Based on the week 1 reading of the article: 'Censors come calling', the topic explores censorship in media, particularly the internet. Here I will discuss China's censorship of the Internet and how/not effective it is to the nation.
China's 'Great Firewall' has prevented the population from accessing a wide load of information that the Chinese Government does not want exposed. Most of the country doesn't own a computer or have net access. They also know what the government will plan to do. For the the most part, people in China fear the government.
You don't need google or yahoo to tell you your government is corrupt. But the Chinese people are largely sheep, largely poor and the country is on the upswing. You don't usually see people flip out unless the economy takes a dump and unemployment jumps, like the USSR. Money/economy cures a lot of ills, even if it's slow to spread outside the Chinese cities.
In my opinion, Chinese people know all about the human rights abuses, they LIVE it, and they’re in the middle of it (Especially in the season prior to Beijing Olympics regarding Tibet's protests). I can see a Chinese guy hoping on the internet “Holy ***** we’re being abused!”. It’s not a news flash to them. A friend of mine who went back to China to visit family said he was walking down the street, he saw someone running from the police, and they shot the guy in the back of the head. And he said no one really freaked out. The govt/police are corrupt/heavy handed and that’s not a news flash to them. They're used to it.
That said, many net users are spoon fed the news regardless of the country they live in; I know that isn't the case for a lot of people (here and elsewhere) who do dig deeper.
China isn't the horrible place people make it out to be. No country is perfect; some are far better. Still, you've got to live in the place to judge it properly.
You don't need google or yahoo to tell you your government is corrupt. But the Chinese people are largely sheep, largely poor and the country is on the upswing. You don't usually see people flip out unless the economy takes a dump and unemployment jumps, like the USSR. Money/economy cures a lot of ills, even if it's slow to spread outside the Chinese cities.
In my opinion, Chinese people know all about the human rights abuses, they LIVE it, and they’re in the middle of it (Especially in the season prior to Beijing Olympics regarding Tibet's protests). I can see a Chinese guy hoping on the internet “Holy ***** we’re being abused!”. It’s not a news flash to them. A friend of mine who went back to China to visit family said he was walking down the street, he saw someone running from the police, and they shot the guy in the back of the head. And he said no one really freaked out. The govt/police are corrupt/heavy handed and that’s not a news flash to them. They're used to it.
I suppose the Great Firewall is enough of a nuisance to keep the average Internet user from digging too deep into something, but at the same time unless the net is physically cut off from the rest of the world the info will get through. If you are living in China, I think that anything that is available is accessible, if you are looking for it.
That said, many net users are spoon fed the news regardless of the country they live in; I know that isn't the case for a lot of people (here and elsewhere) who do dig deeper.
China isn't the horrible place people make it out to be. No country is perfect; some are far better. Still, you've got to live in the place to judge it properly.
3 comments:
welcome to the blog world kind sir!
Why thank you! I can see your blog is running very nicely!
So do you have any sources for this, or is this just your opinions?
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