China Blocks YouTube and Google remains Ambitious

China Blocks YouTube and Google remains Ambitious
Internet giant Google announced in late March that YouTube was blocked in China, the New York Times reported on March 24. According to the Xinhua news agency, a fabricated video depicting Tibetan being brutally beat by Chinese police after riots in the Tibetan Capital, Lhasa last year made by supporters of the Dalai Lama was to blame.
While China routinely blocks individual videos on YouTube, it is not common for the entire site to be disabled. It is speculated that the blocking of YouTube is in conjunction with China’s effort to heighten its Internet Censorship in recent months. The site also hosts videos about the Tienanmen Square protests and many other subjects that Chinese authorities find objectionable.
Despite this block, it is interesting to note that Google, just a few days later, on March 30, announced that it had begun to offer in China links to free music downloads, a service it does not offer anywhere else in the world. China is one of the few markets where Google is behind. A blockade of its video-sharing site will not deter the internet giant from market expansion in China.
China can do what it wants. The point is: it is too great an internet market. Profit/China wins.
Rachel Clement (China)

Italians Celebrate Obama Victory

Amid the media blitz regarding Italian prime minister Berlusconi, the Italian public along with Americans celebrate the victory of Barack Obama in the presidential race. It is very interesting to me that in a country that has an extraordinarily corrupt political system that our goverment would get such publicity. I understand that America is seen as a world power and despite recent years is still highly respected. After living in Italy for 5 months I have come to realize that Italians look to the American democratic system in hope. In the recent years under the umbrella of Berlusconi, Italians have had a grim view of democracy. Obama, in the eyes of the Italians, offers as much hope for change for Americans as he does for them. Although it is clear in this video that the American people living in Italy, in this case Rome, are leading this celebration it is also very obvious that the Italians are just as much involved. The parade of people are moving down a very highly populated area in Rome and this just proves that Obama is accepted as a figure head, already, in this country.

Tricia Mastuzo

Italian Politics and TV

As we near the 2008 presidential election in America we are constantly inundated with updates, commercials and media blasts regarding our candidates. It occurs every four years that we experience the overwhelming task of deciphering the good, the bad and the ugly. However, this is not the case in other countries, especially Italy. In Italy, it is a regular occurrence for politicians to maintain a steady position in the media no matter what time of the year. Attendance on talk shows and newscasts is common and expected. The big difference is that the political oppositions rarely, if ever, appear together to debate with one another. Thus, the viewing public get a skewed version of the truth. The politicians are never countered or attacked by an opposing view and they can avoid questions about topics that would be embarrassing or incriminating. This type of non-confrontational approach to politics would never hold up in the U.S. Our media systems are reliant on the truth and being able to question what has been said or done. This video explains just how different the way politics is played out in American and Italian media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n6wxVZ4G40

Psuedo Event- Rwanda Group

Heath Ledger's death was used as a publicity stunt to promote the movie Dark Knight in which he was starring. Other actors in the movie were also under speculation of being 'cursed' by movie critics saying this was brought on by the film.

www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,24130717-5001021,00.html

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHZ4lsaNdJQ

WELCOME TO THE MEDIA MONITORING BLOG

Welcome to the Media Monitoring Blog of media systems around the world. This is an effort by the students of mass media to contribute to the understanding of national media systems. This semester we will be focusing on eight countries:

• Burma
• China
• Croatia
• Iran
• Italy
• Mexico
• Thailand
• Russia

Every week, students who are responsible for each of the countries would post a commentary, analysis, observation, historical fact, quote, video clip, newspaper article, etc concerning the media system on this blog. Most postings would likely to be inspired or prompted by something that has happened, is happening or likely to happen in that particular country.

As we know, a media system consists of many elements and is constantly being influenced by many factors including:

• The Cultural Characteristics (culture, religion, political heritage, etc) of the country
• The Media Philosophies of the country
• Media Law and Regulations in that country
• The various ways of Financing of media and the Ownership of the media
• The issue of Accessibility (related to Distribution) of the media
• News Reporting and Journalistic Norms of the country
• The Import and Export of the Media (related to Diversity of the Media)
• The Audience or the local consumer
• The Media Content itself (print, broadcast, Internet, new media, etc)
• World events, other national media systems, etc

Therefore, we can expect the Media Monitoring Blog to be a holistic and multi-faceted exercise in order to present a clearer picture of the particular media system.

How to navigate the Media Monitoring Blog:
Each posting will be labelled and these labels work as keywords for the reader to search through the blog. You would likely find the following keywords on the sidebar of this Blog:

Italy, Iran, Thailand, China, Russia, Mexico, Burma, Croatia, etc

Media Content, Laws, Population, Culture, Language, Banned, Hugo Chavez, Audience, Radio, Television, Internet, telenovela, Film, Blog,YouTube

Therefore, a reader looking for something related to Youtube being banned in Thailand would look for keywords (located on the siderbar of this Blog) such as:

"Thailand"
"Internet"
"YouTube"

and click on one of these keywords to find the relevant link.

Have fun reading and blogging!

Ming Kuok, LIM
Course Instructor