China and the media: The thrill is gone
China's love affair with media openness in the wake of last month's tragic earthquake seems to have come to an end — unsurprisingly, right around the time that the attention took on a negative hue:
The propaganda ministry and the State Council, China's Cabinet, have issued directives to state-run news media outlining forbidden topics. Among them: questions about school construction, whether government rescue efforts lagged and whether Beijing knew in advance that the earthquake would happen but failed to warn people. Although the latter issue is scientifically questionable, it has nonetheless transfixed millions of Chinese Internet users.
A striking turnaround, given how China threw open its doors, both to media coverage and disaster aid. Of course, there's a good explanation for that initial lapse in judgment:
...the tragedy that struck Monday, and has taken more than 12,000 lives, also has given China an opportunity for a dramatic image makeover. After months of relentless coverage of Tibetan clashes and human rights abuses, the earthquake shows a new China, one that is both compassionate and competent. ...
The coverage strikes a delicate balance between eliciting sympathy and depicting China as a developed country. For the domestic audience, the Chinese media have given extensive coverage to messages of condolence and offers of assistance from President Bush and other world leaders.
But now, bloggers and bereaved parents alike are raising questions about corruption and shoddy school construction. Both, as NPR has pointed out, have been blamed on local governments — which, as Francis Fukuyama observed in an Op-Ed just weeks before the 7.9 temblor hit, operate appallingly free from Beijing's control:
The central government, by all accounts, would like to crack down on these local government bodies but is unable to do so. It both lacks the capacity to do this and depends on local governments and the private sector to produce jobs and revenue.
Nonetheless, even though Chinese citizens have protested against their local governments, it's the central government that's panicking. And with some reason: In a country whose media have historically been tightly controlled, rumor, hearsay and flat-out tall tales become all the more potent:
With its grip secure on newspapers, television and the Internet, hearsay represents a major threat to the government's control....
Rumor has particular currency in Tibet because illiteracy is high, some say, especially in rural areas. "It's just mouth to mouth," said Tseten Wangchuk with the Voice of America's Tibetan service. "There's an invisible bubble of language and trust. Once you're inside, you hear all sorts of things."
These range from the plausible to the bizarre, including one a few years ago that a frog the size of a truck had frustrated Chinese engineers trying to build the world's highest railway to Lhasa, Tibet's capital.
Is it too late for China to put the lid back on? Some analysts seem to think so:
Ultimately, some analysts said, Beijing is fighting a losing battle in attempting to stifle the media, Web traffic and broader human rights. Reporters and editors in the last several weeks have gotten a taste of covering news under relatively free conditions. That will encourage many to push the limits.
Punditry aside, what do you think?
*Photo: Diego Azubel / EPA
Hello my dear.
Behind a melody
the close of the
day resembles the
north wind attending
a field, and this
water-course appears
in my mind like
a delicate sadness
at the height of
the season: I wait
for a pleasure, I dream
the sunflower.
Francesco Sinibaldi
Posted by: Francesco Sinibaldi | June 07, 2008 at 01:28 PM
What China has realized over the years is their propaganda technique is out of date, in fact there has been talk shows on Chinese media over how they should learn from western methods.
The media openness western journalists wants will never happen, more or less because western journalists would only feel fully "free" when they are given the power to run Chinese politics the way they run western countries. China however will open media to an extent that the average citizens have a venue to vent their various greviances, the number one priority of CCP is to preserve power, and in the modern information age, it is unrealistic to expect popularity by suppressing information. Ultimately the new Chinese media that has emerged over the years is switching from propaganda to "PR", using modern, western methods to achieve the same purpose. Afterall, the whole WMD and Tibet achievement has taught China a big lesson in the efficiency of western propaganda techniques, the latter in particular attention as talk shows discussed the shortcomings of Chinese PR workers during the event compared to western journalists.
Posted by: iewgnem | June 07, 2008 at 03:13 PM
I heard President Hu has a stack of Reincarnation Applications under his pillow. This, he hopes, will prevent him from being reincarnated as a frog that gets run over by a bicycle for a thousand lifetimes.
Posted by: Z.Y. | June 07, 2008 at 06:18 PM
Yes, lots of schools collapsed in the recent earthquake. Ocoruptions do exist in China especially in low-level goverment. But, what if this huge 8 magnitude earthquake happend in other developing nation?
Disaster zoon need time to recover. Angry parents(probably lose their mind) not only add troules but also may make the other earthquake victimes start to complain. Plez remember that millions of ppl been affected.
Olimpics is coming.Goverment must try their best to maintain the social stability.
Media can help? No, only bring troubles.
Remmber most of western media is hostile to China goverment. In the recent "tibet incident", they only broadcasted one side srory!
Posted by: Song | June 08, 2008 at 01:33 AM
chinese goverments aways have their way.
Posted by: chefe | June 08, 2008 at 04:01 AM
The government will regain control over the mass media, but can't keep up with cellular and the Internet.
It's not merely the floodgates of media exposure. The Chinese people have discovered, much to their surprise, that if enough of them care about something, the government WILL respond. It won't become democracy, but it will become a government somewhat more responsive to the people.
Posted by: John Dini | June 08, 2008 at 09:24 AM
I just read an article about internet censorship in China. Since one needs a subscription to view the Albuquerque journal, I will provide all of you with the real thing:
Banned Words Make For Fun Research
Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal By Martin Salazar Journal Staff Writer
One might expect search terms like “ democracy movement,” “Tiananmen incident” and even “Playboy magazine” to be blackballed by the People’s Republic of China.
But Polynices — the Greek mythology figure who ticked off his father Oedipus so much that he was cursed to die by his brother’s hand? Yep. The ill-fated lad has somehow managed to land himself on China’s forbidden list of Internet searches.
“Polynices is, I guess, associated with anarchy in some way,” said Jed Crandall, a University of New Mexico assistant professor who is working with researchers from the University of California-Davis to unravel the ins and outs of Chinese Internet censorship. The researchers bounce potentially controversial words off Chinese Internet search engines and publish lists of the ones that apparently have been blocked.
Davis, who teaches computer science classes at UNM, began working on the project about 18 months ago while he was a graduate student at UC-Davis.
So far, the project has been a labor of love for the scientists, who have yet to get funding for the research. Crandall said two proposals have been submitted to the National Science Foundation, and they’re waiting for responses.
The Chinese use what Crandall calls a sophisticated system for censoring Internet content. Rather than blocking specific Web addresses, the system detects banned words in data moving through a network and it sends reset commands that break the connection.
The censorship could impact news coverage of the Olympic games in China, Crandall said. He noted that reporters in China could have a difficult time finding out about protests, hunger strikes or similar events because of the Internet filtering.
While China’s keyword filters are sophisticated, Crandall said, they don’t always work. Among his group’s findings is that a little more than a quarter of the paths tested into China didn’t have a filtering router, meaning the researchers were able to find the banned words. He said the filter also has a tough time preventing the searcher from accessing banned material during busy periods.
Beyond making certain content inaccessible, the goal of the censorship may also be to stop protests and perhaps even to create trade barriers for U.S. companies, Crandall said.
“There are all kinds of different reasons for censorship,” he said. “We want to understand the technical issues of censorship, how it’s implemented and then also how it’s applied so that we can make effective policy in this country.”
It takes the researchers at least a month to test the Chinese filters and figure out what is being blocked. Crandall said his research group eventually would like to be able to track banned words on a daily basis.
He said the censored list changes from time to time and that the banned words and phrases vary somewhat from one Internet service provider to another and from one region to another.
Censored phrases
These are some of the Internet phrases banned in China:
Eighty-nine: the year of the Tiananmen Square protest
Anti-corruption forum
Sky burial: a ritual practiced by Tibetans
Mein Kampf: A book by Adolf Hitler
Hitler: recently removed from list
Democracy movement
Brainwash
Eroticism
Playboy magazine
Brutal torture
Posted by: Mawachpo | August 06, 2008 at 11:40 AM