Name: Thomas Hardiman
Student number: (10848282)
The power of Chinese citizen journalists
in influencing traditional news media
outlets in China
By
Thomas Hardiman
(10848282)
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of
MASTER OF ARTS IN
NEW MEDIA AND DIGITAL CULTURE
at the
University van Amsterdam
2015
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Name: Thomas Hardiman
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Acknowledgements:
I hereby acknowledge the help I received from Dr. P.L.M.
Vasterman in shaping my research question into what it is, as well as
guiding me through my research over the last few months.
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Name: Thomas Hardiman
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Abstract:
In recent years, the world has witnessed a steady rise in social media activity with an ever
growing awareness and interests in events of citizens that are unfolding around them. The
Chinese population is no different in that regard, with an exponential growing number of
observant citizens reporting about events and publicizing their own opinions on social
media platforms, this is also known as citizen journalism. With this citizen awareness on the
rise the Chinese government is trying constantly to stay one step ahead of the people by
closely monitoring the online activates of its population. Therefore, the focus of this thesis is
the interaction that citizen journalists have with the traditional media outlets within China.
The study is based on three different case studies, the first one relating to the Wenzhou
train crash (2011), the second to certain corruption cases and the final one relating to the
Shanghai stampede (2015). Each of the cases is analyzed by examining and comparing the
textual content as well as the visual content published by the citizen journalists and the
news media. The study highlights specific examples from each of the cases in which citizen
journalists have been found to have influenced the news media.
KEYWORDS: Citizen Journalism, China, Censorship, Social media, Power of the People,
Wenzhou train crash, Corruption, Shanghai stampede
Word Count: 19,096
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Name: Thomas Hardiman
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Content Page
Content
Page
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................ 5
2. Literature review................................................................................................ 8
2.1.
Traditional and Citizen Journalism ........................................................................................ 8
2.2.
Censorship in China ........................................................................................................... 13
2.3.
Citizen Journalism in China................................................................................................. 15
3. Methodology ..................................................................................................... 19
4. Case studies ....................................................................................................... 23
4.1. Wenzhou train crash .............................................................................................................. 23
4.1.1. Case description ........................................................................................................................ 23
4.1.2. Textual findings ......................................................................................................................... 24
4.1.3 Visual findings............................................................................................................................. 31
4.1.4. Satisfaction Poll ......................................................................................................................... 34
4.2. Corruption ............................................................................................................................. 36
4.2.1. Case description ........................................................................................................................ 36
4.2.2. Textual findings ......................................................................................................................... 37
4.2.3. Visual findings:........................................................................................................................... 44
4.3. Shanghai stampede ................................................................................................................ 48
4.3.1. Case description ........................................................................................................................ 48
4.3.2. Textual findings ......................................................................................................................... 49
4.3.3. Visual findings............................................................................................................................ 53
5. Discussion .......................................................................................................... 55
6. Conclusion......................................................................................................... 56
7. Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 58
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Name: Thomas Hardiman
Student number: (10848282)
1. Introduction
The People’s Republic of China has entered the era of 21st century blogging. With rapid growth
in technology development China is experiencing a massive increase in microblogging sites that
produce millions of posts each hour. These microblogging sites function as a substitute for the
western social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, removed by the state from the
internet circulation in 2009 (Griffin). With the removal of these western platforms, the Chinese
social media platforms grew in power and became an outlet for free speech amongst the Chinese
population.
The chatter on the platforms usually increases dramatically when important or shocking events
are unfolding within the country. Individuals take to the Internet to report on what they
personally have witnessed, or to question the official statements about the events. This
information then usually spreads to vast number of people in a very short time, due to the fact
that each comment can be reposted by a different user. The former President of both Microsoft
China and Google China, Lee Kai-fu, once described this speedy re-posting function as a “virus
contagion” (Tong and Lei 157). Due to this, an individual gains the ability to reach a very large
group of people at a very low cost of production. Effectively, the individuals are taking back the
power from the government-run news media agencies and giving the “little man a voice”. The
individual now has the ability to assert himself within the community and figure out if there are
other people out there with similar thoughts. With this power a lot of netizens have gained the
status of being a self-appointed citizen journalist, who is reporting on different perspectives that
may have been neglected/denied in the government reporting style. The citizens of China are no
longer caught up in the mono-focal view of the country and are in fact enlightened with the new
knowledge that is produced.
The problem with this new found virtual citizen journalism is that it has resulted in a tightening
of the “Great Chinese Firewall”. Now, the government is at a constant standoff with its citizens
who want to have the right to report on what they want. They refuse to be tied down by the strict
Communist Party guidelines that are meant to determine the online experience of the user. Yet, it
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is often argued that the social media chatter has in fact impact on the government and may actual
effect its policy.
In a speech to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Chen Wang (2010)
warned that “as long as our Internet is open to the public, there will be channels and means for
netizens to express all sorts of speech on the Internet”. While stressing the value of the Internet as
an essential propaganda tool for guiding public opinion, “unifying thinking”, and defying “the
hegemony of Western media” (Shen).
Inside the Communist Party there are worries about citizens gaining more power through the
expansion of the Internet. It is that fear of the internet that would suggest that the netizens may in
fact be a bigger threat to the country’s ideals than what the government had anticipated. The
people have now become the one that is monitoring the government rather than the other way
around. This brings us to the research question that this thesis will aim to answer; what is the
overall impact that Chinese netizens have on the Chinese government, and more specifically:
1) What importance do the netizens have in uncovering information during crisis situations?
2) To what extent does the questioning of official news reports by netizens in China
influence the content/news reports, subsequently published by the government, and is
there any visible interaction between the two parties?
3) How are the visuals used by citizen journalists complimenting the corresponding topics
and is there a variation to the ones used in the news media.
In order to tackle these questions at hand the thesis will begin with a literature review that is
arranged thematically. The literature review will start with a general examination of citizen
journalist as a whole and then start to focus on specific aspects relating to China including a brief
overview of the censorship status in China. Following the literature review will be the
methodology that will outline the steps taken in the data capture as well as giving a working
definition for citizen journalism. The next section will be the most extensive part; it will present
the findings as well as the interpretation of them. It will be split into three sections using as
illustrations three incidents: the findings of the Wenzhou train collision (2011), followed by the
five corruption incidents in the country, and will end with the Shanghai stampede (2015). Each of
the cases will also include the tables that have the visual findings in them as well as a brief
introduction to each of the cases. This is followed by a short discussion that will examine the
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different methods that could be adopted in the future to achieve better results if this study would
be expanded and carried out again reviewing other news incidents. Finally, there will be a
conclusion in which the research questions will be reiterated and followed by suggested answers
to each of the three questions. The thesis will then end with a concluding paragraph that sums up
the entire work.
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2. Literature review
The era of Citizen Journalism has begun! Everyday more and more individuals take up the
challenge to report on events and news that have been neglected by traditional news outlets.
Since Citizen Journalism is an offspring from traditional journalism it is important to understand
how it developed and what purpose it serves to the public. This theoretical framework begins
with a general insight into what Citizen Journalism is and what it entails. Followed by an analysis
of press freedom policy in China and finally it will examine the specific aspect of Citizen
Journalism in China, discussing the meaning and power behind the phenomena that is driving the
movement.
2.1. Traditional and Citizen Journalism
Traditional journalism is still organized as a professional occupation in which only trained
individuals operate. Traditional journalists work according to the same professional standards,
usually monitored and controlled by the organizations that they work for. The have their
professional autonomy but within the organization they have to report up a pyramid of hierarchy
in which the journalistic content is adjusted to fit the agenda of the news organization. On the
other hand in the Encyclopedia of Journalism, Citizen Journalism is defined as amateur style of
Journalistic reporting that involves various levels of journalistic training, ranging from none at all
over to local training courses (Sterling et al 298). So if one were to go with the idea that Citizen
Journalist can vary in their education of journalistic practices then it also raises the question of
quality with regards to the content that is produced. They do not belong to a professional
community that sanctions the professional standards so there is no way of ensuring that the
content produced is factual and accurate. “Citizen Journalism generally blurs the traditional
distinction between fact and opinion” (Sterling et al 298). Often individuals that have certain
political or economic affiliations will tend to focus on certain aspects that they perceive to be of
great importance while neglecting others. This is not to say that every Citizen Journalist will
follow down the line of bias reporting, however, the chances of bias cannot be ignored.
Occasionally it occurs that citizen Journalist receive payment for the content that they produce
(Sterling et al 298), either from traditional news outlets purchasing the content or from private
organizations. The private organizations may include a company that is asking to post
advertisements on the citizen journalist webpage. When a case like this arises the idea of staying
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impartial becomes ever more difficult, the journalist is no longer a private individual who can
publish what he/she wants. He/she now has to ensure that the content that he/she produces falls in
line with the agenda that the advertising company has or else risking losing this source of income.
The development of new mobile technology has made it a lot simpler for an individual to become
a citizen journalist. “The prevalence of mobile devices that can record pictures, video and have
constant internet connections, combined with the growing popularity of social networking sites
has actually made it possible for people to produce and share news themselves” (DeMers).
Effectively this means that the traditional entry boundaries that existed in the journalistic world
have been removed and become accessible for every individual. This is coupled with the fact that
the social networks have created a platform that allows the rapid movement of information,
which means that citizen journalists can reach the same if not more people in the same amount of
time than traditional journalists.
Even though the exact history of when citizen journalism started is unclear (Allan and Thorsen
17), it has definitely been on the rise since the public introduction of the internet. Social media
made it possible for anyone to publish and produce content at a low cost from the comfort of their
home or on the move with new handheld smart technology. Citizens of a country can capture and
upload real time updates from the scene of the action elevating themselves to the status of citizen
journalists by the click of a button (Liu 478); the amount of content that can be produced in the
public sphere is essentially endless. This is the reason that in 2006 CNN launched iReport
(www.ireport.com) (479), which enabled users to submit content that they had produced and have
it backed by a large news cooperation. This concept has managed to attract over 100,000 postings
and more than half a million tags (479). These corporate news organizations are starting to accept
the fact that the citizens who witness events and blog about them could in fact be producing a
certain quality of reporting that can be considered journalistic in nature. This acceptance of the
citizen journalism is even larger in the public sphere with millions of users reading journalistic
style blogs from around the world. One of the reasons why the popularity of these amateur “news
blogs” has become more predominant is because of the direct uncensored ‘raw’ content that is
produced by people who experienced the events first hand or were in contact with people who did
before professional journalist could get an interview (Measures N.p). This is especially relevant
in places that have limited or no access for professional journalists due to the sensitivity of the
incident in the context of the given country. Therefore, citizen journalism could be in an essence
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a method of taking the power away from large governing bodies and redistributing it amongst the
population (Measures N.p). So in a sense political power has become something that an
individual can control and is no longer something that is dictated down from a figure of authority.
This can be taken a step further and the material that is produced by the citizen journalist can be
used to compliment the traditional news outlets such as CNN’s iReport. However, if citizen
journalists become aware of the fact that their content can in fact produce a revenue they may
change and adapt the reporting style to ensure that their content gets selected for the news reports.
In cases such as this one, the power has again been removed from the public and given back to
the larger governing bodies that have their own political driven agenda. These governing bodies
can be in the form of a news corporation or even as a government department, it would depend on
the level of press freedom in the country.
Though citizen journalism within a small community can achieve elevated status quite quickly, it
becomes ever harder for citizen journalists to reach this status on a larger or even global scale.
Often in conflict regions citizen journalists want to move beyond the local community and reach
the outside world. When examining the idea of a global audience in terms of citizen journalism it
is important to work with specific examples in order to relate the theory to reality; one of these
examples is the Israeli - Palestinian conflict. In the case of this conflict, citizen journalists
(usually in the role of bloggers) in Palestine try to show the outside world how the population is
suffering due to the conflict. This message of suffering is not aimed at the population from
within, it is targeted at the outside world to gain sympathy towards the problem. “The reporting
embodies a “simple hope,” namely that by raising awareness of their suffering, pressure will be
brought to bear on politicians around the world to help end it” (Allan and Thorsen 9). The
aspiration to reach politicians from around the world has resulted in many of the citizen
journalists within Palestine choosing to write in English rather than in Arabic (9). In a sense this
type of citizen journalism can be seen more as a persuasive piece of writing rather than a factual
piece of evidence since it is fueled by a certain agenda, however, it is still considered journalistic
since they are in fact reporting on the events within the country as they are unfolding. Therefore,
citizen journalism shows a wide variety of roles, and of news and opinions, with a variety in
quality and independence.
“In a digital world with a whole host of different ways to communicate a factual message it is
increasingly hard to judge the value of amateur eyewitness film shot on a mobile phone and
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posted on the internet against a considered, observational documentary broadcast on a traditional
television channel” (Bulkley). The idea that bias flows within the citizen journalist community is
also closely tied to the idea of “first person reporting”, in which private individuals adopted the
role of a journalist spontaneously due to their proximity to the event (Allan 2013). Once an
individual gives a first person account of a traumatic or stressful event, the integrity of the report
starts to come into question. What they may have seen is perhaps what they wanted to see or only
what they could process at the time. “Under duress memories can be faulty, lines of vision
obscured, the significance of events misinterpreted” (Allan 2013). To add to the misinterpretation
that could be experienced in “first person reporting” is the additional factor of the unknown
background of the individual. One can never be sure if the person is purposely trying to lead the
story down a certain path or not. When in traditional journalism the journalist has his doubts
about the factuality of a statement he can simple put the statement in quotation marks and lists it
as a direct quote. A journalist is considered to follow standards and to check facts and sources, on
the other hand what a netizen does is not checked. However, if this information is directly posted
on a blog of the individual who made the statement, it is no longer in quotation marks, it simple
stands on its own.
Ignoring the aspect of potential bias in the reporting style, citizen journalism also has strengths
that it can bring to the table. One of these strengths includes the ability to pick up news stories
that have been deemed to be too small or not suited for the traditional news outlets (Sterling et al
301). By having the ability to select local (small) stories they carry the power to create a sense of
community within the journalist’s site. This would be a place where they manage to achieve a
well-established local readership. A famous example of this is the “Baristanet” which decided to
narrow its niche market size down to a specific zip code in New Jersey nevertheless it manages to
attract around 7,000 visitors a day (301). The reason for this large influx of readers is because of
its sense of community. By only reporting on activities in the local neighborhood it narrows its
audience down to such a small area that everyone within that locality gets the sensation that they
“have to” follow the site in order to be part of that community.
Allan and Thorsen also argue that citizen journalism is an integral part in improving a countries
democratic system (10). Citizen journalism can be seen as a counter balance to the state
controlled media within a country that has press restrictions. While in a country that enjoys a
well-balanced press freedom, citizen journalism can be used as a tool that enables individuals to
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express their personal concerns on a certain topic. With citizen journalism on the forefront of
online reporting, more and more citizens are getting a voice within the country they live in. This
voice is being used to spark debates in which the state can be called into question and its integrity
undermined. Though the individual may finally get a voice when producing journalist content,
his/her content can start to spread at a rate at which the content loses its producer. This is the
point when it goes ‘viral’ on the internet and is no longer associated with its original creator,
moreover, it becomes part of the public’s domain (24). In these situations the individual is
reduced to a number in the flow of amateur journalistic data, losing all connection to the personal
account of the original report. An example of such mass flow of journalistic data occurred in
2005 after the London bombings when the BBC was bombarded with over 50 images within an
hour of the events taking place as well as plenty of video footage (29). The footage had the ability
to capture the direct aftermath of the events before the outside world had truly registered what
had happened.
Though the power distribution of citizen journalism can be influenced through finances it is the
sheer number of publications of web content in which the real knowledge and power lies; in total
the internet features over 11.5 billion publications in 75 languages (Corrêa and Madureira N.p).
“We are living in the middle of the largest increase in expressive capability in the history
of the human race. More people can communicate more things to more people than has
ever been possible in the past, and the size and speed of this increase, from under one
million participants to over one billion is a generation, makes the change unprecedented,
even considered against the background of previous revolutions in communications
tools” (Shirky 106)
The revolutionary development on the front of communication successfully manages to turn an
entire country (or even the world) into a village built around the idea of communication and
online interaction. Blogs have become the equivalent to the local market square in the center of
the village that acts as an intermediate between the author and the reader. However, it is not to
forget that this is more the case in countries with liberal press freedom. Alone in 2006, 8% of
American internet users published blogs, which is the equivalent to 12 million people (Corrêa and
Madureira). As time moves on and internet technology becomes more predominant and readily
available this number increases. At current state the world has over three billion internet users;
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the country that features the highest number of internet users is China with a current total of over
600 million users (Internetlivestats.com). Within this large online presence there is also a
substantial quantity of bloggers and micro-bloggers that actively engage and challenge traditional
media outlets that are controlled by the state. With this constant challenging of the state comes in
a new level of censorship that needs to be established by the government to ensure the “correct
handling” of potential risky online presence as perceived by the Communist Party.
2.2. Censorship in China
As of 2014, China is 175th out of 180 in terms of press freedom (En.rsf.org). China has developed
one of the most extensive and sophisticated data surveillance and censorship network in the
world, yet are currently at capacity with their capabilities. With an online population of half a
billion it is becoming increasingly hard for the government to control the virtual world and
enforce it’s Maoist Regime on the countries netizens. The countries online blog censorship
functions with complex algorithms that search for keywords that could be linked to potential
political uproar amongst the population. An example of one of these keywords/ phrases that has
been flagged as a political risk is the word occupy followed by a Chinese city
[“Occupy
Beijing” (占领北京)] (En.rsf.org). The reason behind this is the “occupation” of central areas of
Hong Kong by protesters in 2014 protesting about civil liberties. For that reason the government
fears that this could spread to the mainland and result in a civil uprising. In certain cases the
government has targeted individual netizens resulting in them being imprisoned for up to 10
years (En.rsf.org). These actions of course bred further mistrust amongst the online community
creating an ever growing hostile environment. This is the reason why China is such an adequate
case study to investigate the power of citizen journalism. The struggle that the government is
facing with the rise of mobile technology and the control of the individuals “reporting power” has
given rise to a number of interesting events that individuals are now reporting on.
To understand the complicated censorship that is conducted within the country one has to step
back into the past to unearth the building blocks on which the current censorship model was built.
China and censorship date back at least as far as to the Qin dynasty (1644). Over time, the laws
and policies have adapted and changed with each subsequent dynasty. Some of the censorship
models of the past were however more seen as a type of regulatory laws rather than a straight out
restriction of speech (Caso 56). Then in 1949 under the unification of the People’s Republic of
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China, Mao Zedong and his government introduced the three main censorship goals that had to
be kept: “To retain power, to maintain community standards and to protect dogma” (56). These
are the three fundamental aspect that are still in place today in the country and are also the bylaws
by which the censorship bureau operates. However, the idea of protecting the Maoist dogma has
become more relaxed. After the Cultural Revolution and the death of Mao in 1976 the country
experienced one of its most infamous censorship wars with the people during the protests that
took place on Tiananmen Square in 1989 (67). This was one of the closest times that the
government had come to being overthrown, this meant that news of this event was not allowed to
spread with the consequence that large numbers of domestic news publications were forced to
ignore the events that unfolded during the protests. Since the protests that took place on
Tiananmen Square the Chinese economy has experienced large and rapid growth with huge
influences from the west entering the country. Protests now still exist in the country with the
largest one being the 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests, however due to the current strict
censorship legislations they are usually contained before they can result in a repeat of the events
that took place in 1989.
Currently, China has two official news agencies, the China News Service and the Xinhua news
agency (Caso 70). These two news agencies control all the content that is allowed to be
distributed and published in China’s mass media. In 2006, the two news agencies declared that
they can also control what foreign newspapers/magazines are allowed to distribute within the
country effectively implementing total control over the nation (70). Following theses strict
publication laws the government introduced another set of laws that would counter act online
publications by private individuals in the country, it stated: Anyone that “harm[s] national unity,
sovereignty, or territorial integrity, or damage[s] national honor or interests, disturb[s] the social
order or damage[s] social stability, or advocate[s] cults” (71) will be held accountable and will
receive punishment for his/her actions. Subsequently after these laws had been published the
Chinese government acted fast and started arresting people that had broken any of these laws.
Within a short time period, Amnesty international had reported that a total of 33 people had been
detained for crimes such as publish pro-democracy material (72).
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After Facebook, Twitter and YouTube became restricted sites in China as part of this censorship
move, local blog and video sites started to gain popularity and filled the void. The difference
between these sites however, is that they comply with the local censorship, by handing over user
information, if that user was found to be spreading fictitious rumors (En.rsf.org). In addition,
China now requires users to use their really names if they want to part take in the use of
microblogs, in order to keep better track of who is starting which rumors. To counter act this
distribution of rumors the Chinese government has developed the concept of the 50-cent
party/army. They consist of individuals that have been recruited by the government to post
positive government comments on micro blogs to increase the credibility of the government
amongst the people (Tang and Iyengar 84). The concept is simple, every time one of the members
posts a pro-China comment they are rewarded with RMB 0.50 (“fifty cents” equivalent to about
5p), the exact number of the 50-cent party is uncertain but it is estimated that it lies somewhere
between 280,000 and 300,000 (84). These numbers may seem large and potentially effective, yet
a study has shown that it does not seem to be completely effective. Amongst the population there
is growing distrust of the sociopolitical system (92), which is making netizens dubious about
suspicious postings that appear to be very pro-government. Of course it would be wrong to state
that it has not had an impact on the blogging community at all since there is a definite presence of
them online and they could perhaps create a following based on the sheer number of them
involved.
2.3. Citizen Journalism in China
In a study conducted by Ying Jiang about the Chinese blogs he found that the Chinese bloggers
can be viewed as “self-managing consumers rather than free citizens” (Ying 21). To classify the
Chinese blog consumer he obtained five key characteristics:
“1) Individualist and consumerist ideologies can be distinguished in the majority of
Chinese bloggers’ writing
2) Although political blogs do exist in China’s blogosphere, they are mainly part of the
nationalistic narrative.
3) Blogs expressing political dissent exist in China’s blogosphere, but the readership is
rather small.
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4) Political-satire blogs criticizing the government have a relatively large numbers of
readers, but their interest-value is entertainment
5) Censorship is mainly self-implemented, that is, enforcing mechanisms are rarely
needed.”
(Ying 21)
These five key characteristics of the Chinese blogger paint an interesting picture of the type of
person that would be involved in citizen journalism within China. Within the blogging
community people will distinguish themselves as individualist or consumerist in terms of their
ideological belief. This, as stated above, will be visible in the writing style of the blogger. Jiang
goes on to argue that the individualist will publish information about themselves while the
consumerists will playfully deconstruct mainstream culture to make a statement about it (22).
The next three characteristics all relate to the political sphere, most of the blogs about politics are
a relatively small and can mainly be found on Sina Weibo blogs (32). The nationalist direction
that the majority of the political blogs take could be a direct result of the 50-cent party and their
strong line nationalist reporting on situations. Jiang gives the example of blogs containing the
words “Tibetan separatists”, which can only be found in a pro-government forum and had a total
of 135,075 readers (37). The blog is written in a way that directly attacks Tibetan separatists who
had an altercation with the Olympic Torch holder: “Finally we found the stupid idiot who attack
the Olympic Torch holder “Jin Jing”, we should remember this stupid idiot, condemn him
together, let him die with no burial place” (37).
On the other hand the blogs that discussed had the political satire in them used creative world
transformations to ensure that the keyword censorship program would not catch them. An
example that is given is “river crab” which is a decoy word used when referring to the Chinese
internet censorship (38). When someone talks about the “river crab” on a Chinese micro blog,
they refer to something being censored, or as the government refers to it “harmonized” However
a posting about these topics seem to be more of a casual nature and does not get into deep
philosophical debates about the situation, in essence reinforcing the idea that a number of
Chinese netizens conduct self-censorship due to the fear of perhaps getting caught.
Many of the citizen journalists that we see in China today operate on their own without much
support of others, they only gain support over time (119). Any bystander that witnesses an
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incident is quite quick to react and posts the information that he/she observed on a social blog site
(Lagerkvist 119). There are of course also citizen journalists in China that do not only by chance
bear witness to an incident, but purposely go out to find information about events in the country.
A famous example of one of these people was Li Xinde, who used to be a professional journalist
and then decided to start up his own blog (yulunjiandu.com) (120). One of the biggest stories that
he reported on was a piece on corruption within the government in which US$ 400,000 had been
embezzled by an individual. Due to the fact that his blog was contained to one web address it did
not take the government to long to close it down (120).
Regularly the government closed down web blogs that were infringing on the key elements of
censorship morals, however with the introduction of micro-blogs such as Weibo it became ever
harder for them to contain the published information, since it was split over a number of different
pages and hidden amongst the large general volume of data. This meant that Weibo offered a
number of new opportunities to its users. A key player in this citizen journalism on micro-blogs
was a person who called himself Zola. He reported on the poor living conditions in the Chinese
countryside and how the peasants are being neglected by the government. He had amassed over
20,000 readers per day (120). Whenever he went on travels around the country he used to only be
armed with, “a USB stick, a digital camera, a mobile phone and an email address” (120). Not
only did he document news stories, he also went out to inspire people to conduct the same type of
investigative journalism and share it in the public domain (121). A lot of the citizen journalists
that developed out of such movements did so because they did not believe in journalistic work of
the state media (121). As time goes on and China experiences more and more western influence,
the questioning of the state media will increase and result in even more citizen journalists being
born in the country.
When the government chooses to shut down a website or a blog they refer to it as being
“harmonized” (127). This of course leads to even more outrage amongst the people resulting in
new blogs appearing that again choose to criticize the government. Most blogs that are written in
a style that is aimed against the government do not result in civil unrest, yet the few bloggers that
have developed a large core readership do in fact hold the power to control the masses (128).
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Citizen journalism working definition
Stuart Allan believes that a traditional “Journalists have been formally trained to be
dispassionately impartial when they document what they see and hear” (Allan 1). On the other
hand an individual that is referred to as a citizen journalist is an untrained person that is at the
scene of an event while it is unfold and manages to document (visually or written) what he or she
is observing. Often a citizen journalist can also acquire the information from firsthand accounts
of people that were present during the incident, or from undisclosed documents
Therefore when analyzing the top reposts on social networks for citizen journalist content, the
posts should fall into one or all of the categories:
1) The post is written based on firsthand account of a person present during the incident.
2) The post includes visuals from the incident that has been captured by a private individual
and not a traditional news agency, or images that have been turned into memes
3) The post reveals new facts that have not been shown in the traditional media, or questions
published facts about the event.
4) The post is critical of government released statements.
Well were does this leave us? So far the literature review laid out the foundation of what the
phrase “citizen journalism” is by developing and commenting on academics that have coined and
discussed the term in the past. With the brief overview of the history and the current state of
censorship within China the groundwork had been laid to establish what it means to be a citizen
journalist in the Peoples Republic of China. On hand of previous studies conducted by other
academics it became possible to extract the key concepts that drive the censorship in the country
as well as determine why certain citizen journalists were targeted and why others were not. While
in the West the right to publish blogs is taken for granted, it is still an uphill battle in China
between the bloggers and the censorship bureau which is desperately trying to maintain control
within a country that is seeking change. For this study it is important to see how the ongoing
struggle between netizens and state censorship develops.
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3. Methodology
The research methodology for this study is divided into different sections. First will be a working
definition for citizen journalism that will be used to filter relevant from non-relevant blog posts.
Following this will be a justification for why certain case studies were chosen to conduct this
research, with a clarification of which aspects of the cases will be examined.
The justification of the selection of events
Each of these three case studies was selected for specific reasons, to determine if there is in fact a
visible impact created by the Chinese netizens on the government’s policy or statements. Since
the research question has three main aspects to it, it is important to examine the government’s
response over a variety of different crisis situations. This will bring forward the different forms of
interaction between the official and the social media workings. Therefore these three case studies
were selected since each embodies a different crisis situation (a large scale accident, corruption
and a citizen caused disaster) and a crisis brings the clash between censorship and the citizen
journalists to the fore ground.
Case study I: Wenzhou train collision
This case study revolves around the Wenzhou train crash that occurred on 23rd July 2011 (BBC
News, 2011). Since the incident happened on China’s newly developed high speed rail system
there was a lot of pressure on the government to find out what went wrong and who was to blame
for the casualties. Due to this there was constant online activity on Weibo following the event,
driven by witnesses and survivors of the crash, who were questioning the information produced
by the government and the state media. This event became one of the most reposted events on
both Weibo and other Chinese blogs at the time and involved a lot of government censorship.
This will be examined as a case study that occurred as a manmade disaster. The analysis will
focus on the 10 day time period that followed the event, since this was the most active time on
the social media blogs.
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Case Study II: Corruption incidents in the country
China and its elite face constant scrutiny by the public on the topic of corruption. Throughout the
last few years the media attention towards such corruption cases has risen as a result of among
others the Chongqing gang trials. The “Chongqing gang trials” was a case that revolved around a
string of corruption trials involving Chinese government officials. Each week new individuals
were accused of corruption in the country and the government responded with a number of arrests
of people that had been accused of the crimes. This in turn caused widespread debate on the
Chinese social media platforms in which netizens were questioning official reports that were
released during the trials. It also leads to a number of keywords being blocked during the ongoing
trials. The suspicion that corruption is occurring within the government was sustained and has
often made it to the forefront of incidents that followed the Chongqing gang trials. Therefore the
case study on corruption will serve the purpose of presenting the government and social media
interaction on a governmentally created phenomenon, in contrast to a manmade disaster. For the
analysis 5 different incidents, that received high levels of social media attention were selected.
Case Study III: Shanghai stampede
The Shanghai stampede is a relatively recent event that unfolded on the 31st of December 2014 in
which 36 people were killed and 49 injured (South China Morning Post). The event took place
during a New Year celebration in Shanghai and was widely documented by people present at the
time. Since the event involved 300,000 people the online presence of this event was enormous
and well documented by a number of citizen journalists present at the time. Public debates were
sparked about who to blame, since the newspaper coverage was scarce at the time of the event.
While the other two events occurred a few years back and served as a display of governmental
handling of online social media, this one will be used as a comparative case to analyze if there
has been any noticeable change over the years in the way that the government handles the online
activities of certain netizens. This part of the analysis examines three different days that followed
the events. Each of these days was selected based on the high level of online activity.
China Smack as a reference
To source the information needed to investigate this topic the website China Smack was used
(http://www.chinasmack.com/about). The webpage monitors online social media activity in
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China and reports on the current trending events in those platforms. The reports include the
original as well as the translated top trending posts of certain events linked to the date they were
published. Additionally the webpage also makes use of trending visual materials that were
trending, parallel to the trending posts.
China Smack sources its information not only from Weibo but also from other sites such as
NetEase and Youku (Video hosting site in China). By gathering data from various sites will help
create a better balanced argument when commenting and analyzing the findings of the topic.
Most of the online trending activities are related to government statements that have been issued
and shared on social media platforms.
The China Daily (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/)
The China Daily is an English language newspaper that is based out of Beijing. It is a heavily
state influenced newspaper that only reports what is approved by the ruling communist party. In
addition to having a traditional printed newspaper it also features over an online version that can
be accessed from anywhere in the world. The online version has a chronological archiving system
that dates back over 20 years as well as featuring an advanced search function that lets you
produce qualitative search queries.
Specific aspects that will be examined in the three case studies
First and foremost there will be an introduction to each of the events with the specific details of
the different cases. A timeline will be established for each of the case studies outlining the major
events that took place during the incident, as well as in the aftermath. This timeline will be based
on news reports that were released by The China Daily. At the same time the top social media
activity will be monitored and compared to the timeline that has been established. This
information will then be collected and added to a set of tables. The tables will have two main
parts; the one on the left side will feature a summary of the China Daily news article of that day
and the other side will have a summary of the online social media activity of that day.
Furthermore the side with social media activity will also have an example of a top reposted
comment as well as the statistics of how many times the page relating to that comment was seen,
commented on and reposted.
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With the help of the timeline the response speed of the government will be determined, in order
to see if the online social media activity has an effect on official government responses. With this
it will be easy to determine whether the questioning of the news reports will lead to a “revised”
publication in the subsequent days. It will also make it possible to determine if there is an
interaction in the form of a direct response, or if certain topics are ignored by the governmental
publications. The exception to the timeline layout will be the case study on corruption since it
does not follow a day to day development of a single event. In this case there will be two
different dates - one from the publication of China Daily article and the other from social media
activities. This will also contribute to the interaction between the two parties, as well as bring
forth the importance of netizens uncovering information during the different corruption cases. In
the sense that it will show how the uncovered information by the netizens has complemented
official news reports.
Finally will be an examination of the visuals produced relating to the events. For this part of the
study the most predominant news media images will be extracted and cross-compared to the ones
that are present in the online sphere. This will help to determine the different reporting styles
used by the citizen journalists and news media in China, to establish if one relies more on visuals
or on text to convey the message that they are reporting. It will also help to determine if there is a
noticeable difference between the types of images that are posted, for example if one of the
mediums is more inclined to use graphic material to convey the message. Therefore if trending
topics on the social media platforms are inclined to use certain images versus the ones used in the
news media it will be possible to interpret the different semiotic meaning behind the images.
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4. Case studies
4.1. Wenzhou train crash
4.1.1. Case description
On Saturday 23rd July 2011 at about 20:30 hrs in Wenzhou, China two high speed trains collided
resulting in a total of 39 people killed at the site of the incident and one later in hospital, as well
as 200 people injured (BBC 2011). The collision occurred when one of the trains slowed down on
the track and was rear-ended by the other train approaching from behind. The slowing down of
the first train was initially blamed on the loss of power due to a lightning strike; this was then
followed by a number of different scenarios that could have caused the crash. In August the
crash was then determined to have been caused due to flaws in the design of the signaling along
the track (BBC August 2011). The event quick spread across the country making national news
on the days to come. However, in the days following the crash, onsite reporting was strictly
limited to by approved news agencies to avoid the spreading of rumors across the country. A few
images were yet leaked to the internet which apparently showed the officials at the crash site
trying to bury the train wreck in an attempt to hide the evidence of the events that took place. The
government’s response to these allegations was that they had to dig a temporary ditch so that they
could bring in larger cranes to lift the train wreck off the track.
More and more rumors started to spread across the country, accusing the government of not being
completely honest with the investigation of the incident. The Chinese government was quick to
react and found the people that they believed to be responsible and decided to remove them from
their position of power (including the Rail Ministry spokesman). Moreover, they also started to
discuss the potential value of compensation that the family members of the victims should be
entitled to and laid out public plans, on how they will ensure the safety of the train network in the
future.
The incident occurred during the height of China’s planned expansion of their rail network. As a
result of the accident the Chinese government put the construction of the new high speed rail
network on hold for three weeks to determine the exact cause of the accident. As a repercussion
of this the government lost large sections of public support and trust. With the distrust in the new
train network also came the distrust in the government’s handling of the incident, which was
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especially present in the online social media platforms (BBC 2011). The government produced a
final report on the incident in November 2011, however it was not released to the public straight
away until it received the approval by the leaders of the country (BBC November 2011). After
the publication of the official findings all reporting on the event in print media was banned in an
effort to shift the public’s attention elsewhere.
4.1.2. Textual findings
Table 1 (Wenzhou train collision)
Date
China Daily content
Social media content
24.07.11 16 people killed and 100 injured. One of Random
the trains lost power due to a lightning strike
25.07.11 35
people
killed
and
192
chatter
on
the
social
networks, no definitive trending issues
injured. Top discussion point: A trending
Transportation Authority launches a safety video which shows train hanging from
overhaul.
Li
Shenglin
(Transportation the side of the bridge as well as an
minister) stated that officials at all levels interview with the first person who
should be held responsible. Later that day arrived at the scene of the disaster and
three railway officials fired. Short witness his account of personally rescuing
accounts of the accident
eight people from the crash.
Source: Youku, 2.37 million views
and 16,688 likes and shared over 2
million times
26.07.11 39 people killed and over 190 injured. The Top
discussion
point:
Leaked
rail ministry said they will offer “fair and information about the CCTV press
reasonable compensation” to the families guidelines which stated:
(death or severe injury = $26,683). A 1. Only use casualty numbers issued
memorial service was held by Wenzhou by the government
residents
2. Do not report frequently
3. Report on moving stories such as
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people donating blood, taxi drivers not
taking fares, etc.
4. Do not investigate the cause of the
incident, only use given information
5. Do not reflect or comment on the
events
Note: Only a brief mention of the
compensation
Example
trending
post:
If
the
railways, trains, highways, the things
that are funded by the country are all
like this, how are we expected to
continue trusting this government?
Source: Liba, site has been taken
down (404 Not Found)
27.07.11 Railway ministry said they will pay $77,500 Top discussion point: A husband who
compensation
to
the
family members. lost
his
pregnant
Premier Wen Jiabao offers his condolences explanations
to the victims’ families.
and
wife
demands
mobilizes
200
friends. Outrage over the poor rescue
effort made by the government. People
fear the husband being silenced.
Example trending post: “The media
must protect him, prevent him from
being disappeared for no reason, from
dying of natural causes or of unnatural
causes” (China Smack)
Source: NetEase 7732 comments,
220192 people involved
28.07.11 The government stated that it will take Top discussion point: low level of
"resolute
steps
to
comprehensively compensation with regards to the
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strengthen safety". The accident is officially $77,500 compensation. As well as
blamed on signal malfunctioning due to a asking why this procedure is being
lightning strike. The names of 28 victims rushed, implying that there is a
were released. Bodies were being cremated potential cover-up.
in the local town, with the permission of the Example trending post: “Life is
family members
cheap like this, dying of dubious
causes and then rushing people to first
take the money. Is it because they’re
planning to close the case once the
money is taken?” (皮特竹 China
Smack)
Source: NetEase 5046 comments,
134,618 people involved
29.07.11 The compensation for the families rises to Top discussion point: Passengers that
$143,000. Death toll rises to 40 after a witnessed the crash first hand released
passenger
dies
in
hospital.
Official video footage from inside the train.
explanations to the crash create doubt in the Social media users picked up on this
public.
and deduced that with that many
people in the train there would have to
be more casualties then what the media
stated.
Example trending post: “If real, then
there [definitely] wasn’t only 39
people who died” (神炎 China Smack)
Source: Youku 3.95 million views,
4,230 likes and shared 1.5 million
times on social networks.
30.07.11 10 families accept the compensation. The No large change in relevant trending
railway minister rebutted claims that the topics. People are still discussing the
derailed trains were being buried to hide legitimacy of the video footage from
evidence.
inside the train
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31.07.11 Ultimatum has been given to the families of No large change in relevant trending
the victims to accepted the compensation topics
offers
01.08.11 19 families have accepted the compensation. Online interest started dying out
Again reiterating that the train wreck was not
buried, it was only placed in a ditch to make
space for cranes
02.08.11 Cosmetic
reconstruction
was
done
on N/A
victims of the accident based on photos from
the family to let them “leave with dignity”.
The table above presents the findings in regard to the social media trending topic and the official
news releases in the country during the aftermath of the Wenzhou train crash. The data covers the
ten day period after the incident. On the 24.07.11 the news media reported that there had been a
train accident that injured 100 and killed 16, however on the social media networks there were no
definitive trending topics. The next day on the 25.07.11 the incident started to trend in form of a
video that showed the train wreck as well as an interview with a person who was onsite during
the event. Of the 2.37 million that viewed the video 2 million decided to share the video on other
social networks. 26.07.11; the news release stated offering compensation, while on the social
media the trending topic was in regards to the press guidelines issued by the government. The
web address hosting this information was taken and is no longer accessible, therefore making it
impossible to gather numeric statistics on the trending topic of that day. 27.07.11 the news
reports that the compensation has doubled from the previous day, as a reaction to social media.
On the other hand the social media platform NetEase is trending about the husband who is out
raged with the government’s handling of the accident, with a total of 220,000 people involved.
On the 28.07.11 the trending topic of the compensation is present again on the social media
platform, which is in turn picked up by the government the following day in the form of an
increase in the quantity of the compensation ($143,000). During the last five days of the data
collection the online trending activities in regard to the accident start to decrease and the news
reports start to gestures that the case is being closed, by stating that the families have started
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accepting the compensation that was offered. Overall there is a visible pattern of government
reports and trending topics the next day.
The Wenzhou train crash quite quickly reached the forefront of discussions on social networks in
China and accumulated hundreds of thousands of followers. Interestingly when trying to examine
the leaked press guidelines for reporting on this event the page no longer existed. Now even
though the page may no longer exist, the question still remains did it make a lasting impact on the
days to come. However when examining the next day’s official news reports one does not see any
information that suggest that the government reacted to social media publications of the previous
day. It is no secret that the Chinese censorship bureau goes into hyper drive when sensitive issues
such as this one occur in the country, resulting in the closing of sites and prosecution of people
involved. An example of a Chinese Netizen that was arrested for posting during the Wenzhou
train crash is Qin Zhihui, he stands accused of defamation of government officials and disrupting
the public order (Chen). This leads one to believe that perhaps the page suffered a similar fate as
the Weibo blog from Mr. Qin. Johan Lagerkvist argues that that the reason why the Chinese
citizen journalism sphere is on the rise, is because the government media is not covering events in
a manner that satisfies the people (Lagerkvist 83).
An interesting aspect to comment on is the rise in the compensation quantity that is offered to the
families of the victims. The first mention of the compensation in the news media was on the
26.07.11 and the last was on the 29.07.11. On the social media sites it is evident that on the 28th
July the compensation of the families started to become a trending topic, with people questioning
how the government can justify such low levels of compensation. The following day the
government published a new compensation number that was suddenly raised from $77,000 to
$143,000. The early increase in compensation offered was when there was only minimal online
netizens’ interest, but the rapid increase was witnessed when it became a trending topic. The
peculiar aspect about this sudden change in compensation is that it was triggered by a relatively
small number of views (134,618 people), which would perhaps suggest that the increase in
compensation was an issue that the government wanted to deal with as soon as possible before it
gathers to much attention. This means that the government could be monitoring the social media
activity and selectively choosing which trend they will react to; thus effectively giving netizens
the impression, that they are being acknowledged by their government in the form of an indirect
online interaction. This would suggest that the netizens had a certain amount of influence on the
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subsequent publications released by the government effectively forming a quasi-visible dialogue
between the trending topic and the official reports on the rise in compensation.
Another aspect of the findings that stands out is the social media post about the husband who lost
his pregnant wife in the crash. This was one of the trends with the highest view count relating to
the train crash, it managed to reach over 220,000 people with almost 8,000 comments. The aspect
that makes this different to the news reports is that it is presenting a critique of the rescue efforts
by means of using a “personal example” of one of the family members of the victim. The citizen
journalist quite strategically selected a case that people could relate to as well as feel outraged
about due to the loss of the baby in addition to the mother. The next morning the official news
report did not directly comment on the trending activity however they came forward with the
statement that “resolute steps to comprehensively strengthen safety" will be conducted (China
Daily 2011). So even though the government did not directly admit they have done anything
wrong they still showed the public that they are in fact on the public’s side and will take steps to
improve safety standards even more. To top it off, the newspaper also reiterated that the disaster
was caused by a lightning strike to the signaling and there was nothing that could have been done
to prevent it, to ensure that the citizens understand it was not the governments fault
In the book Restless China (2013) it is stated that the reason why the train accident received so
much social media attention is because of the demographics of the people within the train (Link
et al 16) Also it has to be noted that the high speed train is one of the most prestige projects that
the Chinese government is conducting. The authors stated that just a few days before “Flammable
chemicals stored in the sleeper buses luggage compartment exploded […] causing massive
conflagration that killed forty-one people” (16). Even though this event killed one person more
than the train crash it did not seem to cause any changes in the way that the government operates
its bus services in the area. In the text they argue that this was because the citizens inside the bus
were peasants from the rural countryside with potentially more limited internet access versus the
higher income “elite” travelling on the high speed rail network. Yet almost half of the country
(46%) (Internetlivestats.com) has internet connection which would have made it possible for this
bus incident to become a trending topic. This would suggest that perhaps the status of an incident
is equally important to trigger visible interaction between the netizens and the government. Since
on the other hand during the train event there were constant status updates as well as
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implementation of newer safety precautions, which leads one to believe that the social media
activity may in fact have a certain degree of influence.
Towards the last few days of the data recording of the incident the social media chatter does not
produce any new activities and it becomes evident that the government is trying to end the
publicity that surrounds this event by stating that the compensation has already been accepted by
19 families and that an ultimatum has been given to the other families to accept the money. On 1st
August 2011 the China Daily publishes an article entitled “Micro blogs find their time is now”,
even though this article cannot be found in the findings since it was not the lead article of the day
it is still important to comment on it. The article talks about how social media has become an
important means of transmitting information. The China Daily paints an overall positive aspect of
the micro-bloggers in China during the train incident by stating:
“In the aftermath of the crash in East China's Zhejiang province, China's more than 20
million micro-bloggers demonstrated unfamiliar power: They broke the news, joined the
rescue work, helped survivors and families of victims, and monitored the authorities who
were investigating the accident.” (Ran)
This statement would suggest that the Chinese government does accept the fact that they have
been influenced by the micro-bloggers and that they think this is a positive aspect. The way that
they claim that micro-bloggers/citizen journalists “monitored the authorities” would suggest that
there is a power struggle going on and that in this incident the citizens were the ones
commanding the government. However one year later this friendly tone of the government
changed and they implemented a complete ban on the reporting of the event and anything related
to it (Edwards and Santos 253).
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4.1.3 Visual findings
Table 2 (Wenzhou train collision)
Dates
China Daily visual content
24.07.11
Social Media visual
Content only started trending the
next day
25.07.11
N/A
Video Clip
26.07.11
27.07.11
N/A
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28.07.11
29.07.11
30.07.11
N/A
31.07.11
N/A
I'd rather believe this than the
official explanation for the train
crash
01.08.11
02.08.11
N/A
N/A
N/A
When examining the visual findings it becomes evident on first glance that there is a much higher
presence of visual material on the social networks as compared to the news media. Additionally it
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is noticeable that some of the news media pictures were picked up by the social media two days
later and became a trending image in regards to the crash. During the ten day period a total of two
videos became a trending item, the one interview with a witness and the other was the 30 second
clip from inside the train just moments before impact. While the print media focused more and
published photos of the wreck as well as the rescue works, the social media was more inclined to
photos that gave a sense of the emotional damage that was caused by the disaster. Towards the
end of the ten day period on the 31.07.11 one can see the emergence of memes and the mocking
of the government’s decision rather than a factual reporting of events.
The lack of visuals between the two is quite clear, while the news media were the first ones to
publish visuals they seem to try to avoid them in the long run and only publish visuals of just the
wreck and the rescue effort. Nöth argues that “a daily newspaper which publishes a photo in its
news section asserts the reality of the scene in question” (Nöth 143). If this statement is applied
to this scenario it could be argued that since the official news media only publishes pictures of the
wreck, they are only comfortably showing that specific “reality of the scene” that does not
include the victims and the families. Whilst the social media citizen journalists feel that this is in
fact a multi-scene scenario and other aspects have to be examined. In the broader sense it is
almost as if the pictures are mirroring the conflict between the state and the citizens. Starting on
the 26th of July the government publishes a picture of the train wreck, in what appears to be a
color enhanced image, semantically suggesting that things will start to get brighter from here on.
The following day the social media trends the image of the outraged husband, in a sense
suggesting that the story is far from over. Moving on to the next day the government publishes a
photo of the workers cleaning up the wreckage which is countered by an edited image of the
railway logo suggesting a strong dislike of the government’s actions. Again followed by a
positive image of the “competent” rescue workers helping the wounded, now ignoring the video
publications, the next visual seen on the social networks is the creation of memes (satirical
images). This is the point at which the government has in a way won the “visual conflicted” and
the final image is the government’s photo of the official funeral. Once the public decided to go
ahead and start using satirical images the battle was lost, in the eyes of the public they must have
felt as if their voices are not being heard and as a last stand tried to result the satirical approach.
This was of course not acknowledged by the government since their publication the next day was
the one of the funeral which quite literally put the last nail in the coffin.
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Finally, there are the two videos, both of which managed to achieve views in the millions. The
first video made by citizens however did not seem to have any direct effect on the news media
the next day. While on the other hand the video of the train moments before the crash seemed to
generate a slight reaction the next day in the media. Though there were no visuals published by
the official media the next day, there was the statement by the railway minister who rebutted the
claims that there had been an attempted cover up. This was of course linked to the top comments
under the video that stated that if there were really that many people on the train (as the video
showed) then there would have been a lot more casualties and thus the government tried to bury
the evidence. Yet this could still be just a rumor that was started on the social media platforms
since the casualty count did not increase in the coming weeks and that the government was just
clarifying that aspect.
4.1.4. Satisfaction Poll
Table 3 (Wenzhou train collision)
Above one can see the results of an opinion poll that was circulated at the time of the event. Out
of the 109,135 people that took the poll 98% were either not satisfied or very dissatisfied with the
government’s handling of the train accident. In contrary to that, only 518 people being very
satisfied with the governmental handling of the situation.
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This survey would suggest that even though the case was officially closed, that it still in fact
bears some unanswered questions in the eyes of the public. It would advocate that the people felt
like they were not being heard by the government, which is interesting since the results suggest
that there was some influence on the government by the online community. However, it could
also be interpreted in the way that the netizens feel that even if their voices were heard, that they
did not quite achieve as much as they intended. As a final note it is perhaps important to bring
back the idea of the 50-cent party members when interoperating this survey, the reason being the
518 people they considered the government’s efforts to be very satisfying. The 518 people could
be seen as a measure by the government to try to regain the trust of the people. At the peak the
50-cent party was estimated to have as many as 280,000 members (Finger and Dutta 176), yet
there is only the presence of 518 pro-government responses. This could however be linked to the
observation made by Finger and Dutta that since 2010 the 50-cent party has been on a steep
decline because it could no longer keep up with the overwhelming growth of the social media in
the country and was therefore deemed to be redundant.
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4.2. Corruption
4.2.1. Case description
Corruption in China is a constant ongoing and developing phenomenon that has been around for
years. The problem of corruption lies well rooted in Chinese traditions such as the tradition of
‘guan xi’ – connections/network. This is a tradition that involves building networks and
connections e.g. by presenting a gift to your business partners if you wish to be awarded a certain
business contract or in order to establish good business relations for the future. However, the
tradition is often seen as a form of bribery by outward people and quite commonly is taken
advantage of (integrity). Due to all this “gift giving” on different levels of government and
private sector the current president Xi Jinping vowed in 2013 “to fight corruption and promised
to fight 'tigers' and 'flies'”, by which he referred to high and low-ranking officials (integrity).
Even though president Xi presented himself as strong figure that will stop corruption, citizens in
China are still losing trust in the government to handle corruption cases that seem to surface
within the country on a regular basis, simple because of the sheer number of them. People are
upset that even though China is growing in wealth only small amounts of that wealth seem to
trickle down to the general public as a result of the corruption (Huang).
Short individual summery of corruption cases

An anti-corruption official (Xie Yexin) was found dead in Hubei province on 27.08.11 in
his office. According to media news his death was caused by 11 stab wounds and “was
promptly declared to be a case of suicide according to the local authorities” (Shanghaiist),
this verdict was reached just 48 hours after the incident. He was one of the leading
government figures in the region for anti-corruption. During a press conference in which
the suicide verdict was being read Xie’s family burst in and demanded answers and stated
that they did not believe that this was a suicide.

The Chinese government arrested and sentenced Yang Kun, former Vice-President of
Agricultural Bank of China (AFP Daily Mail). Mr. Yang was accused of taking bribes
worth a total of $5 million between the years of 2005 to 2012. This of course came as a
result of President Xi’s new zero tolerance towards corruption at any level in the
government. The bank is said to still stay operational and it will not affect its clientele.
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
An official was arrested in Vietnam and sent back to China to face charges of bribery.
Song Jianguo, who is the director of the Land and Resources Bureau of Mancheng County
is said to have accepted bribes worth a total of 1.5 million yuan (US$240,000) and was
caught after a three week joint effort between Vietnamese and Chinese authorities (Ma
Yujia).

Housing prices have been constantly rising in and around major cities in China making it
virtually unaffordable for the middle class to purchase properties; in some cases the
housing prices have exceeded those of Britain and Japan (Reuters). This is brought on by
China’s strong economic development over the last few decades as well as the uneven
distribution of the economic impact. This also falls in line with corrupt politicians
misusing the system to acquire large amounts of property, while others cannot even afford
a basic house.

In this case the Chinese government declared that it will adopt a more open and
transparent policy regarding their expenses. They stated that they will begin publishing
“expenditures on receptions, overseas travel and official vehicle use” (China Daily). The
government also stated that they are aware that corruption can occur if these expenditures
are not closely monitored.
4.2.2. Textual findings
Table 4 (corruption cases)
Date
China Daily content
Social media content and figures
China Daily
The event took place on the 29th of
Trending topic: An official working on anti-corruption
02.09.11
August in Hubei. It was ruled as a
campaign was found with 10 stab wounds on his body,
suicide through 11 stab wounds to the
and it was ruled as a suicide.
body. The family of the deceased
Example of a trending post: “I question the suicide
women interrupted a press conference
conclusion, would someone committing suicide by
to question the suicide verdict that had
stabbing themselves over 10 times??? If this is really
been given.
suicide, just what kind of courage and pressure would
Social
Media
31.08.11
allow someone to endure such pain???? The probability
of “being suicided” is more likely!!!!” (网易江西省网友
China Smack).
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Source: NetEase 12,300 comments, 243,470 people
involved
China Daily
The main article of that day is not
Trending topic: A Chinese newspaper published an
31.05.12
directly related to the trending activity:
article entitled: “People should permit a moderate [or
The vice-president of the Agricultural
appropriate] amount of corruption in China”. This
Bank of China was taken into custody
sparked wide spread debate of the government’s
over corruption charges within the
approach of handling corruption
bank, involving the purchasing of real
Example of a Trending post: “After seeing the news of
estate in Beijing. This however did not
a
affect the financial status of the bank
concealing millions in assets, I now know the reason for
on the stock exchange.
why the Imperialist Philippines is a strong country”
Social
Media
31.05.12
Philippine
Chief Justice
being impeached
for
(China Smack)
Source: NetEase 13,324 comments 270,330 people
involved
A corrupt official from Hebei province
Trending topic: A corrupt Chinese official was arrested
China Daily
who fled to Vietnam was arrested on
with his mistress in Vietnam, he was said to have
07.02.13
Tuesday. He was the head of the Land
collected 1.5 million RMB in bribes over the years.
Resource Bureau, were he took 1.5
Example of a trending post: “Only 1.5 million. That’s
million yuan in bribes.
nothing. If it were 1.5 billion, they would have treated
Social
you like a god; you could have been free and happy,
Media
getting promoted to even higher positions! 1.5 million in
09.02.13
the Bureau of Land and Resource, this is something only
clean officials could do. Looks like you were excluded.”
(芙小小2世 China Smack)
Source: NetEase 1,187 comments and 43,216 people
involved
China Daily
The Chinese government is said to
Trending topic: The introduction of a policy that makes
01.03.13
bring the property price down to make
it harder for corrupt individuals to buy multiple houses
it more affordable for people to live.
under fake names. Specifically naming the Li Yunqing
Real estate is one of the main income
case in which she had acquired 24 properties, way more
Social
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Media
sources for local governments, making
than what her actual salary would allow.
03.03.13
it easy for corrupt official to pocket
Example of a trending post: “Who would be afraid of
money.
leaking the number of houses/buildings they own? Only
those people who got their houses through dishonest
means! Is this to protect them?” (独行弥勒 China
Smack)
Source: NetEase 15,894 comments 330,677 people
involved
China Daily
The article was published at 21:36 the
Trending topic: A whistleblower that was exposing
15.07.13
evening after the Whistleblower event,
corrupt personal use of government vehicles was attacked
entitled: “Transparency is a good start
by three men and tortured with acid drips, blinding and
for preventing government corruption”.
amputation of fingers.
In the article they state that the
Example of a Trending post: “Society seldom provides
government will be more open with the
or doesn’t provide institutional protection and the
travel costs and the use of official
recognition of social value to people like Uncle Qu.
vehicles to the public. The article ends
Without them, supervision by the people [public
with a quote from the government
oversight of government] is nothing but empty words.” (
saying “The National People's
江西南昌 China Smack)
Congress and its branches should fulfill
Source: Sina Comments = No data
Social
Media
15.07.13
their duties as the top lawmakers in
China and the representatives of the
people”. (China Daily 2013)
Note: The article is very short
This table presents the results from the corruption cases that were analyzed. The table starts in
September 2011 and stops in July 2013. On the left side of the table the first column gives the
data of the news media release as well as the social media trending data. On the first date there
was a two day gap before the trending activity on the social media became a news report, the
trending topic accumulated a total of 243,470 views as well as over 12,300 comments. The
following day there was no gap between the publication of the news article and the trending
topic. Even though the two were not directly linked, they both dealt with corruption with regards
to the real-estate market. The case that involved the corrupt official that was arrested in Vietnam
had a time delay of two days before it became a trending topic on the social networks. This was
one of the smallest trending topics discovered during this research with a total of only 43,216
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people involved and only 1,187 comments. Again in 2013 there is the reemergence of the realestate corruption in the country. Official publication stated that the government will try to
decrease property prices to make it more affordable; however two days later the social media
turned this around and exposed a government official that had acquired 24 properties through
corrupt measures. This trending topic became one of the most reposted topics in the corruption
study with a total of 330,677 people involved and 15,894 comments. The final case was the one
involving the corruption official who allegedly committed suicide. In this instance the news
publication was published on the same day at 21:36 just hours after it became a trending topic.
Interestingly there was no more numeric data available in regards for this topic. The social media
site Sina Weibo discontinued this as a trending topic and removed the highest trending activities
making it impossible to gather further information.
When examining the first corruption case it is evident that the suicide became a trending topic
before it made an appearance in the news media, which raises the question why the topic was not
picked up by the news media before it became popular in the online sphere. In the previous case
with the train incident the government issued a statement and the people either agreed or
disagreed with it and when they disagreed it started to trend. However, in this case the netizens
were the first to cover the topic, ahead of the news media. This might suggest that one of the two
news agencies in the country (China News Service and The Xinhua news agency) did not believe
that a publication relating to this event would have been the best course of action for the country.
This of course relates back to Caso’s theory about the communist agenda in China to uphold the
Maoist censorship standards (Caso 56). Therefore if the Communist Party originally deemed the
event as not newsworthy then why did it manage to enter the news media with a two day delay?
Well this brings one to the numerical findings that state that this specific topic has over 240,000
views and over 12,000 comments. When comparing the sheer number of views and comments in
combination with the lack of reporting on the topic in the previous two days, this supports the
hypothesis that the netizens in this case managed to coerce the government into creating a news
publication. Though the netizens ultimately received a reaction from the government in the form
of a publication, they did not lead to an overruling of the suicide verdict in the case, since after
that publication it was no longer mentioned in the media.
In the case of the vice-president of the Agricultural Bank it is interesting to note that the citizen
journalists did not deem that as an important story while the news media portrayed it as a huge
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success in the fight against corruption. The citizen journalist preferred to analyze and trend an
article that was relating to a different government statement that said that Chinese people should
tolerate moderate amounts of corruption within the country. The corruption within the country is
a constant problem that is happening on all levels. The government often releases statements such
as this one:
“There is still much to be improved in the work of the government, with some policies and
measures not being satisfactorily implemented,” he said. “A small number of government
employees behave irresponsibly; shocking cases of corruption still exist; and some
government officials are neglectful of their duties, holding onto the jobs while failing to
fulfill their responsibilities.” (Areddy)
These are attempts in building trust towards the government, while at the same time the talk
citizens having to tolerate “moderate amounts of corruption” within the country. It is this sugar
coating of the truth that possibly resulted in that specific topic managing to reach over 270,000
people with over 13,000 comments. The sugar coating of the truth is leading to more and more
netizens in the country starting to question statements made by the government. As Tang and
Iyengar stated “the mission of the mass media in China is to direct the public’s opinion, but it
turns out it is very difficult for the Chinese state to guide and tame Chinese netizens” (Tang and
Iyengar 50). The Chinese netizens are in essence attempting to balance the uneven information
distribution in the country.
The case relating to the corrupt Chinese official that was arrested in Vietnam was reported in the
news media two days before it became a trending topic on the social media platforms. This case
in a way is quite similar to the case with the Vice-President of the Agricultural Bank, both of the
cases present a scapegoat that was created by the government to show the public that they are in
fact doing their job and fighting corruption. This is a method presumably adopted by higher
ranking members of the government who purposely select weaker members on whom they can
place blame for their own mishaps (Cai 161). Interestingly unlike the case with the VicePresident, this one only received a fairly small number of views (43,216 and 1,187 comments).
Excluding the findings that did not present any numeric data, this is the smallest trend that was
studied. Most of the posts relating to this were of a satirical nature and were in fact people
mocking the government for attempting to present this individual as a scapegoat due to the
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minimal amounts of corruption that he was involved in. This is interesting, since in the previous
case the government states that “moderate amounts of corruption” should be tolerated and nine
months later they are targeting someone who they would have grouped in the “moderately
corrupt” sections. Therefore if this case is examined in comparison to the previous case it seems
as if the social media outcry about the moderate corruption was heard and that this is supposedly
the government’s reaction to the outcry. Though the communist party in a sense followed the
online request of the netizens from the previous year the netizens did not seem satisfied with the
result, since they observed it more as a attempt to divert the attention from the higher ranking
individuals involved in corruption.
The next trending corruption case occurred on the 1st March 2013 revolving around the rise in
property prices in China. From the news publication to the social media trend lies a three day
time period, in which the focus of the story shifted from the government bringing property prices
down, to corrupt individuals buying multiple properties. The citizen journalist decided to dissect
the new government policies that make it harder for individuals to buy multiple properties, by
arguing that someone who is willing to disclose the number of properties he owns is not the
person you should be looking for, the ones that do not are the bigger problem. The comments
specifically focused on the Li Yunqing case in which a corrupt individual managed to acquire a
number of properties well beyond her income status. The netizens started to question why the
government is not properly pursuing more cases with similar attributes. Tang and Iyengar argue
“that the internet has contributed to a more critical and politicized citizenry in China’s cyberspace
and shifted the power relation between the state and the society” (Tang and Iyengar 51). This is
exactly what one can see in this case as well; every citizen in the country has the ability to voice a
comment towards a government property policy. Be it a critique of it or simply a question that is
asked publicly to find support. In this case one can again see the netizens trying to follow-up on
government statements in an attempt to alter the outcome of the policy. Even though this topic
managed to reach 330,000 people and receive over 15,000 comments it did not seem to have an
impact on the policies relating to real-estate.
The final corruption related case was the one relating to the torture of an anti-corruption
whistleblower. The official article was published the evening after the torture became a trending
topic on Weibo and in the official article there was no mention of the torture. Instead that article
presented new policies that would make the government more transparent about their travel costs
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and use of official vehicles. Additionally it was noted that the article was very short and straight
to the point with no negative connotations attached to it. This was coincidently the same aspect
that the anti-corruption whistleblower was looking into before he got attacked. Since there is a
direct correlation between the trending topic on Weibo and the content of the news media article
that followed, one has to work with the assumption that the netizens did in fact manage to
influence the government’s decision making when establishing the new transparent government
policy. This trending topic however does not have any numeric data that can be retrieved, due to
the fact that the site that hosted the information has been taken down. Therefore it is hard to
interpret if the influence came from the number of people involved or if it was purely related to
the sensitivity of the topic at hand. Either way “society is empowered by the Internet, and
increasing online activism reflects a “revolutionary impulse” in Chinese society” (Lagerkvist). If
the public had not intervened in this circumstance, the government would have probably chosen
to ignore it and silenced the witnesses to the crime. The public probably would also not have got
as involved with such a sensitive topic if they knew that they could not hide behind the vast
numbers of netizens and form a united virtual army against the government. This is a shining
example of a situation in which the netizens shed light/uncovered information on an event in a
time of crisis. This event was being completely ignored by the mainstream media, until it was
picked up by the citizen journalists. Without the online pressure exerted by the citizens the new
transparency laws may not have come into existence. Therefore the eagerness to uncover the
information in this event was the key fact that led to the change that was witnessed.
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4.2.3. Visual findings:
Table 5 (Corruption cases)
Dates
China Daily visual content
Social Media visual
China Daily
02.09.11
Social
media
31.08.11
Pictures of the family members at a
news conference
31.05.12
No picture available
Picture of the news article
09.02.13
No picture available
China Daily
01.03.13
Social
Media
03.03.13
Picture reads: Man holding paper with
“Investigation” written on it: “I hear you have 24
houses.” House Aunt: “Where?! I currently only
have 6 houses!”
Picture of a government quote
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15.07.13
Picture of Uncle Qu (The
Whistleblower)
Again one can see that overall the news media has considerably less visuals to accompany the
relating articles. The first image from 2011 is the photo that depicts the outraged family of the
corruption official that committed suicide. Both the news media and the social media use similar
visuals, both from the press conference that was being held. In the following event there was no
presence of a visual aid in the news media and on the social media was a picture of the news
article that said that China should tolerate corruption. Again in February 2013 there was no visual
to accompany the article, whilst on social media there was a picture taken from a different
newspaper that depicted the arrest of the corrupt official. In March 2013 both the news media as
well as the social media had a visual to accompany the topic. The news media had a depiction of
a government statement, while the social media had a satirical cartoon that was mocking the
government’s handling of corruption with regards to the real-estate market in China. The final
date of data collection was on the 15.07.13 and both sides had visuals; however the trending
image on the social media was one of graphic nature and it showed a picture of the whistleblower
that was assaulted. On the contrary the news media had a glorified depiction of communist
symbols that suggested pride and power.
On first sight one again notices that the news media present less visuals to accompany the article
in contrary to the social media networks. The first pictures both in the news media as well as the
social media are both quite similar and both originate from similar sources. The main difference
between the two is that the first picture portrays one of the family members pointing directly at
one of the government members at the press conference while the other shows a different woman
from a different angle pointing more or less directly towards the viewer (camera). From a
semiotic perspective this picture could have been chosen by the netizens to symbolically suggest
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that this is not something that you can only blame one person for, but that the government as a
whole should be blamed. While on the news media photo the government is strategically
localizing the blame to individuals who were present at the press conference, eliminating their
involvement in this incident. This could be seen as a strategic method of gathering public support
by taking something local and making reach the whole nation to initiate change in the
government.
A different take on the semiotic approach of analysis can be applied to the picture of the corrupt
official who was arrested in Vietnam. Nöth argues that an image does not lie only the
interpretation by the individual changes the meaning of a photo (Nöth 115). Similarly the picture
with the corrupt individual does not lie, however the image was intentionally chosen to counter
the official news article release. The news article depicted the corrupt official to be a criminal that
fled to Vietnam, while the picture that was shared by the public shows a small man with glasses
who looks as if he was on the verge of crying. As Nöth stated it is the interpretation by the viewer
that assigns the meaning to the picture, thus the public tried to find a picture that would visually
question the government’s statements while making its own statement.
The final interesting and perhaps most bizarre visual find for the corruption cases is the one of the
tortured whistleblower. The pictures are so different that one would not even imagine that they
relate to the same topic. The visual by the news media is a clear attempt to reassure the public’s
faith in the “great communist system”. The picture depicts three small men looking up to a large
communist symbol, perhaps suggesting that the system is larger than the individual and that the
citizens can feel protected by the system. There is also the depiction of scaffolding around the
symbol suggesting that even though the system is great the government is constantly trying to
improve it for its citizens and it will create an even greater nation. On the other hand the citizen
journalist decided to go with an even more powerful image that depicts the whistleblower after
the torture. National pride is a powerful emotion but empathy for one another carries even more
power to sway the masses. The picture can be interoperated as visual representation of what
happens when you come in direct contact with the system that you live in. When seeing this
image the public most likely feels fear and anger towards the government and not only the
individuals that did this to the whistleblower. It is for that reason that the Chinese press tends to
avoid strong graphic depictions of violence that can be interoperated in numerous ways by the
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emotionally charged public. Making this an attempt by the public to depict the other side of the
story and then letting the public make their own decision on which side they stand.
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4.3. Shanghai stampede
4.3.1. Case description
During a New Year’s Eve celebration on the 31st December 2014 in Shanghai a stampede took
place resulting in 36 people being killed and 49 others being injured (Jiang). The cause of the
incident is blamed on an underestimation of the crowd size that would be at the event. Earlier that
day the local government called-off its popular light show due to the lack of police to monitor the
event. However, apparently large quantities of people still turned up at the location since they
missed the announcement that it was canceled. At midnight the crowed reached a size of 310,000
people with only 600 officers to secure the area (Jiang). In the stampede a number of women and
a few children also died or sustain injuries filling the grieving relatives with even more anger that
was directed at the government.
One of the triggering moments that resulted in the massive stampede was a local business tossing
coupons that resembled $100 bills into the crowd from the top of a building. This triggered a
“mad scramble” to grab the coupons of the ground (Blidner). The throwing of the coupons
occurred 25 minutes to midnight. Eyewitnesses reported that the event was “10 times more than
usual” and that there was absolutely no space to move and the coupons forced the movement
within the crowd (Blidner).
Following the event three top district officials were sacked “the local Communist Party boss, his
deputy and the district police chief, and a total of 11 officials face punishment for their role in the
incident” (Jiang). President Xi announced that the government is now auditing all upcoming
public events that involve a crowd and has canceled a number of large gatherings for the time
being, including the Lantern festival light show in March. The Chinese censorship bureau has
been instructed by the government to keep the reporting on this event to a minimum and only
report on approved facts. “The site of the stampede has been sealed off. And a recent ceremony at
nearby Chenyi Square to mourn the dead was heavily monitored by police. Some officers
dragged away family members when they tried to talk to reporters” (Won).
As a side story it was revealed that high up individuals from the local government were spotted in
an elitist restaurant in which meals cost up to $628 a person right next door when the stampede
occurred. This was subsequently drawn into the Shanghai stampede story and the political figures
involved were subjected to criticism from the crowd since they were misusing government funds
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rather than adding more security to the event (Won). President Xi again vowed that he will
investigate these allegations and act accordingly. It was rumored the president Xi could use this
opportunity to remove some of his Shanghai enemies from power (Won).
4.3.2. Textual findings
Table 6 (Shanghai stampede)
Date
China Daily content
Social media content and figures
01.01.15
36 people killed and 47 injured during
Trending topic: 35 people dead and 43 Injured in a
the Shanghai new year’s celebration.
stampede that took place on new year’s eve in Shanghai.
Reportedly Shanghai canceled the new
Most of the people injured were students. The reason for
year’s laser show just days before,
the stampede is blamed on coupons that looked like USD
which would have attracted 300,000
being tossed into the crowed. The comments/discussions
people. The reason for the cancelation
are located under a video of the event.
was safety of the crowd, additional the
Example of a Trending post: There Were People
event was split up over different
Tossing “USD” At The Scene — […], “USD” was
locations around the city. Eyewitness
thrown around at the time and location of the incident,
reports say that coupons that looked
that “there was money floating down from a building
like $100 bills were thrown off the top
above, with a lot a lot of money sprinkling down, all
of a building into the crowd just
‘USD’. (人民日报 China Smack)
moments before the disaster.
Source: Sina Weibo, The video has 20,008 likes, 29,683
comments and has been reposed 101,799 times
03.01.15
13 victims sustained critical injuries
Trending topic: Development of a specific blog page to
and are being taken care of in the
post new news of the event
hospital. The government has prepared
(#上海外滩踩踏事故#).
counseling sessions for the families of
Example of a trending post: Out of the 36 dead, 25 of
the victims. 21 of the victims were
them were women. The people at the event did the right
female with the youngest being 12. At
thing by forming a free space around the injured so that
the site of the incident there was no
they could be treated.
official New Year’s celebration.
Source: Weibo 132 million people involved, 188,000
discussions and 27,000 followers.
15.01.15
topic:
During
the
event
“government
The bureaucrats in charge of the area
Trending
were dining at a luxury restaurant,
leaders/officials having lavish feast” next door for 3888
which is strictly again Party and
RMB per person. Even though this in not directly related
government policy. The bureaucrats
to the event it was grouped in because of the proximity of
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blame the media for getting them
it. People are also blaming the incident on the lack of
involved in the incident.
police officers present at the event.
Source: NetEase 3467 comments and 183,262 people
involved.
For this particular event a total of three days were analyzed over a fifteen day period starting on
the 1st of January and ending on the 15th of January. On the day right after the stampede both the
news article as well as the social media were discussing the facts of the incident. The news report
however also included a paragraph that stated that the government had called off the main event
in Shanghai just days before the stampede since they deemed it to be too risky. The social media
sites were concerned with the start of the event and the highest trending topics were those of
eyewitness accounts of the coupons being tossed into the crowed. The video of the event had a
total of 29,683 comments and had been reposted 101,799 times. Two days later the news media
again reported the casualty figures along with the demographics of the people involved in the
incident. On the same day there was the development of a specific Weibo page that one could
follow, that reached a record high of 132 million people and 188,000 discussions. The website
enabled users to post firsthand accounts of events that they had witnessed as well as questions
that they wished to have answered. On the final day the news media report focused on the corrupt
officials that were dinning in the area. Again the article was written in a way that portrays the
government in a more positive light while the social media trends suggested that the people were
outraged about this situation. This topic peeked at a total of 3,467 comments and 183,262 people
involved.
The interesting difference in the trending topic verses the news report on the first day of the event
is the defensive stand that is adopted by the news media. While the social media seems to be
focusing on the cause of the stampede the news media is reiterating that the government had tried
to stop the large 300,000 person event in order to keep the public safe. The reason why the
government is so keen in pointing out that it handled the situation correctly is because it needs to
defend the image it has created, as a country for the people. Since 2013 this preservation of the
national image has become even stronger, when “the Communist Party set up a state security
committee to strengthen “guidance” of public opinion and the police and the judiciary cooperated
with the Central Propaganda Department to suppress online speech” (Ifj.org). Therefore by
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stating that they in fact did something good, the public may in fact perceive the government as an
ally rather than an enemy. In addition they also make sure to include the eyewitness account,
similar to the one that is trending. This prevents the public from insinuating that the government
is not listening to them and is trying to dismiss the people. It could however also be an attempt at
preventing the topic from trending in the future. This is because if the government instantly reacts
to what the public says then it could perhaps prevent the topic from trending in the future, since
the issues would have been clarified. If this is the case then one can view this event more as a
preemptive action rather than a direct reaction caused by social media influence on the
government news agencies. This would also explain why the trending post had a relatively small
viewership of only 101,799 people and stopped being a trending topic in the days that followed.
Though it is clear that netizens are blaming the government it has to be added that it is not as
visible as it was in the other cases. In this case the matter of blame is less evident than in the
other cases.
The third day after the event gives birth to the largest view count in this study. On the dedicated
blog site with a 132 million views users started submitting first hand reports of what they had
witnessed at the event questioning statements made by the government. The blog offers shelter to
individual netizens voicing their opinion due to the high volume of people involved. However
“It is important not to overestimate the political influence of China's netizens. Their effect
can be evanescent, with protests springing up quickly and then dying down. Their activity
is best seen as a barometer of public attitudes, though there is also the possibility that
these new political actors could complicate efforts to predict or manage national
responses during a crisis by injecting intense pressure into policy debates.”(Lewis)
It is this pressure that the public exerts on the decision making process that can alter the outcome.
As it is stated above, the individuals in the public have little to no power to influence the
government’s decision making. However if a substantial number of netizens gets together and
creates a large blog such as this one it will act as the “barometer of public attitude”, which in turn
should influence the outcome of governmental decisions.
One of the examples of the trending topics from the netizen page was the one about the
demographics of the victims. This was of course also picked up by the news media with the only
difference being the story that surrounds the trending topic. On the social media platforms the
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trending posts finish with the statement “The people at the event did the right thing by forming a
free space around the injured so that they could be treated”, while the government starts off by
saying “The government has prepared counseling sessions for the families of the victims” and
ends with “At the site of the incident there was no official New Year’s celebration”. It is quite
clear that at this point the citizen journalists are trying to persuade the public that it is the
government’s fault while the government is pushing the fault back onto the citizens. Yet the
government is in a way accepting part of the fault from the public by stating that they are giving
out counseling sessions to the families. The fact that the government is giving counseling
sessions and reporting on this in the news perhaps is an indicator that they are trying to regain the
trust from the citizens who feel they have been wronged.
On the final day of reporting on the 15th January there is a sudden, yet subtle change in tone of
the public. Rather than accusing the government for the wrong handling of the event the citizen
journalist decided to pick up on the story of the corrupt officials. The corrupt officials are
effectively being used as a symbolic representation of the government and its handling of the
events. In rebuttal the government issues a statement in the news media in which they rehash the
Party’s policy against corruption and effectively agree with the public that the corrupt officials
are to blame, implying that they will deal with the bureaucrats that have wronged the public. The
fact that netizens chose to trend this topic greatly influenced the government’s decision to follow
up with more official news. If the public was still concerned with the handling of the event then
the government would have been more concerned with clearing up that situation. However, the
public chose to go after the few bureaucrats, which meant that all the government needed to do
was to accept them as the scapegoats and then the public would be happy because someone
received a punishment in regards to the incident and the case could be closed. This is an example
in which the citizens played a vital role in uncovering information during a time of crisis. Though
the government was quick to transfer the blame onto those bureaucrats, it is important to note that
without the citizen journalists that information may have never surfaced. In an essence the citizen
journalists again adopted the role of being the omniscient beings that monitor the government and
help shed light on situations that would have the potential to be ignored by the government.
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4.3.3. Visual findings
Table 7 (Shanghai stampede)
Dates
China Daily visual content
Social Media visual
01.01.15
03.01.15
15.01.15
Both the news media and the social media had visuals to accompany the relating topics.
However, one of the main noticeable differences between the two is the content of the pictures.
The news media selected pictures that show the grieving families on the first day, on the second
date they showed people being cared for in the Hospital and on the final day is a line of “well
organized” policemen. On the contrary the first trending image on social media was a photo of
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the injured/dead on the ground at the event, followed by a photo montage of nine different
pictures of the after math, as well as a list of the causalities. On the final date the trending image
was a photo taken from a top down view that showed the massive crowed of people surrounding
an ambulance. It is important to note that the images trending on the social media platforms are
all dark and not well lit, while the news media ones are bright and display a wide range of colors.
The images used in the news media in regards to the Shanghai stampede are all made by
professionals.
Unlike in the other sections of the analysis the visuals in this section here, are complete with both
the news media as well as the social media releasing equal quantities of images. At first glance it
also becomes evident that the social media side is again using images that are darker than the
ones in the news media. The images that are being used on the social media platforms are ones
that are taken right from the scene of the event creating a literal depiction of the incident that
occurred. On the other hand the news media photographs are only focusing on the aftermath as
well as almost appearing to be staged. This is interesting since “photography in a newspaper
when treated as a sign seems to occupy the realm of pure denotation. It appears as a literal
representation of a factual state” (Longhurst 97). In this case one does not see the “pure
denotation in the news media but it is visible in the social media. It is that specific aspects of
making the footage seem pure and uncensored that citizen journalists in China rely on to
captivate their audience and start trending it. All the images (apart from the last one) appear to be
shot from an angle that mimics a point of view perspective, which is an incredibly persuasive
method of photography that can trigger emotional attachment to the event.
It is also important to note that the pictures on the left side of the table do not present any of the
chaos and focus more on the positive aspects of the government handling. For example when
examining the last image of the police officers in comparison to the textual findings of the social
media trends one could interoperate the image as subliminal answer to the trending issues of the
lack of police officers. The public said that there were too few police officers at the event and
they were badly organized and as a response the news media issues an image that features a
number of police officers all lined up and organized, waiting for orders.
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5. Discussion
This thesis largely focused on the citizen journalists’/netizens’ power to influence the
government’s news media outlets and policies. Probably the largest problem faced in this study
was the issue of the sheer quantity of data that is produced on Chinese social network platforms.
This inevitably meant that the study could only focus on a small niche of data and did not manage
to process all the raw data produced. This could have led to a different outcome of the study.
Additional problems were faced with the language barrier. Since the Chinese social networks
function only in Mandarin, it was often quite challenging operating with various language
translators and previously translated material from China Smacks archives. Effectively this may
have resulted in a more limited string of data collection that could have been greatly helped with
the addition of a native Mandarin speaker.
Though results would suggest that there is in fact some influence it would be interesting to
examine specific aspects of this phenomenon. For example one could analyze how many views or
“likes” a certain topic has to receive on a social media platform in order to result in a reaction
from the government. To conduct such a study it would be important to collect the data in real
time over a certain time period to ensure that all the data would be available for the study. In
addition it could be of interest to include a section that would purely examine the missing data
that has been removed by the censorship bureau. With this one could isolate topics that are
deemed sensitive and set up a character profile of what the politically sensitive topics are in
China. If time had permitted it would also have been of interest to initiate a comparison between
the West and the East. By doing so one could determine if there is a difference in interaction with
social media and the government in the different geographical areas. This would allow the study
to separate normal governmental interaction in the West from the interaction related as well to
censorship that is witnessed in the Far East.
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6. Conclusion
This thesis set out to research the impact that Chinese netizens have on the Chinese
government/media. With the help of academic as well as online theorists the foundation of the
research was created, which assisted in the interpretation of the findings in the subsequent
chapters. The thesis covers three different case studies, each bringing a different situation to the
table; the first being the ten day interaction between the netizens and the news media with regard
to the Wenzhou train crash (2011); the second one involving interactions during corruption
incidents within the country (2011-2013); and the final one was the examination of the netizens
interaction with the government during the Shanghai stampede (2015). In the introduction the
research question was split into subparts.
The first subpart to the research question was:
1) What importance do the netizens have in uncovering information during crisis situations?
The importance was quite clear throughout all the case studies, the netizens served the purpose of
being the omniscient being that was there to monitor the government’s actions. This was
especially relevant during the Shanghai stampede (2015), with the development of the 132
million user platform, which gave each individual a voice, without having to fear to speak up.
This made it possible for the netizens to reveal information that they had witnessed, effectively
offering a different perspective of official reports. Therefore the importance of the netizens in
uncovering information during such crisis is to give a multi-view perspective and thus help the
even distribution of knowledge and fact.
The second subpart to the research question was:
2) How are the visuals used by citizen journalists complimenting the corresponding topics
and is there a variation to the ones used in the news media?
The visuals used by the netizens tended to all involve images that evoked strong emotional
responses by the viewers. For example the ones used in the Shanghai stampede (2015) were a lot
darker lit and showed the chaos of the event while the news media ones only showed the brightly
lit and more positive images. Similarly the image of the tortured whistleblower was used as a
powerful visual stimulation to compliment the graphic description of the events by the netizens.
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While the news media tried to avoid such images due to its potential to create emotional
responses by the people.
The final subpart to the research question was:
3) To what extent does the questioning of official news reports by netizens in China
influence the content/news reports, subsequently published by the government, and is
there any visible interaction between the two parties?
The thesis clearly indicated that in certain situations the netizens do in fact influence the content
that is produced in news reports. If one takes the example of the compensation money for the
families of the train crash victims this is particularly visible. The interaction in the form of
repeated questioning of the amount of compensation by netizens resulted in an increase of almost
$120,000. Similarly this influence is also visible in the case of the anti-corruption officer who
allegedly committed suicide. This was a story that seemed to have been completely ignored by
the government news releases until it was picked up by the netizens which subsequently resulted
in publication of facts by the government two days after the event. But in many other instances
there was also a clear lack of publications produced by the government.
Even though the overall motive of the government is not quite clear in regards to which incidents
the citizens have any impact on, there is some definitive interaction between the two parties. Yet
it is hard to determine if this interaction is something unique to the Chinese social media scene,
since one could observe similar interactions in the Western World. Nevertheless in the case of
Chinese social media there is visible evidence that Chinese netizens do in fact have a lasting
impact on government reports in a time of crisis.
Overall the theoretical reflection would be that netizens challenge the communist government
and its media, acting as a counterforce in crisis situations, reaching out to millions of citizens. As
a consequence the individuals in the country have become empowered and confident enough to
produce content that is leading to gradual change in the strict Maoist Regime that governs China.
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