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: rebecca.mackinnon@gmail.com

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.