[Annotation4(Revised)] The Internet Carnival

                                                              The Internet Carnival

     Human flesh search is a collective behavior. Netizens look for evidence with every kind of network tools like online platforms which contain the personal information. This collective behavior takes action first and then organize it themselves. With the changing of the subject, the group automatically assembles and takes action respectively. There is no specific leader. Everyone can do what he want to do. Human flesh is a self-organization.(Yuan & Chen, 2013）

Human flesh search provides a stage for the common people to voice for their ideas. It is like a carnival on the internet. In Mikhail Bakhtin’s The Carnivalesque, everyone can join the carnival which has no boundary and anyone whether his social status is high or low can play a part in. (Pan, 2007) Carnival is not an official activity. It stands for the civil. In the carnival, the differences between status, property, family background and age do not exist. People share everything with each other.

Human flesh search is conducted by a group of netizens. There is the roles task-functions (角色分工) (Yuan & Chen, 2013）:

1. Mobilize: The one decides the target and others who have something to do

with the target.

2. Information-seeking: People asks the question or look for the resource.

3. Elaborating: People analyze the evidence.

4. Testing: People examine the evidence they found.

5. Free rider: People do nothing and just wait for the outcome.

6. Dissident: People do not agree with human flesh search and ask others to follow the legal official procedure.

7. Distracter: People provide the information which has nothing to do with the discussion.

8. Information broker: People bring the information in or out. They transmit the message.

        People are both performers and audience in the carnival. In the past, the judiciary plays the role of cracking down the crime and represents the justice. By human flesh search, the common people can also investigate the illegal things.

References

袁涵郁、陳百齡（2013）。《由人肉搜索事件看網路集體行動：情節、角色與協力的尋人行為》，中華傳播學會 2013 年會論文http://ccs.nccu.edu.tw/history_paper_content.php?P_ID=1496&P_YEAR=2013

潘俊峰 (2007)。《巴赫金狂欢化理论及其影响》

http://panjunfeng2000.blog.163.com/blog/static/135457882007243517494/

[Annotation 3 (Revised)] Everyone Can be a Citizen Journalist

                                               Everyone Can be a Citizen Journalist

    When you hear human flesh search, because of the term ”flesh”, you probably have a bloody imagination that a lot of netizens find out every piece of information of the target which is like a rotten corpse devoured completely by a group of hungry condors. Netizens collect all the information and arrange them in their words even attached with some pictures. They are not professional reporters but they can make their arranged articles look like a piece of News. Also they can publish a series of reports on the Internet. The amateur reports are Citizen Journalist (公民記者). They choose what they observe in their daily life to report.
    With the progress of the technology, for example, the invention of televisions and radio, information can be transmitted more quickly and extensively. However, what kind of information we accept is controlled by the mass media. Not everyone have the chance to convey his idea in a TV program.
Nowadays, more and more people have blogs where they can easily share their thoughts.The professor of law, Glenn Reynolds, who is famous for his blog, instapubdit, argued that "power once concentrated in the hands of a professional few has been redistributed into the hands of the amateur many" (Russell, 2007, p67). Bloggers, the amateur reporters, show what they found on the Internet such as something illegal or immoral. In their blog, they can keep update the content, while the traditional media has to check it again before publishing.
   Columbia Journalism Review ( Samantha Henig, 2005) declares: "We've seen blogs act as media or political watchdogs, but not as aggressive watchdogs of individual violations of social norms. So this seems like a notable step. And, as with the emergence of citizen-journalism, it is an undefined and unregulated step in a cyber world that lacks boundaries and standards."

    Unavoidably, there may be some mistakes in the professional or amateur reports. It is easier and quicker to correct the latter. The person involved can also clean up the misunderstanding in the comments of the amateur reports. Human flash search should not be considered as a cold-blooded hunting. It is an online platform providing everyone a chance to convey his ideas and can be examined and discussed publicly.
Most people consider human flesh search as a terrible monster that　fiercely exposed their privacy. But did you ever think about that how much information you put on the Internet by yourself? More and more people use community website (社群網站) such as Facebook. On Facebook, people can list their family member or partner. People share their lives on Facebook with photos, or even show the location. Do you really know each one in the friend list? It is not fair to say that human flesh search invades the privacy. You ,your friends or your friends’ friends are those who also have the responsibility of protecting the privacy

    If someone has done something bad before, it is easy to find his behavior on the Internet. He may have the infamous reputation forever. So do we need to prohibit human flesh search to protect this kind of person’s privacy?  Daniel J. Solove argued that keeping the information confidential too much is dangerous. He stated that If we protect the secrets (the infamous behavior) ,we prevent the spread of right information and also remove the information that help people to evaluate someone.


Reference
Daniel J. Solove  (2011) The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet [Chinese version] 隱私不保的年代：網路的流言蜚語、人肉搜索、網路霸凌和私密窺探。台北市：博雅。


Samantha Henig (2005) The Tale of Dog Poop Girl Is Not So Funny After All [Electronic version] Columbia Journalism Review
http://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/the_tale_of_dog_poop_girl_is_n.php

[Annotation 2 (Revised)] Human Flesh Search──Let the Voice of the Masses be heard

  In China where the term “human flesh search” first appeared and became a controversial issue, the internet populism(網路民粹主義) also plays an important role in it. It is hard to make a specific definition of populism. An English political theorist Margaret Canovan stated that populism puts emphasis on the masses’ thoughts and that the society can be reformed by the group power. The Chinese government is on the top of the social status and controls all the distribution of profit which also increases the poverty gap (貧富差距) after Chinese economic reforms. For the masses, the common people, who have complaints about the upper reaches of society, the Internet provides a good way to speak for themselves. They can use the group power like human flesh search to find out something illegal such as the Chinese venal officials’infamous behaviors. It is too late for the judiciary to represent the masses to crack down the crime.
 Furthermore, the Chinese Netinens have the following characteristics(侯政男、蔡宗哲,2013):
(1) They are younger and low-edcationed, which cause them to have more immature and irrational comments.
(2) They are potential proponents of populism.
(3) They usually have the psychological expectations that the law does  not punish a group of people(法不責眾). Each of them only takes a little part of the collaboration in human flesh search. They can hide behind the big group of netizens and say anything without being afraid of the law.
(4) They have strong moral senses.

Reference

侯政男、蔡宗哲（2013）。《嚴格管制下的中國網路民粹主義狂歡現象分析：理論建構初探》，中華傳播學會 2013 年會論文 http://ccs.nccu.edu.tw/history_paper_content.php?P_ID=1487&P_YEAR=2013。

[Annotation 1 (Revised) ] Can Human Flesh Search Stands In Justice?

[1]

Can Human Flesh Search Stands In Justice?

  This picture was published by The New Yorker in 1993. It show us an important difference between the real world and the victual world── anonymity. 

  Some called human fresh search “cyber manhunt”, and describe it as witch-hunt in the Middle Ages in Europe. When a person is targeted, his all personal information like ID number, address, pictures and everything he did will exposed in public. People who oppose human fresh research question it is Internet vigilante or Internet lynching [2]. Because there are some enraged netizens would annoy the target’s family, blaming him with filthy language and even send him a death threat. As far as I am concerned, human fresh search is a tool to help improve our society and it tell us that everyone still have to follow the law even in the victual world. Knife can be used to kill someone but we would not forbid a knife. So is human fresh search.     

  In China, the government corruption has been a big issue. Thanks to human fresh search, the venal officials’ infamous behavior can be exposed in public. It was the contribution of human fresh.

Source:

[1]  Copyright Image by Peter Steiner published by The New Yorker on July 5, 1993
[2]Human-flesh search, Internet Vigilante or Internet lynching