Abstract
Most working journalists can cite examples of how commercial news organizations have avoided certain stories in order to avoid offending advertisers or key audiences - or how they often focus on "sensational" news at the expense of comprehensive reporting on many other issues important to citizens - because those stories aren't so "sexy" and won't bring as large a circulation or viewer ratings. The emergence of "grassroots media," "citizen media," or "user generated content" - as they are variously called - is one solution to greater media diversity. Their spread is facilitated by Creative Commons licenses, alongside a generally "free" approach to content sharing by creators. In many countries around Asia, citizen media in the form of blogs, YouTube channels and Flickr pages, have amplified issues, events, and viewpoints that may not otherwise have gotten much attention, and in many countries citizen media have had substantial political impact. But we are now encountering a new problem: most citizen media is created and shared on commercial "web2.0" platforms whose owners are under growing pressure from governments around the world to censor the user-generated content hosted on their websites in exchange for not being blocked by domestic ISP's. While the most extreme example is China, this is a trend in many other countries around Asia and beyond. There are also concerns about the aggressive use of copyright and obscenity laws to place a chilling effect on political speech, with recent examples emerging in Hong Kong.
Strong and vibrant free culture communities may be the best answer to create, maintain, and defend spaces for free expression, diversity of information, and alternative viewpoints. Now the question is: what are the best strategies for nurturing the growth of free culture spaces and ensuring their long-term survival?
Media
Speaker
Rebecca MacKinnon
Assistant Professor
Journalism & Media Studies Ctr.
University of Hong Kong
Rebecca MacKinnon is a veteran journalist, China hand, and online media pioneer. In January 2007 she joined the University of Hong Kong's University’s Journalism and Media Studies Center, where she teaches "new media," and conducts research on the Chinese Internet, free expression and corporate responsibility. She also serves as Public Lead for the Creative Commons Hong Kong project, in collaboration with Yahong Li and Alice Lee at the University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Law.
Before coming to Hong Kong MacKinnon was a Research Fellow at Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, where she co-founded Global Voices (GlobalVoicesOnline.org), a global citizens’ media network.
Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, MacKinnon worked for CNN in Northeast Asia for over a decade, serving as CNN’s Beijing Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 1998-2001 and as CNN’s Tokyo Bureau Chief and Correspondent from 2001-03. She has also covered major news events in North and South Korea, Pakistan, and the Philippines.
MacKinnon writes and speaks frequently on: the future of journalism in the Internet age, the Internet and censorship in China, and issues of free expression and corporate responsibility.
