China Media Centre 2012 Autumn Seminar
CAN WEIBO CHANGE CHINA?
Weibo and Ideal Communication Situation in China
Speaker: Professor Junchao Wang
Chair: Professor Hugo de Burgh
Date: Wednesday 14th November 2012
Time: 2pm-4pm
Venue: A7.1
OPEN TO ALL
“To be or not to be, that is the question.” But to the Chinese Micro-blogging site Weibo, Hamlet’s famous soliloquy is not a question; the question is whether or not Weibo will able to change China. The speaker will discuss the following four aspects:
1) Can Weibo be considered a Habermasian ‘public sphere’ in China?
2) Will the ‘Weibo community expert committee’ completely replace official instructions?
3) Will Weibo turn into a free market for public opinions by gradually eliminating or diminishing online rumors?
4) Can Weibo eliminate ‘systematically distorted communication’ so as to realize the ‘ideal communication situation’?
Professor Junchao Wang, Tsinghua University. Dr Wang obtained his Ph.D. from the J-School of Renmin University in 2000. He joined the School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University in 2002 from his previous post as a Senior Editor for the Overseas Edition of People’s Daily, where he had worked for eight years. He was Faculty Visiting Researcher at Georgetown University in 2007 and Visiting Reseacher at Goldsmith and Oxford Internet Institute in 2012. His Chinese publications include Media Criticism: Origins, Criteria and Methods (2001, Beijing Broadcasting Institute Press), Third Eye on Mass Media (2009, Tsinghua University Press), New Perspectives on the Communication Strategies of the CCP Newspapers (2009, Tsinghua University Press, Author of the first Volume in the series), 25 Lectures on Mass Media (co-edited, 2004, Tsinghua University Press). He has published more than 40 papers in Chinese on micro blogging and expression, media criticism, media and society, and journalism studies.
Dr. Wang is a media critic with ten years’ experience in media criticism teaching and practice. He has served as media adviser for the China Business Times since 2002, CCTV-Focus On Program in 2004. He has also been involved in two national social science projects on the development of Chinese news commentary and communication strategies of CCP newspapers respectively. He is now the principal investigator (PI) of “The Freedom of Expression and Ideal Communication Situation of Micro blogging” which is supported by The Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of the Ministry of Education. He founded and acted as the former editor-in-chief of the first media criticism website in Mainland China in 2007.He has been the Deputy Director of Tsinghua University News Centre during July 2010-June 2012 and simultaneously the joint Chief Editor of the official news website of Tsinghua University, which is of great help to his new media criticism research.
More about China Media Centre and seminars see http://chinamediacentre.org. If you have any queries about CMC events, please contact Hong Li at hong.li@my.westminster.ac.uk