China's "two sessions," namely, the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), has significant meaning to the political life of the nation. It collects opinions and advice from different groups of people annually. "Two sessions" 2013 was especially eye-catching, because new state leaders were elected at the meetings. Using CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) system, the Media and Public Opinion Center of Fudan University

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... C) conducted surveys of China's "two sessions" every year from 2007 to 2013. In 2013, the influence of new media on public opinion has become increasingly significant. Microblog and WeChat have become two types of important media for Shanghai residents to express their opinions and take part in China's "two sessions." Based on the empirical findings, this paper examines Shanghai Residents' cognition, attitudes and expressions towards "two sessions" 2013 and analyzes how new media affect the public opinions on significant political events. The "two sessions" is not only the most significant political event every year in China, but also the focus of all types of media. Through studying Chinese people's reaction to China's 2013 "two sessions" from five perspectives, namely "awareness and attention," "information channels," "topic of concern," "comprehensive evaluation," and "expression and participation," this paper examines and discusses people's cognition, attitudes, and expressions towards significant political events and the influence of new media, including microblogs, WeChat and the like, on the information communication of those events. Method Using CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) system, with a method of random sampling, this study has successfully interviewed 291 Shanghai residents above 18 years old throughout the 17 districts and counties of the city. With a 95% confidence level, the sampling error is ±5.7%. And from 2007 to 2013,we successfully interviewed 2,076 Shanghai residents with CATI system. The sample is 50.5% male (n=147)and 49.5% female (n=144); 4.6% (n=13) with no more than elementary education, 19.4% (n=55) with junior high education, 25.1% (n=71) with senior high or technical secondary school degrees, 17.0% (n=48) with junior college degrees, 29.0% (n=82) with bachelor degrees, 4.9% (n=14) with master degrees and above. There are 33 interviewees between 18 and 25 years old (11.6%), 57 between 26 and 35 years (20.0%), 39 between 36 and 45 years (13.7%), 45 between 46 and 55 years (15.8%), 61 between 56 and 65 years (21.4%) and 50 over 66 years (17.5%). Results Awareness and Attention The results shows that Shanghai residents' awareness rate of 2013 "two sessions" is quite high, with only 5.5% saying they didn't know about it. Besides, Shanghai residents' awareness rate of 2013 "two sessions" is the highest since 2007.