Nicholas Kristof did a great piece in yesterday’s NYT on blogging in China and its impact — death by a thousand blogs — on the government. But what’s particularly impressive is the multimedia package he’s put together for the piece. Check out the link on the left hand side of the page. It includes websites, audio commentary, some great photos and some footage. Nice work. (Thanks, Byron)
aaargh! not that I don’t admire Kristof and the many interesting stories he’s filed from China. It’s just that, many years on, we’re still hearing the same “the Internet will free the world” sort of tech determinism that characterized the early 90s.
I admit to being a totally biased party, having staked my intellectual reputation on articulating not the opposite view, but a more complex vision of how the Internet will alter China and other authoritarian political systems. Yes, blogs – and other aspects of the Internet – are significantly changing China. But to sum it up as “death by a thousand blogs” is not only simplistic, it’s outdated. Don’t take my word for it. Check out the Berkeley China Internet Project or the conference proceedings from the recent Third Annual China Internet Conference at the University of Michigan for a lot of interesting detail.
Okay, rant over. Meanwhile, I remain a dedicated Loose Wire fan 😉