According to Wikipedia (Side note: while I don't normally rely on Wikipedia for this kind of information, the news is extremely fresh and this post is due in 15 minutes), the Chinese Foreign Ministry warned the Nobel Committee not to give Liu the prize, which probably tipped the scale in his favor, and the news about the award is currently completely censored in China (again, according to Wikipedia). The Chinese government has issued statements condemning the award, calling Liu a criminal and maintaining that giving him the prize "defiles" Alfred Nobel's memory. They even called in the Norwegian ambassador to lodge a formal protest (his response: the Nobel Committee is not controlled by the government of Norway). In other words, they are not pleased.
So how does this related to IC? As I was reading the McChesney article last weekend, I was struck by the its strong condemnation of "free-market" journalism. For McChesney, while media outfits owned by MNCs are capable of producing "first-rate journalism," the self-interested conservatism of the media giants tends to shut down reports of controversies with real social impact, and instead play up high-drama, gossipy stories that titillate the audience without risking the masses to demand social change. In my view, there can be no other explanation for all the Levi Johnston coverage. For McChesney, capitalist domination of the public sphere has negative repercussions for society, and for democracy in particular:
Just how bogus commercial journalism is, when measured by any traditional notion of the communication requirements necessary for a democracy, becomes especially clear when one looks at China. There, a full-scale dictatorship with a long tradition of suppressing dissent or prodemocratic political viewpoints has no problem with business news or tabloid journalism, the two main products of the so-called "free press." (IC READER, p. 210)I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in a corporate newsroom in China today, as editors and publishers debated how to deal with this announcement. Report the facts objectively, or risk losing precious business in China, and possibly facing even graver repercussions? It will be fascinating in the days ahead to track the media coverage in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other parts of Asia, as well as the meta coverage-of-the-coverage pieces that are sure to come out very soon.
I know that there are many students in the class who know much more about China than I do, particularly our Chinese colleagues. I would be curious to hear your perspective, both on Liu's Nobel prize and on the role of the media in Chinese society.
I heard the news that some Chinese guy won the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday morning. At first, I was excited because it is the very first time for a Chinese to win the prize, then I feel very doubted that if someone won such an important Peace Prize, he must be very famous and I should know at least his name. After I checked on line about why he won Nobel Prize, I felt it was so natural that I have never ever heard about him.
ReplyDeleteHis early experience involves a lot about Tiananmen Square Protests in 1989 which is totally a taboo in Chinese society (even now, people cannot talk about it in public place). After 1989, government has blocked all the news reports about it; and all the movies, books, songs, videos about it has been banned too. I can say there is no media freedom in China about Six Four Incident (it is what we call it in China). Growing up in China, I knew little about this incident, and neither did my families talk to me about this (they all work in college, actually they know a lot about this student movement). The very few connections of me and the incident is that one of my favorite teachers in senior high was arrested after Six Four Incident because he helped his students write some posters for the movement. He was sent to jail about 5 years because of that. Being a Chinese citizen, it is not very convenient for me to give more opinions about the incident here =)
Going back to the case of Liu Xiaobo, he is regarded as a fighter for human rights and freedom and democracy here; however, in China, he was in prison for the same reason. According to government, he violated Chinese laws, peace and harmony and granting Nobel Peace Prize will hurt Chinese-Norwegian relationship. That is interesting because Nobel Prize should be transnational which means one country should not blame any specific country about giving the prize to someone with a certain nationality.
I am really interested in this topic and I am waiting to see the result of this international argument and how Chinese government response. And at the same time, I am glad I am in the States now so that I can get a lot of info on line, I believe if I am in China, most of the information will be banned or blocked.
I have to say this is a controversial issue for Chinese government and the remaining world. Liu Xiaobiao being awarded as the Nobel Peace Prize, whether we Chinese people should feel happy or not. To be honest, I just feel I do not have enough information to judge about this event. I have been asked by several American friends about my opinions about this issue. I said I want to be critical, but I feel I do not have enough info to judge about it. It is true, the media censorship in China could be intolerable, the grassroots people might want to have more access to the free international flow of information, instead of the filtered information by the government control.
ReplyDeleteI heard about Tiananmen square event when I was in China. Oddly enough, not acquired from the history textbook, but told by my grandfather. Until I came to study in U.S.A since 2006, I began to be exposed more and more about Tiananmen squre, either from the Internet or told by other American friends. But every country is trying to withhold some information to its citizens, sometimes could include the international audiences as well. Another good example is the Nanjing Massacre by Japan in 1934. I had a lot of Japanese friends when I was an undergraduate student in U.S.A. Oddly enough, many of them heard very few things about their country's massacre in Nanjing, China, 1934.
So we as grassroots people, will always be constrained by the media frame, such as what news they should cover, and how they will report the news. No matter the news agency is controlled or not controlled by government. Because from my point of view, nation states still plays an important role in people's regular life, so does the nationalism.