The internet has increasingly be-come a new important media in our lives , and it also brings new challenges and opportunities for the transmission of Tibetan culture-of which the images of Tibet on the internet play an extremely important role.Internet images, i.e.the digital images and videos uploaded onto the internet , have be-come another kind of major text-the text of images or pictorial text .It is the pictorial text that pres-ents visually the mysterious Tibetan culture in cy-berspace , and enables everyone to have a closer look at the truth and miracle of the Qinghai-Tibet high plateau .At present , there are a large num-ber of images and videos related to Tibet on the in-ternet , and the graphical trend of Tibetan internet culture is obvious .While internet images dissemi-nate Tibetan culture to the world , they also reflect its characteristics which differ from traditional ima-ges and the written text.
1) The Ease in obtaining (the images).The easiness refers to the “ease in obtaining andannouncing” with the help of digital techniques forphotography and internet.Firstly, based on digitaltechniques, no matter whether it is a digitalcamera, smartphone or tablet PC, all are equippedwith not less than 2 million or even 5 millionpixel camera lenses, which enable digital imagesof Tibet to exist everywhere.Secondly, theTibet Autonomous Region has built a communicationsnetwork which covers all cities, counties,towns and important traffic hubs and tourist attractionsin Tibet.Finally, speaking from the perspectiveof photographers, there are official mediaphotographers, ordinary people, event participantsand visitors in Tibetan areas.All of themcan use cameras and mobile phones to record thepeople, events, and landscape of Tibet, and uploadthese images onto the internet.These form aspectacular landscape of images that everyone canshare.
2) The Ease in Editing (PS).Internet imagesare different from the paper images.Becauseof their digital technical characteristics of codingand decoding, compression and decompression,no matter which kind of format, they are easy toconvert, edit and produce.Various images takenin the real life are also easy to modify before up -loading onto the internet.Various kinds of softwarefor editing professional and non-professionalimages can be easily used to edit images.Someimages retain the original appearance, and onlymake some modifications on color, brightness,but some might change the content and are “unrecognizable”,and, therefore, become “ non-authentic”.This is difficult for the ordinary personto identify.Internet images of Tibet also face sucha risk.
3 ) Transcending Language. There is nodoubt that with regard to “boring” words, theimages found in the mass communication pictoriallyand intuitively record the events that happen in Tibet;they vividly display the beautiful high plateauscenery, and mysterious Tibetan culture in Tibet.This is one of the most fundamental reasons that attractinternet users.Secondly, the images are anarrative without words, and transcend languagebarriers.Its transmission content is richer andmore intuitive.Internet images have become amore universal communications tool which transcendsethnic and national boundaries for ordinarypeople.
4) The Multi-Relationship between Imagesand Words.There are three forms relating to theexistence of the images on the internet: The firstone is that the text is primary and the image is secondary.The second one is that the image is primaryand the text is secondary; the third one is aseries of images that focus on a particular theme.There is no text, only a title.It provides a detailedrepresentation of the people, event or object.There are both advantages and disadvantagesregarding the multi-relationship between the imagesand words.A consistent content of both the imageand the words-makes it more close to the truth;the nonconformity of the images and the word-descriptionmight create a misunderstanding to thewords or the images, which will damage the practicalmeaning of the things.
5) Diversity in the Ways for Transmission.The internet media image is transmitted mainlythrough news reports, columns with images, microblogson websites portals, and also through otherpublic, personal and non-professional internetimage transmission. They can be announcedthrough blogs, BBS chartlets, video web sites, oreven through social transmissions based on inter -personal communication.
6) The Cultural Nature of the Images.Somescholars have made it clear that in the space of internetculture, because images can gradually replacetext, the internet culture is essentially akind of “image culture”.The landscape of imagesformed on the internet by the internet images relatedto the Tibetan society, culture, history andpresent situation, hence, becomes a Tibetan visualcultural landscape in the internet era , and itpresents Tibetan culture clearly to internet users ofthe world.
Currently, there are some deficiencies concerningthe transmission of internet images of Tibetin China: 1) paying attention to the official side,but ignoring the folk side.In the process of transmittingthe images on the internet, we pay toomuch attention to the official media, but ignore alot on the strengths of folk images; 2) paying attentionto the media but ignoring the people ..Inthe age of the internet, media is no longer the traditionalmedia, and people are no longer the traditionalpeople..The two sides can have a mutualtransformation.Internet images of Tibet are toomuch focused on spreading official media, whereasa large amount of personal images which are transmittedare not valued; 3) paying attention to thedomestic, but ignoring the international..The internetcrosses over physical national borders, andinformation announced anywhere in the world canbe seen by all people.This is the trend of globalization.However, our dissemination of internetimages and information related to Tibet focuses toomuch on domestic internet sites written in Chinese ,which is not conducive to the global spread of theimages; 4) paying attention to the text, and ignoringthe images.We have not paid enough attentionto the role of the internet images resourcesrelated to Tibet in the dissemination of Tibetan culture.The establishment of a special column forimages on both domestic and international websitesis rare, and sharing images on video is even moreinsufficient.
Therefore, we put forward some suggestionsconcerning the transmission of internet images asfollows: 1) establish a special internet column forimages.In addition to setting up the special columnfor “images”, and “videos” on official websites, domestic mainstream media can also encourageother domestic sites, such as Sina, Tencent,Netease, Sohu, Phoenix TV and other large,comprehensive information portal websites to set upan images channel related to Tibet, and to takeprofessional media photography and camera shoot -ing as the main source of the images; 2) to establishcooperative relationships with domestic andforeign web portals.To establish a data bank forthe images of Tibet by the official media in China ,and establish a co-operative relationship with foreignportals for sharing information and data relatedto Tibet in order to ensure the reliability of the imagesand information announced by the domesticand foreign media; 3) to expand image sharingchannels, and pay attention to the force of thecommon people.In recent years, wide band andmobile communication in Tibetan areas have becomevery developed and unblocked due to the net -work construction.All places above the villageand town level in Tibet region can upload imagesinto the internet conveniently and instantly; 4) topay attention to the timeliness of the transmissionof images related to events that happen in Tibet.The images of events that happen in Tibet shouldbe uploaded as soon as possible, especially thenew events should be photographed and uploadedimmediately.