Harmony Town

        In China, media censorship is widely known but not well understood. Some people regard the limitation of accessibility to websites or books as media censorship. For example, most people know that some websites, such as Facebook.com, Youtube.com and nytimes.com cannot be accessed from mainland China, some keywords will not return search results in the search engine, some words or content cannot be discussed on the Internet, whether in private chats or public discussion, and then they believe this is what media censorship is about. However, they do not realize that media censorship also includes the control of individuals, the regulation of corporations and the forms of expression that can be used in a media report, which affects what kind of information they can access.

        The limitations created by media censorship have a few drawbacks for society. For instance, the limitations on the press limit the variety of points of view expressed in Chinese media; due to the limitation of points of view, people cannot form their own points of view without bias; perpetrators may also use media censorship to hide their illegal activities from the public’s view. On January 22, 2014, China disconnected the Internet for several hours to stop the circulation of reports about the use of offshore tax havens by members of the Chinese elite (“Enemies of the Internet 2014”).

        Although many articles and books talk about the drawbacks of media censorship in China, they are written for researchers. The general public seldom has access to those works and many of them do not understand the drawbacks of media censorship. However, people who are not familiar with media censorship are the ones who live in it. Their attitudes towards media censorship will affect how media censorship will be conducted in the future. If they do not regard media censorship as a problem, media censorship will keep existing and become concealed and regulated. If they start realizing the drawbacks of media censorship, they will treat the reports on media critically and the situation of media censorship will possibly change in the future.
        The purpose of this game is to provoke and make people who live under media censorship realize the drawbacks of media censorship and reflect on the circumstance they are living in. It is hard for people who live under media censorship to understand the drawbacks of it, because the information they get from the media is censored, i.e. some misconduct is not reported or unreachable by the general public, and it is impossible to form an unbiased point of view based on censored information. The form of game provides an interesting way to experience media censorship and the player can analyze media censorship from an outsider’s point of view. Game is also attractive to non-researchers and the young generation, who will influence the policy of media censorship in the future.