Page 209 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Chapter 7. The Yihuang incident

dismissed because they were directly responsible for the incident (Liu, et al., 2010).

These severe sanctions were unprecedented in the history of the nation in terms of so-
cial events (Wang, 2012).

7.3.3 Stage 3: Final settlement – facilitated by the synergy between
mainstream media and We Media

In the early morning of 18 September, Zhong Rujiu announced on Sina Weibo
and Tencent Weibo that her uncle, Ye Zhongcheng, the victim in the incident, was dead.
The same night, another turning point occurred; the Fuzhou city mayor came to the ho-
tel where the Zhong family was stayed and promised that the government would send

the best doctors to treat the remaining two victims of the event. From the moment, the
situation began moving to a new direction.
In the following days, Zhong Rujiu continued to post messages and photos of
these events on Weibo, refuting the Yihuang officials’ explanations, and revealing de-

tails of the whole event. She also received help from Weibo users who assisted her to
arrange the best surgeons to treat her family members. It represents that online support
have transformed into offline action.
On the evening of 26 September at 8:23 p.m., Zhong Rujiu posted on Weibo

appealing for help again, indicating that her mother was in a critical condition, and
urgently looking for specialists. This post was forwarded for 11,488 times with 3,134
comments (Figure 45). It showed Weibo users carrying out useful actions instead of
just browsing information. Among all forwarders, there were even a famous actor – Yao

Chen, a Professor from Renmin University of China – Zhang Ming and other celebri-
ties and opinion leaders.
‘Dear netizens, my mother is in critical situation now. She didn’t have any sleep last night.
Her belly is bloated as if it is about to explode. Her life is in great danger. The hospital can-
not figure out a solution and the medical facility has reached its limit. We are in desperate
need for expert in Burn to rescue her out of danger. We appeal for help to transfer my
mother and sister to another hospital that can provide better treatment! Please, every-
49
one, I am begging, please help us! I am kneeling down for your help, please’ .
Figure 44. Translation of Zhong’s post that appealing for help.
49 Translation provided by the author.

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