It’s rare to see China reporting that provides insight to both newbies and old China hands. But Washington Post’s Ed Cody does an excellent job today describing how information communication technologies enabled the local masses to oppose the construction of a chemical plant in Xiamen, China. (story link)
By promoting the construction of a giant chemical factory among the suburban palm trees, the local government was “setting off an atomic bomb in all of Xiamen,” the massive message sprays charged, predicting that the plant would cause “leukemia and deformed babies” among the 2 million-plus residents of this city on China’s southern rim, just opposite Taiwan.
The environmental activists behind the messages might have exaggerated the danger with their florid language, experts said. But their passionate opposition to the chemical plant generated an explosion of public anger that forced a halt in construction, pending further environmental impact studies by authorities in Beijing, and produced large demonstrations June 1 and 2, drawing national publicity.
Ed had all the elements of a top notch China story — lucidly describing the Internet and telecom technology; identifying key bloggers and activists; relating Xiamen’s local green pride; capturing the national-provincial government dynamics; dissecting local media practices; and not going overboard with tired old China cliches. (To be fair, Wall Street Journal’s Shai Oster had it back in May).
Xiamen really is a unique place — it has been known as China’s Green City for years, with the city’s university sporting palm trees and rolling green lawns. Gulangyu Island, a short ferry ride from the city center, is like the Newport or Martha’s Vineyard of China, with the former mansions of colonial-era European businessmen while now playing home to a budding musical arts scene. Citizens rose up not for Western notions of democracy, liberty or personal freedoms, but simply to protect their basic right to a healthy life.
Even with the state-approved media outlets muzzled, people found ways to mobilize, get their message heard, and take to the streets to demand a modicum of social justice. Beijing’s leaders realized this, and had no choice but to relent in what was clearly an inept handling of issues by the provincial leaders.
Read the article in full, and then indulge me on my soap box.
It’s stories like these that make me want to print out a thousand copies for citizen journalism naysayers such as Nicholas Lemann and Andrew Keen. These pundits continue to feed a tired, first world, elitist snubbing of anything dealing with empowering individuals positioned at the point of contact with issues of the day. What they don’t realize is that outside their cozy privileged corners of the world, tech-enabled citizens are on the front lines countering state-run propaganda, corruption and social injustice.
The logical flaw is in their confused belief that “paid professionals” are the only ones with “professional standards.”
Wide swaths of Wikipedia are overseen and edited by unpaid professionals, but hold bachelors, masters and Ph.D.s in the fields they are editing. Slashdot commenters, often tops in their respective fields, quickly dissect so-called professional science journalism done my mainstream media and converge on the truth value of these news stories, often to the embarrassment of the authors. In areas devastated by war and strife, bloggers in Iraq and Afghanistan are the only ones providing any on-the-ground reality check while newspapers and TV news try to get individual foreign correspondents (if they’re lucky) some type of access to these stories.
As for the paid professionals? Fox News is a “professional news organization” filled with paid “professionals” severely lacking professional standards. And in between the Paris Hilton watch, the Anna Nicole Smith vigil, the Missing White Girl of the Week, waiting To Catch a Predator and the hourly shoutfests, sometimes television news will attempt something approaching serious journalism. But that’s only after 11pm or on Sunday.
The United States has the most free press environment in the world, yet it is puzzling why so many who purport to embody its values so enthusiastically throttle the practice of it. It seems folks like Lemann feel the job of journalism is too important to leave to ordinary people.
Myself? It’s too important NOT to have ordinary people do it.