八月份的年会要到了，好多同学都在三四月里定好了房间。忘了因为什么原因，大概是事情太多了，一直忙到5月底才开始定房子。可是conference hotel的会议rate (109每晚)早就卖光了，如果非要在里面住的话是税前309一个晚上。无奈，只好在expedia，hotels，还有kayak等等网站上面狂找，最便宜的都要200多一晚，一边看一边后悔当初没有眼疾手快。

差点准备大出血的时候，突然心血来潮跑到同学前两天推荐的一个网站travelzoo上面去看，居然找到一个一晚只要150的，而且离conference的饭店只有2分钟的路，就算是街对面那样的，平时的rate一般是250到300一晚，正好会议期间优惠，网上的评价还算不错，就颠颠儿地打了个电话。他们5分钟后寄来了confirmation email，一切搞定。

今天晚上又是莫名其妙地想看看旅馆房间的照片(偶素照片控)，可是在webmail的inbox里面怎么都找不到confirmation email，无奈，只好来了个超级大search，这几年来无数的hotel reservation都出来了。咦？这不是conference hotel的reservation 确认信么?! 打开一看，果然是，时间是3月份，时间都对。又打了个电话确认，发现的确是我的reservation，109一晚的那个。

心花怒放兮兮地取消了另外的booking又开始后怕起来，如果当初没有把另一个hotel的email乱放到别的地方，也许永远也不会发现当初还在conference hotel定过房，直到信用卡八月被charge n百之后。

开始妄想哪天在信箱里找到一张回北京的机票了！

从我们专业的一个news letter上copy下来的，觉得说得还是比较在理的。贴在这里除草啦 :)

www.aejmc-mcs.org

Torch of Distinction  or Torch of Distortion?
Press Freedom, Responsibility and the Olympics in China
By Jennifer Fleming

California State University, Long Beach
Professional Freedom & Responsibility Co-chair

It was a scene rarely seen or heard these days on college campuses—protest!

This protest, however, wasn’t about California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s looming across-the-state budget cuts to education. It wasn’t about the Iraq war either. It seemed to be about the Olympics in China this summer.

A group of cyclists ended their tour-for-Tibetan-freedom at UCLA to gather support for their cause. But, Chinese nationals, some of them UCLA students, other community members and friends, far outnumbered those supporting the cyclists.

“Liar! Liar! Liar!” the roughly 50 Chinese nationals and their supporters chanted, as a pro-Tibetan cyclist in spandex shorts spoke in front of a larger-than-life Tibetan flag.

I was so piqued by the protestors’ passion that I had to stop, listen and ask myself what they were really angry about. Who wouldn’t want a free Tibet, I thought? And, most importantly, who was lying? It quickly became clear the Chinese nationals had greater respect for the cyclists than the western news media, CNN especially. 

Several Olympics-in-China supporters were passing out flyers, pointing the concerned or just plain curious in the crowd to the website, www.anti-cnn.com. The name says it all. They felt as though they were getting blind-sided by a biased press they claimed distorted the recent riots in Tibet and favored the protestors who chased the Olympic torch out of several countries during the flame’s traditional round-the-world tour.

According to the website, the purpose of anti-cnn.com is “…to expose the lies and distortions in the western media. The site is maintained by volunteers, who are not associated with any government officials. We are not against the western media, but against the lies and fabricated stories in the media. We are not against the western people, but against the prejudice from the western society.”

There are numerous images and excerpts from American, German, Canadian, French and British news media posted to help support anti-cnn.com’s claim that the western news media lie or, at the very least, are often inaccurate when it comes to stories about China. For example, one image from a Fox News story implied that a group of police dragging a protestor away were Chinese; anti-cnn.com claims the police were Indian. Another “lie” is a photograph of an ambulance from a BBC news story, yet the cutline reads, “There is a heavy military presence in Lhasa.”

Do these anti-cnn.com “volunteers” have a point? Are western news media lying?

Western news media, U.S. news media in particular, have a long, well-researched tradition of marginalizing protestors, their tactics and their messages. This framing phenomenon is known as the protest paradigm (Dardis, 2006; Brasted, 2005; Entman, 2004; McLeod & Detenber, 1999). However, in the case of the Olympic torch relay and many other China-related stories, the inverse of the protest paradigm seems to be the case, which raises issues of not only professional freedom and responsibility of news media professionals, but of ethnocentrism and perhaps racism, as well.

According to protest paradigm, it is protestors—those standing up to the powerful—who are marginalized in media. That doesn’t seem to be the case when it comes to stories about China, the Olympics and Tibet, as seen in a Montreal Gazette op/ed piece:

To the protesters, we’d like to say: Good work. You have done a service to Tibet, Darfur, and Chinese dissidents alike, by puncturing the absurd rhetoric about the Olympics being above politics. Of course they’re not, and perhaps never have been (A20).

From Tibet to the Olympic torch relay to lead paint in toys, it seems China is increasingly demonized in western media, throwing the protest paradigm into a tailspin. Many say the Olympics may be the only opportunity for the world community to hold China accountable for its human rights record and they may be right. Yet, free, factual and fair media are part of what make democracies different from communist or totalitarian states.

When the media herd rushes to judgment, trips over the truth and fails to present the other side adequately, fairly, accurately or not at all, the Chinese might be the ones who start to question the value of a free and responsible press. A friend recently wrote, “The distortion of the media like CNN, BBC and some French made me uncomfortable. They stained the western democratic images …. I love democracy, but I reject it if it is like this.” 

The world’s media eyes may be on the Olympics in China this summer, but it seems just as many eyes will be looking in the other direction to see how responsible “free” western media cover the games and their country.

References
∙ Brasted, M. (2005) Framing Protest: The Chicago Tribune and the New York Times during the 1968 Democratic Convention, Atlantic Journal of Communication 13(1): 1–25.
∙ Dardis, F. E. (2006). Military Accord, Media Discord: A Cross-national Comparison of UK vs. US Press Coverage of Iraq War Protest. International Communication Gazette 68 (5/6), 409-426.
∙ Entman, R. M. (2004). Projections of Power: Framing News, Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
∙ McLeod, D. M. and B. H. Detenber (1999) Framing Effects of Television News Coverage of Social Protest, Journal of Communication 49(3): 3–23.
∙ Montreal Gazette, (2008, April 10). Torch-relay protests are a lesson in democracy A20.

昨天跑到商店里乘凉（其实是想逛街的借口啦）,发现coach出了一个很大的baby bag似乎可以用来放laptop，里面还有个给baby换p巾的海绵垫儿。

正拿在镜子前比比划划地臭美加斗争着，身后突然传来一个声音，hey,你看上去像个cool teenager，帮我看看这个包送人合不合适吧。回头一看，是三个中（年）美（国）白大婶，她们想给其中一个昨天高中毕业的女儿送礼物又拿不准。她们手里的也是个黑皮包，不过肩带贼细贼细的，而且整个包没有什么厚度，估计只能放放airbook或者thinkpad x。我就老老实实告诉她们，俺较着要不就给她买以上两种laptop，要不就让这个包的把手三个月灭掉，要不就只放放小于100张A4的paper不过这个包忒黑忒平淡了如果只放paper的话还有n多其它更cute的包。

趁那三个人开始讨论的当儿往外走突然灵光一闪，难道因为刚才比划的是baby bag才说cool？(Juno看多了吧 ~@~ )

正在悄悄得意中，霎那间一句execuse me袭来，抬头一看，是一个中（年）美（国）黑大婶的热切目光，我们肯定在哪里见过面，对了，你是不是这两年一直在Duke工作来着？

偶的神那...