Train accident ignited microblogging in China
Minutes after two trains collided in the city of Wenzhou in the Zhejiang province on July 23rd, the Chinese websites became abuzz
The high-speed train collision widely covered in international media, has highlighted the enormous potential of microblogging as an alternative information source to the sometimes limited official news services in China.
At first, the short messages sent out via the internet and smartphones contained simple pieces of information on the death-toll of 40 and the 192 injured. This soon exploded into massive protests criticising the government’s handling of the incident and questions about responsibility and safety.
What started as a piece of local news rapidly became a national issue with in-depth investigations by private print media raising issues of corruption and weak construction work on the Chinese railroads.
The authorities in Beijing responded by lowering the speeds of the high-speed trains while initiating an investigation of the safety issues surrounding the collision.
“Weiboing” instead of “Tweeting”
Microblogging in China happens via local alternatives to Twitter and Facebook. These were both blocked in July 2009 as a consequence of unrest in Urumqi, the capital of the northwestern Xinjiang province.
The largest local social networking service with over 140 million users is Sina Weibo, founded in August 2009. With Weibo “tweeting” has become known as “weiboing”.
Although services such as Weibo are required to censor content on their websites, the sheer amount of postings following the train collision made it practically impossible.
Within a week of the accident, more than ten million messages had been sent and re-shared. Censoring them would have risked angering the millions of Chinese netizens who were already outraged by the accident itself.
For the past several years IMS has been working in China to advance professional investigative reporting by collaborating with universities on developing curricula for journalism students improving their skills for navigating the rapidly changing Chinese media environment.
The challenges for China’s dynamic media environment, including online services such as Weibo are highlighted with tragic events like the train collision in Wenzhou. Such events require the media to balance the issues of censorship and information reliability with the ability to provide a platform for the millions of Chinese who wish to voice their opinions.
