Latest News:  

English>>China Society

Smartphone snapshots encourage supervision, participation

(Xinhua)

13:13, June 06, 2013

BEIJING, June 6 (Xinhua) -- The increasing popularity of smartphones has led many Chinese to take pictures of nearly anything and everything in sight.

While most capture images of beautiful scenery, the meals they're eating for the day or their friends, others use mobile phone photography to engage in social criticism.

In a recent case, one netizen took a photo of Chinese characters reading "Ding Jinhao was here" that were written on the side of a 3,000-year-old Egyptian temple.

The photo was uploaded to Sina Weibo, China's most popular microblogging site, on May 6, with tens of thousands of netizens posting messages criticizing the tourist responsible for the graffiti.

It was discovered later that Ding is a 15-year-old boy from the city of Nanjing in east China's Jiangsu Province. His parents apologized for his act in a local newspaper.

China has 277 million 3G subscribers, according to figures from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The number of smartphone users is around 360 million and the number of registered Sina Weibo users exceeds 530 million.

Smartphone photos have also been used to reveal instances of corruption and wrongdoing.

Zhou Shaoqiang, a top manager at a state-owned company in the city of Zhuhai, was removed from his post earlier this year after a man who dined with him and other employees shared photos of expensive liquor that was purchased at the public's expense.

In addition to allowing people to engage in supervision, smartphones have also become effective tools for boosting public interest programs. Internet celebrities sometimes call on the public to participate in such campaigns using their smartphones.

Since March, netizens have been encouraged to find and photograph manholes that lack covers after a university student in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, drowned after falling into an uncovered manhole without a lid.

The campaign has resulted in 140,000 related posts on Tencent, another popular microblogging website.

In 2011, Yu Jianrong, a professor from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, launched an online campaign calling on netizens to take photos of children abandoned on the streets. The campaign had attracted more than 200,000 followers and aided 56,000 children as of the end of 2012.

Realizing the influence that such campaigns can have, some government departments have encouraged the public to aid in urban management efforts by using their smartphone cameras.

On May 6, the municipal government of Liuzhou in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, opened an account on Weixin, a social networking platform operated by Tencent.

Local residents have been encouraged to take photos of any damage done to public facilities and send them to the account. The government has received 6,000 such tips from local residents and authorities have followed up on 520 related cases.

Xia Xinping, an assistant researcher of sociology at the Guangxi University of Science and Technology, said the popularity of snapshots indicates that modern technology not only enriches people's material lives, but also provides an opportunity for people to supervise and participate.

"The government should make full use of modern technology and make innovations in social management," she said.


Latest Development of the Fire

We Recommend:

State-owned barbershop dying out

China’s weekly story (2013.5.18- 5.24)

Wine club: a new way of life in the city

Left-behind children, victims of school violence

White angels in Chongqing South West Hospital

Baby abandoned in toilet pipe rescued

Children in rural areas: Fewer toys, more joy

Chinese-style hurdlers in street

Left-behind children before Children's Day

Email|Print|Comments(Editor:WangLili、Gao Yinan)

Leave your comment0 comments

  1. Name

  

Selections for you


  1. North Sea Fleet in replenishment training

  2. Internal photos of China's aircraft carrier "Liaoning"

  3. Chinese miners in Ghana

  4. Where's the bottom line of shows?

  5. Drone makes maiden flight over N China

  6. Dramatic dream in little theater

  7. Cartoons from 2D to 3D

  8. Sharapova reaches semifinals

  9. Digital currency bitcoin gains virtual interest

  10. 3D printing gallery opens in Chongqing

Most Popular

Opinions

  1. Law desiderated to protect interns' right
  2. China owes a huge debt to the environment
  3. China's middle class emerges, to spend more
  4. Xi-Obama meeting of milestone significance
  5. Violation of women's rights root of sexual assaults
  6. China not to tolerate rogue act on S. China Sea
  7. Imaginaion: essential for cultural confidence
  8. How ZTE is winning the US market
  9. Global IT and techno-jingoism
  10. Copycats stifle Chinese innovation

What’s happening in China

Breathing and Working Together:Mobile app tells you Beijing's environment

  1. Former journalist draws pollution map of China
  2. 'Special marriage group' byproduct of social times
  3. Reservoir to be built in Huangpu's upper reaches
  4. Retired teacher plants poppies as veggies
  5. Fatal fire rings alarm for factory safety