outbreak of SARS

The public panic and the function of mass media
1. WangDan presents Chinese people as innocent
Wang Dan presents Chinese people are innocent in an outbreak of SARS. He said the Chinese authorities tried to cover it up, but paper cannot cover up fire. The consequence was panic among the people. Obviously, he tried to show that people who were infected by SARS were innocent due to irresponsibility of the Chinese government. As we know he was one of the leaders of the Tiananmen Square democracy movement in 1989 in China and he has sufficient knowledge in history and politic of China, but he have been isolated from China since 1997. That brings me to think how much he knows about the nowadays of China. Does he qualify to criticize China about SARS? Does his message reliable? From Marshall McLuhan¡¯s conception of the medium is the message, Wang Dan himself can be looked as a medium. He himself as a medium automatically sends me a message before reading his address to Taipei Times...