Debate: Micro blogs

Fan Yijin

Online info channel good as it is

Weibo have their pros and cons. Some people argue that the widespread use of micro blogs has made it easier for people to spread rumors and false news, and the social information-sharing platform is predestined for closure.

In this age of new media, tons of messages flow in and out from all directions, and it is almost mission impossible to fully check the flow even if they are rumors.

Despite the spread of rumors and false news, micro blogs have a self-correction ability and prompt rumor-rebuttal mechanism. For instance, an unconfirmed message about the death of Louis Cha Leung Yung, a renowned Hong Kong-based martial arts novelist, once created a sensation online. Half an hour later, a journalist from Hong Kong posted on a micro blog that Louis Cha Leung Yung (or Jin Yong) attended an award ceremony at a local university just a day before and said that the hospital mentioned in the message did not even exist.

Later, a friend of Jin Yong confirmed that he was in good health. The false news survived less than one hour. But the fact that it was posted on a micro blog shows information flows unchecked via the information-sharing platform, although a "self-correction" mechanism rebuts false news instantly.

One may wonder how this self-correction mechanism functions. Micro blogs are an emerging social information-sharing platform, where every user enjoys equal rights of speech and contributes his/her points of views, regardless of his/her social status.

The interplay of personal viewpoints and other diversified ideas in micro blogs has played down the so-called spiral of silence effect, which makes a person less likely to express an opinion if he/she feels being in the minority, and thus enriches opinions. During this process, truth and falsity intermix at some point, even though truth triumphs through free discussions and falsity dies a natural death.

Through a highly efficient broadcast medium such as micro blogs, the impact of rumors and false news is amplified, but so is the power of truth. As part of the Internet, weibo is a giant storehouse of information and records most posts, including short-lived falsities, and thus provides reference points for all the true-or-false debates that take place.

More importantly, Chinese netizens have the tradition of questioning the questionable, and this tradition is very much evident on weibo, which also has a large number of professional journalists relentlessly advancing the campaign against falsity and bringing home the truth.

Like other types of new media, micro blogs have advantages as well as disadvantages. But it would be irrational to overstate their disadvantages and demand that they be shut down. The emergence of the Internet once stirred fear among many, who advocated suppressing its further development. If that had happened, domestic Internet portals like Tencent and Sina would not have risen to the world stage and competed with their overseas counterparts.

Tracing the development of micro blogs, one can easily find that they have played an important role in upholding justice, bridging the public and the administration gap, and thus advancing social democracy. For instance, to protect their vested interests, some local governments and institutions spread rumors and false information to keep the truth from the public. But micro blogs make it easier to debunk such false claims.

To improve the self-correction mechanism, micro-bloggers should have a more discerning mind and the constant participation of opinion leaders should be encouraged.

Administrative support is equally important, because most authoritative sources are in the administrations' hands. The administrative sector should understand that an information freeway and tolerance for diversified opinions can effectively curb the spread of rumors, and official information will be more convincing if it is available timely and freely through micro blogs.

Micro-blogging, no doubt, needs guidelines. But that is different from strict control. Rather, the administrations should create a favorable condition to spread media literacy. Only by conforming to the rules of communications and new media, ensuring free flow of information and maintaining a reciprocal relationship with the media can the government better manage information flow and maintain social stability.

The author is professor at and director of School of Journalism and Communication, Jinan University.