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Article No. 7
Censorship
and Journalist Blogs in China
Gong-Cheng, Lin and
Ying, Li
City University of Hong
Kong China
Key words: Blog, newspaper
blog, public blog, China
Abstract
It is
a growing phenomenon that journalists in China are blogging. Some
journalists blog within the media outlet’s website, while some blogs in the
public sites. This paper mainly discusses the limitation of blogs by
analyzing the difference between newspaper blogs and writings on public
blog platforms. We argue that the content of public blogs is markedly
different from those published on newspaper blogs. This is because
newspaper blogs are less individualistic and journalistic blogging on
newspaper platforms is more strongly influenced by the organization to
which they belong.
Introduction
Journalists
made up an important part in the first generation of bloggers. Robinson
(2006) characterizes journalistic blogs in following ways: a reporter’s
notebook of news tidbits and incidentals; a straight column of opinion; a
question-and-answer format by editors; a readership forum; a confessional
diary written by the reporter about his or her beat; a round-up of news
summaries that promote the print publication; and a rumor-mill that
reporter uses as an off-the-record account. Robinson does not provide
quantitative data to support his arguments. The categorization, however,
indicates how blogs serve journalism in various ways.
Several
studies have focused on how blogs change journalists’ life and work
practices. Carison (2007) notes that blogging presents journalists an
opportunity to make journalism more transparent. Lowrey and Mackay (2008)
pointed out that blogs affect the ways journalists practice their
profession, such as reporting, using blogs as news sources and decision
making regarding the newsworthiness of events. In the literature, there is
much speculation that journalistic blogs may create opportunities to
increase reader engagement with mainstream news outlets and heighten
community participation in the public discourse. Therefore, we are
interested to know if the same process takes place in China. In this study,
we explore the journalistic narratives on newspaper blogs and independent
public blogs that are advanced in different ways related to their
occupations. By discussing these areas, we can develop a better
understanding of the evolving landscape of Chinese journalism and how
blogging has introduced new elements into journalism.
A
growing number of journalists in China are now blogging. Although there has
been little research into Chinese journalist bloggers, it appears to be a
growing phenomenon. Many traditional media websites in China host blogs,
with reporters and editors serving as bloggers. This indicates that
journalists use blogs much more extensively than the general public.
Journalists are part of the first generation to publicly exchange views
with readers and viewers through blogging.
Blogging
by journalists in China compares in some ways to the Western countries. For
example, blogs are used by Chinese newspapers to maintain or increase
readership. Blogs also make journalism more transparent when journalists
update news stories. However, except for the similarities, journalism in
China differs greatly in terms of social, political, and cultural
structures compared to the Western countries. Therefore, we must note that
journalistic blogs in China also differ greatly in many aspects with their
counterparts.
Media
Structure in China
The
media structure in China is unique. Since the 1980s, Chinese media have
undergone profound reforms. In the old times, Party journalism has
dominated Chinese journalism for a long period; journalists acted like
semi-government officials, creating the link between the government, the
Communist Party, and the people. As a result, journalists became the
mouthpiece of the Party and were portrayed as lacking professional controls
for a long time. In the absence of a formal professional structure or
rigidly enforced codes of ethics in China, blogs have become increasingly
important.
In
the US, there exists the American Journalism Review, Columbia Journalism
Review, Broadcast and Cable, and Quill. Those writing for such trade
journals are typically working journalists, media managers from the news
industry, and journalism educators and scholars. The journalistic community
is constituted through trade publications, with other institutional
practices, such as membership of professional associations and awards for
excellence. The news industry’s trade publications serve as important
historical markers of modern journalism’s efforts to position itself as a
bona fide profession (Parameswaran, 2006). However, in China, there are
greater limits on freedom of expression. In the Chinese media context,
professional associations, awards for excellence, etc, do not carry the
same weight or symbolism to support education in journalism. Under
government restrictions, trade publications in China have limited ability
to reflect the complexity of newsroom operations. Therefore, blogs become
key public forum for journalists to exchange ideas about norms,
controversial issues, ethical boundaries and trends in their field. Journalists
in China occupy a special place in the blogosphere and its influence is
possibly greater than in the Western countries.
However,
although blogs have enhanced the development of journalism, there are many
factors that may limit the degree to which blogging can bring to enhance
journalistic autonomy. One of these factors concerns with certain
organizational influence and censorship. For example, in a survey of 153
reporters in the U.S., Sheffer & Schultz (2008) found that those that
were “other-motivated”, including journalists required to blog by
management, accounted for 73 percent of respondents, while “self-motivated”
blogger reporters made up only 27 percent of those surveyed. This research
also suggests that there are high levels of resistance to blogging by
journalists, as well as poor management communication strategy from the
media company to overcome that resistance. Managers encourage journalists
to blog, but fail to take the necessary steps to support successful
blogging. Cohen’s (2002) study of CNN.com also indicates how blogs sit
firmly within the CNN corporate structure. In his study, blogs may have the
potential to spur open journalism and greater pluralism, as well as
challenge authority, but this does not seem to be the reality in practice.
Singer (2005) noticed that while some journalistic blogs are more
opinionated than others, they provide readers with a more personal account
of the news and blogs tend to extend traditional norms to an online format
rather than representing a radical shift in journalistic practice.
In
China, the impact of blogs also meets many barriers. As noted, the Chinese
government has developed a range of mechanisms to control media based on
its communist press system. A set of practices has long been accepted as
journalistic routines. These practices, as Pan (2000) notes, include: the
state subsidizes the media; party committees at various levels of the
communist hierarchy oversee the media at their respective levels by
appointing key personnel, deciding major topics for new coverage, and
censoring journalists’ work; the party’s propaganda ministry controls media
content; journalism education trains “party propagandists”; all work units
subscribe to party newspapers; and all media reprint the editorials and
other important materials from The People’s Daily, or from the
official Xinhua News Agency. Under China’s party-press system, the media
become an instrument by which the party propagates its policy and ideology.
Therefore, based on the large environment, blogging in China is largely
compromised by certain organizational factors and hampered by censorship.
Chinese media outlets now incorporate blogs in websites as part of their
internet content by encouraging journalists to blog; however, these blogs
are not motivated by journalists themselves. Instead, blogs are used
differently according to outlets but most aim to maintain or increase
readership. Most news organizations are not yet ready for the greater range
of opinion and stronger criticism that the blogosphere brings. As a result,
some press spread blogs more widely, assuming it as the selling points,
while some other press have suspended their blogs or shut down comments on
blogs. Blogs sometimes are transformed into governable space because
censorship exists. This may lead to a more realistic view and somewhat
undermines their impact.
Research
Questions
In
this paper, we tried to contrast journalism on official press platforms
with journalism on independent public platforms. Based on literature review, this
study raised three research questions:
RQ1:
To what extent do blog sites practice censorship in the users’ blogs when
public blog sites and newspaper blog sites are compared?
RQ2:
To what extent do journalists practice self-censorship in their blogs when
public blog sites and newspaper blog sites are compared?
RQ3:
To what extent are sensitive topics able to survive in blogs when public
blog sites and newspaper blog sites are compared?
Methodology
Two
different types of blog sites were delineated. One is public blog sites,
the other is platform built and guided by existing media outlets. Therefore,
two newspaper blog sites, Xinmin Evening News and Shanghai Morning Post,
and two public blogs sites, SINA and SOHU (the largest
Chinese public blog sites), provided data for this study.
Established
in 1929, the Xinmin Evening News is a typical example of party-led
evening newspaper in China. Among top newspapers in China, it is seen as a
successful and popular human-interest tabloid, with its “short, shorter and
soft, softer” stories. Pan and Chan (2003) conclude that its style of
writing emphasizes its service targeting local Shanghai residents and this
involves soft news, practical information, using a personable, intimate,
short, and highly readable style of writing. At the same time, the paper
carefully toes the party line in its content. Its content is “softer” than party
organs but “harder” than citizen tabloids (the Party exercises less
stringent control over metro papers than flagship Party organs) and it
has spawned many imitators to create a different breed of “party papers”
without the official designation of “party organs”. On the contrary, Shanghai Morning Post, founded on Jan 1, 1999, is a
widely recognized exemplar of successful service-oriented metropolitan
newspapers. Reporters from this outlet are much younger than from other
newspapers because the paper is relatively new on the market. Regarding the
circulation of the press, Shanghai Morning Post and Xinmin
Evening News are the top two papers in Shanghai in 2005. Together they
held about 50 % of Shanghai’s metropolitan newspaper market (Martinsen,
2006). This shows that Shanghai Morning Post and Xinmin Evening
News had strong positions in the retail circulation market for Shanghai’s
metropolitan newspapers, with intense competition between them.
The
best known public blog sites are SINA and SOHU. They are the
main “web portals” in China. In the early days, they tried to integrate all
possible functions on a single site. This involved free e-mail, chat rooms
and news. Later, these services expanded to include online auctions,
shopping, free homepages, financial information and transactions. These web
portals act like large “supermarkets” providing access to a vast array of
services, aiming to attract more eyeballs on their advertisements. SINA
and SOHU were the first to develop blogs. Although they were behind the
professional blog service sites like blogchina and blogcn, SINA and SOHU
recruited Chinese celebrities to blog for them. The
celebrity strategies made them the most popular blog sites in China. Many
famous journalists were also invited to blog on them.
In
this study, fifty journalistic blogs were selected on four blog sites. The
sitemap of both public and newspaper blog sites links various content
categories, such as “entertainment blogs”, “teen blogs” and “journalistic
blogs”. This directory allows us to track favorite journalists’ blogs.
Therefore, all the blogs used in this study were chosen from the directory
of journalistic blogs on the websites balancing gender, age, and
professional level of the journalists concerned. In this study, age of the
bloggers ranges from 20 to 48, according to the websites. Male journalistic
bloggers make up 56% of the survey while females make up 44%. Twenty-five
reporters surveyed used the public service, and we selected twenty-five
blogs on media outlets to compare the level of censorship between two
platforms.
The
interview method was also used to supplement our findings, and to gather
first-hand data from our subjects. Based on the analysis of fifty blogs,
in-depth interviews were conducted with ten journalists at 2008. Of these
ten participants, five maintained blogs on the public blog sites and five
blogs on newspaper blog sites. Five of the ten interviewees were male, the
other five were female. They all attended college and received university
degrees. Two of them had master’s degree or above. All of them had
maintained blogs for more than three years. Among those with their own
blogs, two claimed that they would usually update their blogs every one to
three days; two updated every four to seven days; three updated every week
to a month; three updated less than once a month. As we are both fluent
speakers of both English and Chinese, we first conducted the interviews in
Chinese and then we translated them into English.
Analysis
and Results
In
this section, we will present the research results as well as a sketch of
journalist bloggers in China. The overall findings are divided into three
parts: the first part is concerned with the organizational structure which
influences journalists’ blogging in newspaper blog platform, while the
other two deal with the different characteristics of newspaper blogs sites
and public blog sites.
Xinmin
Evening News was
the earliest newspaper adopter of the internet in China. It created its
blogging platform on May 7, 2005.
At the beginning, there were no requirements that members in the newspaper
must blog. Reporters were given a password and user account and blogging
was on a voluntary basis. Six months after Xinmin started its
blogging service, Shanghai Morning Post launched journalistic blogs
on its online platform, highai.com. Unlike its rival, Shanghai Morning
Post launched an aggressive advertisement campaign. A program named
“A hundred reporters’ blog show” (baiming jizhe boke xiu) was
launched in August 2006, featuring selected blog entries reproduced in the
newspaper every Tuesday and Thursday. Therefore, unlike Xinmin News,
blogging on the platform of the Morning Post is not
entirely individualistic work but actually organized by the press as a
group activity.
As
both Xinmin and Shanghai Morning Post are leading
metropolitan newspapers in Shanghai, there is intense competition between
two newspapers. The blog site of Shanghai Morning Post was launched to
compete with Xinmin. Responding to the Morning
Post, Xinmin once
published an article insinuating that aggressive blogging at the Shanghai
Morning Post betrayed news principles.
“One press [Morning Post] uses
a full-page advertisement to promote their journalistic blogs. A female
reporter at this press writes posts discussing who will accompany her to
sleep at night in vague language. Does that press want to build an image
through this kind of blog, or is it simply to attract eyeballs?” (Sun,
Y., Sept. 12, 2006)
In
response, many reporters at Shanghai Morning Post, criticized Xinmin
News for quoting words out of context and misleading people. Therefore,
we can see that competition between the rival newspapers is fierce
extending onto the blogosphere and the internet.
There
are some similarities between the two newspaper blog sites. For example,
the relationship between journalist bloggers and readers is limited by many
external factors. Both official press platforms adopt the real-name
system. Current reporters can register with their real name and work ID to
write blogs. Journalistic blogs are the domain of verified journalists.
Other netizens can still register but cannot write columns.
The page layout of both the websites was also
revised for many times. Taking Xinmin
Evening News as
an example. Previously, readers could “send
flowers” or “toss stones” to express their opinions. The greater the number
of flowers, the more popular the blog posting was deemed and vice versa.
However, this feature was finally suspended in the mid of 2007 and some
restrictions were put on comments. Till now, comments on Xinmin
blogs are not strongly mediated; readers can only leave comments if
they register with the site. This indicates that newspaper websites are
more willing to maintain administrative control over postings than to allow
participants to get involved in judging the merits of messages.
Both Xinmin and Shanghai Morning Post
blogs are institutionalized products and constrained by journalistic
conventions. They are not typically democratized blog systems. Without
an account, there are few opportunities to participate. These platforms
offer interactivity limited in scope and there is careful control of
blogging and commenting.
However, it
is important to note, compared with Chinese political structure, that the
level of censorship is actually low in newspaper blogs because most of them
are currently organized by the technical staff who know little about
journalism. This is a widely spread phenomenon. In some small newspapers,
only two or three people are assigned to work on online editions, whereas
some large newspapers employ up to 40 people on the online edition (He and
Zhu, 2002).
In Shanghai, 150 print media sources have formed an alliance, including
some large state-owned media enterprises. However, the online department of
this big company is only maintained on a very small scale, with only 16
full-time editors and 50 part-time reporters employed in its first year
(Xie, 2000). Although senior staff of the online operation is
made up of former news reporters who perform managerial or editorial
duties, the site is actually managed by the technical staff who know little
about journalism.
In our study, both newspaper blog sites are
attached to the newspaper’s information centre, but the person in charge of
the paper’s online version does not hold a position and has no formal, signed contract with the
newspaper. The
editing department and the online news department have been divided and are
governed separately. The editing department seldom directly overrules the
online news department. It publishes most of the editorial content of the
print edition online, and the online version has no unique content.
Therefore, the online operation does not need to recruit journalists but
does hire technicians. To most of the management, the online site is only
part of efforts to computerize the press. Their motivation may be keeping
up with competitors to avoid being left behind.
Another
example is from Beijing Youth Daily, which set up
its new online version
on June 28, 2000. The newspaper also launched a new
website address at www.ynet.com and transferred its operations from the
editing department to the Beijing Youth Internet Communication Company. In
an interview for this study, Shanshan (from Beijing Youth Daily)
described the lack of relationship between the web site and newspaper
itself.
“I
only know they are not recruited by the press. I don’t know who they are,
or how much they earn per month. By the way, I do not care about it. We do
not distinguish newspaper sites from any other internet services, like
China.com and sohu.com. The only similarity is that we both belong to the
Beijing Newspaper Group. Apart from this, there is no cooperation between
the two departments.” (Shanshan, December 17, 2008, interview)
In Shan’s eyes, online newspapers are not assumed
to be news organizations. Instead, they are simply firms selling products
in the market.
Partly
because of a lack of staff in the editing department, censorship is
relatively weak at newspaper blogs. An analysis of SINA, SOHU,
Xinmin, and Shanghai Morning Post blogs reveals the existence
of a combination of automated and manual censorship. On independent public
blogs, users are automatically prevented from posting politically sensitive
words such as “Falun Gong”, “Tibetan independence” (zangdu). Efforts
to post such messages result in the error message: “This item contains
forbidden vocabulary. Please remove them from your blog”. However, on
newspaper blogs such as Xinmin and Shanghai Morning Post,
these sensitive words can still be posted. Sensitive phrases, such as,
“June 4” and “Falun Gong” remained on the system. Therefore, censorship on
newspaper blogs is weaker than that used on independent public blogs.
The
newspapers want to use blogs to attract eyeballs. However, not all
reporters are enthusiastic about newspaper blogs. To
date, there are 325 reporters and editors registered on the Xinmin
web. Of the 325 blogs, only 30 have been used at least one time; the other
295 blogs are all in empty. Among the 30 active blogs, only nine have been
updated in the previous six months; the others were inactive. The active
bloggers and their identities are as follows:
Table
1: Journalists’ blogs on the Xinmin newspaper platform
(Dec. 31, 2008)
|
Name
|
Blog
link
|
No.
of articles
|
Page
View
|
Position in the
Press
|
|
Li ranran
|
http://spaces.xinmin.cn/liranran
|
50
|
70,152
|
Junior reporter
|
|
He Xin
|
http://spaces.xinmin.cn/hexin
|
322
|
158,437
|
Press photographers
|
|
Zhao
Hongling
|
http://spaces.xinmin.cn/zhaohongling
|
53
|
36,985
|
Senior reporter
|
|
Zhu Guang
|
http://spaces.xinmin.cn/zhuguang
|
62
|
32,490
|
Senior reporter
|
|
Wu Qiang
|
http://spaces.xinmin.cn/wuqiang
|
98
|
62,511
|
Vice director, the complaint against
newspaper office
|
|
Gaoxing
|
http://spaces.xinmin.cn/gaoxing
|
249
|
116,369
|
Vice director, a supplementary section
in Xinmin
|
|
Shaoning
|
http://spaces.xinmin.cn/shaoning
|
86
|
49,577
|
Vice director, national procuratorial
and judicial news department
|
|
Jiying
|
http://spaces.xinmin.cn/jiying
|
39
|
27,106
|
Vice director, national procuratorial
and judicial news department
|
|
Zhu dajian
|
http://spaces.xinmin.cn/zhudajian
|
139
|
118,577
|
Vice chief editor, Xinmin Evening
News
|
In
this case, it is found that five active bloggers are administrators of high
rank in the organization and only four bloggers are ordinary reporters. The
frequency of blog updates and the number of page views are almost the same
between the two groups. Ordinary reporters updated their diaries with an
average 3.92 posts per month; the management cadres updated their blogs
with an average 3.94 posts per month. Average total page views for reporter
blogs was 74,516, compared to an average 74.828 page views for management
cadres’ blogs.
Let
us visit the newspaper site. In the Shanghai Morning Post website, a
total of 210 reporters registered as featured bloggers. Three years later,
91 of them were still active bloggers who had updated their blogs in the
last six months. The survival rate of blogs (43%) is much larger than that
of Xinmin (2%). However, evidence suggests a complex picture.
Regarding Shanghai Morning Post, it indicated that the plan to
attract more readers had also ended in failure. Page views at Shanghai
Morning Post have declined over the last two years. Xie Zhengyi, a
young female reporter at the Morning Post has the highest number of
page views for her blog (320,000). However, Xu Xiang, the third highest
one, garners only 90,034. Most blogs on the site have only 20,000 to 50,000
views, indicating a stagnant readership. More importantly,
most blogs in the Morning Post site are about the inner monologues,
emotions of reporters, narrations of daily life, and personal interests
like stock price and photography. Articles containing criticism of
newspapers and politics-related content are difficult to find.
While
many bloggers
vent their anger directed at newspapers on independent public blogs, we
found nothing like that on newspaper blogs. A reporter said in his private
blog, “starting a blog in obedience to the command contradicts the original
freedom spirit of blog. Besides, there are gatekeepers from our press on
the content.” (Li, January 1, 2007)
Although
blogs are getting increasingly popular as a way to involve readers with the
newspaper, the implementation of newspaper blogs can often be challenging.
In our interviews, Wu Qiang, from Xinmin, told us that at least 10
percent of press reporters had set up blogs on public platforms. The number
of reporters blogging on newspaper sites thus is only a tiny section of the
whole population. Hexin, also from Xinmin, told us that most
reporters in his department would blog at MSN space instead of the
newspaper site because “the press blog cannot be individualized. It is an
official platform.” Hexin prefers to see himself as different with
other journalist bloggers because he is a photographer.
“They [other reporters] are
worried about causing offence to press leaders. They tried to avoid
unwanted consequences of blogging such as firing extreme public enthusiasm.
It makes blogging difficult. Meanwhile, blogging is not integral to
performance evaluations. There is no pay even you spent a lot of time
blogging. Thus, most reporters give up blogging” (Hexin, December 11,
2008, interview)
These
views are widespread. “The blog may be censored by your media organization”.
One female reporter complained
on her blog,
“As a journalist for an official
media, I have to keep those forbidden zones in mind whenever I want to say
something publically. Blogging becomes part of work Once I am asked by my
superior to blog. It feels like being watched, peeped, or even raped.” (You, April 9, 2008).
Unlike
mainstream media products, which are subject to extensive editorial review
and external political monitoring, bloggers have more autonomy to decide
content and there is free expression. However, in reality, a certain degree
of self-censorship works here because people have information which they
are unwilling to reveal on the public web. Some
journalists may only give their blog address to a few friends, family
members and colleagues, but there is always a danger that others may
accidentally stumble across it. Those wishing to publish something
sensitive usually do not disclose their personal identity.
Digging
deeper, we find that the performance of reporters is influenced by many
other factors. Logically, management prefers employees
to follow guidance to perform and want the public to accept an image
established through their work. This
also reflects the fact that the media wants to project a
particular positive public image to readers. To accomplish this target,
media outlets build their own websites to attract reporters to transfer
their blogs from public space. With this particular motivation, press
websites are distinct from other public blogs and may not be as democratic as blogging
on independent public platforms.
The
present study focuses on Xinmin Evening News and the Shanghai
Morning Post: how two newspapers websites provide a picture of the
ongoing tensions between blogging and self-censorship in China over recent
years. These two blog sites epitomize the situation throughout China. The
findings indicate that the development of newspaper blogs has been hampered
by many factors. For the print edition, reporters operate within the
constraints of communication routines and do things in a given way. All of
their work must fall within the framework of the organization. For
the online section, even though control imposed by the press is loosened,
self-censorship and other similar constraining factors hamper the
development of newspaper blogs and make it currently at a stage of low
communication: there is insufficient interactivity, low response rates and
low overall usage. Although censorship on newspaper blogs is weaker,
self-censorship persists, becoming the main mechanism controlling blog
content. Journalists
in independent public blogs may be more willing to blog because it provides
them a way to express additional meanings above and beyond career
considerations, and they feel less confined. By contrast, bloggers at
newspaper sites seem less enthusiastic, particular as blogging relates to
career.
Blogging on public blog sites
SINA and SOHU are the most
popular blog sites in China. In 2005, both websites began to invite famous
reporters and chief-editors from newspapers, TV stations, and journals to
start blogging on their sites. For example, two Shanghai journalists were
invited to blog at SINA after they became involved in a defamation
case brought by Taiwan-funded firm Foxconn.
They are famous because it is the first time when reporters were sued by
one company in China. Their blog attracts millions of readers.
However, even though SINA and SOHU
have gained popularity through blogging services over the past years, both
are often accused by netizens of deleting articles which contain “sensitive
words”. Of ten journalists interviewed, half of them reported that their
posts along with comments by visitors had been deleted without notice. Liu Qili, from China Times,
found that the blog she maintained at SOHU had been taken down after
she revealed plagiarism in the press. Liu insisted that the censored posts
had not contained material that violated any law or regulation and that SOHU
was therefore violating her user agreement. Apart from at SINA and SOHU,
many reporters have also encountered different censorship criteria at
various blog hosting services. A post entitled, “Why I will
not build my blog on SINA”, wrote,
“If
we accept that there must be some controls on internet content, why can't
the government make the list of sensitive words public so that everyone
knows what to look out for when they blog? I think these lists would be
very funny, but no blog host is willing to make their list public. If they
don't publish the lists, it is too troublesome to write because you never
know which words will be considered sensitive.” (Wang, as cited in Goldkorn, 2005)
As noted, political
stability is paramount to the Chinese government, and the government
exercises control over the internet for fear that the internet will be used
as a tool to undermine the Chinese Communist Party. According to the
Ministry of Public Security, the goal of internet control is “to strengthen
the security and the protection of computer information networks and of the
internet, and to preserve social order and social stability”. Therefore,
the government has
issued a series of comprehensive regulations governing internet use, such
as the Interim Provisions on the Administration of Internet Culture (2003),
Provisions for the Administration of Internet News Information Services
(2005), and so on.
Although
no details about censorship were exposed, the following is widely accepted
as absolutely banned content on blogs: (1) instigating resistance to and
impeding the enforcement of the Constitution, laws and administrative
regulations; (2) promoting subversion and the overthrow of the communist
system; (3) advocating separatism and secession from the state; (4)
promoting racial hatred and discrimination; (5) disrupting social order
through fabrication and spreading rumors; (6) promoting superstition,
indecency, pornography, gambling, violence and terrorism, etc.; (7)
insulting or defaming others; (8) undermining the credibility of state
organs; and (9) violating the Constitution, laws and regulations. By using auto-test software, text
containing certain keywords is prevented from being posted, or the
administrator will be notified when sensitive subjects are discussed. As a
result, journalists know that the stories need to be very carefully
constructed as they are held responsible for what they publish. So, most reporters will not
express political sensitive opinions on their blogs.
However, even though censorship of blog sites is
believed to be tougher than that of the print media websites, reporters are
relatively tolerant towards external censorship. In the real world, there are three ways journalists
can resist power: 1. they can fight; 2. they can give in by “altering the
news to placate the exerters of pressure”; 3. they can “give in
sufficiently and in advance to avoid being pressured.” (Gans, 1979, p. 249)
But in the virtual space, journalists have more opportunities to deal with
censorship and may be less worried about it. Many bloggers hold the view
that even though censorship is an issue, the Chinese blogosphere is slowly
pushing back the boundaries of what defines sensitive because bloggers
can use a number of strategies to deal with censorship. Journalists
addressing sensitive subjects usually exercise caution and carefully choose
their words. Therefore,
they can be less affected by pressures related to censorship.
For
example, most journalists have adopted more factual narrative forms in
their posts. Reporters are less worried if posts on blogs reflect the truth
and no false content. Fu Jianfeng, a reporter for Southern Weekender,
wrote a post entitled “My Professional Attitude under Pressure”:
“In my opinion, a good
investigative reporter should know how to use professional activities to
protect himself. He has to employ appropriate tactics to eliminate the
risks, using wile and bravery…If you follow professional rules of
conduct, it will often be your best guarantee against the risks. For
example, professionalism requires you to seek multiple confirmations for
each piece of information and rely as little as possible on single-sourced
information; this practice will increase the authenticity of the
investigation…When I handle certain cases involving legal and political
risks, I usually undertake a large amount of investigative work. In
the published report, I only mention 30% of what I know and I hold the
other 70% back. That 70% will come in very useful when someone
complains. Once they see the other 70% I held back, they usually give
up quickly.” (Fu, October 8, 2006)
There
are other ways to resist censorship. Journalists can make some articles
invisible to strangers. Shanshan, a reporter for Beijing Youth Daily,
began blogging in July 2005 and posted 458 articles to date. However, only
110 of them are visible to the general readership. The other 348 articles
are password protected. The password protected posts are intended only for
an audience of trusted friends or confidants. Some
journalists have also tried to use different blog hosts because maintaining multiple blogs is a way to keep
their writings alive on the web. Some interviewees in our study frequently
move blogs, leaving one blog host and starting a new blog with a new web
address hosted by a different provider. Some even stated that they are
willing to buy blog space which is more reliable and has less censorship.
For example, Wang Ganglin, a reporter for Legal Daily, chose to blog
in public sites which are based in the U.S. The set up fee was 8000 RMB,
with ongoing charges of 80 RMB per month. Another reporter, Longzhi from Southern
Metro Newspaper, also expressed the same idea on his blog.
In
this study, we have also observed that some sensitive words were usually
replaced by similar words or abbreviations to escape external censors.
Playing around with abbreviations to make them close to the politically
sensitive terms is a witty way to get published. For example, Gaoshan, a
reporter for Beijing Youth Daily, published a post in Pinyin, the
most commonly used Romanization system for Chinese language, with tone
marks on her blog: “chong(2)qing(4)zong(4)huo(3)an(4)作案人xiao(1)yong(3)hua(2)的yi(2)shu(1)” (in English, it is
“the last words of the arsonist in Chongqing”). The numbers 1-4 in the
brackets represent the Chinese tone marks. It records a serious criminal
case. According to Xinhua News, a fire on a bus that killed
27 people in Chongqing was an arson attack by Xiao Yonghua, a former
employee of a public transport company. He had been suspended from his post
and angry about this punishment. However, Xiao had left a letter on the
internet detailing his unfair treatment and corruption in the company,
different from news reports. This reporter said: “If Xiao’s letter was the
statement of only one of the parties, who can guarantee the report in Xinhua
News represents the facts, and who can provide the public with a
comprehensive, objective story?”(Gao, October 13, 2007). This post was
deleted by the net administrator, and thus this reporter was forced to use
Pinyin to replace the title, using “hidden transcripts” as an alternative.
This sort of coding has entered the public sphere through skillful blog
posts, whose meaning is understood by readers who are aware of
restrictions.
The
result of this study is that in the game of a cat and a mouse between
external censors and China’s increasingly outspoken bloggers, blocking of
message content has for the most part been ineffective. By using the
previous strategies, despite censorship, journalists can accept the system
of public blogs and maintain strong control over the blog content as long
as the deviant views and opinions do not directly challenge the Party’s
ideology and leadership. Therefore, we have noted in this study that some
journalists change blog hosts due to unreasonable deletion of posts.
However, after a period of time, some of the bloggers would move back. One
interviewee, Gaoshan, told us, “My friends are all at SINA. I tried
to change the blog host but it feels like moving house to get better care
but ending up with no friends or relatives there. I didn’t feel at ease in
a strange place, so I moved back” (Gaoshan, December 8, 2008, interview).
The sense of “being at home” is very important, and sometimes it can
override fears of censorship.
Conclusions
In
this study, we note that both public blogs and newspaper blogs are
constructed as a negotiated space between censorship and bloggers’ private
domains. Content control in China not only occurs through formal regulation
of public blogs, but also through informal means on newspaper blogs. Under
stronger external censorship on public blogs compared to that of newspaper
blogs, journalists adopt different strategies to deal with the pressure.
Using satirical, implicit wordings which are comprehensible to readers,
reporters can avoid troubles. Therefore, even though censorship of public
blogs is tougher than that at newspaper blogs, we found reporters can often
accept higher levels of external censorship at public blogs. On the
contrary, on newspaper blogs, even though controls imposed
by the press are loosened, self-censorship and other similar constraining
factors hamper the development of newspaper blogs and make it currently at
a stage of low communication: there is insufficient interactivity, low
response rates and low overall usage.
In
conclusion, the content
of public blogs is markedly different from those published on the newspaper
blogs. Independent public blogs feature more behind-the-scenes stories,
informal interviews with news sources, full interviews with sources,
in-depth analysis of current issues, unpublished stories, personal opinion
and other stories beyond careers by reporters. On the contrary, newspaper
blogs are less individualistic because journalistic blogging on newspaper
platforms is more strongly influenced by the organization to which they
belong. Comparing the
two blog platforms and the strategies bloggers employ in writing, we can
conclude that newspaper blogs did not make good use of the freedom provided
by the internet to make qualitative changes to their content.
There
are limitations in this study. One major issue is its sample. Due to the
difficulty to obtain a complete sampling frame on the internet, this paper
chose to study a total of fifty blogs from four blog sites and thus they
are by no means a “representative sample” of all journalistic blogs in
China. Nonetheless, the study presents a snapshot of how blogging and
journalism are developing in China so as to reveal possible patterns.
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About the Authors
Gong-Cheng,
Lin got his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Shannxi Normal University,
China. At the time this paper was written, he was a Ph.D. candidate
in the Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong
Kong. He completed his doctorate in July 2010. Ying, Li got her
bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Renmin University, and is currently a
Ph.D. candidate in the department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong
Kong. They can be reached at gongclin@cityu.edu.hk
and Yingli9@student.cityu.edu.hk,
respectively.
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