In my ‘New Media, New Asia’ class, we have been discussing how new media shapes events and practices in Asia and are about to write a 2500 word essay on a topic of our choice. (Never have I had to write an essay of this length. Even in all my English and Literature classes during high school, 1500 has always been the maximum word limit. Let’s see how I go with something nearly double the size)
Anyway…
I have chosen to discuss the government’s online censorships in China. The idea is that, even though the government is not always watching over people’s shoulders, it is the thought of it that that brings people to censoring themselves. Not knowing when or how much the government is following, people have habitually become more minded and guarded with what they post online (whether it be bad-mouthing the government or saying something against one of the country’s policies).

One example is from 2011 when a train derailed in the Chinese city of Wenzhou, causing harm to many people and the death of others, witnesses took photos and videos to share online through various forms of social media. When the sharing got out of hand, the government began censoring all the images and posts in order to keep their reputation of being a “perfect” power.
People expressed their anger about this through, what else, but social media. They demanded to have unfettered news and for the Communist party to stop with their propaganda.

This is only one example of how new media shapes different events. I am still in the researching stage of this essay so will return with more when I can. 🙂