Continuing the dialog about China, The Olympics, Social Media and Everything ... here's a response to one of Dr. Andy Miah's questions for the 9th International Symposium on Olympic Studies:

"In what way are new media platforms enabling new forms of journalism to surround the Beijing Olympics?"

To craft well-rounded answers, Symposium participant Kris Krug (Robert Scales is also on board) sat round the table with Richard Eriksson (recently returned from Shanghai and currently stay-cationing), and myself, to tease out the issues which influence the answers.

In our chat, we reviewed each of Dr. Miah's questions and tried to "twist the kaleidescope" a bit to reflect a broader world view in the conversational answers.

Here's what we came up with in response to: "In what way are new media platforms enabling new forms of journalism to surround the Beijing Olympics?"

The biggest platform for enable new journalism is the ubiquitous camera phone. Everyone in the cities seems to have one. With this many people with cameraphones taking photos, text messaging and shooting videos, if something goes down, the world will certainly see it somehow.

While the public focus will be on the MSM journalists, the neat and surprising coverage stuff will come from camera phones and "regular people". Certainly there is a precedent of citizens breaking stories in emergencies and natural disasters.

Despite the government's attempts to control Internet access, "unauthorized" pictures will get out somewhere, somehow (coded and filtered through networks as needed). And once the horse is out of the barn, it's not going back in. And the more controversial the piece is, the more readily it'll be replicated and disseminated. Imagine all the coverage of the noted Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 with today's digital technology!

The tools and desire for truth will result in a huge amount counting just the social media generated on Chinese social media sites and BBS. Add in the international sites filled with content from journalism-minded amateurs and spectators making media for their own use and we'll see a massive amount of content adding up to more quantity and possibly quality, than the MSM will produce.

Additionally, using social media to organize groups as well as covering stories will be a force. Using mobile phones, protesters can be nimble and strategic in planning non-permitted events. This will disrupt the government's ability to control public assemblies and their reaction will be interesting.

Will the police use more soft-handed tactic instead of actively repressing events then rounding-up and detaining the perpetrators? Remember, the Free Hugs guy was detained (video) for unauthorized social gathering which he organized by using social media tools.

Next up in the China, The Olympics, Social Media, Symposiums, etc. series ...more discussion about the convergence between "old" and "new" media, political motivations for social media; how social media production and distribution is distinct in China; and the IOC's attitude towards, and regulations for, blogging by accredited and non-accredited journalists, and the public's expectations of the mainstream media host broadcasters. What stories will we hear? And how are the stories told?