Blogs and the News from China
by Fred Fortin
While this may be a little off-topic, it really has a lot to do with how we get information on what is happening in China including what’s going on in health care. Rebecca Mackinnon, an Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre, recently completed a revealing study titled “Blogs and China Correspondence: How Foreign Correspondents Covering China Use Blogs.” (You can download a full .pdf copy from her own blog.)
Mackinnon worked her way up from the very bottom of CNN’s Beijing bureau, ended up as CNN’s Beijing correspondent and Bureau Chief from 1998-2001. After that she moved on to be Tokyo Bureau Chief. She then served as a Research Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and also co-founded Global Voices Online - an award-winning international citizens media community.
Mackinnon conducted a survey of foreign correspondents who cover China. The responses showed that blogs have become an important part of the media diet for foreign correspondents who cover China. Some of her findings include:
- 90 percent of those interviewed follow blogs, and answered “yes” to the question: “For the purposes of work, do you or your staff ever read blogs written from or about China – either in Chinese or another language?”.
- Most respondents find blogs useful for story ideas and information - In fact they find blogs significantly more useful than CCTV (Television network of the People’s Republic of China), CNN, BBC (radio & TV), overseas forums, BBS & chat rooms, or Chinese radio.
- Most find blogs useful to spot emerging stories and as a general source of story ideas.
- ESWN (EastSouthWestNorth) and Danwei appear to be substantially more important to correspondents than other English-language China-focused blogs.
As China opens up, the ongoing need for ‘bridge blogs’ that help reduce the ‘lost in translation’ distortion is increasing. With the world starting to focus its attention on China’s domestic and international development, these blogs are becoming a risky but welcomed addition to helping us get as close to the ground as we can. The ‘new media’ (like the World Health Care Blog) can also make a big difference in this ongoing struggle for mutual understanding and cooperation when it comes to health care as well.
