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94% claim affected by micro-blogs: Survey

By Zheng Jinran (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-08-24 15:31

About half of survey respondents browse information on micro-blogs frequently, and 94.3% confirm micro-blogging is changing their life, China Youth Daily reported on Aug 24.

The survey collected information from 3,282 people, 91.6% of whom are younger than 40 years old.

The survey shows 73.7% thought information on micro-blogs, updated constantly and covering a large variety of topics, is an important news source.

Wang Kai, a survivor of the devastating Aug 8 mudslide in Zhouqu, Northwest China’s Gansu province, wrote news about rescue work via his micro-blog. The day after the mudslide, he updated more than 100 pieces of information about what’s going on in Zhouqu.

More than 10,000 Internet users kept a close eye on his updates. Even some media said his micro-blog site was almost like a news agency.

But Kuang Wenbo, a professor from the School of Journalism and Communication at Renmin University of China, said, “Micro-blogging is a kind of grassroots media without any supervision to guarantee that all they said is true. Anyone can say anything on their micro-blogs.” He warned that information on micro-blogs cannot be treated as a main source.

According to the survey, about 70% of respondents said they would double check the information on micro-blogs.