As a follow up to Jake's post on the use of new media in China in the wake of the earthquake, I want to point out the work of Deborah Fallows, a senior research fellow for the Pew Internet and American Life Project, who has been tracking the Chinese TV coverage of this catastrophe as well looking at the online activity. Just to get a sense of it, here's her entry six days after the earthquake:
Day 6: Three kinds of TV programming took over: a mishmash of live reporting from the disaster areas of the now wholly exhausted, depleted villagers, who were either waiting, grieving, or starting to set up camp in tents. As well, there were broadcasts of made-for-TV events from Beijing, with somberly-dressed, highly-cued studio audiences who were singing and donating money. And there were retrospective collages of the previous days' footage. One showed an entire village buried like Pompeii was, with just one broken wooden-framed roof showing above the fields of mud.
Again, the internet was revealing its quirky side: A firefighter scheduled to be married in Shenyang, northeast of Beijing, found himself in Sichuan instead. He and his bride decided to hold the ceremony anyway - over the internet. The wedding happened via video link-up. The groom reportedly said, "I am fine. I will do my best, I promise. I love you." They were officially married before the internet connection went down after 18 minutes. On a less joyous side, the government issued an order to suspend online game-playing and entertainment during the upcoming three days of mourning.
I must I was pretty impressed by the online marriage. Web 3.0? In general, I strongly recommend reading her work as she does a nice job of juxtaposing governmentally controled Chinese TV with the activity of the less constrained internet community. You can find her first piece here.
Post new comment