The logo looks like something CNN would cook up at the dawn of a new military campaign, but this time the computer-generated bullet holes are in the CNN logo itself.
"Will" at Imagethief noticed this banner on a special page devoted to resisting "Western" media coverage about Tibet and China in general.
The text, according to Will's translation, which is about as good as I can do as well, reads: "Rise up! Angrily resist the demonization of the Tibet affair! / Chinese netizens roast CNN and other Western media!"
Here's a good Global Voices post on the general anti-CNN movement, which actually is more generally an anti-foreign-media campaign.
On a related note, I have previously reported on the patriotic "Red Heart China" campaign sweeping the Chinese Internet.
Shanghaiist had perhaps the most visually compelling post on the "Red Heart" campaign. It shows an MSN list full of hearts and a Twitter feed utterly concerned with spreading the word about the pride effort.
All this national sentiment is perhaps not unexpected, and this serves in my mind mostly as an example of the potential effectiveness of online peer pressure. Individuals not especially concerned about recent events may just be going along with the campaign. It would be awkward to be the only person on your friends' buddy lists not displaying the heart.
Sina's imagery takes it a bit further, however. I think it would have been possible to get across the point that CNN's reports have not been always the best informed--a claim I can neither confirm nor deny as I haven't been watching--without seeming to encourage individuals to turn guns on the network.
The story of Grace Wang, told in her own words in The Washington Post, should serve as a cautionary tale.
When Creative Commons first surfaced, it was heralded as a means to share media without being ensnared by the complications accompanying traditional copyright.
With six different licenses available, media creators were provided the opportunity to dial in the exact rights they wanted. Or at least that was the plan.
In reality, this bevy of choices has led to significant confusion and as CNN reports, 16 year-old Alison Chang recently learned her picture is being used for a Virgin Mobile ad campaign in Australia. She didn't give her permission, and it appears that the ads exploit confusion around Creative Commons.
... Read more
For a while there, the fate of the Republican counterpart to last month's CNN-YouTube debates among Democratic presidential contenders was looking pretty bleak. But it appears that the event in St. Petersburg, Fla., will, indeed take place--albeit a few months later than planned.
CNN and YouTube on Monday issued a brief press release announcing that the candidates will be invited to take the Mahaffey Theatre's stage on November 28. As of Sunday night, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani had agreed to show up for the post-Thanksgiving event, but there was no immediate word on the others, a CNN spokeswoman said.
The date change is tied at least in part to earlier complaints from Giuliani and Mitt Romney, both considered leading candidates, who said they would not be able to make the original September 17 date because of fund-raising commitments. Four candidates--John McCain, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee and Tommy Thompson, who has since ended his run--had reportedly confirmed attendance at the earlier date.
The blogosphere may have also played a role in getting at least some candidates to rethink their attitude toward the debate. The specter of lackluster attendance ignited a grassroots campaign called "Save the Debate" among Republican bloggers, who continue to urge all of the candidates not to "write off the Internet" or the "youth vote."
"We sincerely hope you will reconsider any decision to snub the critical January 29th primary state of Florida and 51 million unique YouTube users," they said in an open letter to Romney, Sam Brownback, Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo. (The Democratic YouTube debate, which averaged 2.6 million viewers, was the second-most-watched debate of the campaign season, according to Nielsen Media Research.)
Romney, for one, has attracted attention--and, let's be honest, some outright mockery--for taking exception to the user-generated format, in part because it involved questions about global warming from an animated snowman (watch video below).
In
"I hope you can appreciate that no one is more qualified to ask a question about global warming than a concerned snow parent," he added in an impossibly high-pitched voice.
The BlogHer '07 conference met in Chicago last weekend, bringing together 800 women of the 13,000 members of this vibrant online community. If you didn't hear about it, it's because the national media didn't bother to report it.
Jennifer Pozner, founder of Women in Media & News (WIMN), writes a scathing analysis of this oversight on the Women's Media Center blog, reporting that "only three Chicago newspapers covered the conference, as if this national assemblage of women writers and videographers were simply a local story. Not one national network or cable news broadcast deigned to mention it."
... Read more
In a joint announcement on Thursday, YouTube and CNN unveiled their plans for co-sponsored Democratic and Republican presidential debates that aim to bring the standard televised events into the digital age of mashups, remixes and viral buzz. Not only will video content from the events (as well as other CNN debates) be made available for sharing and distribution online, but the debate questions themselves will come in the form of videos sent in by YouTube users.
(Video: YouTube's call for submissions)
In a dial-in press conference, representatives from both companies explained the new process and answered questions from reporters--on hand were Jon Klein, president of CNN U.S.; David Bohrman, CNN's senior vice president and Washington, D.C. bureau chief; Chad Hurley, YouTube's CEO and co-founder; and Steve Grove, YouTube's news and politics editor.
All four projected eager enthusiasm that this new debate format would bring a more democratic angle to the way campaign dialogue is conducted. "This is how debates would have been done since the beginning of time, had the technology been available," Klein extolled. "It's really powerful, and it really brings the country to the presidential candidates in a very visual and contextual way," added Grove.
... Read more
In a press call on Thursday morning, CNN and YouTube will unveil the details for the cable news channel's upcoming presidential debate coverage, claiming that the two are "teaming up to provide an unprecedented debate format offering voters a larger role than ever before in debate history."
The press event will feature Jon Klein, president of CNN U.S.; David Bohrman, CNN's senior vice president and Washington, D.C. bureau chief; Chad Hurley, YouTube's CEO and co-founder; and Steve Grove, YouTube's news and politics editor.
The traditional ownership format of televised presidential debate content, which allotted all rights to the network that broadcast the event, came under high-profile scrutiny this spring. A host of prominent politics and new-media figures co-signed a letter to the heads of the Democratic and Republican parties asking them to support changing that model to allow Internet users to share and "remix" the video online. Some networks responded by making content available on their Web sites, but this appears to be the first time that a news channel has partnered with a video-sharing site for this specific purpose.
Stay tuned for updates on CNN and YouTube's plan--the press event starts at 8:30 AM Pacific time.
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