Adventures in China

One of the fastest changing variables in China is information availability. It used to be that China was very closed to outside information and all the information within China was overseen by the government. But new technology has been changing that. Part of the reason the Tianaman Square demonstration "got out of hand" was the use of fax machines, because the government couldn't control them. Now, with cellular phones and the internet, more people are able hear news from different sources or discuss news with relative anonymity.

But the group of people who can afford cell phones and internet access is very small. The vast majority of individuals still get all their news from newspapers, television, and radio that the government watches. These media outlets have gotten more freedom to criticize with time, but they still mostly toe the party line.

Even if a journalist had an outlet for criticism, they probably wouldn't know how to use it. Journalists are not trained in school or in the field to be critical or dig much deeper than finding a local example to make a sound bite. They have never been encouraged to ask questions and so they don't have the same background as western journalists. Most people in China have never used a library or done a research project, so background reading is rare. Journalists simply take what was presented to them at a government press conference or police debriefing and regurgitate it to the public with some video footage.

I wasn't actually as upset by the Chinese media as I was by the lack of skills regular people had to find information. The Chinese media was sensationalized, very controlled, and not very in depth. The same has been said about American media, though America has more alternative news sources. What was more distressing to me was that no one was ever exposed to statistics or how to find information. I'd ask questions like "how many car accidents are there in Luoyang" or "how many executions are there in China" and no one would know. That's ok, I wouldn't know off the top of my head how many cars accidents or executions happen each year in the US. But I'd know where to go to find out and I could probably find that information, and trust it, within 2 or 3 hours. In China, no one knew the answer and no one knew where to find out and no one saw a problem with that.

The Chinese government is losing power. Power is becoming decentralized, the middle class has access to alternative news sources and discussion groups, and there is a lot of outside influence seeping into China. The media and information structures are changing, as well, and will accelerate the other changes. I hope the Chinese people will become media savvy enough to use it, not be used by it.