Blogs and China News Coverage

Over the past year or so, we've seen a number of instances in which China-focused blogs appear to have had a substantial impact on the international news media's coverage of China. A couple of examples are Roland Soong's ESWN on the Foxconn and Taishi Village stories, Jeremy Goldkorn's Danwei on "Ayigate," etc. There are many more.

A lot of bloggers feel that the blogosphere isn't getting nearly enough credit for the work they're doing - and for the leg up that many journalists may be getting from that work.

So.  It's time to gather some comprehensive data about just how journalistically influential the Sino-blogosphere has become. 

Want to help me out?

If you are a journalist who covers China, please click here to take a survey about the extent to which you use blogs as part of your story research.

If you are a blogger or connoiseur of Chinese-language blogs or China-related blogs, I would love to know any concrete examples you might have of how specific blogs appear to have influenced foreign (i.e. non-PRC) media coverage on specific China-related stories.  Please hit the comments section of this post and let me know. The more specifics, the more links, the better.  If you have any examples of people who have lifted material from Chinese blogs or China-related blogs without giving credit, please by all means help me collect those examples. I am happy to quote and credit you if you'd like, or keep you anonymous if you'd like. Let me know if you'd like to be interviewed further about how your blog influenced a particular story. I figure that this information is best gathered through an open comments thread because it will benefit from the discussion. But if you have anything you'd like to tell me privately please feel free to e-mail me. (Click on the e-mail link on the upper left-hand corner of this page.)

(Also, if you are a Chinese-language blogger, please take this Chinese-language survey being conducted by some friends of mine.)

If anybody out there has any further ideas, theories, views, rants, or anything else to say related to the ways in which blogs are impacting the international media's coverage of China, please by all means hit the comments section!! Don't be shy!!

Comments

[Michael Turton]

If you are including Taiwan, Jen at London Calling found an instance of the local Taiwan media copying her: Taipei Times copies Jen?

Michael

[Michael Turton]

I think your survey does not cast a wide enough net. One of the interesting things I've noticed about being a blogger is that it confers a sort of credibility (with an asterisk). I've had several conversations where long experience in Taiwan, qualifications, and pubs, brought only yawns, but when I mentioned that my Taiwan blog was popular BOOM! interest piqued immediately. That credibility I have drawn on in contacts with the foreign media that are not directly blog-driven -- they didn't see something on my blog, but they did listen to what I had to say in a private phone call/email exchange. I've made it a practice now to write reporters directly when coverage is biased or erroneous, and have seen changes take place. In sum, the influence of blogs may not always be so direct as supplying stories, or being copied by the foreign media.

Michael

[Xiao Zhu]

The Sydney Morning Herald borrowed heavily and linked to my fiancee's blog (http://www.blognow.com.au/beijingsexyfish) for a post they wrote about Huang Jianxiang's World Cup outburst. Here is the link to a post that I wrote about how SMH used us as a source: http://www.blognow.com.au/chinamachete/23153/Us_-_a_proven_source_for_the_Sydney_Morning_Herald.html

[zhi]

hi rebecca, this is a great idea. i regularly see things and think to myself, 'i already read that on a blog somewhere, i wonder if this journo has got it from there.' i can't remember them all now, but a recent one that comes to mind is howard french in his story where he noted that a papua niuginin was mistakenly presented as an african on a billboard in beijing. i had already seen it on danwei.

[Mark]

don't know if this is the kind of thing you're looking for, but Jeremy Goldkorn was sought for a quote in this article:

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=19996&hed=Ni+Hao%2c+MySpace%3f

[Henry]

Not so easy to open MSN live space here in China mainland. Do not know why. But do not think it owing to the censorship.

You write something quite far away from China. If you are intersted, pls visit our blog, the first personal blog written both in English and in Chinese at the same time.

[mark II]

I think this survey is next to worthless, sorry. It would have been really great if you had let the reporters name for themselves the blogs they read. By spoonfeeding them the blogs you yourself like you rob the responses of any meaning. Why include Imagethief, for example, and not Angry Chinese Blogger, which gets many times the traffic? This survey reflects your own interests and prejudices, rewards your own coterie and deprives us and you of learning which blogs the reporters themselves look to. I'm surprised and disappointed.