I was invited to deliver a keynote lecture for the 22nd International Youth Forum in Seoul, organized by The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and The National Council of Youth Organizations in Korea. It was a great opportunity for me to ponder on what I have done in the last three years when trying to run a six-country comparative research project. I really did not want to lecture my audiences as they probably have heard much in school. The four words in the title are among the most meaningful to me in the recent years. It is a speech that targets myself as well.
The two sections on Change and Youth are presenting the factual observations I had during my research trips. The last two on Failure and Excellence tried to convey a message: Excellence does not require success and heading to a highly possible failure is a brave choice that already indicates excellence. Allow me to insert an excerpt here: "Alright. It seems that failure is a given fact and success is only the beautiful scenery we enjoy on our way to greater failure. So what are we trying to achieve here? What are we challenging ourselves to get? What are we risking our comfort for? If it is neither success nor failure, what is it? It is excellence. Excellence, by definition, means the fact or state of excelling. To excel is to surpass the ordinary standards. As long as we are trying to surpass what have been achieved by either others or ourselves, we are excelling or we are headed towards excellence. A sportsman excels when she breaks her own record. A student excels when she learns new knowledge. A politician excels when she speaks for the neglected. Excellence is different from success because it is more about your own pursuit than conforming to how others judge you. It is you who decides what to excel, how to excel, and when to stop. As long as a person excels in her own regard, we should show our full respect." I truly thank my colleague Catherine Candano for reviewing the manuscript and giving me feedback. A full manuscript can be found here.
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Recently Prof. Yang Guobin listed eight books on new media and China published since 2010. The list is here. He mentioned that there were at least eight books on the same topic published before 2009. I wonder what the eight are and send a help request to my academic friends all over the world. Here are what I found so far. I would love to complete the list if you find any books missing.
杨国斌老师最近总结的2010以来有关新媒体与中国的著作列表非常实用,文中提到2009之前至少还有八本这样的著作。我咨询了世界各地的学术朋友,企图建立一个2009之前的列表。如果您发现有任何遗漏请不吝告知。列表分为(1)只关注中国与资讯传播科技的著作以及(2)包含有关中国与资讯传播科技的章节的著作,按照时间顺序排列。 -------------Books that exclusively focus on China and ICTs----------------------- China in the information age : Telecommunications and the dilemmas of reform / Milton Mueller, Zixiang Tan. Westport, Conn. : Praeger published with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington, D.C., 1997. 1Chinese Reform and the Information Economy 2Channeling Growth into the National Hierarchy: The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications 3Socialist Competition: Lian Tong and the Golden Projects 4Privatization, with Chinese Characteristics 5Controlling the Computer: China Confronts the Internet 6Trade and Foreign Investment 7Conclusion: Principles and Scenarios Telecommunications and development in China / edited by Paul S.N. Lee. Cresskill, N.J. : Hampton Press, 1997. 1Telecommunications and Development: An Introduction / Paul S. N. Lee 2Learning From the Evolution of Telecommunications in the Developed World / Benjamin J. Bates 3A History of Telecommunications in China: Development and Policy Implications / Zhou He 4The Political Economy of the Communication System in China / Leonard L. Chu 5Uneven Development of Telecommunications in China / Paul S. N. Lee 6Telecommunications and Development in Shanghai: A Case Study / Jianguo Zhu 7China's Use of the Internet: A Revolution on Hold / Bryce T. McIntyre 8China's Satellite Technology: Developments, Policies, and Applications / Junhao Hong 9The China-Hong Kong Relationship in Telecommunications / Michael Zhaoxu Yan 10The Beginning of a New Era: Privatization of Telecommunications in Taiwan / Georgette Wang, Fan-Tung Tseng 11China's Telecommunications: Options and Opportunities / John Ure 12The Impact of Foreign Linkages on Telecommunications and Development in China / Zixiang (Alex) Tan 13Creating a Telecommunications Free Trade Zone in Greater China / Milton Mueller You've got dissent! : Chinese dissident use of the Internet and Beijing's counter-strategies / Michael Chase, James Mulvenon. Santa Monica, CA : RAND, National Security Research Division Center for Asia Pacific Policy , 2002. Ch. 1Political use of the Internet in China Ch. 2Government Counterstrategies China and the Internet : politics of the digital leap forward / edited by Christopher R. Hughes and Gudrun Wacker. London; New York : RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. Introduction: China's digital leap forward / Christopher R. Hughes, Gudrun Wacker 1ICTs in China's development strategy / Xiudian Dai 2Internet growth and the digital divide: implications for spatial development / Karsten Giese 3The Internet and censorship in China / Gudrun Wacker 4Network convergence and bureaucratic turf wars / Junhua Zhang 5(Re-)Imagining 'Greater China': Silicon Valley and the strategy of siliconization / Ngai-Ling Sum 6What's in a name? China and the Domain Name System / Monika Ermert, Christopher R. Hughes 7Fighting the smokeless war: ICTs and international security / Christopher R. Hughes Civil society and Internet revolutions in China / Tai Zixue Ann Arbor, Mich. : UMI, 2004. Chinese cyberspaces : technological changes and political effects / edited by Jens Damm and Simona Thomas. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2006. Introduction / Jens Damm and Simona Thomas -- Government policy and political control over China's Internet / Eric Harwit and Duncan Clark -- In the crossfire of demands : Chinese news portals between propaganda and the public / Johan Lagerkvist -- Comrade to comrade networks : the social and political implications of peer-to-peer networks in China / Michael Chase, James Mulvenon, and Nina Hachigian -- China's e-policy : examples of local e-government in Guangdong and Fujian / Jens Damm -- Industrialization supported by informatization : the economic effects of the -- Internet in China / Xie Kang -- Net business : China's potential for a global market change / Simona Thomas Historicizing online politics : telegraphy, the Internet, and political participation in China / Zhou Yongming. Stanford : Stanford University Press, c2006. 1Telegraphy, culture, and policymaking 2Telegraphy, newspapers, and public opinion 3Telegraphy, political participation, and state control 4Public telegrams and nationalist mobilizations 5Telegraph power : textual and historical contexts 6China and the Internet : proactive development and control 7Negotiating power online : the party state, intellectuals, and the Internet 8Living on the cyber border : Minjian online political writers in China 9Informed nationalism : military Web sites in Chinese cyberspace The Internet in China : cyberspace and civil society / Zixue Tai. New York : Routledge, 10/2006. Chinese Cyber Nationalism: Evolution, Characteristics, and Implications / Wu Xu Lanham : Lexington Books, c2007 Introduction -- Evolution: Enlightenment in the ivory tower -- Say no to Indonesia's anti-Chinese riot -- Sino-U.S. cyber wars -- Post 9/11 transition of priority -- Direct confrontations with Japan -- Definitions: Chineseness -- Cyber public sphere -- Nationalism -- Chinese nationalism -- Chinese cyber sphere -- Cyber nationalism -- Chinese cyber nationalism -- Reflections: Key players -- Policy makers -- General online public -- Inconclusion. Technological empowerment : the Internet, state, and society in China / Yongnian Zheng. Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, c2007. Politics of technological empowerment: science vs. democracy -- Information technology, nation-state building, and social movement -- Regulatory regime and political control -- The Internet, political liberalization, and political democratization -- The Internet, civic engagement, and public distrust -- Interaction strategies, collective action, and political consequences -- Information technology, state-society relations, and political changes The Internet and rural development in China : the socio-structural paradigm / Jinqiu Zhao. Bern : Peter Lang AG, 2008. China's information and communications technology revolution : social changes and state responses / edited by Xiaoling Zhang and Yongnian Zheng. Abingdon, Oxon [England]; N.Y., NY: Routledge, 2009. 1Historical imagination in the study of Chinese digital civil society / Guobin Yang 2Dancing thumbs: mobile telephony in contemporary China / Zhenzhi Guo, Mei Wu 3Regulating e gao : futile efforts of recentralization? / Bingchun Meng 4In the name of good governance: e-government, Internet pornography and political censorship in China / Guoguang Wu 5Chinese intellectuals and the Internet in the formation of a new collective memory / Junhua Zhang 6From "foreign propaganda" to "international communication": China's promotion of soft power in the age of information and communication technologies / Xiao Ling Zhang 7Web engineering in the Chinese context: "let a hundred flowers bloom, a hundred schools of thought contend" / Kieron O'Hara 8The political cost of information control in China: the nation-state and governance / Yongnian Zheng The power of the Internet in China : citizen activism online / Guobin Yang. New York : Columbia University Press, 2009. 1Online activism in an age of contention 2The politics of digital contention 3The rituals and genres of contention 4The changing style of contention 5The business of digital contention 6Civic associations online 7Utopian realism in online communities 8Transnational activism online Jack Linchuan Qiu (2009). Working-Class Network Society: Communication Technology and the Information Have-Less in Urban China. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. --------------------Books that contain chapters on China and ICTs-------------------- Asia.com : Asia encounters the internet / edited by K.C. Ho, Randolph Kluver, and Kenneth C.C. Yang. London ; New York : RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. 1Asia encounters the Internet / K. C. Ho, Randolph Kluver, Kenneth C. C. Yang 2The state of Internet use in Asia / Tim Beal 3Catching up and falling behind: inequality, IT, and the Asian diaspora / Anthony P. D'Costa 4Cyberspace, surveillance, and social control: the hidden face of the Internet in Asia / David Lyon 5Global technology meets local environment: state attempts to control Internet content / Carolyn Penfold 6Piracy, open source, and international intellectual property law / Debora Halbert 7From real to virtual (and back again): civil society, public sphere, and the Internet in Indonesia / Merlyna Lim 8Malaysiakini.com and its impact on journalism and politics in Malaysia / James Chin 9Who is setting the Chinese agenda? The impact of online chatrooms on party presses in China / Xiguang Li, Qin Xuan, Randolph Kluver 10Clicking for votes: assessing Japanese political campaigns on the web / Leslie M. Tkach-Kawasaki 11The Tamil diaspora, Tamil militancy, and the Internet / Shyam Tekwani 12Construction and performance of virtual identity in the Chinese Internet / Karsten Giese 13Opening a Pandora's box: the cyber activism of Japanese women / Junko R. Onosaka 14Support and spewing: everyday activities of online Hindu groups / K. S. Arul, Maragatha Muthu Selvan 15Communication and relationships in online and offline worlds: a study of Singapore youths / Waipeng Lee, Brenda Chan Open networks, closed regimes : the impact of the Internet on authoritarian rule / Shanthi Kalathil, Taylor C. Boas. Washington, D.C. : Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, c2003. Ch. 1The Conventional Wisdom: What Lies Beneath? Ch. 2Wired for Modernization in China Ch. 3Channeling a "Limited" Resource in China Ch. 4Catching Up and Cracking Down in Singapore, Vietnam, and Burma Ch. 5Technology and Tradition in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt Ch. 6Beyond Blind Optimism Media and cultural transformation in China / Haiqing Yu. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2009. Prof Maria Kozhevnikov from Psychology and I are co-teaching a course the first time this semester. The title was inherited from Prof Byungho Park (KAIST Business school) when he was still with CNM and proposed this module. I have consulted Prof Shyam Sundar's courses on media psychology extensively and I would like to thank him to make all his syllabi available online. I also learned a lot from my colleague Prof Hichang Cho to organize this graduate level seminar. Therefore, the reading list I am attaching here is by all means a collective product. I post it here in hope of getting comments from other teachers/students who are interested in this emerging interdisciplinary field and would love to know more about good readings especially with regards to virtual environment and distributed cognition.
This module represents quite well my recent interest in new media psychology (e.g., needs) and behavior (e.g., multitasking). What drives me to search for more interpretative frameworks is the simple fact that we are now almost unable to tell in which moments the media are influencing audiences or the users are controlling the media. It is no longer relevant to ask what media do to audiences or what audiences do to media. The two actors, users and artifacts, are constantly and immediately doing things to each other. Another interesting take of this module is that although the title puts cognition in the first place, the content reflects a deep dissatisfaction with cognitive science and its focus on human minds. A paradigm shift that seems to come out is the theorization of context and its philosophical ground that sees human actors as fundamentally bounded by their environments. However, it does not mean that we shall give up the effort to study cognition. It is only that cognition does not only reside in human brains. Believe me, this shift is anything but an easy change of viewpoint. I spent (and will spend) much time debating with my students on this shift because it seems so "soulless" to put "things" at the same level as "people" in terms of agency. Well, let us see whether a soulless search can lead to the discovery of human condition, the conditions under which we are being human. Introduction Suppe, F. The structure of scientific theories. University of Illinois Press. (Read: pp. 135-151 (b) Kuhn) Harrison, S., Tatar, D., & Sengers, P. (2007). The three paradigms of HCI. http://people.cs.vt.edu/~srh/Downloads/TheThreeParadigmsofHCI.pdf Walther, J. B., Gay, G., & Hancock, J. T. (2005). How do communication and technology researchers study the Internet? Journal of Communication, 55, 632-657. Methodology - experiments Shadish, W. R., Cook, T. D., & Campbell, D. T. (2002). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. (Read: Ch. 1 & 8) Mitchell, M.L. and J.M. Jolley. (2007). Research Design Explained, 6th edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. (Read: Ch. 11). Walther, J. B. (2001). Is a picture worth a thousand words? Photographic images in long-term and short-term computer-mediated communication. Communication Research, 28(1), 105-134. Methodology – cognitive ethnography Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in practice: Mind, mathematics and culture in everyday life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (Read Ch. 1 introduction) Suchman, L. A. (1992). Plans and situated actions: The problem of human machine communication. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (Read Ch. 6 cases and methodology). Bodker, S. (1996). Applying activity theory to video analysis: How to make sense of video data in HCI. In B. A. Nardi (Ed). Context and consciousness: activity theory and human-computer interaction, pp. 147-174. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Information Processing Paradigm Proctor, R. W. & Vu, K. L. (2009). The Cognitive Revolution at Age 50: Has the Promise of the Human Information-Processing Approach Been Fulfilled? International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, v. 25, p. 729- 784. Miller, G. A. (2003). The cognitive revolution: a historical perspective. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, v. 7, pp. 141- 144. Multimedia Mayer, R. (2001). Multimedia Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 14. Rockwell, S. C. & Singleton, L. A. (2007). The Effect of the Modality of Presentation of Streaming Multimedia on Information Acquisition. Media Psychology, 9, 179-191. Oviatt, S., Coulston, R., & Lunsford, R. (2004). When do we interact multimodally?: Cognitive load and multimodal communication patterns. Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Multimodal Interfaces (ACM), 129–136. Virtual environments as new media Stanney, K. & Zyda, M. (2002). Virtual Environments in the 21st century. InStanney, K. (Ed.), Handbook of Virtual Environments: Design, Implementation, and Application, pp. (1-14). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Navigation Zimmer, M. (2010). Web search studies: Multidisciplinary perspectives on Web search engines. In J. Hunsinger, L. Klastrup, & M. Allen (Eds.), International Handbook of Internet Research. London: Springer. Pan, B., Hembrooke, H., Joachims, T., Lorigo, L., Gay, G., and Granka, L. (2007). In Google we trust: Users' decisions on rank, position, and relevance. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12 (3). Retrieved on January 8, 2009 from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue3/pan.html Wirth, W., Bocking, T., Karnowski, V., & von Pape, T. (2007). Heuristic and Systematic Use of Search Engines. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12 (3). Retrieved on January 8, 2009 from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue3/wirth.html Interactivity Sundar, S. S. (2007). Social psychology of interactivity in human-website interaction. In A. N. Joinson, K. Y. A. McKenna, T. Postmes & U-D. Reips (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Internet Psychology (pp. 89-104). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Chung, D. S. & Yoo, C. Y. (200?). Audience Motivations for Using Interactive Features: Distinguishing Use of Different Types of Interactivity on an Online Newspaper. Mass Communication & Society, 11: 375-397. Sundar, S. S., Kalyanaraman, S., & Brown, J. (2003). Explicating website interactivity: Impression-formation effects in political campaign sites. Communication Research, 30 (1), 30-59. Situated Action Nardi, B. A. (1996). Studying context: A comparison of activity theory, situated action models, and distributed cognition. In B. A. Nardi (Ed). Context and consciousness: activity theory and human-computer interaction, pp. 69-102. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Suchman, L. A. (1992). Plans and situated actions: The problem of human machine communication. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (Read Ch. 4 situated action). Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in practice: Mind, mathematics and culture in everyday life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. (Read Ch. 7 through the supermarket) Multitasking Zhang, W., Jeong, S. H., & Fishbein, M. (2010). Situational factors competing for attention: The interaction effect between multitasking and sexual explicitness on TV recognition. Journal of Media Psychology, 22(1), 2-13. Spink, A., Park, M., Jansen, B. J., & Pedersen, J. (2006). Multitasking during Web search sessions. Information Processing and Management, 42,264–275 Foehr, U. G. (2006). Media multitasking among American youth: Prevalence, predictors, and pairings. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Distributed Cognition Perry, M. (2003). Distributed Cognition. In J. Carroll (Ed.) HCI Models, Theories, and Frameworks (pp. 193 – 200). Moran Kauffmann Publishers: San Francisco, CA. June 2009. Penang, Malaysia. Reading newspaper - "racial origins so intrinsic to our very being"; listening to leading scholars - "how to prioritize your audiences? 1. private sector 2. policy maker 3. academia"; watching TV - "MM Lee criticizes Penang's low speed of development"; visiting the house of Sun Yat-Sen - "Penang has changed Chinese history". This is Asia.
September 2009. Manila, the Philippines. Typhoon Ondoy crashed the ceiling of my conference hotel. Professional journalists were so concerned by bloggers and their amateur practices. Intramuros was surrounded by water. Aileen Baviera introduced the political scene - popular participation w/o competitive elections, rule of law w/o human rights, government responsiveness w/o transparency. National museum was under water. Dozens of journalists would be killed one month later in Maguindanao. This is Asia. December 2009. KL, Malaysia. After presenting my paper, a question went like this - do you consider what you just talked about research (because research is supposed to challenge power)? I was meeting my collaborator during the break. Our keynote speaker looked at him and asked why you are here! They both happen to be scholar-musician. This is Asia. January 2010. Shanghai and Nanjing, China. The air was crispy cold and I ran through Shanghai from the East to the West. I constantly wondered - how many cities are there in Shanghai? I spent most of my holiday shopping on taobao.com and soon forgot the inconvenience of GFW. Nanjing was only an apartment with an Internet access. This is home. February 2010. Colombo, Sri Lanka. All my knowledge about this drop of tear came from three sources: Wiki, Lonely Planet, and a novel called Serendipity. Soldiers at check points stopped your vehicle with loaded guns. Cell phone vendors showed off their products - all made in China! The wind from the sea was different in Galle Face hotel as the sunshine was different in barefoot. Youngsters were holding a drinking party on an empty terrace. The midnight of Colombo 6 was unusually quiet. Michael Jackson was unusually familiar, bringing back memories. This is Asia. March 2010. Delhi, India. When waiting for traffic lights, a girl knocked the window and pointed to her mouth. She rolled her eyes when we handed her a pack of fries and 1 rupee. Dilli Haat has the most beautiful fabrics you have ever seen. The salesman asked for 1500 rupee for a blouse which we bought later at 400. I said if taking out Indians and putting in Chinese, Delhi is just like a northern city in China. My Kenyan friend said if taking out Indians and putting in Kenyans, Delhi is just like Nairobi. Is this Asia? March 2008. Singapore. Before flying back to the US, Millie smiled at me and welcomed me to CNM. Here I am, Asia. I thought my enthusiasm for journalism has long died since I decided to turn down the job offers from two Chinese "party-organ" newspapers in 2001. But it does not seem to be the case until I encountered quite a few events/people/perspectives recently. [The following is my complete reply to an interview request from the Straits Time in August 2009. I have no idea whether they published my opinions and if not, it is all right. I still appreciate that they pushed me to think of what I am doing days and nights and put them into some writing that tries to make a bit sense to general readers.]
The first thing we have to realize is that youth today lives on new media such as cellphones, facebook, youtube, twitter, etc. By saying “live on”, I mean they not only use new media as sources of information, which is a role that traditional media often play, but also make things happen in the sphere of new media platforms. It is no longer clear that whether activism refers to online or offline activities. Both could be considered as actions that citizens can take towards certain ends. For example, a protest in the speakers’ corner is treated as political activism. Now you can sign an online petition on the same issue and it could be treated as activism as well. Since new media become an integral part of youth’s life, it is natural that they get engaged in various activities through new media. If everyone of your friends is on Facebook and joins a group, it is very likely that you will join the group as well. In a global context, living on new media or living with new media has been well documented in the US (see Mimi Ito’s report “Living and learning with new media”) and the UK (see Sonia Livingstone’s book “Young people and new media”). Second, a traditional theory considers three factors as crucial to participation in activism: 1. The opportunities – new media provide many opportunities to get to know about various causes (e.g., google) and to really contribute to such causes (e.g., online donation). But we also have to acknowledge that many governments, including Singapore, now try to open more channels for youth to be active. Governments in the US and the UK are often concerned about the relatively lower rate among youth in terms of participating in traditional forms of political activities (e.g., voting). They want to engage youth in ways that are consistent with their life style. New media is one key component of their life style. A good example is how Obama tried to reach youth by youtube videos. The Singapore government recently further opened up space for civil society to initiate social changes. Some social service groups are encouraged and supported by the government. This means the opportunities are more available and visible than before. 2. The motivations – as I mentioned before, the motivations of getting involved in activism may be higher if most of people in your social networks are doing that. Social media such as facebook and twitter give users a very good tool to monitor the activities going on within their social networks. Such tools are often strong enough to organize collective actions, too. Both factors may contribute to higher efficacy and interest, which are important motivations that influence participation. 3. The ability – the tool function of new media should not be ignored because it empowers youth to make a difference. For instance, making an online video that favors a cause and getting tons of audiences viewing it are differences that youth can clearly see. Third, the global trend of new media activism can influence local youth. The Iran Revolution on twitter, the Obama campaign on the internet, the blog influence on Malaysian elections, and so on. These are all good examples that may inspire local youth. In short, Singapore youth now has the ability to make a difference in the social sphere. Whether they can make a difference to policy-making, it depends on both the government’s degree of acceptance (which seems increasing) and the motivation of a big enough crowd who is dedicated to the cause. AWARE is the well-known (well, known now) local women's groop which has gone through serious internal conflict recently. A group of new members took over the executive power by taking advantage of the tyranny of majority. They outnumbered supporters of the existing executive team in the annual election. The existing executive team is claimed to be too pro-homosexuality and has to be replaced all together. Out of the many dramatic stories unfolding themselves along time, I like the response from Minister in Prime Minister's Office the most. Mrs Lim Hwee Hua said: "This is not a national dispute and should not upset the balance and tenor of our open, tolerant and secular society."
If the society is already open and tolerant, how come we see dramas like this happening here and now? We tend to forget the reasons why we establish nation-states. It is exactly because civil society is not perfect and we need institutions to adress and solve serious conflicts within it. But I agree with Mrs. Lim that this is not a national dispute, yet... The Hegelian state - The highest values and best traditions of a society could be politically embodied and expressed by the state. - from Terence Chong's Embodying society's best: Hegel and the Singapore state. The Foucauldian society - Social conflicts produce themselves the valuable ties that hold modern societies together and provide them with the strength and cohesion they need. - from Bent Flyvbejerg'sHabermas and Foucault: Thinkers for civil society? One last note - please don't take me wrong. I am not asking for the state's intervention in civil society's affairs. I am asking for the state's tolerance of conflicts in civil society. Empower civil society to allow it to evolve through conflict solving, with the help from the state institutions when necessary. Are the differences between traditional media and new media due to the level of trust, bias, and informativeness? Let us look at the 2007 Oxford Internet Institute survey. Among Internet users, Internet is a bit more reliable than TV (6.8 out of a 10-point scale vs. 6.7) and more reliable than newspapers (5.8). Among Internet non-users, TV is the most reliable medium (6.3) but Internet is rated the same as newspaper (5.7). Is it because Internet users are mostly wild wild heads who hate anything from the Easy Easy East, aka, the traditional world? Internet users score higher than non-users in confidence in the government (!), scientists, and not surprisingly, people on the Internet. They have the same level of confidence as non-users in doctors and people in the country. Only slightly lower than non-users in confidence in people they know (3.8 out of a 5-point scale vs. 3.9).
Are new media less informative than traditional media? When rating the importance of different media for information, both users and non-users choose talking to other people as the most important channel (3.7 out of a 5-point scale). The gap lies in Internet as information source. Users rate Internet almost as important as talking to others (3.6) whereas non-users treat Internet as the least important medium (1.7). So what can we conclude? It depends on who you are talking to. Informativeness is a perception measure rather than a factual measure. How about the places "which are more considered, more moderated, where people put their names down and identify themselves"? Are they seldom seen online? I have no answer to this question. We have to do a comprehensive content analysis in order to have an answer. What I can say is the Internet and public sphere have been paired up for a long time. Researchers have witnessed many successful trials. If there is a fatal critique to my discussions above, it will be "your data are not from Singapore!" Yes, you are right. But are there any such data? Let me know... TODAYonline Mr Lee noted there will always be a role for traditional media to present trusted, unbiased and informed opinions even if some may feel that the information generated by traditional media is rather tame compared to what’s online. “There is a place called the Wild Wild West and there are other places which are not so wild. And the new media, some of it are Wild West and anything goes, and people can say anything they want, and tomorrow (they) take a completely contrary view,” said Mr Lee. Acknowledging that “that is just the way the medium is”, he added: “But even in the Internet, there are places which are more considered, more moderated, where people put their names down and identify themselves. And there is a debate which goes on and a give-and-take, which is not so rambunctious but perhaps more thoughtful.” That said, he noted traditional media has seen its viewership and readership numbers going up. A bloggers' association will be launched in Singapore. This non-profit association "aims to raise the profile of bloggers and promote, protect as well as educate its members". The association has also received media invites to cover events.
TODAYonline To me, this effort is one that tries to recentralize the net. The decentralized net has excited many people as it may refuse one authority, one perspective, or one voice. Netizens are connected through a loosely organized network, which is in contrast to both the hierarchical structure and the market structure. Different from the rigid structure of hierarchy, there are no fixed centers in networks. Collective action may emerge from anywhere as long as the causes it advocates attract enough people. What is often ignored is the difference between the market structure and the network structure. Free market is supposed to be totally decentralized. Buyers and sellers get in touch with each us purely based on needs and offers. The price system, according to Sunstein (see Infotopia), is the only mechanism that connects actors in market. Network is thus situated between market and hierarchy. Although Sunstein entertains the idea of using a price system to organize online behaviors (e.g., the reputation system on ebay or the recommendation system on myspace), netizens engage in other fashions, as much as if not more, in the market fashion. Look at facebook. The point is, the net has never been completely decentralized. Rather, it seems to support different modes of interaction if we look at different applications. Various efforts try to make the net even more centralized. Bloggers' association is one. It creates convenience for the government to address bloggers as one section of constituency as if they share a common interest. It also provides a touch point for the commercial forces to access the mysterious and invisible internet users. One may argue that it is impossible to put all bloggers into one association because there are millions of them. It is like having an association of voters. However, I think it is possible if we define bloggers as those netizens who express a public appeal to the rights of being bloggers. Political activists are always few compared to the silent majority. In a small country like Singapore, it may not be that hard to organize blogger activists into one association. The last question is, do all blogger activists in Singapore want to join? See this... Association of Bloggers (Singapore) : Singabloodypore Update: Feb 03, 2009 I now actually expect to see a successful collective action among bloggers. Whether it has to take the format of association, I am not sure. But the news piece below really shows the key problem of this association. Whether it has a cause that alludes bloggers and a structure that fits the way blogsphere is organized. CCTV's News Investigation is one of the best practices of journalism in China. Recently they broadcasted an episode on the self-governance of villagers (村民自治). Two very interesting terms emerged from the interview: sea-election vs. sea-fishing (海选 vs. 海捞). I found it extremely difficult to translate the two terms. But I can explain. 海选 means one person one vote and emphasizes the right of electing officials (village-level only). 海捞, as the quote below defined, means that the elected official was selected from a wide range of possible candidates (literally it means being fished out of sea). It emphasizes the accessibility of candidacy. One significant aspect with the basic level democracy (基层民主) is that it allows a procedure of sea-fishing (海捞). The cost of being a candidate at the village level is much lower than that at the higher level (such as county, city, province, and nation), which allows almost any villagers to be able to enter into the game.
村民自治工作面临全国各地阻力_新闻中心_新浪网 陈永喜:我们换届班子选举以后,成立以后,县长来过几次,他说美国新闻周刊记者来采访了,副主任叫陈忠,他说你跟海里捞出来的,叫“海捞”吧,然后费县长说不文雅这个词儿。不文雅,我说海选看怎么样这词儿,他说这个词儿挺文雅就定海选这个词儿。 Chen Yongxi: After the election was done, the head of county came to us several times. He told us that a reporter from American Newsweek Magazine came to interview us. The vice director was Chen Zhong and he said you are like being fished out of the sea, so let's call you "sea-fishing". Then Head Fei said this word is not elegant. Not elegant. So I said how about "sea-election". He thought it is good so we decided to use this word. Other grass-root understandings of democracy and politics are also enlightening. The following are two examples. 海选已经深入到人们的生活_新闻中心_新浪网 张孝敢:我个人认为选举要有程序,它程序的就是民主,民主就是麻烦,所以在选举是一个很麻烦的事。这个我倒是这样认为的,因为本身程序就是民主,没有程序就没有民主。 Zhang Xiaogan: I personally think that election must have a procedure. The procedure is democracy. Democracy is trouble. So election is a troublesome thing. I personally think so. Because procedure itself is democracy. No procedure no democracy. 海选已经深入到人们的生活_新闻中心_新浪网 徐谦:你像村民的民主意识,民主能力,法治观念,法治水平,它要在实践中去锻炼去提高,就像一个人似的,不让他走路,他怎么会走路?他必须要通过走路他才能越来越熟练。 Xu Qian: Things like the democratic awareness, the democratic ability, the idea of the rule of law, and the level of ruling by law, they all need to be improved in practices. It is like a person. If you don't let him walk, how can he learn how to walk? He must get skilled by practicing the skill of walk. |
Weiyu Zhang
I am an Associate Professor at Department of Communication and New Media, National University of Singapore. Categories
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