Revisiting Media Events in Web 2.0 China: A Critique of Chinese Online Activism Jian Xu BA, MA (Heilongjiang) A thesis in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Journalism and Media Research Centre Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences March 2013 Acknowledgements I express my deepest appreciation to those who have helped me along the way in conducting my PhD research project in Australia. I thank my two supervisors Dr Haiqing Yu and Professor Gerard Goggin for their guidance and support throughout the entire process. I would like to thank Gerard for supporting my application for the International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS). I could not have started and finished my PhD research project without this generous scholarship. His wisdom and knowledge always provided inspiration for my research and academic thinking. I also owe my academic growth to Haiqing. Her intellectual insights and rigorous scholarship have not only provided invaluable inspiration, but also set an example with regard to my future academic career. I am blessed to have Haiqing and Gerard as mentors and friends. This thesis cannot be completed smoothly without their intellectual support. I also thank Associate Professor David McKnight and Professor Catharine Lumby in the Journalism and Media Research Centre (JMRC) for their insightful comments in my annual progress reviews and their ongoing support. I am grateful to Drs Yang Mu and Kath Albury for offering me tutoring and guest lecturing opportunities in their Chinese studies and media studies courses. I would like to express my appreciation to my friends, Daxiong and Xinyue, who always care about me and share my happiness and unhappiness. Their companionship helped me survive stress and depression during my PhD research in Australia. v I remain forever grateful to my mother Yuqing Wang and my father Guaoquan Xu for their unconditional love. I am very proud to be their son. They have respected and supported all my decisions at different stages in my life. I dedicate this thesis to them. vi Abstract This thesis investigates how China’s online activism intervenes in and transforms China’s conventional media events. It takes the Spring Festival Gala, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and the Wenzhou high-speed train collision as critical contexts to examine the interventional role of online activism in different types of media events in China. This thesis argues that, as an alternative medium of communication, the Internet has empowered some people to transform conventional media events into something more open, contentious, participatory and deliberative. The Internet hence constitutes an important interventional force which transforms the political life of the Chinese nation. Chapter One provides a conceptual discussion of media event theories and their critiques. Chapter Two takes a critical review of the Internet as an alternative media and of online activism as political communication. Chapter Three examines culture jamming as a mode of online activism in the context of a celebratory media event, the Spring Festival Gala. Lao Meng’s Shanzhai Spring Festival Gala becomes a case study to examine how the shanzhai gala intervenes in CCTV’s power-money dominated Spring Festival celebration. Chapter Four focuses on citizen journalism, as alternative crisis communication, in a disastrous media event—the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. It examines three forms of citizen journalism in the aftermath of the earthquake: eyewitness reporting, online discussion and networking, and independent investigation. Chapter Five examines online weiguan as networked collective action in scandalous media events in China, as exemplified in the Wenzhou high-speed train crash. It discusses the concept, platform and practice of the online weiguan phenomenon. In the concluding chapter, this thesis proposes vii the analytical concept “Internet interventionism” as a way to summarise key arguments of the thesis. It argues that online activism provides opportunities to transform China’s conventional media events into contested platforms and intervene in such platforms with new agency, agendas and voices. The Internet thus becomes a key site for such interventionism to take place. This has significant implications for how we re-conceptualise “media events” and envisage the future of the Chinese nation. viii Table of Contents Thesis and Dissertation Sheet………………………………………………………..…..……..…..….i Originality Statement………………………………………………………….………...…………….…..ii Copyright Statement……………………………………………………………………………...……….iii Authentity Statement………………………………………………………………………………..….…iv Acknowledgements………………………………………..………………………………………..……….v Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………..…………..vii List of Tables and Figures............................................................................................................xiii Chapter One Introduction and Conceptual Discussion……………………………………………………………...1 1.1 Central Argument and Research Questions……………………………………………..……..1 1.2 Theoretical Framework………………………………………………………………………………...3 1.3 Transformation of Chinese Media Events………………………………………………..……11 1.3.1 The pre-reform era and “authoritarian” media events…………………………..11 1.3.2 The media reform era and “marketised authoritarian” media events…….13 1.3.3 The new media era and “deliberative” media events…………………………….17 1.4 Significance of the Research………………………………………………………………………..21 1.5 Approaches and Methodologies………………………………………………………………..…23 1.6 Chapter Outline and Case Studies………………………………………………………………..28 ix Chapter Two Alternative Media and Online Activism……………………………………………………...…32 2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………….32 2.2 Understanding Alternative Media………………………………………………………………..32 2.3 Alternative Media in China: From Big-Character Poster to Micro-blog…………..35 2.4 Online Activism in China: Themes and Modes……………………………………..……….37 2.4.1 Themes of China’s online activism……………………………………………………….38 2.4.2 Modes of China’s online activism…………………………………………………………43 2.5 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………….50 Chapter Three Media Celebration: Shanzhai Media Culture as Media Intervention…………….53 3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………….………53 3.2 CCTV Spring Festival Gala as Media Spectacle………………………………………………56 3.3 From Shanzhai Economy to Shanzhai Media Culture………………………………….…62 3.4 Shanzhai Spring Festival Gala: A Counter-Spectacle Entrepreneurship……….…72 3.5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………….…85 Chapter Four Media Disaster: Citizen Journalism as Alternative Crisis Communication…...90 4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………….…90 4.2 Chinese Media in Crisis Communication: Characteristics and Turning Points...92 4.2.1 Critiques on the conventional model of crisis communication in China…93 x 4.2.2 SARS and China’s crisis communication reform……………………………………97 4.2.3 Crisis communication in the post-SARS era: 2008 Sichuan earthquake case study……………………………………...………….102 4.3 Citizen Journalism as Alternative Crisis Communication: 2008 Sichuan Earthquake Case Study……………………………………………………..…108 4.3.1 Eyewitness reporting………………………………………………………………………..110 4.3.2 Online discussion and networking………………………………………………….....112 4.3.3 Independent investigation projects……………………………………………..........114 4.4 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………..………127 Chapter Five Media Scandal: Online Weiguan as Networked Collective Action……………….130 5.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………..130 5.2 Media and Scandal: Revisiting Investigative Journalism in China………………...131 5.3 Online Weiguan: Concept, Platform and Practice……...…………………………….…..140 5.3.1 Online weiguan: a conceptual discussion…………………………………….……..140 5.3.2 Online weiguan platforms: from BBS to weibo……………………………….…..148 5.3.3 Online weiguan practice: three case studies………………….…………….……..152 5.4 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………..171 Chapter Six Conclusion: New Media, New Interventionism and New Deliberation…….....174 6.1 Online Activism and the Transformation of Chinese Media Events……………...174 xi 6.2 Internet Interventionism and Deliberative Politics in China…………………..……175 6.3 Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research………………………………..……..183 References………………….………………………………………………………………………………...186 Appendix: Glossary of Chinese Names and Terms..............…….……………………....211 xii List of Tables and Figures Tables 1-1 Transformation of the Chinese media events post 1949 20 2-1 Themes of China’s online activism 43 2-2 Major modes of China’s online activism 51 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Figures 5-1 Mobilisation model of traditional investigative journalism 138 5-2 Mobilisation model of the Internet-mobilised investigative journalism 138 5-3 Caricature of the Hide-and-Seek Incident produced by SMD 154 5-4 Caricature of the Hide-and-Seek Incident produced by netizen 154 5-5 Photo of Zhou Jiugeng uncovered by netizen “huage” 158 5-6 Photo of Zhou Jiugeng uncovered by netizen “chengyu007” 159 5-7 “Never colliding high-speed train blueprint” designed by netizen 169 5-8 Poster of the disaster film Fatal Bullet Train designed by netizen 170 xiii Chapter One Introduction and Conceptual Discussion 1.1 Central Argument and Research Questions Since Deng Xiaoping’s reform and opening-up policy in 1978, China has witnessed great structural transformations in economy, technology, culture and politics. The Chinese media, a crossover in the economical, technological, cultural and political fields, have played a central role in representing and facilitating