Beyond Information: The Sociocultural Role of the Internet in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake

Abstract

This paper is a preliminary and exploratory examination and analysis of the sociocultural role of the Internet during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The Internet has embedded in people's daily lives, paralleling with the traditional media as the information provider and human interaction medium. During an emergency, the Internet acts as a facilitator of social motivation, revealing the usefulness and power of online communication. Although there have been a large number of studies concerning the Internet in Mainland China, scholarly attention to the use of the Internet in contingencies is scarce. McLuhan's notion of “medium as message” is regarded as fertile ground for new media theories which have sprouted since the 1980s. With the legacy of media theory, the article discusses Poster's second media age conception, new media theory, as well as characteristics of digital culture and online journalism in the era of new media. Based on participant observational findings regarding the principal components of the Internet during the Sichuan catastrophe, and including existing literatures, this paper explores the significant role played by the Internet in various major respects: facilitating participatory journalism which reflects a new form of public sphere, enhancing social interaction and social integration which include information sharing, resources integration and social bond consolidation, as well as formulating a platform for community-reviving and collective identity-reinforcing. Besides, the Internet transcends temporal and territorial boundaries, uniting Chinese people in China and around the globe. This paper is far from a final word in terms of the determinant role taken by the Internet; the traditional media still play an indispensable role, especially during social crises. In addition, the road ahead for Internet development remains unclear.

Keywords:

• Sichuan earthquake
• the Internet
• online participatory journalism
• social interaction and integration

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express her special thanks to Dr. Saskia Witteborn for her advice on writing the draft of the article, and to Dr. Jack Qiu for his informative teaching on ICTs. Dr. Witteborn is an assistant professor and Dr. Qiu, an associate professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.