Chinese Blogger Con 2007

Moderator:
Rebecca Mackinnon

Beifeng, Zuola Zhou, Zhai Minglei, Laohumiao, Guo Daxia

Rebecca was once based in Beijing for CNN, now researches blogs and media
Blogs have brought big changes, in that blogs gives everyone a personal news space
Many media pose the question: are bloggers reliable? ANyone can open a website, and especially in China, with its special environment, its harmonious society, with internet censorship, grassroots and civil media present unprecedented opportunities.

An earlier survey she’d done with over 100 foreign journalists based in China from media all across the board, …. a large percentage of them state that they frequently read blogs.

She asks: can you tell us why you put time in grassroots online media, and what significance does this have for you?

Zhai Minglei, formerly of Southern Weekly and Zhimian? Minjian magazine, which of late has been shut down, and since has moved online

Zhai doesn’t often go online, and only just this year opened a blog, 1bao.org, which head-on tackles pressing social topics in China

He admits that his blogs and magazines might be proud and biased, but insists there is no problem with there being a difference between print media and ‘action media’

Second speaker (name not on schedule) Guo Daxia
What is citizen journalism?

Traditional media in China have always represented different groups and interests
Of all media we encounter, from CCTV to Xinhua, whose interests do they represent? The government, cadres, politicians

But now we have the internet
And freedom of speech, assembly is guaranteed in the Consitution
But good luck getting approval to start your own independent magazine!
I’ve seen these kinds of magazine, and they get shut down
For representing the people’s voices, a civil society’s voice, independent voices…

LaohuMiao

Background
What’s the difference between what you do and what traditional media do>?

LHM: In reference to the murder that you mentioned, it was only after blogging that did I first come to understand exactly what blogging entails
As for my current tour, it’s completely a personal action
As for blogging, I like posts of 3,000-4,000 posts, a way to reflect on the social problems around me, and around the country

Beifeng:
Speaking on his past posts on Laohu Miao himself:

Zola:
Has decided to stand up to show his respect for everyone
He doesn’t approach his citizen reporting with as much sense of reporting as the others on stage
He’s doing what he can now, and will go on with his life eventually
Just recording what he can now
——

Mystery guy again: Guo Daxia:
On paper, China has freedom of expression, but in the process of publishing (paper, magazine), obstacles pop up
What blogs are, is online publishing, paperless publishing
The appearance of blogs brings something that traditional media don’t, and that’s interactivity, allowing anyone to express themselves
——–
He’s talking about the seperation between body and spirit
If the body is dead but the spirit lives, what would that look like
(I think he’s saying that media (body) is dead, but blogs are our spirit!)
——–
He’s had several blogs shut down, each time he gets furious
If his words are his spirit, killing his posts is killing him
He can shut his blog down, but his thoughts will always be free
——-
Talking about Muzimei, Hibiscus Sister…what do these represent? Spiritual death
Our education system is just a factory line, and it only makes one kind of product: all marxist ideology
——-
Rebecca@Beifeng:
Since you began blogging, from your view on news to your professional life, how has blogging changed your life?
Beifeng: With over ten years’ experience in trad. media…
Information on city governments on any cities all across the country, he can find it all on blogs
One principle I’ve always upheld, is that everyone gets one second of epression time
Internet has become his largest information source
——-
Zola:
When celebs speak, standing up there, we can’t hear what they say
Now we have blogs, through the internet, it’s both free and equal
People never used to pay attention to politics, to current events
But now blogs have brought this to the forefront
Disasters, for example, are in media immediately in somewhere like HK, but in mainland China, not so fast

Zhai Minglei:
Everyone having a chance to speak, getting out their personality, their voice, is great, but people need to work harder. And of course, this is all for the goal of a (truly) harmonious society

Zola:
Civil Society
In mainland China, this has not matured
In Hong Kong, they have these spaces, independent universities, middle class, etc
Blogs in mainland China could activate/promote a new kind of society, a civil society
————

Rebecca: Any questions??! A brave woman stands up.

If traditional media spread fake news, they get sued, they have that responsibility. For citizen media, how can that responsibility be reconciled?

Beifeng: in Chinese law at present, individual online commenters (bloggers) have greater responsibility, greater risk of legal implication, no organization behind them, and caution is needed

Mystery guy:
1bao.org/Zhai Minglei is one of the greatest examples of citizen journalism there is, brave like all media need to be

Beifeng: One way to avoid legal responsibility is to merely collect information and not comment on it
————–
Question from the floor:
How optimistic are you for the future of news (he points out this includes civil, traditional etc.)?

Zhai Minglei:
I won’t ever make money from my blog
My main concern are the costs to go interview people
I go to the countryside to interview rural residents at a loss, but it’s still them with the greater loss

Zola:
Citizen media will never be good enough for somethin gl ike cooperation wtih CNN/BBC
My approach, of taking payment directly from those being reported upon, is the most appropriate
But I’m also the cheapest choice, from my transportation choices etc, when I’m on the job
——–
Next floor question:
You’re working so hard struggling for freedom of speech, why don’t you put this energy instead into the education system, better ways the society can bennefit

Zhao Minglei:
No freedom of speech, there will be no freedom of education
Our Minjian magazine for example, is just a type of education, but look how it just got shut down earlier this year
All these types of freedom need to be striven for simultaneously
——
[feng37: I see that the Chinese irc being screened on overheads someone has written:
"The stage is too un-harmonious...and the floor is too harmonious"
Yeah, a couple speakers are getting pretty brave up there. I want to clap but they don't stop speaking.]
——-
Time’s up, and we could go forever on this topic, but time to move on….[applause]

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.