A little report from Syracuse University 

http://newhouse.syr.edu/files/images/networkPDF/NetworkNewsFall08.pdf

nothing particularly striking, right? now a report from the Chinese press

我看CCTV4华人世界节目，见识了一位美籍华人巨牛女孩。她称自己获得美国总统奖，和

美国前总统小布什在2008年北京奥运会见过面。她是这样和采访人讲的：那天布什会见

美国队，为美国队打气。她因为是奥运志愿者在场。结果布什在和其他人寒暄完后，径直

朝她走来。她以为总统要和她身后什么人讲话， 结果布什走到她身边说：你是菲吧，你得

过美国总统奖。我上网查了一下，这个故事有很多版本。有的说布什走到她跟前说：菲你

怎么会在这里？言下之意，美国总统和她很熟，一眼就能认出她。美国总统真是闲得发

狂啊！有的版本说她和匈牙利总统根茨是好朋友。李肇星大使当年出奇不意的到她就读的

高中要求见她， 并要求校方照顾她。堂堂13亿人大国驻美大使也跟美国总统一样闲？又说

她的妈妈说服基辛格博士支持中国申办奥运。又说她发现了美国高中的数学书上一处错误，

结果出版社来了大卡车把书全拉走了。又说放弃了CNN实习生的职务，选择当奥运志愿者。

http://jishi.cntv.cn/people/huarenshijie/classpage/video/20101127/100382.shtml 
http://www.jiaodong.net/sports/system/2008/08/20/010329351.shtml 
 
is it about the same person? I am afraid it is, and that is journalism in China - she probably exaggerated 
her own experience, but the reporters not only bought it all, but probably added extras themselves.
However, she did meet at least Laura Bush during the Olympics
 
As a Beijing native who had lived in USA for some years, she was the right kind of games volunteer 
to meet Bush, and the Secret Service certainly would have checked the background of everyone that 
meeting Bush; it is even possible that Bush noticed the school prize item and mentioned it during their 
encounter - nothing more than common PR practice; 
Further, anyone who makes donations and raises funds for Republicans or Democrats have to
chance to be invited to White House for tea and have photos taken with presidents if the party
one helps happens to be in power; I know a high school classmate (now a professor at Princeton)
whose sister did that and met the Clintons, more than once; however, she later went to jail because
of some errors made in real estate, so one mustnt exaggerate the importance of such connections;
on the other hand, the audience in China do not have such perspective and get over excited easily
Another webpage about her is even more curious
http://kids.youth.cn/zt/mgztj/shz/200907/t20090730_973369.htm
 
with a photo showing her and the HK/Taiwan movie star Shu Qi

 
one out of many taken with entertainment figures
 
http://kids.youth.cn/zt/mgztj/ 
 
which also shows her taking part in singing shows and other events; Ye's family has some 
history in the entertainment industry, though I have not looked at it in details, so she gets to
meet the celebrities; how big a deal one makes of this is of course both up to oneself and to
circumstances; Perez Hilton, for example, makes a living by going to all the occasions when a
movie star, model or some other celebrity visits some venue in his region (he is based in Los
Angeles so such events are frequent) and putting photos taken with the stars on his blog, which
attracted attention and advertisement, and now he is himself a minor celebrity
 
so is this an coordinated effort to promote Ye Fei as a show business person? Give her modest
looks and carriage, the prospect seems far fetched to me; however, nothing is impossible in China. 
I relate the story of the Obama girl of Shanghai in the boxes below 

during the Obama speech, TV and newspaper cameras showed a girl wearing a black dress sitting close behind his lecturn  

an earlier photo shows that before the talk started she wore a red jacket, under which was the black dress whose collars protruded

Not a big deal right? Almost as soon as the photos appeared, web forums published a huge number of postings speculating about this girl, how pretty she was, she was too classy to be a student of the university where the talk took place, she must be someone important like the daughter of a high official, the mistress of some wealthy guy, etc

On the right you can find a complete set of information about her; for this discussion, the salient points are:

1. She was a student, but at a different Shanghai university; she was also a participant in several previous beauty contests and did some modelling.

2. For some reason, someone was willing to spend a considerable sum of money to generate publicity about her. .

3. This someone paid someone in the lecture organizing group to allocate a particular seat to her, making sure the TV and newspaper cameras will prominently show her.She was coached to wear contrasting jacket and dress and to remove the jacket some time during the early part of the talk for greater visual impact

4. A number of individuals were paid to spread forum postings about her with photos and different kinds of discussions about her; there are people who make a part time career doing this, by registering multiple identities at various popluar forums and uploading graphics/texts to bombard the web with slightly different information. The buzz then draws others who add to the spread.

5. Among the buzz were two blogs purported to be her. One issued an admission that there was such a campaign, another then denied it; both were of course parts of the campaign.

Unfortunately for the backer, the scheme was successful only for a limited period; it was rather poorly executed and the intent to promote her was a bit obvious. Interest began to wane about a month of this and the web has been quiet about her since.We never found out who was behind it all and what their ultimate objective was.

王紫菲

上海交大研究生王紫菲，因在奥巴马演讲时脱掉外套的，被外国记者拍到，而为众多网民所知。中国人民大学学生王紫菲，2009年亚洲小姐内地总决赛亚军。
   王紫菲是2009年11月16日美国总统奥巴马在上海与中国青年对话过程中其身后的一位黑衣美女。2009年保送上海交大安泰经济与管理学院研究生。她在众多媒体的报道中引起了网民注意，同时也有外国记者拍摄到的她在奥巴马入会场之前脱掉外套的过程的照片在网上流传，后来演变成为“奥巴马演讲现场，美女当众脱衣”脱衣过程被做成gif格式图片。
　　人肉搜索从17日中午就开始，随后有一张真实的校内生活照被广泛曝光，媒体关注，但是她真实的身份还没有得到确认，追捧、质疑、误解随之增多。
　　22日到24日，有人将她的姓名和人人网地址等信息广泛传播，人肉搜索的结果才被广泛知晓。
　　24日 中午王紫菲本人开通新浪博客和新浪微博回应人们对她的质疑和猜测。但随后网络掀起新一轮制造虚假报道、假博客、假采访的活动，并有很多媒体和网友将王紫菲和另外两个同名名人搞混。
　　12月1日中午，王紫菲本人在多次辟谣不成后新浪博客发表了新文章，表达了对媒体炒作、网络舆论的无奈，因为她从没有接受过媒体的采访，只有新浪一个公开博客和一个微博，也没有经纪公司。她写道“既然时势已变，真我不变，我还是会把学习放在第一位的那个女生，只不过要变的是面对生活的态度与新的生活方式。”“我想可能一切都是天意，我决定直面生活。”但是随后博文被加密，第二天被删除，但透过转载和搜索还是可以看到。
　　由于关于“炒作”和“承认炒作”的虚假报道愈演愈烈，12月9日晚，王紫菲本人不得不在新浪博客发表新文章，再次澄清没有炒作。而承认炒作的是腾讯的曾得到名人认证的假博客。她在文章中表达：“自始至终只有新浪一个博客，没有接受过任何 采访，网上所公布的QQ号也不属实。”“针对最近部分媒体热衷报道的‘20万策划的炒作’一事，只想简单例举几点，真假大家便不难辨识：1、现场安保极其严格，直至当天早上出发前往科技馆参加接待活动，我们才得知自己大致的座位示意图；进入会场后才寻到自己的具体位置。2、报道中说：‘经记者调查王紫菲在奥巴马演讲期间脱掉外套’，此点只需观看当天会议视频便知其假。”“太多不再赘述，通篇读完，除本人姓名与学校无误以外，没有一点属实。”但是辟谣之声来的较晚，在众多主流媒体，包括纸质媒体、电视台已经做了极为肯定的有关炒作的报道之后，在对炒作的评论文章也已上网之后，当事人才出来澄清。有网友评价，即使不出来澄清，真相也是明摆着的，是任何一个稍微注意一点细节的人都会发现的。造谣之事之所以会发生，那是因为媒体和绝大部分网友不关心真相。再次澄清也不会有什么效果，在中国这是正常现象。这充分证明王紫菲应该接受“被炒作”现实，不需要局限于对炒作的避嫌，正是“低调、顺应和羞涩”才使她成为媒体和公众伤害的目标，才成为“被炒作”的目标。
　　2010年4月17日，王紫菲再次更新新浪微博“上海的天气很健康——如果它是张心电图的话”
　　新浪博客发表新文章《真实的紫菲——倔强的？听话的？》“也许大家没因此多一位明星朋友，但是你们却留住了最真实的CiCi。”
　2010年5月25日，王紫菲新浪博客发表了新文章《课堂上好多新婚夫妇》。
　　2010年7月15日，王紫菲新浪博客发表了新文章《放暑假啦！——HAPPY欢乐谷 O(∩_∩)O~》
　　2010年8月27日，王紫菲新浪博客发表了新文章《女人有钱还要会花 》
　　2010年9月19日，王紫菲新浪博客发表了新文章《在台湾的新生活 》
　　2010年10月5日，王紫菲新浪博客发表了新文章《不夜城的奢华风尚—gossip girl one night in taipei》
　　2010年10月21日,王紫菲新浪博客发表了新文章《在台大的思想教育课》
　　2010年10月21日, 王紫菲新浪博客发表了新文章《在北海岸玩婚》