Media and Democracy

Media and Democracy  

TseYan Tung , Josie

In the book Understanding Media (1964) and The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962), McLuhan introduced the idea of electronic media. He argues that electronic interdependece will force humankind to be more involved with others countries and exchange of cultures  will take place. He called this new collective organizations as “Global village”.

McLuhan’s prediction is totally describing the era we are now living in. Web 2.0, collective intelligence and social networking enable information exchange in anywhere and at anytime. With the help of technology, new media flow freely without border. Under such assumption, the culture of one country will affect the others. For example, democracy.  In this article, I would like to discuss about do media and technology help democartic development.

Ai Weiwei, a Chinese artist, photographer and architect became one of the runners up in the Time's Person of the Year award in 2011. He become famous about his political criticism towards Chinese government.

His political criticism embedded in his art performance. He criticized about government corruption and cover ups of the casualty of Sichuan earthquake in 2008 by the installation “She lived happily on this earth for seven years”. He used 8738 school bags in different colors to form 15 chinese characters which means she lived happily on this earth for seven years. This is the sentence from one of the mother of the died kid. He express his sorrow to the children and anger towards government in the work.

Beside installation, photography and sculpture, he uses the power of social networking to express his political stance. From 2005, Ai WeiWei started to write blog and post in Twitter. He believed that internet release people media control. He want to show the world what China is really doing in the country and encourage Chinese to fight for their freedom.

In China,It is not possible for people to criticize the government in public. Ai WeiWei’s open criticism towards government on internet draw huge attention in China and even the world. The speech and art work of Ai WeiWei shared in Twitter and Facebook by people, his work encouraged people to express thier opinons. In 3 April 2011, the Chinese government arrested Ai WeiWei under investigation for alleged economic crimes. However, the public believed that the arrestment is about his high profile criticism toward government. There are supporters from all over the world during his arrestment. People use their own way to support Ai WeiWei and call for release him from the prison.

Supporter from Taiwan write the name of Ai WeiWei in the freedom square by red chairs

Ai WeiWei like to express freedom by naked in photography, his supports do the same way

 

Supporters form Hong Kong paint his face on the street

The painting, photography and installation are the evidents of Ai WeiWei’s influence. He encouraged the people, especially the Chinese to fight for the freedom. He didn’t call for a protest but he changes the society, part of the society indeed by bringing new media. His naked photography shocked the conservative Chinese, his criticism toward government challenged the power of central government. However, the Chinese government is still very powerful to control the media and oppress any protest. Ai WeiWei’s work does not have much influence to the political system. Instead, he influenced the way of thinking of people, and human power is the most important part of any cultral changes. There are still long way to go for China’s democratic development, but if there are more people interested in politics and  aware of their own freedom and right, there is still hope for democracy in China, I believe.