China Blogs Influence Foreign Media

The always superb Rconversation blog just did a fascinating post on the influence of China blogs on foreign media (h/t to GZ Expat and to Asia Pundit), entitled, "Blogs and China correspondence - survey results."  Rconversation is written by Rebecca MacKinnon, who is currently a research Fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society and a co-founder of Global Voices Online, but in January 2007, will be moving to Hong Kong to become an Assistant Professor for New Media at Hong Kong University's Journalism and Media Studies Centre. 

This post is based on results from a survey Ms. McKinnon sent out last month to foreign correspondents who cover China "to try and get a sense of how - and whether - blogs are impacting their coverage of China."  The data collected is going to serve as the core of an academic paper on which Ms. MacKinnon is working and her post serves up "the key findings:"

1. 90% of the foreign correspondents follow blogs
2. Most find blogs useful for story ideas and information.  More useful than CCTV, CNN, BBC (radio & TV), overseas forums, BBS & chatrooms, or Chinese radio.
3. Most find blogs useful for spotting emerging China stories and as a source of China story ideas.
4. ESWN and Danwei are the most useful to the correspondents, by far. 
5. Most also follow Chinese language blogs.  These Chinese blogs were listed (in no particular order) as most useful: Academic criticism, Chen Danqing, Li Yinhe, Law Blog, Wang Yi, Cowblog, Tao Sixuan, Ministry of Finance blogs,  Wang Xiaofeng, Family of Chen Guangchen, Keso's tech blog, Lian Yue, Bingfeng Cafe,  Zhang Rui, ShiFeiKe,  Luo Yonghao, Michael Anti, Zeng Jinyan, Nina Wu, Massage Milk, Pro State in Flames, and Hong Huang.   

One respondent wrote on finding ESWN "so much more important than other blogs that it almost deserves a category by itself. No other blog comes as close to serving as a bridge between Mandarin and English media." One journalist wrote on finding "Danwei particularly useful because it follows Chinese media regulations very closely and links to original regulations."  No surprise to me regarding either blog.  ESWN is an amazing bridge to Chinese media and Danwei churns out and covers so many original stories on Chinese media, I think of it as a virtual mini news agency.  This very recent Danwei post is a great example of its original "reporting." 

I am honored to say that the majority of foreign correspondents regularly read China Law Blog, along with China Digital Times (is it a "a blog or simply an aggregator of China news from other sources?"), Global Voices Online's China section, Howard French's (NY Times) A Glimpse of the World, ImageThief, Jane McCartney's Sinofile (which does not seem to have been updated since September), and the Shanghaiist.

Wangjianshuo's blog was the most read of any English language blog written by a Chinese national.  Wangjianshuo's blog is subtitled "Events (in Shanghai) that affect my life (and others')" and it is a great way to stay up on Shanghai and an excellent source of information for getting aroundin China. 

Not exactly going out on a limb here, but I predict the media influence of we China bloggers will only continue to increase.