Chinese social media and political discourse
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Transcript of Chinese social media and political discourse
Chinaʼs socio-political cyber-scape
Slides for guest lecture in Gaurav Mishraʼs Georgetown course MSFS 556: Social Media in Business, Development, and Government
https://digitalcommons.georgetown.edu/blogs/msfs-556-spring2009/
Rebecca MacKinnon
Open Society Fellow Assistant Professor, Journalism & Media Studies Ctr.,
University of Hong Konge-mail: [email protected]
blog: http://rconversation.blogs.com
Cultural loss of control: “Back dorm boys”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2HOD-nrOY8
The “Great Firewall” in action
Search engine censorship: Image search for “Tiananmen
massacre”
Search engine censorship: Image search for “Tiananmen
massacre”
Search engine censorship: Image search for “Tiananmen
massacre”
Tianya blog service: Blog post about
“Tiananmen Mothers”
Censorship by Chinese blog-hosting companies
Your post “Tiananmen mothers organization publishes a website” has been successfully submitted! Because it
contains sensitive words, please wait for the community editors to approve it. Please donʼt re-post. Thank you.
CENSORED
“Rivercrab”“Harmonious”
Political joke: “River crab wears three watches”
Riot in Wengʼan county, Guizhou province, Julyʼ08Summer 2008 marked a shift in
official media strategy: let official news agencies cover
bad breaking stories to get the official version out quickly, then
censor unofficial versions.
“Pushups” were used by bloggers
to talk about Wengʼan incident
Above Sina.com website no longer exists
“Pushups” were used by bloggers
to talk about Wengʼan incident
Above Sina.com website no longer exists 3 images from: http://www.caobian.info/?p=3778
Anti-censorship Protest video: “song of the alpaca sheep”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3tPA_Z_MT0
Feb. 9th CCTV fire: netizens react
Feb. 9th CCTV fire: netizens react
Feb. 9th CCTV fire: netizens react
Cyber civil war 2.0
Cyber-tarianism?
• “Authoritarian deliberation” (Zheng Yongnian)
President Hu Jintao: “We pay great attention to suggestions and
advice from our netizens. We stress the idea of "putting people
first" and "governing for the people." With this in mind, we
need to listen to people's voices extensively and pool the people's wisdom when we take actions and
make decisions. The web is an important channel for us to
understand the concerns of the public and assemble the wisdom
of the public.”
http://video.sina.com.cn/news/c/v/2008-06-20/105617742.shtml
“Fifty cent party”(pro govt. commentators)
“Eluding the cat:” bloggers invited to prison investigation
Cyber-nationalism
V.P. Xi Jinping in Mexico
Some foreigners who have eaten their fill have nothing better to do than point their
fingers at our affairs.
V.P. Xi Jinping in Mexico
Some foreigners who have eaten their fill have nothing better to do than point their
fingers at our affairs.
“It is only by way of this frankness that the confidence of a responsible big power can be better displayed; it is only by way of this frankness that the bright attitude of an increasingly powerful China can best be shown; and also it is only with this frankness
our fellow countrymen will feel excited.”
V.P. Xi Jinping in Mexico
Some foreigners who have eaten their fill have nothing better to do than point their
fingers at our affairs.
“It is only by way of this frankness that the confidence of a responsible big power can be better displayed; it is only by way of this frankness that the bright attitude of an increasingly powerful China can best be shown; and also it is only with this frankness
our fellow countrymen will feel excited.”
“Vice President Xi Jinping is so cool! He trashed the unfriendly
foreigners.”
Cyber-ocracy?
2008 Chinese Blogger Conference, Guangzhou.Photos courtesy “HKdom” http://www.flickr.com/photos/hkdom/3046205362/
and http://www.flickr.com/photos/hkdom/3046219444/in/photostream/
Isaac Mao
http://www.isaacmao.com/
Photo by Joi Ito (Creative Commons BY) at: http://freesouls.cc/essays/07-isaac-mao-sharism.html
If we want free speech, first we need free thinking.
Philosophy of “sharism” - using technology and social networks that enable people to engage and share with one another in ways that facilitate collective learning, critical thinking, public discourse, social justice and emergent democracy.
Internet as “special political zone?”
Photos by Josh Chin at 2007 CNbloggercon, Beijing. On Flickr under “hunxue-er” at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21953266@N00/1849687423/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/21953266@N00/1849689005/ (Creative Commons BY-NC-SA)
Zhang Shihe a.k.a. “Laohumiao”Using the Internet to raise awareness of
social problems and organize Grassroots ad-
hoc charity
Ai Weiwei: online auction of poisoned milk powder to fund-raise for homeless
Argues that Chinese people must take
greater responsibility for the state of their
society.