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Note: This article represents the view of the authors and not their respective universities.

This study analyzes and compares the survey data of the July 1 and the New Year's Day marches. The data were collected by random sampling of participants in the Victoria Park and along the routes of the marches on those two days. It aims at exploring how the participating masses were formed, what the respective characteristics of those regular "active participants" and those newborn "possible participants" are, as well as the political communication behaviour of these marchers. This research found that the New Year's Day marchers are more active participants of public affairs and more likely to participate in the march on their own initiative. Besides, the "fermentation process" of the New Year's Day march is more "polarized" than that of the July 1 march, and the proportion of "active participants" in the former march is also higher. Comparing those "active participants" and "possible participants" in the New Year's Day march, the former are higher in age, education attainment and social class, have stronger opinion on political and social issues related to the march, as well as agree to a larger extent that Hong Kong people can take hold of Hong Kong's destiny. However, both types of participants tend to think that there is not much chance for the introduction of general and direct election of the Chief Executive in 2007 and that of the Legislature in 2008, while they both have a quite high appraisal toward China's national leaders. They give the Chief Executive similarly low score; yet, most of them do not belong to any social or political organization. This study also found that economic conditions have a very limited explanatory power toward Hong Kong people's political participation. Considering the marchers' political communication behaviour, this research discovered that the "active participants" in the New Year's Day march play the role of "opinion leaders" or even "action leaders" in their own social circles. Compared with the "possible participants", they read more newspaper and watch more TV news. They are also more likely to share information and their opinion on public affairs, as well as information about the march itself. These "active participants" did not only more likely to participate in the march on their own initiative, but also made up their mind earlier. Lastly, both types of participants think that they were affected by the mass media, although the reasons behind this thought are different.