The Internet, as a relatively young form of mass communication,
has radically changed Chinese people's lives and their ways of
looking at the world. There has emerged a trend where in Internet
debates Chinese netizens, whether they agree or disagree with what
they read, will seriously and professionally try to find proof
supporting their opinions via web searches and even field
investigations.?
The dispute over the appearance of a South China Tiger and the rumor of the
disappearance of Chang'e-1, China's first lunar obiter are examples of how
the changing Chinese Internet culture is not only affecting
individual users, but also more traditional media sources.
On October 12th, the Shaanxi Province's Department of Forestry
publicized a series of photos allegedly depicting the South China
Tiger, declaring that tigers of this endangered species had not
died out in the wild as previously speculated. That same afternoon,
a person posted the news release along with the tiger photo on an
online professional photographer's forum. Six hours later a forum
member expressed suspicion, saying that the photo seemed to be a
Photoshop creation.
Other interested members began analyzing the photo in terms of
lighting, perspective, and color, among other elements. The next
day, a person who claimed himself to be a Photoshop expert said
that the size of the tiger could be estimated based on that of the
leaves in the photo and if the photo was authentic, the actual size
of the tiger would be near to that of a rat.
Words quickly spread, and other online communities became
involved in the dispute. They came up with various hypotheses about
how the photo was made, but the one thing they all agreed on was
that the photo was a fake. Voices in the virtual world grew louder
as more people participated in the debate on the authenticity of
the photo, including experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences
(CAS), officials from Shaanxi Province, well-known wildlife
photographers, and the person who claimed capturing the image of
the tiger.
The hot debate among Chinese netizens and experts even aroused
the interest of foreign media. On October 30th British newspaper
Financial Times reported the controversy over the picture
of the endangered South China Tiger was dominating Chinese online
communities. This was followed by prestigious US Science
Magazine, who reported the ongoing public debate in their
November 9 issue. This story featured the original photo captioned
"Flat cat?" in order to showcase people's doubts.
Even though the myth may never be solved, the debate continues
to grow hotter and hotter. In early November, Fu Dezhi, a photo
skeptic and expert from the CAS predicted that the State Forestry
Administration would not be able to persuade any expert to do a
field investigation on the tiger because no expert wants to ruin
his reputation for a lie.
Fortunately for scientists, the Chang'e-1 rumor did not last so
long. On November 13, a Chinese netizen made a post entitled "Did
Chang'e-1 disappear?" on an online forum, which attracted over
120,000 views and about 1,000 replies. Many people assumed based on
the post that something had gone wrong with the lunar obiter.
Similar to the tiger photo issue, traditional media began
running related stories and interviewed experts for authoritative
explanations. On November 16, The South Metropolitan News
newspaper interviewed Long Lehao, an academician with the CAS and
deputy chief architect of the lunar probe project. He spoke frankly
in an attempt to squash the rumor: "The online messages are
groundless for sure. Pay no attention to them. But please mark my
words -- Chang'e' can never be gone."
Four days later, the netizen who originated the rumor reflected
on the post and pointed out that discussion by some of matters
irrelevant to the Chang'e issue within the message thread actually
made the situation worse. On the same day, the China National Space
Administration (CNSA) reported that as of 14:00 November 20th,
Chang'e I had circled the moon 158 times and all systems were
operational. Official websites of the Commission of Science
Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND), China Lunar
Exploration Project (CLEP), and CNSA began updating news about
Chang'e-1 in real time in order to keep the general public
constantly
informed.?????????
These two examples show a progression in Chinese Internet
culture. Many involved in the discussion threads searched for
evidence to support their arguments, and some even did offline
research. Just a few years ago, the Internet was merely a virtual
platform, but now to many netizens it is connected to their
personal lives.
Yu Guoming, director of the Institute of Public Opinions under
Renmin University of China (RUC) said that Chinese netizens are
becoming more mature in their interactions and general behavior.
The Chinese online community has formed its own moral standards
that may serve as a foundation to widen the Internet's influence,
Yu added.
In addition, Chinese netizens are better informed and able to
distinguish fake information more easily than before. In this way,
groundless rumors will not be able to survive, let alone spread
widely within the online community. Some experts believe that with
netizens constantly improving themselves, the Internet community
will show more of its positive side.
It is no surprise that traditional media are more frequently
adopting the Internet as the source of their news. A foreign
research report predicts that by 2010 about 70 percent of news
stories will first be released by bloggers or podcasters instead of
professional journalists. Some experts think that the traditional
media's dependence on the Internet for news stories will only grow
stronger in the future.
Dr. Zhou Qingan from Tsinghua University's School of Journalism
and Communication said China should follow the practices of the US
to draft laws to govern the Internet world and guide its
development. He believes such laws are absolutely necessary in
order to maintain a harmonious society.?
(China.org.cn by Pang Li, December 2, 2007)?