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"If your local newspaper were to go out of business, would you miss it? What kinds of jobs that current newspapers do would go undone?"
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"Whether or not newspapers die (and some surely will), we are growing a new and larger understanding of What Journalism Is About. And it's a lot bigger than newspapers, whether they live or not."
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"reform journalism school. It's too late to be training new journalists in the classic mode. Instead, journalism should become a required course, one or two semesters for every graduate."
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"Guangdong's Southern Metropolis Daily offered a profile of "Zola", a young blogger from Hunan province who seems determined to score a point for new media -- and make himself famous in the process.
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Nailhouse photo album at Mop.com
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Roland Soong translates "The Most Awesome Nailhouse" Gives Birth to "Citizen Journalism". By Chen Wanying (陈万颖). March 29, 2007. from yWeekend. The article describes citizen reporting on Mop.com and elsewhere.
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"Whether the couple's tenacity is reasonable or extreme is open to question, but there is no doubt that their quest has struck a nerve in Chinese life. "
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"The episode also demonstrates the power of the media, even in a relatively controlled place like China. "
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"But it's the visual that keeps this story going, that image of a lonely house marooned in an ugly hole. The only thing that will stop it now is when the Chinese Internet finally decides that Ms Wu Ping is overexposed."
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"to analysts of China's Internet, the "nail house" had passed an opaque but crucial threshold: uniting people from across the country over a single issue. "
RConversation
Rebecca MacKinnon's postings about work, reading, and ideas from 2004-2011.
« February 2007 | Main | April 2007 »
March 31, 2007
links for 2007-03-31
Posted at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
March 30, 2007
links for 2007-03-30
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"Meet Zola Zhou, independent citizen reporter, blogging live from the nailhouse."
Posted at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 29, 2007
links for 2007-03-29
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"China's leading venue for the screening of independent documentary films has been "postponed" under an order from authorities in Kunming, the capital of China's Yunnan province."
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"One of the lynchpin questions in the debate over ethical journalism in China is whether the professional environment for journalism can be improved without a radical rethink of the media's role in Chinese society (which is also a fundamental question abo
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Roland translates a Chinese article about how commentors influenced the journalists writing on TIME's China blog. "(yWeekend) "China Blog" Commentators Influenced American Reporters. By Lu Yuan"
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Translated excerpt from the book A Narrow Escape from Death: My Journey as a 'Rightist' by Dai Huang.
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"Donald Tsang wins “reelection” as Chief Executive while the Hong Kong media quietly practices self-censorship"
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"do not think the world has been fooled into thinking a real contest is taking place...What has interested most foreign journalists was the insistence of some locals that it is a real contest, with local television channels planning live coverage."
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"I would suggest that the fight is to change the system such that it is not rigged against people who are not government insiders."
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"沒想到八大電子傳媒聯合舉辦的特首候選人論壇結束之後，大家最感興趣的不是任何實質的政策討論，而是曾蔭權和梁家傑的「分化」之爭"
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"這天還談特首選舉，似乎已經沒有時效性。算吧，也只是老實交代私見而已"
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"EIGHT FLIPPING HUNDRED special interest people get to vote for the leader of our home of nearly SEVEN MILLION PEOPLE? And they get to call is an ELECTION?"
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Roland translates an essay on ChineseNewsNet) by Xue Yong, Netizens Should Be Tolerant. It begins: "I have always believed that there is a fine balance between maintaining Internet civility and defending freedom of speech."
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Translation of a Chinese article about Yahoo China, posted on Yeeyan: "Yahoo China let its promising future slipped away because of the hesitance from the headquarter about whether to invest more or now..."
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Translation of Keso blog post on Yeeyan. Keso's conclusion: "eventually, openness is going to beat closeness, and self-interest is going to be defeated by mutual-interest, this is not only a trend, this is business. "
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"Getting 10 times higher salary than those Chinese rivals, the US website staffs fear losing their jobs. They'd rather have no performance instead of make mistakes. They take no risk and keep low key...."
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"US sites normally have the plan to pay 10,000RMB for 100 high-end targeted users. Chinese sites, on the other hand, spend 1,000RMB to recruit 10,000 random customers...."
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"Chinese websites seldom do any advertisement solely for their brands. They like pull-style proactive promotions in order to create speculations, direct revenue, and popularity. And in many cases, users are forced to view ads."
Posted at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 28, 2007
links for 2007-03-28
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"Associated Content founder Luke Beatty talks about building a news and information site with paid submissions from thousands of online contributors."
Posted at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 27, 2007
links for 2007-03-27
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"...anyone who wants to be famous for their writing will probably be forced onto the Web, according to McPhail. ..."Having a blog will likely be a prerequisite for first jobs.""
Posted at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 25, 2007
links for 2007-03-25
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"Rather than looking at ways of trying to squeeze out more money by charging for content online or creating a consortium, journalists should start opening themselves up to new ways of newsgathering, hybrid pro-am efforts, and get readers involved. If they
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"All domestic print press have received urgent notices from the State Council Information Office at 1:30 pm, March 24, no more reporting and commenting on the "nailhouse" event. "
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Letters from China points out that Baidu's Japan service is uncensored, which probably explains why 70% of its traffic comes from China...
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"Fearful of the growing dominance of Google, some of the country's most powerful media companies are seeking to rein in the digital giant." (hat tip to Roland)
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"The reason Baidu Japan has so many Chinese users can only be that they're looking for stuff they can't find on Baidu's Chinese site."
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"reporting rumor as fact is not the way to go about this. It doesn’t help people better understand what is really going on in China, but it does re-enforce a climate of self-censorship in China."
Posted at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 24, 2007
links for 2007-03-24
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"Journalists are good at holding those in power accountable, but they are not as good at holding up a mirror to themselves. Bloggers do tell us when we get it wrong. We ignore them at our peril. "
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"She "gets" the Internet better than any of the candidates, probably including her husband."
Posted at 12:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 23, 2007
Anti-Rightist campaign: China's censored history leaks around the Internet (in spite of Sohu)
In 1998, retired Xinhua News Agency journalist Dai Huang (now 79) published a book about his life - including the 21 years he spent in labor camps after he was labeled a "rightist" in 1957 during the "anti-rightist campaign." His crime included: criticizing Mao's cult of personality. Despite the fact that the book already had two print runs in the late 90's and early 00's, the publishing authorities have now blocked him from reprinting the book again. This is yet another indication that China's leadership has gotten more paranoid and insecure in many ways than they were in the late 90's - despite the fact that China's global influence and power have grown in recent years.
The South China Morning Post reported earlier this week that a Beijing court has now rejected Dai's lawsuit against the publishing authorities, in which he challenged the ban of his book as unconstitutional. (free link thanks to AsiaMedia)
Fortunately, Dai's entire book is available in Chinese online, as John Kennedy points out over at Global Voices. Maybe somebody will translate parts of it and put that online too?
Dai's lawyer is the well known civil rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang. Pu's Sohu blog, incidentally, has recently been deleted without explanation by the corporate net-nannies over at Sohu. Did Pu Zhiqiang break any Chinese laws with anything he wrote on his blog? Was he warned by Sohu that he was doing anything that would cause his blog to be deleted? Have they told him on whose authority and according to what order by which government entity his blog was deleted? As a Sohu user does he have any way to appeal the deletion? No. Of course not. Why treat your users like adults when you don't have to? (Recall that several Chinese lawyers recently protested blog deletions by Sina.com as well.) Thanks to John Kennedy for translating one of Pu's statements re-posted to a BBS.
The Chinese Communist Party's Central Propaganda Department convened a meeting at the beginning of this year laying out the ground rules on what should and shouldn't appear in China's media and publications. The Anti-Rightist campaign of 50 years ago was listed as one of the no-go-zones. Talking about it is a threat to today's leaders, apparently. The meeting was summarized in this article (in Chinese) which appeared in a Hong Kong-based publication and circulated around the Internet. It has since been translated into English at the Chinese Content Wiki. Here is a long excerpt containing the decisions regarding censorship of history:
-This year is the 50th anniversary of the anti-right movement. As events over the past few years demonstrate, many people bearing dissatisfaction with The Party have, through various guises, depicted and glamorized the "anti-right" period of history. Of these people, many are well-known scholars, but they have but one purpose: to smear the name of the Communist Party. For this reason, no memoirs or books regarding the "anti-right" period of history are allowed to be published, and any articles regarding "the anti-right movement" may not be printed.
-Based on practical experience from the past few years, some people in society are "breaking through" the Cultural Revolution, wholly disavowing Mao Zedong and Mao Zedong Thought, attempting and then achieving their comprehensive goal of disavowing the Communist Party of China. For this reason, not only must this kind of article not be published, but vigilance must also be increased.
-Starting today, all historical problems must be in accordance with: "The Resolution on a Number of The Party's Historical Problems Since the Founding of the Country" (hereafter, "The Historical Resolution"), review treatises from the older generation of revolutionaries like Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun, as well as embodying the principles of "Looking Ahead in Solidarity". Criticism of historical events must adhere to "The Historical Resolution", and no so-called "first-hand material" or previously published articles, including those from People's Daily that violate The Historical Resolution may not be used as justification. Starting today, all books and articles that violate the spirit of The Historical Resolution may not be published.
-Starting today all specialized accounts published by current and past Central Government leaders must be in accordance with The Historical Resolution.
-Except for The Central Government Document Publishing House, all unauthorized specialized accounts and information regarding Central Government Leaders may not be quoted, compiled or distributed within the country.
-Articles regarding memoirs by current and former Central Government leaders, including those written by the authors in question, their families, secretaries and friends must be applied for by the person in question themselves through the Press and Publication Administration. Those not approved for publication must not be privately printed in any form, or transmitted via electronic means, and especially must not be published overseas.
Posted at 02:03 PM in Censorship, China, Corporate Responsibility, Freedom of Speech, Global Voices | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
links for 2007-03-23
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"Internet crackdown: Officials employ an army of censors to stifle dissent"
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"How far will governments go to censor web content, and how do they do it?"(tags: censorship internet)
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Josie Liu describes political debates in Chinese online forums. One quote: "So long as it [the Party] holds fast to the interest of the country and the nation, I still don't want it to collapse, until the rebirth of a party that represents the interest of
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"Hong Kong 's elections are shaping up with all the pomp and ceremony of a Canto-pop star singing numbers from a Looney Tunes cartoon. And the result is about as forgone as Bugs Bunny surviving a bullet from Elmer Fudd."
Posted at 12:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
March 22, 2007
links for 2007-03-22
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"A cut glass English accent can fool unsuspecting Americans into detecting a "brilliance that isn't there", says Stephen Fry. So is a British accent - of any variety - the route to success in the United States?"
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"A leading organization of visual journalists, the Society for News Design, has adopted a new ethics code, just as two new controversies emerged that questioned the integrity of photographic images."
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" Why isn't more reported about them? It is very simple. The gatekeepers of mainstream media have decided that there is no news value to their readers/viewers."
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"‘A Narrow Escape From Death: My ‘Right-wing’ Life’, a book from retired Xinhua journalist Dai Huang was banned from being published... Dai recounts the years during which he was cast as a rightist and forced to undergo reform labor."
Posted at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
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