Beating the Drums! Journalism, Forum or Platform Blogs in China and Cuba (2010) through the Cases of Wang Keqin and Yoani Sánchez Vicenç Sanclemente García TESI DOCTORAL UPF / 2016 Dr. Javier Díaz Noci DEPARTAMENT DE COMUNICACIÓ To: Arrate and Itzel Acknowledgements FIRST OF ALL, I WANT TO SHOW MY GRATITUDE to Arrate my partner, my daughter, Itzel, and my family in general. Also to my closest friends for all the hours I have stolen to them. I hope to reimburse it. I would also like to acknowledge all the work done by my thesis supervisor, Javier Díaz Noci, for his patience, help and perseverance. My appreciations to Dr Mireia Vargas, her magnificent translations were a real challenge. Thanks for accepting to be member of the tribunal of this PhD dissertation, extensive to Dr José Ma. Portillo Valdés and Dr Emili Prado. For me it is a honor to steal some of their time and expertise. I want to thank Paloma Nadal for her attentions helping me in the final construction of the thesis. I appreciate also the encouragement words from other professors, Dr Jaume Guillamet, coordinator of the PhD program, Dr Carles Pont, and in moments of despair, Dr Montserrat Quesada Pérez. I must confess that my colleagues Alba Soler and Roger Cassany were as a beacon for their enthusiasm. Also many thanks to some of my companions like Laura Pérez Altable or Xavier Ramon. I was always helped by the technical and administrative personal from the University. I have to thank some of my personal friends who conquered their doctor degree recently from other universities, Francesc Viadel, Francesc Rillo Moral or Neus Roig. Observing your dedication was a motive for hope. In China, I have to mention the professional who introduced me to Wang Keqin, Isolda Murillo. I want to thank her and all the other correspondents: Isidre Ambrós, José Reinoso, Antonio Broto, Daniel Méndez, Josh Chin, Almudena Ariza, Sergi Vicente, Paloma Caballero, who helped me in the interviews. Also thanks to the correspondents from Cuba, whom I promised not to name them. My gratitude is due to Wang Keqin and Yoani Sánchez for having received and treated me so generously. I would like to remind those who were my team in my RTVE offices in Havana (1997-2001) and in Beijing (2003-2007). I also want also to thank those who during some time made me prioritize my academic life. I wish one day the journalistic professional and academic fields were not so far. Abstract IT IS SAID THAT is impossible to have a fully developed public opinion in authoritarian countries. Jürgen Habermas criticized Internet because of the dispersion of content and the lack of mediators. However, in countries like China, in some recent periods, blogs and micro blogs permitted the introduction of some deliberation spaces, as well as targeting issues for mainstream media. We are studying two states, China and Cuba whose approach to new technologies has been completely different. China decided to push Internet as a tool for development, while trying to control it, and Cuban citizens have lived in a period of extreme difficulty in accessing. The blog of the Chinese journalist Wang Keqin in China and Generación Y from Yoani Sánchez, in Cuba, both bounded in a year of intense production in 2010. We used a triangulation of methods: quantitative and qualitative analysis on the content of posts and commentaries combined with ethnological analysis, adding direct interviews to the players and correspondents. The blog of Wang Keqin, one of the pioneers of investigative journalism in China, supposed to create a window for cases of injustice in the provinces and to move it to nationwide controversy. The journalist became the essential first part of a chain against impunity. Citizens asking for morality and justice collaborate with him, with a sense of engagement and community to resolve cases, which mean that finished went to justice. Yoani Sánchez work was heavily influenced by the contrast of the lack of Internet access in her country and her extraordinary influence abroad. More than reports, she elaborated opinion articles, editorials, based in her reflection about news or quotidian life. She becomes a speaker of dissent views while defending national dialogue. The enormous number of comments in her blog served to create a forum group, between different types of expatriates. They recognized Sánchez as an unofficial speaker from within. Keywords: Deliberation, Forum, Journalism, Justice, Internet, Morality, National Dialogue, Public Opinion. Resum Es diu que és impossible que els països autoritaris tinguin una opinió pública plenament desenvolupada. Jürgen Habermas criticava Internet per la dispersió dels continguts i la manca de mediadors. No obstant això, a països com la Xina, en alguns períodes recents, els blocs i els Micro blocs van permetre introduir alguns espais de deliberació, així conduir casos fins els mitjans de comunicació tradicionals. Hem estudiat dos estats, Xina i Cuba amb un enfoc completament diferent cap a les noves tecnologies. Xina va decidir empènyer Internet com un mitjà de desenvolupament, a la vegada que el tractava de controlar, i els ciutadans cubans han viscut en un període d'extrema dificultat en l'accés. El bloc del periodista xinès Wang Keqin a la Xina i el de Generación Y de Yoani Sánchez a Cuba, van estar especialment actius l’any 2010. Per aquest treball, hem utilitzat una triangulació de mètodes: anàlisi quantitativa i qualitativa sobre el contingut dels posts i dels comentaris, combinat amb l'anàlisi etnològica, entrevistes directes als bloggers i als corresponsals. El bloc de Wang Keqin, un dels pioners del periodisme d'investigació a la Xina, va suposar crear una finestra per a casos d'injustícia a les províncies fins ampliar la controvèrsia a tot el país. El periodista esdevé la primera part essencial d'una cadena contra la impunitat. Ciutadans que sol·licitaven moralitat i justícia van col·laborar amb ell, amb sentit de compromís i de comunitat, per resoldre cada cas, que significava, que acabessin als tribunals la justícia. El treball de Yoani Sánchez es va veure influenciat pel contrast entre la manca d'accés a Internet en el seu propi país i la seva extraordinària influència a l'exterior. Ella elaborava, més que reportatges, articles d’opinió, editorials, sobre notícies o vida quotidiana. Va acabar convertint-se en un altaveu dels punts de vista dels dissidents mentre defensava el diàleg nacional. L'enorme quantitat de comentaris al seu bloc va servir per crear un grup de debat entre diferents tipus d'expatriats, que reconeixien Yoani Sánchez com una portaveu no oficial des de dins de l’illa. Contents Acknowledgements 5 Abstract 7 1) Introduction: Where there was not Public Sphere 13 2) State of the Art: Facing a New Era 17 3) Theoretical Framework: A Platform for Discussion and Reporting 69 4) Historical Context and Presentation of Cases 81 5) Aims, Methodology and Research Questions 141 6) Blogs’ Content Analysis 177 7) Comments’ Content Analysis; Capacity to create Interaction 323 8) Interviews with the Bloggers 365 9) Interviews with Correspondents 393 10) Conclusions 449 References 473 Appendix 513 Annexes, available on CD or in the Cloud Drive: Folder 1: Original Posts and Spanish Translation Appendix 1: Original Wang Keqin Posts in Chinese https://drive.google.com/a/upf.edu/file/d/0B3YzVCLCEvbSOWl4UzF4QnoyWkU /view?usp=sharing Appendix 2: Original Posts Yoani Sánchez https://drive.google.com/a/upf.edu/file/d/0B3YzVCLCEvbSdU9SMGhQZ2NnNnc /view?usp=sharing Appendix 3: Wang Keqin Posts Translations in Spanish https://drive.google.com/a/upf.edu/file/d/0B3YzVCLCEvbSZHVQa2FLTzNZUU0 /view?usp=sharing Folder 2: Original Comments and Spanish Translation Appendix 4: Wang Keqin Original Comments https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3YzVCLCEvbSRk9CYlFEdkdJSjQ/view?usp=sh aring Appendix 5: Wang Keqin Comments Translation https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3YzVCLCEvbSMnlJRnpoWXRnNVk/view?usp= sharing Appendix 6: Original Comments Yoani Sánchez https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3YzVCLCEvbSY2JXcHg2bEQ0ZzQ/view? usp=sharing Folder 3: Posts Analysis Appendix 7: Data Proposal in Posts’ Content Analysis (Spanish) https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3YzVCLCEvbSNk5CdzJxMFBkQ00/view? usp=sharing Folder 4: Audiovisual Content Appendix 8: Analysis of the audiovisual content https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3YzVCLCEvbSSnZvWTVGM1ptM3c/view?usp= sharing 1 Introduction: Where there was not a Public Sphere THE REASON FOR THIS THESIS departed from my perceptions as a correspondent in Cuba (1997-2001) just at the beginning of the implementation of Internet in the island, and later on in China (2003-2007) when Internet services were awfully growing. Something new was happening in our work as a journalists and our communication capacity as a citizens and I was sure it deserved to be studied with perspective. We started our Communications Master at the Pompeu Fabra University in October 2010. There were few months when new technologies and popular mobilization started to have a major role in all over the world. During those months we had the opportunity to follow what was happening. That strengthened two assumptions which had already being planned for our study, contradicting two axioms historically accepted. 1) In political science it was said that authoritarian countries could not have public opinion. 2) Authors like Jürgen Habermas criticized Internet because of the dispersion of content and the lack of mediators. The aim of our work was to study if authoritarian countries in transition, in some periods, thanks to blogs and discussions 13 14 Beating the Drums! Journalism, Forum or Platform platforms, permitted the introduction of concrete forum spaces, also targeting issues that later were used by large media. In some cases, in some moments, local injustices became phenomena of national and international scope thanks to certain blogs and micro blogs. We have studied two cases in two countries in transition with a formal auto defined communist regime, but with an opposite approach to the Net.