media democracy in china

a week ago, I had the pleasure of hearing professor yuezhi zhao speak on the show that I'm working on. prof. zhao teaches communications at SFU...and she's one of the profs that I've been wanting to take a class with for a long time. she has a vast knowledge and understanding of china, and is particularly interested in media democracy issues.

she was mostly asked on china's coverage of the quake, and the state of media freedoms in the country today. what really sparked my interest however, were her thoughts about the portrayal of china in western media. in this article, she goes into further detail about this.

we are so quick to celebrate our so-called media democracy that we often forsake to see its jarring blindspots. it is infinitely challenging to see the fishbowl when you're a fish swimming in it...

the western coverage of china has a tendency towards portraying Chinese nationalism as being that of the ruling party - but what of China's citizens? the country is either portrayed as being an oppressive limiter of free speech...or fervently opening their markets to the west. but what of the voices of the people? who's covering those who stand up against the ruling elite? where are they in the media we consume?

another very interesting thing that prof. zhao talks about is the reasoning behind the chinese government's media censorship. she writes:

Beijing appears to have censored coverage of the disruptions of the Olympic torch relay not because these images show the Chinese how unpopular their government is abroad, but because they will show how hostile some in the West are toward China. This is not a message a government that desperately tries to maintain its policy of openness toward the West wants to convey. At a time when Chinese netizens have re-embraced Mao's teaching of "abandoning illusions [about the West], prepare to fight," the Chinese leadership is trying all means to present images of a friendly West, while downplaying developments that could feed into the image of a hostile West aiming to demonize and dismantle China.

it feels almost ironic...that censorship (which is so anti-western) would be a tool in furthering western market capitalism. actually, on second thought, it makes a lot of sense. canada's media landscape, for example, is poignant. our country's mainstream media is largely owned by three companies. when media ownership is so concentrated, viewpoints also become more limited. these are such large and powerful companies - where corporate interests are naturally (within a business model) placed before public interest.