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Internet Violence and the Class Conflict in Chinese Society
Internet is one of the aspects that are developing at an incredible speed in China. According to Chen and Ang, there were only 600,000 Internet users in China in 1997; yet 12 years later in 2009, the number of Internet users in China hits 384 million, even greater than the population of United States (Herold&Marolt, 2011). With the development of Internet in China, Internet policies, regulations and laws came up with the rise of Internet crimes. Similar to most other countries, Chinese Internet police have devoted in fighting against Internet crimes such as hacking, distributing resources without copyrights (piracy), as well as harmful materials such as pornography or anti-government propaganda (i.e. Falungong related materials), etc.
Recently, many people in China shifted their concern from Internet crime to another aspect on the Internet – Internet violence. Nevertheless, this Internet violence in China is essentially different from the one we usually see in western society, where some teenagers are bullied by their peers over cyber space. The phenomenon of Internet violence in China is like this – some incidents are reported by unofficial individuals on the Internet, usually with proofs such as photos or videos poster, then the person or group on the wrong side will face over-harsh criticism from people all over the Internet. Moreover, most of these people will be found by something called flesh search engine – their information such as their cellphone number, ID number, address and so on, are searched by all means with people on the Internet and they are posted online, which eventually brings them many inconvenience in their lives. This “Internet violence with Chinese characteristic” has not only caught wide concern from the society in recent years, but it has also brought out the conflicts between people in different social classes in China as well.
First, the Internet violence with Chinese characteristic is very rampant because of the existence of flesh search engine. Herold gives flesh search engine a definition as to “track down offline individuals by employing as many computer users as possible in the search” (Herold&Marolt, 2011). On the biggest flesh-searching website in China – mop.com, hundreds of flesh-searching requests are posted daily. In many cases, in their offline lives, these Internet users spot some incidents that reflect social injustice. They take pictures and post them online, along with a request of a search about the person who is on the wrong side (in most people’s beliefs). However, concerns have been raised that the consequences the person being searched need to carry are mostly too severe. For example, many people who are found out having an affair are fired after being exposed online due to the report done by many anonymous Internet users to the companies. Although it is immoral having an affair, these people exposed online are fired without violating any laws or company policies. Therefore, the “immoral” people (in most people’s beliefs) are suffering violence from the Internet.
There are many reasons that cause the furious flesh search engine, and one of the most significant reasons is the conflict between people in different social classes in China. While being as a practically one-party country, China was ruled by the China Communist Party since 1949. According to Zhao, news organizations in China are supposed to filter “unwanted” and “harmful” information (Zhao, 2008). Because Chinese people have been suffering such censorship for a long time, the discontentedness among them has been accumulating. With the rise of Internet and participatory culture, more and more incidents that reflect social injustice related to powerful groups, such as government officials and the riches, are reported by individuals or alternative media. Many people with power or wealth are uncovered that they tried to cover their dirty facts, such as abusing their power or corruption, by bribing the mainstream media so that they will not be reported. As a result, the animosity for the rich or the people with power among the civilians in China is fairly great. For example, the famous actor Wen Zhang was caught having an affair with another famous actress Yao Di by paparazzi in May, 2014. He and his company tried to pay five million to the newspaper requesting not to report it in order to maintain his image, but the newspaper refused to do so and claimed that the audience has the right to know everything. After the incident was reported, there was a wide criticism towards Wen and his concubine Yao; as a result, Wen was forced to make an apology and Yao was fired by hers crews of TV drama and they both faced a critical career crisis.
The reason of the hostile towards the rich or the power is obvious. First of all, there are many flaws in the current laws, policies and regulations in China that many people, especially the rich and the power, choose to exploit an advantage that may seem immoral or even harming other people’s interests. They can find ways in getting out of punishment from laws even they are caught. Therefore, by uncovering scandals through the Internet and track them down with flesh search engine, the civilians hope to punish the rich and the power by depriving their privacy. Also, civilians hope that by uncovering scandals on the Internet can urge the development and completion of the judicial system in China. For example, in May, 2014, an innocent woman was bludgeoned to death by six people in a MacDonald restaurant in Shandong Pr
ovince. The incident was uncovered on Weibo, the Chinese Twitter, and it aroused a savage discussion online. The backgrounds of the six murderers were posted online in a very short period of time with the help of flesh search engine. As a result, different sectors in the society, such as senior government officials, the local police department and the MacDonald Company in China, express their concerns about the incident; also, the six murderers were caught by the local police the very next day, and the trial was expected to begin much earlier than normal procedure does. Therefore, the flesh search engine, as well as the “Internet violence with Chinese characteristic”, have pushed up the efficiency of governmental agencies, and have alerted the government with issues such as public safety. In a sense, the flesh search engine has urged the progress of the society.
In conclusion, the flesh search engine and the “Internet violence with Chinese characteristic” is a double-edged sword. The bad said of the flesh search engine is that many people uncovered by flesh search engine suffer from social punishment that they do not deserved. For example, people who fail to give seats to the elders in a bus receive countless harassment on their cellphone from strangers after their cellphone numbers are posted online, and people who are caught having an affair are fired because they have “moral issues”. This is why people are paying more attention to this phenomenon because it produces a more severe violence when dealing with a much less major social injustice. However, on the other hand, the flesh search engine and the “Internet violence with Chinese characteristic” is a social-progressing force that should not be ignored. It reveals many scandals and dirty facts of the rich and the power, and alerts the other rich and the power to respect justice and abide by the laws; also, it urges the efficiency of government agencies and it forms a justice and moral atmosphere among the society. Eventually, when the judicial system in China is more developed and people with power and wealth are more self-disciplined, the role of flesh search engine and the “Internet with Chinese characteristic” will disappear, along with the bad effect of it.
Internet Abbreviation and Daily Communication
Introduction
There is a joke on the Internet which is quite popular: A father joined Facebook. His son updated his status: “Dad on FB, WTF!” Then the father saw it and commented, “What is WTF?” His son replied, “Welcome to Facebook.” (Jokideo.com, 2012)
There are two abbreviations in this joke: FB and WTF. The first abbreviation, FB, appears in the son’s status which stands for the social network Facebook; the second abbreviation, WTF, is the core of the joke. In most situations, WTF is short for “what the fuck” and it is often used to express extreme emotions such as shock or anger, which was exactly what the son was trying to express in his status initially; yet he lied to his father by saying that WTF means “welcome to Facebook” and successfully hid his initial intention in his status. The joke is funny because it is simple but effective — the son fooled his father by playing with the meaning of the abbreviation WTF. A further punch line of this joke is that the father might start using the abbreviation WTF to communicate with his Facebook friends with the meaning he was taught by his son, which would definitely cause more funny misunderstandings.
The abbreviation WTF from the previous joke was one of the abbreviations created for online communication, AKA (also known as) Internet abbreviations. Other abbreviations that we encounter frequently nowadays such as LMAO (laugh my ass off), NVM (never mind) are also Internet abbreviations. It is difficult to define the term “Internet abbreviation” as the society nowadays changes so fast (Yan, 2006); the term that was suited 20 years ago may not be proper to use in current days. People use Internet abbreviations so often that they even use Internet abbreviations in reality life as well. Internet abbreviations influence language not just on the Internet, but in offline communication as well. The abbreviated language that is a central feature of Internet communication will be part of the major impact on the future development of language that the information age will make.this joke: FB and WTF. The first abbreviation, FB, appears in the son’s status which stands for the social network Facebook; the second abbreviation, WTF, is the core of the joke. In most situations, WTF is short for “what the fuck” and it is often used to express extreme emotions such as shock or anger, which was exactly what the son was trying to express in his status initially; yet he lied to his father by saying that WTF means “welcome to Facebook” and successfully hid his initial intention in his status. The joke is funny because it is simple but effective — the son fooled his father by playing with the meaning of the abbreviation WTF. A further punch line of this joke is that the father might start using the abbreviation WTF to communicate with his Facebook friends with the meaning he was taught by his son, which would definitely cause more funny misunderstandings.
What is Abbreviation?
According to Dictionary.com, an abbreviation is “a shortened or contracted form of a word or phrase, used to represent the whole” (Dictionary.com, 2013). Abbreviations can have many different forms. The most popular form is a capitalized letter combination of the first letter in every word of the phrase; for example, we use SFU to represent Simon Fraser University, and HIV means “human immunodeficiency virus”. Also, in many cases, an abbreviation of a single word is the first couple of letters of the word with the first letter capitalized, following with a period at the end of the abbreviation. This kind of abbreviation is usually used for titles such as Prof., which is short for professor, and Mr., which means mister. Another common form of abbreviation is to take only one or two letters, which are not necessarily from the original word, to stand for the meaning. In this way, unit symbols such as lb (pound) and m (meter) are examples of how this type of abbreviation is created. There are a lot of other particular ways that abbreviations are formed, yet all abbreviations follow one rule: they are created to save people’s time, space and effort in textual or oral communication, and they are used in particular contexts where they are familiar. For example, MU can mean McGill University to a post-secondary student in Canada, it can mean the movie Monster University to cartoon movie lovers, and when you see MU on a sports channel, it usually stands for Manchester United, a well-known soccer club in England.
Abbreviations are used to save space and time in daily communication, both oral and textual. In oral communication, we rarely say “the United States of America”, but 99 times out of 100, we say “the USA”. In fact, the abbreviation USA is so frequently used that it has become another form of representing the country. This “distortion” of dialogue is capable of facilitating communication across cultures, so even people in non-English-speaking cultures know the meaning of the abbreviation (Peters, 1999). For instance, the abbreviation “USA” is recognized not only in the Western world, but also in non-European cultures such as China, where most people do not speak English, but nonetheless recognize the abbreviation (baidu.com, 2008). Textual abbreviations are also widely used. For example, when broadcasting sports events between two opposing teams, the broadcasting agencies usually use abbreviations of both teams’ names on the scoreboard in order to save space on the screen. Also, at conferences where name tags are provided, the titles are usually abbreviated so that the information will not look too dense on the name card.
Abbreviations have been used for many hundreds of years, but have become much more widespread since the invention of the telegraph in the 19th century, and especially since the explosion of the electronic age (Beauchamp, 2001). Abbreviations have evolved from the SOS (save our ship) in the telegraph age to LOL (laugh out loud) in the Internet age. Grammar and spelling were highly valued in the study of English language, and abbreviations were only used to stand for long phrases, organizations and so on. Yet the universalization of Internet has brought an essential change to abbreviation, eventually gave birth to Internet abbreviation.
What is Internet Abbreviation?
Internet abbreviations can be defined as abbreviations created and adopted by Internet users. Despite the Internet technology having been invented as early as the 1960s, it did not start its rapid expansion until the late 1980s (Segal, 1995). In 1996, the earliest IM (Instant Messenger) software was created by a company called Mirabillis, then it was bought by American Online (AOL) in 1998 (Hansell, 1998); this software was called ICQ, which is the euphony of “I seek you”. This software enabled instant textual communication between computers and it started an era in which people could have textual communication on a brand new platform. Before ICQ was invented, instant textual communication was limited to old telegraph system and cell phone text messages, but the latter was still far too expensive for consumers to afford. The invention of ICQ not only delivered a fatal blow to the telegraph system, but also created a couple of new forms of textual communication, including Internet abbreviations.
The majority of Internet abbreviations follow the pattern of a combination of capitalized first letters of each word of a phrase. However, there are some significant differences between traditional abbreviations and Internet abbreviations. Traditional abbreviations, such as UN (United Nations) and NHL (National Hockey League), are mostly nouns, while Internet abbreviations, such as BRB (be right back) and LOL (laugh out loud), are phrases that in most cases describe an action or express an emotion. Such phrases are frequently used in Internet conversation occasions such as Instant Messengers, as well as chat rooms and online forums.
There are many platforms where Internet abbreviations can be created. Instant Messengers such as ICQ, eventually Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, are the very first batch of platforms, as well as the most significant platforms where Internet abbreviations are given birth to. Compared to other popular communication means such as making phone calls and writing letters, textual communication on Instant Messengers are much more high-tech and convenient. Many Internet abbreviations such as GTG (got to go), CU (see you) were invented to facilitate faster textual communication.
Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are also an important platform for Internet abbreviation. However, it is so much better to say that social networks are platforms to practise Internet abbreviations rather than to create them. Many social media were founded in the mid 2000’s when Internet abbreviation was almost 10 years old. The structure and contents of Internet abbreviation was rather saturated, and there was little space for social networks to create new Internet abbreviations. However, online games are the latest platforms where Internet abbreviations are created due to the special circumstances. Because of its special communication environment, Internet abbreviation in online games are more limited the game itself. For example, AFK is an Internet abbreviation used only in online games, which means “away from keyboard”; HP and MP are also two common abbreviations in many games, meaning “health point” and “magic point”.
These Internet abbreviations that evolved from Instant Messengers, social networking and gaming, became so frequently used that they spread to cell phone text messages, and eventually spread to oral conversations, especially among the young generation that grew up with computers and cellphones. Therefore, the impact of Internet abbreviations on daily language usage has been enormous (Dixon, 2011).
There are so many Internet abbreviations nowadays that they need to be categorized into several groups. Internet abbreviations can be grouped into nine categories, including greetings, relationships, mood or reaction, negative descriptions, affection, closings, disclaimers, timing, and others (Dixon, 2011). Greetings abbreviations are usually used in starting a conversation, such as HUD (How you doing?) and RUOK (Are you ok?); relationship abbreviations are BF (boyfriend), GF (girlfriend) and BFF (best friend forever), etc.; mood or reaction abbreviation includes OMG (Oh my God!), WTF (what the fuck) and so on; negative descriptions abbreviations are BS (bullshit), FOS (full of shit) and affection abbreviations are ILY (I love you) and XOXO (Hugs and kisses); TTUL (Talk to you later), CU (See you) are examples of closings abbreviations, and AFA (as far as) is the most significant disclaimer abbreviation; timing abbreviations include B4 (before). Other than all the categories listed above, there are still so many Internet abbreviations that are hard to be categorized and they can be only marked as “others”.
Internet abbreviations also serve the same purpose as the regular abbreviations: they are created to save time, space and effort; they are also used in particular contexts so they are not easy to misunderstand. For example, LOL can mean “laugh out loud” when chatting with friends, but it can mean “lots of love” when flirting with a lover, and for game lovers, LOL is “League of Legends”, the most popular online game at the moment. The ability to distinguish the different meanings of the same abbreviation is actually the ability to place a word or a term in contexts. Therefore, in the same way as regular language, Internet abbreviations also have a “structure of expectation” (Lakoff, 2000). In making a place for themselves in contemporary language, Internet abbreviations follow the traditional purposes and requirements of regular language.
For this reason, Internet abbreviations, together with Internet slang, can be considered as a language of its own, or at least a dialect or a branch of the English language (Johnston, 2004). Internet language has influenced millions of people online, and its impact has even extended to offline communication.
Internet Abbreviation in Daily Life
In 1992, the first SMS (short message service) message was sent over the Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom by an Engineer called Neil Papworth (Ahmed, 2002). Like instant messaging, text messaging was also another form of instant textual communication. Therefore, Internet abbreviations were adopted in texting in no time. People typed Internet abbreviations such as LOL, RUOK on their mobile phones and they just worked fine. This can be seen as the very first step of Internet abbreviation stepping into broader daily life. Nowadays, instant messengers, as well as social networks and online societies, are all accessible through smartphones, and Internet abbreviations are even more widely used over the phones.
Other than smartphones, some Internet abbreviations have been adopted in daily oral conversation. In an episode of The Big Bang Theory, a student in Sheldon’s class uses the abbreviation KMN (kill me now) to express his dissatisfaction with Sheldon’s unpleasant way of lecturing (TheLukasNet, 2011). Although not frequently heard, people sometimes use Internet abbreviations such as OMG and LOL in their speech to emphasize their feelings (Knibbs, 2013).
Internet abbreviations are more accepted by the younger generation than by the senior generation because they have grown up in the Internet age. The majority of teenagers in the US take part in different kinds of electronic communication, and instant messaging is one of the most popular forms (Varnhagen et al, 2009). As a result, adolescents tend to create a language that includes abbreviations, new words and slang. According to the study done by Varnhagen et al, a teenager uses about 2.9 Internet abbreviations as well as more than 28 short cuts in each conversation with a peer (Varnhagen et al, 2009). The frequent usage of Internet abbreviations is creating a new language, yet destroying some traditional language at the same time by replacing it in popular use.
The frequent use of Internet abbreviations has brought convenience to daily life, but it has also created some issues in society. For example, many teachers and parents are concerned that children are unable to spell words correctly due to a constant use of abbreviated forms (Humphrey, 2003). Children are so used to typing on their cellphones and Instant Messengers that they are unable to spell words fully. For example, instead of writing “through”, many children write “thru”. This situation is not limited to English speaking countries. In China, in order to follow the instructions of the Cultural Department of China, the popular online game Jinwutuan has banned the usage of Internet language, also known in China as “Martian Language”, in order to reinforce mainstream culture and protect correct spelling (ChinaNews, 2008). According to mainstream ideology in China, the rise of Internet language will erode the traditional language forms, especially since Internet language is developing and expanding so quickly.
Trends of Internet Abbreviation
Internet abbreviations, as well as the entire Internet language, are evolving. The further development of Internet abbreviation can be predicted. First of all, the conformation of Internet abbreviation will evolve into different forms: letters are not the only characters that can be used in abbreviations; numbers and symbols will be added too. Internet abbreviation will then expand onto media platforms other than online ones, such as TV and newspapers. Last but not least, Internet abbreviation, as well as Internet language, will further impact the conventional language, will become accepted, and will initiate a revolution in language education as well.
The forms of Internet abbreviation are already changing. A combination of letters and numbers has become the new Internet abbreviation fashion. For example, “see you later” is now abbreviated to “c u l8r”, as “ate” sounds the same as “8”. Thus, Internet abbreviations will not be limited to the forms mentioned previously, but will evolve into a more complicated, yet easily understandable system of language.
Regardless whether Internet abbreviations bring convenience or cause linguistic damage to the next generation, the trend of where Internet abbreviation is going is quite clear. After starting only in ICQ, Internet abbreviation has expanded onto almost all Internet media platforms in merely 20 years. It is certain that Internet abbreviation will expand onto still more platforms, including even the traditional media such as newspapers and TV.
Because more and more media will be starting to adopt and use Internet abbreviations, language may become more concise. There will be more and more terms, phrases and daily sentences that can be replaced by abbreviated forms. Eventually, because of the integration of Internet abbreviation into daily communication, grammar and sentence structure may also change in order to accommodate the increasing usage of Internet abbreviations.
Therefore, in order to cope with the changes that Internet use will force upon language, educational institutions will also change their attitude towards Internet abbreviations. Teachers and parents will no longer insist on the use of old-school grammar and spelling only; instead, language education will switch to a reasonable combination of Internet abbreviations and conventional language depending on contexts.
Conclusion
Internet abbreviation is a fast developing sub-language that is going to make a significant impact on conventional language forms. In fact, all languages are evolving all the time, and the young generation is usually the pioneer force that brings changes to the language. So it is not the Internet itself that changes our language, but the young people who use it the most and who find new language forms that work best with the new technology. The Internet is simply a platform on which the language evolution takes place. At the same time, the Internet also creates the conditions that encourage the evolution of language. Therefore, the idea that Internet abbreviation changes daily language is not an idea based on technological determinism, but is based more on cultural determinism.
As discussed earlier, Internet abbreviations are used in particular contexts so that the meanings of the abbreviations will not be misunderstood. Therefore, it is controversial whether Internet abbreviations are open text, implying they will have different meanings for different people or different contexts, or closed text, implying they will have the same meaning for everyone in every context. In fact, most Internet abbreviations, such as WTF, are limited to only one meaning (“what the fuck”), so they can be considered as closed text. Yet some other Internet abbreviations, such as LOL, can have different meanings in different contexts. However, in a particular context, an Internet abbreviation can only have one fixed meaning, which effectively makes the abbreviation a closed text as well.
Finally, there is no doubt that Internet abbreviations are making a significant impact on our use of daily language. However, the debate on whether Internet abbreviations, as well as the entire Internet language, will benefit or damage the existing language structure is ongoing. Yet the fusion of Internet language and daily language is unavoidable, so the meaningless debate should stop and we should address the question of how to mediate the conflicts between Internet language and conventional language. Both languages will benefit and develop a healthy relationship if this problem can be solved sensibly.
References
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Baidu.com (2012). What does USA mean? Baidu Zhidao. Retrieved from http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/43574147.html
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Dixon, H. Jr. (2011). Texting, Tweeting, and Other Internet Abbreviations. Judges Journal, Vol.50(4), pp.30-33. Retrieved from http://www.heinonline.org.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/judgej50&id=164&collection=journals&index=journals/judgej
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The Importance of Truth to Journalism Storytelling
Journalism storytelling is not like those “once upon a time” we used to hear in bed many years ago, although they can be very similar in some way. For example, despite both telling the same historical events, “Romance of the Three Kingdom” written by Guanzhong Luo in the 14th century is regarded as one of the greatest fictions in China, while “Record of the Three Kingdom” written by Shou Chen in the third century is seen as the official and authoritative historical text about the Three Kingdom period and later Han Dynasty’s history. The most significant difference between the two books is the use of truth, which can be also considered as the boundary line of “literary” and “literary reportage”: “Romance of the Three Kingdom” has many fictitious characters such as Chan Diao and Mao Deng, who do not appear in “Record of the Three Kingdom”. Journalism, as well as journalism storytelling, is more similar to “Record of the Three Kingdom” as they both need to tell the truth without making anything up. There is no doubt that “truth” is the most important aspect to journalism storytelling.
Internet Explorer: Victim of fake news
A news report by PC World Report in August, 2011 indicated that PC users who use Internet Explorer, the internet browser which comes together with Windows, tend to have lower IQ than those who use other internet browsers such as Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera. The result was published by a Canadian company called AptiQuant Psychometric Consulting Co., who claimed that they have more than 100,000 candidates who took the online IQ test. They invited users to take their test through advertising links on other websites and made a note of which browser each user was using to make the ranking (Newman, 2011). This story was also reported by many other high profile news agents such as CBC, CNN, and BBC.
This story was quite convincing at the moment. Most people believed it for three reasons. First of all, the survey was claimed to be based on a large amount of testers, and the method that AptiQuant used sounds very effective: The amount of participating testers was more than 100,000, and they came from different channels as they clicked different advertisements on different websites; also, AptiQuant did not ask the users which browser they were using but collected the data in the background so that users were unable to lie about it. Secondly, the statement that AptiQuant made fits most people’s common understanding: using one thing is stupid, using another thing is smart. This is similar to the everlasting iPhone vs. Android debate, where people argue if it is smarter to use iPhone or Android, and this debate continues even to the present days (Elite Daily, n.d.). Last but not least, Microsoft, who make Internet Explorer, did not put as much effort in promoting their own browsers than other companies such as Google who make Chrome and Mozilla who make Firefox as they believed that people have to use their browser because it is built in; yet people who were affected by the advertisements other companies made believed that using other internet browsers which comes with more features will also make them smarter.
However, the news story turned out to be a hoax. BBC news made a research on AptiQuant and found out that the company’s website was only built for a month. Moreover, the thumbnails of the company’s staffs were found identical to the ones of a Company called Central Test, which was also a psychometric testing company (BBC News, 2011). Some experts also raised their concerns towards this survey result. ZDNet expert Zack Whittaker claimed that collecting more than 100,000 candidates was a very difficult task on the Internet, and finding something meaningful from such large quantity of data would even take years (Whittaker, 2011).
The Fake News incident eventually went to an end, but the impact it brought afterwards was bigger than people predicted. Only three months after the browser hoax, a study by Ars in November, 2011 showed that web usage of Internet Explorer had dropped below 50%. It is worth noting that Internet Explorer dropped an outstanding 1.76 percent market share in two months from September while its drop rate was much lower in other period (Bright, 2011). Despite still retaining a majority of the market share, Internet Explorer is losing users rapidly, not only because of its lack of creativity and features, but also because of the browsers hoax which made a huge hit on it. Despite clarifications were made shortly after the hoax, a lot of former users of Internet Explorer decided to turn to other browsers which would make them “smarter”. In this case, Internet Explorer became the biggest victim of the hoax.
Tom Henning Ovrebo: Victim of a wrong storytelling
Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel suggest that journalism’s first obligation is to the truth, and when the journalists was interviewed for a survey asking what “truth” means, 100 percent of them answered “getting the facts right” (Kovach & Rosenstiel, p.36). Therefore, it is meant that we not only need to tell the facts, but to tell them in the right way.
Tom Henning Ovrebo, a psychologist, also a Norwegian soccer referee, was one of the victims from a wrong way of storytelling. He was famous for making many controversy decisions in many important soccer matches, and the most famous one was the UEFA Champion League semi-final second leg between Chelsea and Barcelona, which he turned down four penalty appeals by Chelsea. Chelsea players were enraged that Ovrebo ignored a foul by Daniel Alves on Florent Malouda, followed by a tug on Didier Drogba by Eric Abidal, as well as two handballs by Barcelona players inside the penalty area. The match was out of control for a time and players of both teams played roughly and brutishly. After the match, despite Ovrebo told UEFA match representative that he made “significant mistakes”, members in Chelsea team all raged at Ovrebo about his referral performance (Fifield and Lawrance, 2009).
The match became the headline on sports page of all news agents very soon, and all the speeches and opinions turned against Ovrebo. Almost all media expressed their compassion towards Chelsea and harshly criticism towards Ovrebo (Soccernet, 2009). As a result, Ovrebo received a death threat the very next day and his home address in Oslo, Norway was also published. In 2010, after failing in entering the final referee list of South Africa World Cup, he decided to end his international career and only continues in the Norwegian Premier League in order to escape from the harassment. But even till now, he still receives abusive emails from Chelsea fans (Wilson, 2012).
Ovrebo’s end was a tragedy made by the media. Instead of focusing on the mistakes made by the referee, the topic of how to improve the integrity of the match is more worth concerning. FIFA has urged more than one time to introduce technologies such as eagle eyes into soccer to help with referee’s job, and they also suggest having more linesmen into the match to reduce misjudgements. FIFA President Joseph Blatter claimed that July 5 2012 was historical as FIFA promised to bring goal-line technology into 2016 Brazil World Cup; FIFA also looked forward to introducing more technology which helps the fairness of the game (fifa.com, 2012). He also claimed that many misjudgements happened due to the limitation of human eyes, and that referees were not supposed to be the ones to be blamed.
Truth: Tell the fact, and tell it right
As mentioned earlier, journalism’s first obligation is to the truth. Microsoft lost millions of dollars because of the browser hoax, and Ovrebo lost his career and his safety was put in danger due to the wrong direction of reports by the media. These examples are countless and they all prove one thing: truth is the most important aspect in journalism storytelling.
Back to the basic, journalists work for the public, and they must report the truth to gain the public’s trust; it is meaningless for journalists if their publications were not accepted by the public. One of the good ways to avoid reporting false information is to uncover as much information as possible; the more information a journalist uncovers, the less he will feel like to fill the unknown block. Ultimately, journalism is to tell the truth instead of catching people’s eyes with some bogus sparkle to attract interests.
References
Newman, J. (2011, July 29). Internet Explorer Users Are Kinda Stupid, Study Suggests. Retrieved from http://www.pcworld.com/article/236944/internet_explorer_users_are_kinda_stupid_study_suggests.html
Elite Daily (n.d.). The Great Debate: iPhone Vs. Android. Retrieved October 28,2012 from http://elitedaily.com/elite/2012/great-debate-iphone-drod/
BBC News (2011, August 3). Internet Explorer Story was Bogus. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14370878
Whittaker, Z. (2011, August 3). Internet Explorer users ‘stupid’: Story was a hoax. Retrieved from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/internet-explorer-users-stupid-story-was-a-hoax/53845
Bright, P. (2011, November 2). The end of an era: Internet Explorer drops below 50% of Web usage. Retrieved from http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2011/11/the-end-of-an-era-internet-explorer-drops-below-50-percent-of-web-usage/
Kovach, B. & Rosenstiel, T. (2007). The Elements of Journalism. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press.
Fifield, D. & Lawrance A. (2009, May 7). Chelsea rage at referee for not giving them four penalties. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/may/07/chelsea-barcelona-referee-penalties-hiddink-terry
Soccernet (2009, May 6). Hiddink fumes at Norwegian referee’s display. Retrieved from http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=643931&sec=uefachampionsleague&cc=5901
Wilson, J. (2012, April 6). Referee at centre of Barcelona controversy still receiving abusive emails from Chelsea fans. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/9189650/Referee-at-centre-of-Barcelona-controversy-still-receiving-abusive-emails-from-Chelsea-fans.html
Fifa.com (2012, July 5). Blatter: Technology’s time has come. Retrieved from http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/marketing/qualityprogramme/news/newsid=1660614/index.html
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