Thursday, September 16, 2010

Chinese bloggers encourage nationalism

The population’s lack of access to media globalization has enabled the Chinese government to maintain a strong sense of nationalism amongst its citizens, based on a shared history, strong political and educational institutions, and culture.

Due to the China’s state-controlled media and censorship of Internet content, media globalization has not affected China the same way it has affected other nations. Determining whether or not media globalization lessens or increases a population’s sense of nationalism is difficult to determine. Media globalization could possibly reaffirm people’s sense of nationalism due to the accentuation of differences found in the media; or, it could influence a heightened sense of cosmopolitanism by exposing people to pluralistic cultures.

Does China’s state controlled media promote a greater sense of nationalism in its citizens? It would be difficult to study this situation in China due to the government’s censorship of media and intimidation of uncooperative journalists (Council of Foreign Relations). One is left to assume that China’s sense of nationalism remains high due to the constant exposure of nationalistic narrative and symbols and limited access to global opinion and dialogue.

Many journalists in China adhere to self-censorship in order to avoid being hassled by the government (CFR). China sees the west’s various media portrayals of the Asian nation as false narratives and myths, and its communication infrastructure perpetuates a vision of nationalism.

Thomas L. Friedman’s column on Wednesday, “Power to the (Blogging) people,” speaks directly to the connection between media and ideas on nationalism.

“With an estimated 70 million bloggers, China’s leaders are under constant pressure now to be more assertive by a populist- and nationalist-leaning blogosphere, which, in the absence of democratic elections, is becoming the de facto voice of the people,” wrote Friedman.

Apparently the bloggers are encouraging a deep sense of nationalism, and holding their leaders accountable to any “pro-American” stance, which they deem unacceptable.

Friedman relates the story of the Chinese government exerting its power during a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Yang Jiechi, China’s foreign minister, claimed China’s control over the South China Sea ignoring the other nations present as well as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Friedman discussed the issue with a blogging expert in China, who said that the widespread sense of nationalism among Chinese bloggers is the result of their education:

“China for the first time has a public sphere to discuss everything affecting Chinese citizens,” explained Hu Yong, a blogosphere expert at Peking University. “Under traditional media, only elite people had a voice, but the Internet changed that.” He added, “We now have a transnational media. It is the whole society talking, so people from various regions of China can discuss now when something happens in a remote village — and the news spreads everywhere.” But this Internet world “is more populist and nationalistic,” he continued. “Many years of education that our enemies are trying to keep us down has produced a whole generation of young people whose thinking is like this, and they now have a whole Internet to express it.”

Despite the innovation of communication technology, China is able to censor and control the media, which perpetuates the strength of it national culture and identity.



CFR – Council on Foreign Relations “Media Censorship in China.” 27 May 2010
http://www.cfr.org/publication/11515/media_censorship_in_china.html#p6

New York Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/15/opinion/15friedman.html?_r=1&ref=opinion&nl=opinion&emc=tyb1

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