Assignment 3: Literature, Media Reference, Discussion

Yanfei Qin
Professor David W. Maguire
Journalism and Society in China - Assignment 3 (Topic 2)
2018.6.30
2. How has the proliferation of social media given a stronger voice to the general population in China? How are Chinese media organizations accommodating this change?
Introduction
The Party Line is written by Doug Young, a news editor and reporter who has lived in China for decades. At the beginning of this book, Doug Young inserts a photo of the two Chinese citizens standing in front of a billboard covered by the newspaper (Young). He uses such an image to tell his readers at the very beginning that the media in China functions in a completely different way from the western ones. However, neither the media nor the government can efficiently control the public opinions in recent years. The media environment has been changed by the Internet and the social media. According to the data from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, internet users have been increasing rapidly since 2008. By 2015, the internet advertisement income exceeded the combined advertisement income of four traditional media platforms together, which include newspaper, radio, TV, and magazine (Cook). To this day, the gap is still getting bigger and wider. While internet companies such as Xinlang, Souhu and Tencent are getting richer, the influence of their social media platforms gets to a level where it can start a “revolution”. From a series of incidents such as the speech of Maryland University, the Umbrella Revolution, and the Weibo LGBTQ regulation incident, it can truly be seen that the public opinion on these social media platforms is more powerful. Furthermore, the influence of the internet and social networking sites is different from the opinion column of People’s Daily, where readers still have to guess whether the words there are the true public voice or that of the government.
Statement
This paper argues that the proliferation of the social media has given a stronger voice to the general population in China. This has not only enabled “netizens,” (citizens on the internet) to have more authority in spreading and accessing information from the internet, but it has also empowered people to collaborate without being monitored by the government. Most media organizations have responded by adopting digital media while others have attempted to control the rise of social networking platforms by manipulating and changing information that is circulated on the internet (Drew). For instance, the mainstream media houses that are controlled by the government tend to hire bloggers who will popularize nationalistic ideologies in order to mislead others.
Literature, Media Reference
It can be acknowledged that the power of social media has grown significantly, but rarely do people ask themselves how it all happened. From a personal perspective, social media gives “netizens” in China the power to gather together without being easily found and noticed by the government, which is relatively safer compared to gathering on the streets or in the parks. By forming such an online bonding, the public voices can be spread much easily (Pohle). Whenever incidents happen, the messages are exchanged immediately on the intern...