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Microblogs linking public and lawmakers
Source: Xinhua |
January 29, 2010, Friday
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Print Edition
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FAN Jianchuan, 57, a developer in Sichuan Province, was busily updating his microblog postings in a grand conference hall.
He was sitting in the front row when a TV cameraman approached and asked him to pose so he could get a nice shot of attentive delegates to the annual meeting of the Sichuan's provincial committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a political advisory body to the local government.
"TV is no big deal. I'm also doing a live show," Fan said to himself as he did what the cameraman asked. The anecdote soon found its way into a posting on t.sina.com, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
Microblog postings on t.sina.com have a word limit of 140 Chinese characters or 280 Roman characters. If a reader is interested, they can receive automatic updates. Some of the microblog users, particularly public figures, register with their real names.
Chinese political advisers are becoming aware of the potential of microblogs in a country with 384 million Internet users. This year is Fan's eighth conference, but it is the first time he has used the microblog to share his experiences as a committee member. He has been writing on the conference since its opening on Sunday.
Fan, renowned for having 15 museums in China, including three built to remember the Sichuan earthquake that claimed at 68,000 lives in 2008, also updated his proposal to build a museum showcasing the architecture of Xi Kang, an area in west Sichuan, with pictures illustrating the charm of the buildings.
It immediately drew dozens of replies. "Without your microblog, I wouldn't even known there is such a beautiful place in my hometown," commented "figosoar".
Everyone could play the role of traditional media by microblogging, said Yu Guoming, a leading scholar on communication theory at Beijing's Remin University. Interacting on microblogs could be very helpful to politicians in building a rapport with the public, like US President Barack Obama did during his election, Yu said.
However, few officials in China have managed to achieve such a rapport. Postings by conference delegates have garnered a few hundred comments, a trivial number from China's vast amount of Internet users.
One of the closest attempts at building such a rapport was made by Wu Hao, deputy head of Yunnan Province's publicity department. His microblog, called Microblog of Yunnan on t.sina.com, attracted more than 60,000 fans in just one month. As the voice of Wu, a top provincial spokesman, the microblog is seen by many as an official source of government information. The microblog also drew extensive media attention, some of which even reported it as the first government microblog.
"The microblog was under so much attention that I could not speak my mind," Wu said after he closed Microblog of Yunnan on January 1. "Many Netizens, even some of my colleagues believe I opened the microblog for fame and to gain advantage in my career as a politician. It was under such pressure that I closed the microblog."
The closure of Wu's blog showed most people still did not trust officials to be completely honest and transparent. For an official it was difficult, if not impossible, to speak without political motives, said Kang Guoping, content director of Blog China (bokee.com) and a leading writer of online editorials.
He was sitting in the front row when a TV cameraman approached and asked him to pose so he could get a nice shot of attentive delegates to the annual meeting of the Sichuan's provincial committee of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a political advisory body to the local government.
"TV is no big deal. I'm also doing a live show," Fan said to himself as he did what the cameraman asked. The anecdote soon found its way into a posting on t.sina.com, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter.
Microblog postings on t.sina.com have a word limit of 140 Chinese characters or 280 Roman characters. If a reader is interested, they can receive automatic updates. Some of the microblog users, particularly public figures, register with their real names.
Chinese political advisers are becoming aware of the potential of microblogs in a country with 384 million Internet users. This year is Fan's eighth conference, but it is the first time he has used the microblog to share his experiences as a committee member. He has been writing on the conference since its opening on Sunday.
Fan, renowned for having 15 museums in China, including three built to remember the Sichuan earthquake that claimed at 68,000 lives in 2008, also updated his proposal to build a museum showcasing the architecture of Xi Kang, an area in west Sichuan, with pictures illustrating the charm of the buildings.
It immediately drew dozens of replies. "Without your microblog, I wouldn't even known there is such a beautiful place in my hometown," commented "figosoar".
Everyone could play the role of traditional media by microblogging, said Yu Guoming, a leading scholar on communication theory at Beijing's Remin University. Interacting on microblogs could be very helpful to politicians in building a rapport with the public, like US President Barack Obama did during his election, Yu said.
However, few officials in China have managed to achieve such a rapport. Postings by conference delegates have garnered a few hundred comments, a trivial number from China's vast amount of Internet users.
One of the closest attempts at building such a rapport was made by Wu Hao, deputy head of Yunnan Province's publicity department. His microblog, called Microblog of Yunnan on t.sina.com, attracted more than 60,000 fans in just one month. As the voice of Wu, a top provincial spokesman, the microblog is seen by many as an official source of government information. The microblog also drew extensive media attention, some of which even reported it as the first government microblog.
"The microblog was under so much attention that I could not speak my mind," Wu said after he closed Microblog of Yunnan on January 1. "Many Netizens, even some of my colleagues believe I opened the microblog for fame and to gain advantage in my career as a politician. It was under such pressure that I closed the microblog."
The closure of Wu's blog showed most people still did not trust officials to be completely honest and transparent. For an official it was difficult, if not impossible, to speak without political motives, said Kang Guoping, content director of Blog China (bokee.com) and a leading writer of online editorials.
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