Transcription

Tony: Our topic is ’’ Does Human Flesh Search Stands in Justice?’’ I am against it.       

Alison: What is human fresh search? It is not a official search engine like Yahoo or Google. It is a term created by the Chinese netizens. It’s called 人肉搜索 in Chinese.
It’s the collaboration of netizens. Uh…it means everyone shares the…uh…some informations on the Internet. So we can have the… We can have more precise information details efficiently and… and know more… (I don’t know what I was saying) Most important of all, I believed that it can stand in justice. Because…uh…on the Internet, it is anonymous and some people may think…oh…Hiding behind the computer, no one will know your real identity. So you can do anything you want even the illegal things on the Internet Uh…uh… In 2006, there is a video spread quickly on the Internet. Uh…a poor kitten was stepped on…uh… by a woman wearing high heels. Uh… I have saw the video. It’s very terrible. The kitten’s head was KER-S (a sound) by the high heels. And…ok…the Chinese netizens found out the video was shot in 黑龍江 by the background of the video. And they also find the cat-killer. She is a nurse and she is immediately fired. And I think thanks to human flesh search engine. It is a good tool to crack down the crime and…also show us that the justice can be done by group power. Uh… not the …. Other country also noticed the phenomenon in Chinese. Los…Los Angeles Times said China's 'human flesh search' has uh…eclipsed the International Criminal Police Organization So I think human flesh search engine is a good tool to stand in justice.

[Annotation 3] 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 lifetime 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.

Reference

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。

Reflection

Reflection

  The topic Tony and I chose is “human flesh search”. In the past weeks, from issue paper to annotation, the “privacy problem” has been mentioned over and over again. In the teacher-student conference, I finally realized there are other aspects related to human flesh search, such as Bakhtin's carnivalization theory. Just like professor said, we should read more books or essays instead of keeping discussing something that the common people talked about.

 Tim Kuo also gave us another idea that we never thought before. He said that people are social animal(群居動物). People are used to getting together and are afraid of the alien. So when someone has strange behavior, the others will banish him. When someone post some irritating opinions on the Internet, netizens use “human flesh search” to find the alien’s true identity to condemn him publicly. Robert and Knot mentioned the presumption of innocence (無罪推定原則). If the target of human flesh search is innocent, he will be hurt by the group power. The suspect is easily thought to be guilty on the Internet without the legal proceedings. It can be one of Tony’s standpoint.

Tim & Tim
They talked about the individual rights and society. I never think of it before. Is it really necessary that everyone should undertake the responsibility of society? Is the personal profit much important than society? I can not decide which side I should support. I want one of them can convince me. But I can hardly understand what they want to express through their oral presentation.

Robert & Knot
Their annotation was very persuasive and easy to understand. Each of them has strong standpoint. They said they actually didn’t find a conclusion until they discussed again and again. That is what Tony and I have to do. Discussion even the quarrel can help us clarify our point.

Vivian & Lisa
They prepared well. Their issue is also about the social responsibility and business. It is similar to Robert and Knot’s. Maybe this two groups can exchange the sources they found or their ideas to help rich the diversity of content.  

Phoebe & Niki

The topic of show girls remind me that the NCCU doctor sell the chicken steak. And many people debate is it appropriate to have this kind of job when he has a higher educational background.

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

[Annotation 2] 

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 play an important role in it. It is hard to make a specific definition of populism. An English political theorist Margaret Canovan stated that populism put emphasis on the masses’ thoughts and the society can be reformed by the group power. The Chinese government is on the top of the social status and control  all the distribution of profit which is also increases the poverty gap (貧富差距) after Chinese economic reform. For the masses, the common people, who have complaints about the upper reaches of society, 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 that they explore the Chinese venal officials’ infamous behavior which I mentioned in annotation 1. It is too late for the judiciary to represent the masses to crack down the crime.

Sources

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

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

Can Human Flesh Search Stands In Justice?

  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 [1]. 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] Human-flesh search, Internet Vigilante or Internet lynching