new media

Grumbling about inflation is nothing new. But now it's time for the Chinese to make a song and dance about it. Despite the Beijing government insisting that rising inflation levels are ‘structural' and a sign of a healthy economy, ordinary people are finding it hard to see through the same looking-glass. Making their voices heard online, they're using the internet to vent their fumes. Sometimes light-heartedly, like in the video ‘The riddle of spending power' (which we've subtitled in English), but also more seriously. Read more...

The contributors

Zhang

Cai Shenkun

The proliferation of camera cell phones has seen an increasing number of amateur videos emerging from Iraq. The favourite genre appears to be humour, which is spurring the production of hundreds of videos that would match ‘Pop Idol' standards. With hours to spare and nothing to do between often dangerous missions, US soldiers are choreographing, performing, and recording themselves dancing and singing, and then posting the videos on YouTube. We put together a collection of these videos, although dates and locations are unknown, and showed them to ex-soldiers and US Army officials to get their reactions. Read more...

The contributors

Team Observers

Major Winfie...

Ernesto Haibi

Rick Hinshaw

Since Afghanistan and Iraq, constant and live coverage of war has become reality. Wherever, whenever, you can see what's happening as it happens. Filmed by both insurgents and soldiers, there are now hundreds of videos online. Here is one of them. Posted on the video-sharing network Liveleak on 11 December, the video was shot in Iraq, but it's impossible to say when. We asked Ernesto, a soldier who fought in Iraq, to comment on the video. "It's hard for a civilian seeing this from the outside," he explains. "But this stuff is not pro-war or anti-war, it's just reality."

Post your questions to Ernesto.

Video not dated.

The contributors

Team Observers

Ernesto Haibi