For the past three days I was helping report the International Media Conference at the University of Hong Kong, enjoyed many interesting talks and panel discussions and met lots of smart and interesting people.
This morning there was a panel on Chinese media, among them are editors and commentators from China’s best-known newspapers and magazines, and from different cities.
(Chinese Panel, photo by Ma Jinxin)
One issue particularly attracts my attention was that the editors do use microblogs to look for news, and sources. Deng Zhixin (邓志新), the editor from the South Metropolitan Daily (南方都市报) said that everyday the first thing he would do when back to office is to check email and t.sina (新浪微博, which is one of the localized Chinese versions of twitter).
I didn’t find his own account on t.sina, but another panelist, Xiong Peiyun (熊培云), one of the top independent commentator, has a verified account and enjoys over 10,000 fans/followers. He also speaks highly of the function of microblog in China’s media landscape.
I might do a follow-up story on how the microblogs are transforming China’s media, adding more elaborated analysis and thoughts.
The summary given by Qian Gang, the Director of China Media Project at JMSC-HKU, is simple yet inspiring:
“Chinese media is under control. Chinese media in changing. The change of Chinese media is under control; yet the ways of control is also changing.” (“中国的媒体是受控制的，媒体是在变化的，变化是受控制的，控制也在变化”)
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