Are they really that bad? I don't think so. But then, there has to be a middle ground between blaming the individual and blaming the system. I think the only true course of action is acceptance of what is real and then making efforts to change what one feels to be inappropriate.

Andrew Lih doesn't think so, but he is raising interesting points about China's journalism in a post that I think could only be brought on by his musings and research into the online writing space in China. Technically, Lih is not talking about journalism, but he is talking about writing online in China. Same principles, I feel.
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I'm going to be just upfront and direct about this one.



Most of my friends are sick and tired of the pollution hitting Hong Kong. The financial firm Merrill Lynch apparently came out with a report that Hong Kong's business environment will soon suffer devastating damage because highly paid executives are fleeing the city.
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I am, dear reader, returned from shoddy Taipei, where I took the weekend to refresh, rejoin and recreate my persona and inner self workings. In short, I ate a lot and spent some free hours in a bar chatting with lovely Taiwanese people, so warm and honest.

But this morning I returned to Hong Kong. On my way up to my office, I took the lift. In walked a man with one of those earpieces that are linked through Bluetooth to a mobile device, usually worn around the neck.

Usually, I look at these things and think, "silly". But on the flight to Taipei I began to wonder if the people who wear these devices are actually aware that they are wearing them. Perhaps they wear them so often that, like wearing a pair of jeans, the skin becomes immune to sensing its presence.

I ask this because I sat behind a man on the airplane who kept his earbud on the entire flight on Friday. Why? He can't use the phone, lest the plane develops technical difficulties.

Is it the idea of just having something?

Let me tell you what happened at lunch yesterday.



I visited the Four Seasons Hotel in Central Hong Kong to listen to Robert Friedman, international editor at Fortune magazine, talk to a group of media professionals about online media and traditional news media. He was joined by his Asia editor Clay Chandler who talked about China and new media.

Then came a loose question-and-answer period. A man working for Intel, Ajay Mathur, told Chandler that it seemed possible that Fortune could one day be able to outsource 2,000 bloggers in Vietnam to do the research for his stories on Vietnam.

Chandler seemed to blanche noticeably at this suggestion. As a journalist, I can feel a little bit what Chandler must have been thinking. There is no way that anyone else, other than the journalist, can do the journalist's job in the narrow sense of collecting, reporting and writing the story.
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I was swerving through the Internet when I happened upon this lovely piece:

Google says that your mobile phone should be free, if you are willing to take in advertisements as a subsidy service.



I wholeheartedly agree. And I'll tell ya why:

1. Consumers do not pay for traditional advertising on linear and traditional media. This is changing as the Web space becomes more and more interactive. Consumers, advertisers, media buyers and planners are waking up to the idea that consumers just don't mind paying for advertising content.

2. Content is consumable. You will see more and more opportunities to consume advertising and to belong to the brand. Mobile phones provide the best way to do this in the forseeable future.

3. If you are mobile, you are usually passing by physical branding opportunities. You are walking by a mall, you get beamed with an ad for an Adidas shoes. Or, better yet, you want to belong in a Second Life kind of world where you are a part of Adidas. Believe me, if people pay out the arse for belonging to things like World of Warcraft or Dungeons and Dragons, or if they pay bucketloads to belong to medieval costume societies, tell me they won't pay Adidas money to belong to a mobile phone network that beams them personalized images of new shoes? Or invitations to basketball games simply because they are wearing the sneaks?

4. In the future, even controversy will be a branding opportunity. The more mistakes a brand makes, the easier it is to involve the public. You got 'em hooked with offenses to the Chinese. The Chinese are among the most tapped-in Internet users on earth. They love a challenge. It's all about pride. Pride is a brand.

 

rion
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