degree or higher are significantly more likely than those with primary or secondary education on two dimensions -the impact of social media on their daily communication and the value of topic discussion on individuals' self-identity and discourse expression (ps<0.01). Evidence for analysis from the perspective of income level is borne out by research shows that the middle and high-income groups rated the value of topic discussions on social media on individuals' self-identity and discursive expressions higher than those of low-income individuals. Apparently, the middle and high-income groups care more about the value of obtaining self-identity and expression on social media. There is sufficient analysis to draw firm conclusions that there are significant differences in the influence of social media among people governed by their education and income levels, specifically the higher the education level and the earning, the more they care about the use of social media whether it affects their personal expression and identity values. Research on this supports the view that people obtain information mainly from social media platforms that shape their perceptions of social events and self-identity. The stronger and better the access to information, the clearer the perceptions and requirements in this regard. From the complete analysis, it is clear that people have a significant influence on political identity. They do it with ease by utilizing social media. It is understandable that people can affect the political arena given their link to social media platforms. The political ground is no longer free, and politicians can no longer make decisions independently. They must consider the opinions of the people in power, and then political parties will be able to make judgments.

A comparative analysis of the factors
Pragmatics is essential for understanding popular opinion. In this study, we discover that people are most likely to obtain information through social media sites, and that this knowledge is then utilized to construct political identities. As a result, everything is interconnected and interrelated. Media, politics, and pragmatics are all intertwined. Therefore, it can be concluded that, the study of identity and pragmatics in the social media environment is essential.

Suggestions for Overcoming Social Cleavages and Speech Attacks in the Social Media Environment
In fully modernized countries, societies are more diverse and different, with higher complexity in such elements as race, occupation, gender, identity, place of residence, education, economic class, religious belief, cultural identity, and value orientation. They influence people's perceptions of interests, moral attitudes, cognitive styles, emotional structures, and other aspects, constituting people's perspectives. They then weaken and disrupt socially shared perspectives concerning political, cultural and public policies. Social media is a breeding ground for extremely evolving political identities and divisive viewpoints. With the prevalence of big data and the advent of recommendation mechanisms, the habitual logic of data has been to only supply users with content that they are interested in, and the articles and facts that users may view through big data are likely to be only a small part of society. They will eventually believe that the small bit they see is correct, fair, free, and equal, and they will become more paranoid, searching for a small group of identities that agree with them, and forming a closed social communication group. This is a modern-day Tower of Babel, but translation and use of languages should help to bridge gaps and remove obstacles between individuals, as well as reduce opposition and conflict between groups. Therefore, the study makes the following suggestions for information only: To begin with, the evolution of today's Internet and social media has ushered in a new era of communication and media in which almost every individual can do public speaking. This condition has weakened traditional knowledge's authority, and it does not necessarily promote a civic political culture of openness and rational reflection. Therefore, when exposed to new media, we must remember the deliberation and judgment given by conventional speculation, communicate with others who hold opposing viewpoints and retain a clear state of mind. Second, the Internet media uses algorithms to give appropriate content based on personal browsing habits. However, if everyone views things only from their own perspective, we will only see the disastrous consequences of stubbornness and perpetual dispute. When we encounter new ideas on the Internet, we should keep an open mind, listen carefully, comprehend, and learn.
To summarize, a personal perspective is produced rather than "given." Changes in self-perspective, empathy across perspectives, and fusion of disparate perspectives are all difficult, but always achievable. Good pragmatic communication attitudes and approaches are more vital and urgent than ever in this period of polarization of ideas, and there is hope that they will be able to rebuild public culture and a new speech environment.

Conclusion
This research studies people's self-identification and language preferences in the social media context, to determine how much communicative activities in the media public impact people who have their pragmatic judgments and speech behaviours based on identity. The research subjects in this study are Chinese ethnic groups of various identities. Participants in the poll said they usually utilized social media platforms to keep up with breaking news and information. This is how they learn about politics, and it impacts how they view politics. Some people use these sites for personal amusement, but the majority utilize them for information and news to retain a strong political position. It demonstrates that the media has a significant impact on political identity construction. At the same time, after communicating on social media, people are more likely to follow and support the message, which is a terrific opportunity to engage with people and take essential action. The use of certain pragmatic expressions on social media can greatly link different social forces. It can further support the belief that most people share the same belief that if the political environment is not free, they must consider the views of those in power over them. Then political parties can make decisions, illustrating the fact that people's ideas and actions have an impact on decision-making and the country's destiny. This finding implies a link between media, political identity, and pragmatics. As a result, political identification and social media use will have a significant influence on the expression of public discourse, making it critical for us to forecast the future of the social media speech environment and language behaviour evolution. The use of language widens so many channels for social transformation. It remains to be further observed whether it is a battleground for opposing acts and perspectives, or a bridge for transforming public cultural communication.