Ai Weiwei’s Second News Cycle

Everyone’s favorite artist-activist has been making a second news cycle of headlines recently, following the first cycle of hard news on his release from jail. My favorites reads are from the Wall Street Journal, which provides a handy photo guide to Chinese dissidents, and The New Yorker, which covers the ugly potential beliefs of Ai Weiwei’s interrogators.

Highlights of the news cycle, almost entirely from last Friday, August 12:

• Ai Weiwei’s Google+ profile: +艾未未
• Reuters: Ai Weiwei endured “immense pressure” in detention: source
• Telegraph: Ai Weiwei was subject to ‘immense psychological pressure’ in jail
• TIME Global Spin: A Glimpse into Ai Weiwei’s 81 Days of Detention
• New York Times: Conditions of Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei’s Detention Emerge
• The New Yorker: Ai Weiwei: “We Want to Shame You”
• Wall Street Journal: Ai Weiwei Resumes His Defiance of Beijing
• The Economist: Ai Weiwei: In and out of jail
• Slate: Ai Weiwei Describes “Mental Torture” of Chinese Imprisonment

It is especially interesting to me as a media professional how news sources are all jumping on this news cycle because it’s such a hot story, though it’s difficult to come up with anything new when Ai Weiwei technically can’t do interviews. I’m curious to see which direction this news takes and how Ai Weiwei chooses to continue to speak out publicly through social media, art and banned interviews.