Organizer and Chair: Richard Baum, University of California, Los Angeles
Discussants: Donald C. Clarke, George Washington University; Ilaria Maria Sala,
Foreign Correspondents’ Club; Roland Soong, Kantar Media Research; David
Bandurski, University of Hong Kong; Orville Schell, University of California,
Berkeley
Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has spawned a number
of dedicated online discussion forums devoted to the observation and analysis
of contemporary China. In addition to facilitating the timely flow of information
among academics, journalists, policy-analysts, and other professionals, online
special interest groups such as Chinapol, Chinalaw, China Media Project, and
China Digital Times, along with Weblogs such as Danwei and EastSouthNorthWest,
have formed vigorous virtual communities-- multinational, multidisciplinary,
and multiprofessional networks--linking together hundreds of China specialists
and opinion leaders worldwide on a regular, ongoing basis. As these groups
have grown in size as well as in frequency of communication and intensity of
interactions, they have played an increasingly important role in framing the
public's understanding of recent developments and current events in China,
helping to set the "terms
of engagement" for public policy discussions and debates about Chinese
politics, economics, law, and society. Notwithstanding their growing importance,
these new electronic forums have been ignored by peak professional associations
such as AAS. This proposed roundtable will bring together the principal list
owners and administrators from six of the most prominent China-oriented listservs,
special interest forums, and Weblogs for the purpose of assessing the role of
the Internet in the study of contemporary China. Panelists will be drawn from
the following organizations: Chinapol, China Digital Times, Chinalaw, China
Media Project, Pangolinpol, and EastSouthWestNorth. Among other issues, panelists
will examine: the role of Internet forums in policy advocacy; the amplification,
convection, and distortion effects of electronic information networks; the effects
and implications of the "Great Firewall of China"; problems of online
security, confidentiality and civility; and the putative "Heisenberg effect" exerted
by special interest Internet forums.
|
