Using Participatory Open Media Code - 1570 Words

In August 2012ï ¼Å'a photo of a Chinese official visiting a car crash site was posted online by local media. It turned out to be a dead giveaway of this official’s corruption. People on the Internet found out a Rolex watch was wore by the official in the picture, which did not match his pay grade. This image went viral on the Internet overnight, it raised tremendous amount of pressure on the anti-corruption campaign, which was initiated by top authorities of Chinese government. After investigation stretched 12 months, this official was sentenced 10 years behind bars. This ex-official in China has been named â€Å"Brother Rolex† ever since, and this â€Å"Grass root tip-off† is the rising of global netizens in miniature. When the Internet moves†¦show more content†¦Who are the â€Å"Netizens†? What enables people to â€Å"fight the power†? How does information revolution empowers people? What’s the relationship underlying between tec hnology and the concept of civil society? These are the issues I wish to address in this article. â€Å"Man is by nature a social animal; an individual who is unsocial naturally and not accidentally is either beneath our notice or more than human. Society is something that precedes the individual. † ---Aristotle, Politics In terms of social media on the Internet, we started communication in the form of blogging or virtual communities like Friendster or Myspace. the internet provided a platform for people around the world to exchange information without the restriction of time and space. Social media extended our human abilities and body, which empowers people conduct thought provoking discussion, breakdown of barriers, and eventually led to the uprising of the Netizens. In Geert Lovink’s theory of internet culture, there are three phases: Firstly, the scientific and text-based period before the World Wide Web. Secondly, when the Internet opens to everybody and the Netizens rises. Thirdly, the post 9/11 period, when blogging, social media started to reshape the lands cape of politics, economy and our daily lives. The first generation of the Netizens can be identified during WTO protest in Seattle, 1999. Activists realized mainstream media is filtering information, they sought to