Citizen DV journalists in China
EastSouthWestNorth has a great story of what happens when a bunch of villagers in China are given DV cameras to become citizen journalists. The story was reported by Southern Weekend, one of the most progressive news outlets in the PRC. Roland Soong of ESWN writes:
[This is a] translation of a Southern Weekend article about what happened when a China Civil Administration-European Union project distributed DV cameras to Chinese villagers and let them film whatever they wanted to — corruption, democracy, entrepeneurship, production, society, historical memories, etc.
An excerpt from the piece:
Wang Wei is a “rights defender.” When he left the army in 1999, Wang Wei almost became a professional activist in his home village over the issue of land distribution. “After a few years, I had done petitions and complaints. In the end, I used the power of the media to appear in newspapers and television and attained the goal of replacing the officials.” Wang Wei laughed when he claimed to be the “black hand behind the curtain” that caused the entire village leadership group to be replaced.
It is a great read that reminds us China is not totalitarian as many people may believe. And even in authoritarian China, there are pockets of media activism and local village-level self-rule that may grow to be more widespread.
