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China

3 lessons for newspapers from the Edison Chen scandal

By thomascrampton ⋅ February 13, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

EdisonmagsA scandal over nude photos of a romantically talented film star has had Hong Kong obsessed in recent weeks.

Edison Chen, we now know, has had numerous starlet girlfriends whom he liked to photograph naked. His highly “intimate” photo collection started turning up on the Internet several weeks ago after a computer repair shop allegedly copied his hard drive.

Even after an employee at the computer repair shop was taken into custody by the police, the photos still keep appearing on the web. Edison, who fled to North America, issued an apology via his blog and on a YouTube video that has been watched 400,000 times.

So far nine people have been arrested, with three have been formally charged, including a 24-year old man in Kowloon charged with publishing obscene materials after allegedly posting two files holding 100 photos. I am not sure how they tracked him down.

Naked photos of celebrities are newsworthy in Hong Kong in part because many of the starlets cultivate a wholesome image. In Taiwan, however, nude photo-related scandals are much more common for some reason.

Three lessons from the scandal for newspapers

1 - Readers will pay in order to get less
Edison Chen’s photos are spread across the Internet in uncensored form for free. Nonetheless, circulation has shot up for glossy magazines and newspapers that have been reprinting artfully censored versions of the photos. Thanks to Edison’s camera work, the Chinese New Year slowdown of circulation never happened.

Why do people are paying for censored photographs that they can see for free and uncensored online? Perhaps because they feel they are part of a community in reading it in a public forum such as a newspaper. Perhaps the format helps them sense the impact of what happened when seeing it in print. I wonder if such an event would drive publication sales in ten year’s time.
Edisonchen
2 - Online army of reporters
As the flood of photos spread across the Internet, Hong Kong reporters scrambling to identify naked starlets were aided by online comments added to the pictures. Fans of the actresses managed to identify objects in the photos and even date the photos based on the style of haircut.

The wikipedia-style crowdsourcing of information (chart on right from Wikipedia) was nothing new, but reporters in Hong Kong publications found an interesting role in pulling together the findings in one place. This resulted not only in stories that drew on information from the Internet, but explanatory graphics with more information than a newsroom could possibly assemble in a short time. The journalists found their new role to be in collating and presenting information gathered online.

3 - Netizens unite! EdisondemonstrationThe aggressive police action against Internet users prompted several hundred to demonstrate on Sunday against selective enforcement of Hong Kong’s anti-pornography ordinance. This is the highest profile case of Hong Kong netizens taking to the streets for political action.

With the advent of User Generated Content, censorship becomes a highly personal attack on citizens by the government. This contrasts with censorship exercised through publications, of which readers are often unaware.

Governments and regulators of the world beware, censored netizens will be taking to the streets more frequently than the readers of censored newspapers.

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Discussion

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  • Very competent analysis Mr. Crampton. Thanks for your time in putting this little-bitty together.
  • superdave J
    dude, where are the photos with the naughty bits? why haven't you posted them on your site as a blow against censorship?

    paris fan
  • bigdaddy
    BOBO CHAN BJ PICTURE WITH EDISON REALLY GIVE HER CURRENT ENGAGED FIANCE PHIL KING A BIG WAKEUP CALL AND NEVER KNEW SHE WAS SO KINKY SINCE PHIL KING (HAS A MUSLIM BELIEF) AND BELIEVES IN NO SEX BEFORE MARRIAGE POLICY, PHIL KING REALLY GOT BOBO WRONG THIS BY FAR LOLOLOLOL
  • VR
    Do you think that the fact that people are buying the magazines might have something to do with the actual ARTICLE printed together with the pictures? In my opinion, many people still want to read something to go with the pictures. And to be fair, many glossies do have pretty greasy 'gossipy-thingies' to write, and they do write in an entertaining way. Why wouldn't people want to read those comments/sweepy suggestions along with the pics?

    So maybe - just maybe - people are buying magazines for the writing in them, not just the pictures?! ;)
  • PUBLIC
    Now ... as what we know is about a few actress and models click with edison 'scandals. However, if we may know there is and other maybe 10 more ppl in the future. Thats is not more important. Different people have diffrent view. For me, from this case, i got to knoe Edison 's personal life .Anyways, thats oni small part of his life. But, from this matter. I knoe well about edison chen from i m zero about edison chen.
    I never knoe he had put so mouch effort in to his career, movie, advertisement, CLOT, and else more....
    For me, edison is just such a fren among us who had many gf, what ever they have fun is not our matter. Who care?
    i have to apologize to him also , coz i did see the pic from internet search. I wan to see is just want to find out wat is goin on. that all.
    Edison, you may not be down now. you must face that tis is a fact as how trsunami destroy but we still need to built the place up. YOU TOO. This matter already destroy ur career but didnt kill you. so , u got to be more strong, built yourself a more strong wall to protect your privacy. thats no wrong.wats wrong to have more gf? but is only one at the same time? You didnt force to take the photos, (my opinion), so you never wrong. If you wrong, today, all the actress will scold u in front og public.
    However, you never right also. You never smart to protect this collections. But how ever, not your fault but still bring fault to you.
    FORGET IT.
    Go to a new place , prove to the world via your talent. I want to knoe who is edison from wat he do in his career but not wat he do in his house.
    EDISON.
    I dun knoe you , But, i m here to encourage you to go over all of this and be cum more successful
    in your career.
    Last, be calm , think who is your true love, be with her, love her, ,protect her, and just for her, FORVER. show your true love, this may destroy all yor past relationship memories...

    ALL THE BEST
  • Stephanie
    I think this incident has got blown way off the scale because there is a lack of emphasis in privacy and sex education.

    Those who posted the pictures, circulated them to their friends and used them on the magazine are making joy and money out of others' misery. Part of this is due to a weak sense of responsible and ethical conducts on someone else's property. We all have curiosty, but there is a difference between that and invasion of privacy and the later is what most of the people in HK have done in this incident- buying and producing those magazines and picture. This is actually making money out of sex! Do the media realize that?

    Another underlaying issue that has led to the overblown of this incident is that sex is not a subject that people can have a healthy and comfortable discussion easily. Some feel embarrassed, some feel dirty. This is partly a result of a conservative view of sex in the Chinese community where sex is only a behind-the-door thing and talking about it makes you a sexual person, which is of course not a norm in our culture.

    Why is it so dirty or embarrassing to talk about it if we all hold a healthy attitude and mindset to discuss and, more importantly, teach the younger ones. Chinese parents tend to avoid this topics and leave that to the teachers at schools. At school, the people you talk about sex with are your peers. There is a lack of proper guidance and sex becomes an even more mysterious and exciting thing. However, sex is just part of being a human being. It is how we reproduce. But it is absolutely private. It is interesting to note that such a sexually- repressed country has one of the biggest world population. Go figure.

    I think that this incident has created a void in the society to be filled with more discussion about privacy and sexual behavior in school and at home. It may be hard to take the first step but this is a great opportunity to do it now in light of this incident.

    Apology accepted?
    As for Edison's apology, I don't buy it because I don't think he owes me any. I don't even understand why people think they have the right to demand one from him after violating his privacy. The only people he need to apologize are the girls being exposed and their families. That's all!

    He must be under so much pressure to have to apologize to all HK people. But why? Because he is an actor and many young people look up to these figures? From my understanding is that he signed a contract as an entertainer, not Mother Theresa or the prime minister. And why would people look up to celebrities? You can admire their talents but one should distinguish admiration from idolization. There are many other people to look up to in this world who are actually doing great things besides performing.

    One last thing I like to point out is that the word "scandal" has been used in association to this incident. Which part of it is scandalous? The sex part?The picture taking part? Or the part where people went crazy about seeing other people naked? If I have to choose, the most scandalous part is that people have the guts to watch the pictures, comment on them, passed them around and yet blame the guy who took these picture for his own private leisure. If you have seen those pictures, I think you owe him an apology because you have violated his private life already.

    A young man's career has been ruined. The public who participated in it can move on easily but it is not that easy for Edison. I hope he will be safe from the triad and recover well. HK is still a relatively conservation place and he may be better off to have his career in Hollywood where sex scandal is not a big deal. We should all put this incident to rest and really take this chance to reflect on our own misconducts.
  • Selina
    the scandal involved high profile names, many to list here. check it out
    HERE
  • ball2
  • Han
    I think that people are paying to buy the tabloids because simply many of them don't know where to find the full, uncensored photos online.

    If they can get it for free, why would they pay?

    Just imagine the older folks who are computer illiterate. Would they bother to search the Internet?

    Having said that, the photos can be found here:
    http://www.squidoo.com/edison-chen-sex-scandal
  • Maggee
    the scandal is very overrated highly publicized, couldn't agree more.
    MORE HERE
  • DETAIL: Edison Chen was a Mac user.

    FURTHER DETAIL: His Mac is pink.
  • ezine
    I think the HK police handled the case pretty badly. It shows their incompetence and they think people will just cower like rats...Its ridiculous
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thomascramptonconf

Thomas Crampton was a correspondent for the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times for more than a decade, reporting from five continents, writing a column on Asia and covering Asian politics, economics and culture. Currently based in Hong Kong, he writes here about China, the Internet and New Media seen from Asia, while also advising companies on digital communication strategies. For more information click here...