papper #2 part 3 blog analysis

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/pomfretschina/2009/01/10_million_have_lost_jobs_in_c.html#comments


I would like to analyze a blog which names Pomfret’s China. This blog is under Washington Post website. The whole blog is writing about Chinese politics, economics, cultures… almost everything of China. The author, Pomfret, went to China in 1980 first time, then in 1988 and 1989 he was there covering the student-led protests in Tiananmen Square (this issue is complicated). After that he returned to China in 1998 and bought a house in Beijing as a place for accommodation. At that time he decided to open this blog to introduce China to the western. Most of article he wrote was about politic of China, the latest one is “A New U.S. Policy for China?” which was updated at January 13, 2009 (seems like he has not updated his blog for a long time).

The purpose that he opened this blog, I think, is to introduce a “real” China to the western. I believe before he first came to China he had read many news and articles about this country, but when he arrived at China, what he saw was different from what these western news and articles describe, and he understood that there was misunderstanding between this oriental country and the westerns, and he needed to be the man who stood out that tell people the truth.

The audiences basically are from the entire world (how I know? Check the names in comments, some of names are “weird”, so seems from Asia or South America or…). There are many reasons that people would like to read this blog: some of them may be students majoring Asian politics in colleges and they need citation of others opinion of China from the Internet for his or her research; others may care some hot topic of China like whether pollution happens in Beijing during 2008 Olympic games (the weather was good during that time). Also, there are a small group of Chinese student, like me, want to know how western think of China.

The mode of this text is definitely the blog mode, that is some websites provides spaces for people, let them post whatever they want to write on the Internet; the blog owner can set up if the blog is open to public; other people who have authority can go over the blog and make comment for each article. Currently most of website offers many accessories like able to add picture or music to make more fun of blog. On the Pomfret’s blog the background is blue without music and pictures. The owner is not editing it as a beautiful or cool one because the topic of articles is serious. However, there are too many advertisements on it which is not what the owner like, I think.

About the ethos of this blog, I think Pornfret’s article is unbiased, he is not criticizing or complimenting China; he just gives truth that what China is doing which may affect other countries, and questions that he thinks people should pay attention. Just like what he wrote in his blog:” China is an amazing place; there are many stories to tell. I hope we can tell them together”.