Evan Osnos writes of an experience where Chinese Twitter users in Beijing identified him “gnawing on pig’s trotter” hundreds of miles away, revealing how effectively Twitter is being used on the mainland. This anecdote is revealing, not with regards to the spread of information freedom but as a tiny window on what shapes the input to a lot of influential coverage regarding China. Having wondered previously about bias resulting from overexposure to internationally friendly individuals, it would seem important to know how journalists have their views shaped by daily interactions. To a large extent this seems to have influenced what often comes off as biased or limited coverage. During Google’s pullout, for example, the NYT ran with headlines showing concerned netizens placing flowers outside of Google’s headquarters. At the time, there were numerous instances where I brought up the topic and a local would respond with something like “G-what? Oh that American company. What’s their name?” What was portrayed as a major event was, for the most part, entirely off the radar of most people here.

He writes:

The upshot depends on where you stand: For those who hope to see Twitter connect people from across a broad spectrum of the Chinese population, that experiment is thrilling. But it is also a stark demonstration that anyone who might seek to punish people for the kinds of activism and dissent that Ai advocates can use Twitter as a phone book for the ranks of Chinese liberalism.

Before any of this happens, Twitter would need to actually connect a broad spectrum of the Chinese population. They then, as Osnos astutely notes, may then very well be at risk of exposure due to their participation in such activities. Worrying about getting there first should be a higher priority.

China/divide makes a similar argument; though I’m more concerned with a sort of inherent foreign-friendly over exposure that results simply from being culturally different (even if ethnically Chinese) and living in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing. I don’t know how to get around this, even in my personal life, which is still arguably mired in an expat bubble despite various attempts to go native.

Professional journalists are smarter though, and have likely found ways around this. They certainly travel a lot, and must interact with a variety of people so to the extent possible some of these problems should be mitigated. The disconnect – which came as I was writing – is likely more of a problem of what their readers wish to consume: inconsequential news about the latest technology trends, no matter how small in total impact. If that’s what gets hits, then it’s less surprising that the New Yorker’s front page China feature is an article is about a dinner party with the mainland’s elite literati and their extremely efficient (though limited) microblogging network.