Paike are changing China’s media landscape. They provide video clips for Chinese video Web sites such as Tudou.com and Nasdaq-listed Youku.com, and some paike, who used to shoot videos as a hobby, have turned it into their profession.

    CHEN BIN keeps the wolf from the door by selling insurance, but he’s also an amateur paraglider and a member of China’s army of citizen journalists who share their stories online.

    Chen is a member of the paike (which literally means amateur cameraman), an emerging group in the country who makes digital videos and uploads them onto the Internet for the general public to access.

    The 42-year-old man became an Internet celebrity after his video clips of an aerial view of the deadly Wenzhou train crash scene in Zhejiang Province last summer became a big hit online.

    The fan of powered paragliding recorded the scene from the air the morning after two bullet trains collided near Wenzhou City on July 23, leaving 40 dead and hundreds injured.

    The video quickly went viral as Chinese, wanting to discover the truth about the accident, eagerly viewed it. They were after information other than that provided by the local authorities.

    The video clip was used by dozens of TV broadcasters, including the national broadcaster, CCTV, in their news reports of the accident.

    The video clip Chen shot is reportedly the earliest one of the crash scene and was a valuable reference for rescue workers.

    “(After the video was broadcast,) many friends from all over China called me. I never expected such influence,” said Chen.

    Chen works for a local insurance company but he dedicates much of his free time to leading a non-government air search and rescue team. It was his passion to help others that motivated him to capture the scene on video to assist the rescue work.

    Citizen journalism

    Paike are changing China’s media landscape. They provide video clips for Chinese video Web sites such as Tudou.com and Nasdaq-listed Youku.com, and some paike, who used to shoot videos as a hobby, have turned it into their profession, said Chen Zhihua, vice president of ifeng.com, a leading news Web portal in China.

    When Chinese video Web sites were first established, they mainly served as platforms for programs produced by TV broadcasters to be shared. However, with the development of new media technology as well as China’s efforts in protecting intellectual property rights, video Web sites have shifted their attention to original videos and have encouraged Internet users to shoot and upload interesting video clips.

    Video Web sites have launched exclusive channels that rely on news captured by paike. The ifeng video channel announced this month that it had earmarked 10 million yuan (US$1.58 million) to pay video clip contributors.

    The video Web site will contract 2,000 to 3,000 paike and initiate 10 training programs for them this year, according to vice president Chen of ifeng.

    The Web site of the Hongkong-based television broadcaster Phoenix has also established a platform where video clips sent to Phoenix are shared with TV broadcasters in Guangdong, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces.

    “Today, it is usually amateur paike instead of professional journalists who are the first to get to the scene of a news event,” said Chen. “Our campaign is aimed to improve the quality of videos shot by paike and expand their influence with the help of our technology and communication network as a professional broadcaster.”

    Powerful, though not professional

    Zhao Fujun, an IT industry columnist, said paike, though not professional journalists or cameramen, have become video Web sites’ main source of content that attracts users.

    Even traditional media have launched special programs to encourage audiences to record and share what they see and feel in their daily lives with their cameras.

    The paike have even become agenda setters for the public and media.

    A video clip about a toddler hit twice by two different vans but left bleeding on the road as 18 passers-by walked by sparked an outcry and a national debate on Chinese people’s “moral depravity” in late 2011.

    The clip showed that no one did anything to help the 2-year-old girl later nicknamed Little Yueyue until an old trash collector came to her aid.

    The scene in Foshan City, Guangdong Province, was captured by a surveillance camera and first aired by a local TV broadcaster. However, the event did not attract much attention until a paike made clips of the original video and uploaded it online.

    Thanks to the paike, the incident gained huge media attention.

    Yu Guoming, a professor of journalism at Beijing-based Renmin University of China and an expert on public opinion, said the emergence of paike in China has greatly influenced the media industry and promoted social progress as well.

    The case of Little Yueyue is a very typical example that demonstrated the power of the Chinese grassroots, Yu said.

    “The paike can spot, observe and quickly respond to social problems in a more keen and diverse perspective, which may well later become public topics,” said Professor Yu. “They might trigger some controversy initially, but in the long run, they will promote social progress.”

    According to a recent report released by China Internet Network Information Center, Internet users in China reached 513 million with 325 million Internet video users by the end of 2011. And 63.4 percent of the video users said that they were more dependent on the Internet than TV.

(Xinhua)