Yet, others within the industry insist new technology does not have to be the death knell to traditional practices. Among them is Visot at Hachette Filipacchi who said print and digital media should complement each other, not be in competition.
“China has a long history of printing,” he said. “Except maybe in some parts of the market, I don’t believe China will give up on print publications.”
Although Wu, the Caixin Media chief, also sees new media as an opportunity for editors to share their magazines’ stories and pictures with different channels, he warned the real challenge will come with the integration.
The mindsets and skills of those in the print and digital media are different, she said,so executives will need to explore effective ways to build teams that not only produce firstclass content but also capable of presenting it to readers through various multi-media platforms.
In that sense, as long as the stories are of high quality, new media will have little impact other than to boost the channels available.
“It’s the same with traditional industrial products,” said Li Shuanke, publisher and editor-in-chief of Chinese National Geography. “With leading technologies, companies are not afraid of copycats because they’ve already walked the frontier and dug out the largest chunks of gold, leaving only a few nuggets for those following behind.”
Optimistic or pessimistic, publishers are now looking into how to integrate their print and new media divisions.
Century Weekly has introduced an iPhone application and is now adapting it for the iPad.
Sanlian Lifeweek will unveil its profit model in the fourth quarter, according to chief editor Zhu Wei, who added that the magazine is also designing a special onlinecommunity for high-end readers.
“The print media will be polarized in the future and the high-end media organizations that survive the crisis will diversify their communication approaches,” said Zhu.
Revenue streams could be a problem. As the Internet is seen as a free resource,netizens have high demands of those companies that attempt to charge for news services.
Research shows, however, that online advertising and mobile Internet charges are feasible,according to a study by Caixin Media.
“Traditional media will always face challenges, with new media forever standing up to confront old ones,” said Li Hongping at Vista. “But the life and death of a media depends on whether it grasps the opportunity to develop at the turning point.
“Dramatic changes might happen right there,” he added.
September 1,2010
Human flesh search could turn predatory
The power of ‘crowd sourcing’ can spiral out of control.
Web experts tell He Na in Beijing.
There is a popular saying among Chinese netizens that goes: If you love someone, usea human flesh search to put them to the test. If you hate them, use a human flesh search to put them in hell.
For the vast number of Internet users, the human flesh search - a literal translation of renrou sousuo - has become an effective tool in exposing corruption, infidelity and injustice.
Yet for every cheating husband or official who has been laid bare by the technique,media experts warn there is an innocent victim, with many people now using human flesh searches to attack celebrities, as well as get revenge on rivals and ex-lovers.
“Human flesh searches are turning into online lynch mobs,” said Yu Hai, a sociology professor at Fudan University in Shanghai.
A human flesh search is effectively the same as what is known in the West as “crowd sourcing”: Thousands of individual netizens piece together every detail of a person’s life and then publish them online.
Unlike Google and Baidu, though, the power of this search engine is limitless - and has the potential to destroy lives, say analysts.
“There is no doubt that human flesh searches can have positive effects on supervising authorities. It has exposed dozens of corrupt officials and love cheats,” said Zhou Qingshan, deputy director of Peking University’s Institute of information. “But it is open to abuse and innocent people are seeing their private lives laid bare to the public in the name of revenge.
“At the moment, the issue is a mess and we need fresh legislation to protect personal data as soon as possible.”
Searches are often triggered by media reports, photographs and videos posted either on popular blogs or online news websites, and often center on cases of injustice or reckless behavior. The fundamental problem, however, comes when the information in a story is false.
Yan Deli, a 31-year-old from Hebei province, saw her life turn upside down in June 2009 when her ex-boyfriend uploaded naked pictures of her, claiming she was an AIDSinfected prostitute. The post also included the phone numbers of 200 “clients” she had allegedly slept with.
After attracting the attention of thousands of netizens (the post was forwarded via most of China’s social networking websites), it was not long before her full name, age,address and telephone number were made available on the Web. Even her family’s details were exposed.
Yan lost her job and was afraid to leave her home. Her phone was also bombarded with abusive messages and even death threats.
By the time the police revealed the post was a hoax in October 2009, investigators had found 157,000 Web pages, 6,420 online reports and 735 video clips about the “AIDSprostitute”.
The victim underwent several blood tests - the results of which were released to the media - to prove she was free of AIDS. Her ex-lover, 32-year-old Yang Yongmeng, was sentenced to three years in prison in April 2009 after being found guilty of slander.
“I couldn’t eat anything when I heard about this,” said Yan Baoqi, 62, the victim’s stepfather, who was also accused in the posts of raping Yan Deli when she was 15 years old.
“I still find it very difficult to leave the house, even now.”