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China should go forth, write and conquer
There’s something very silly about the constant complaints about Western media bias and US domination of public opinion. Sure, I think that the Western media was very quick to use the words ‘bloody crackdown’ when writing about the problems in Tibet, while it was equally quick to compare it with Tiananmen in 1989. However, all this whinging through Youtube and the China Daily about Western media bias seems like absolute rubbish.
For one, China is doing a great job perpetuating the domination of the Western media. Two of its most popular newspapers, the Global Times and Information Reference, derive most of their content from foreign media reports. How can you complain about Western media bias when it is one of your main sources of information? I think Chinese journalists spend most of their time hiding behind the words of the Western media, e.g. so and so said this about the PLA and this US professor said that China has many economic problems. The problem with the Chinese media is that hardly anybody voices their own personal opinion about anything, so the whole world relies on foreign reports.
Take the US shooting down an out-of-control satellite for example. The Chinese media compared the world’s reaction with the furore that followed the Chinese anti-satellite test. I think the Global Times described the muted reaction to the US shoot-down as a demonstration of US power over world public opinion. This is such a ridiculous thing to say – the US Defence Department held a press conference and let the world’s media decide whether the US government was telling the truth. On the other hand, the Chinese anti-satellite was conducted in secret and was not reported in the Chinese media for at least a week. How can the Chinese media compete with Western media domination when it isn’t allowed to report on the most important happenings in China?
If the Western media dominates world opinion, then it is because the Chinese media isn’t allowed to innovate and create articles from firsthand sources. I am sure an independent investigative report into the Tibetan riots by a Chinese journalist would quickly be translated and published throughout the world, thus giving the Chinese media a chance to provide a unique Chinese view. However, such investigative reports do not exist and the world’s media must rely on a motley crew of journos who are being guided through Tibet by the government. If Chinese people really want to break the domination of the Western media, then they need to interview and investigate, writing the detailed stories that everyone wants to hear about China.
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Posted: 1:02 PM, 28/3/2008 in Blogging and the mediaShare on Facebook |
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Be fair
What you said was wrong and I'm not sure even your wife will concur with you.
As an Aussie, you may feel obliged to side yourself with your fellow westerners, the Brits, the Yankees & etc. But you do live and work in China. So put your hand on your heart and ask yourself, have you been fair to the Chinese? |
Posted by Anonymous at 1:07 AM, 29/3/2008 |
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Untitled Comment
| Shooting down something is shooting down something. It should not matter whether you said it beforehand or afterwards or just kept silent. If the media were truly concerned with the junks left in the space, they should complain louder since there are more pieces of junks in the space now. What we saw is exactly the bias. |
Posted by Anonymous at 2:52 AM, 29/3/2008 |
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sure
| Agree on your comments about Chinese journalists. Think about how much money the CCTV has (and its new grand building), and how hollow its journalists are. |
Posted by Anonymous at 4:27 AM, 29/3/2008 |
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westerners' biased thinking
| I agree with you on the 'investigative report' comment.But Chinese reporters are not free to do any invetsigative reports, you said so yourself. Then why don't you do it like professionals that you are, do a little more INVESTIGATION before you all jump to the same conclusion. You say you are restricted. But can't you look at the net; interview the foreign tourists or anyone in the nearby provinces, find the truth like you were trained; rather than borrowing wrong pictures without even checking them. You are either very unprofessional, poor excuse for a 'Journalist' or extremely biased. I'm sick & tired with all this misinformation, & I live in Canada and part of the "FREE" world. I did my own investigation as a amateur, and I think you are biased. Explain away! |
Posted by Anonymous at 1:02 PM, 29/3/2008 |
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Chinese journalism
| The author is spot on in this observation. The global dominance of western media is the result of a media system that took more than a century to develop to its current advanced state. Even the way western institutions such as the US military play the media to their own advantage is part of that huge media machine. I've worked in senior media positions in both NA and China, and I have observed firsthand how arbitrary Chinese practices of authority over media and journalists ensure that even in the rare occurrences when a Chinese reporter does have the understanding and skill to investigate and write an original story, they are almost immediately quashed. They'd rather crush their spirit and keep them translating regurgitated crap for a few yuan a day than see them actually create something of journalistic value. Businesses operating in China all know the purpose of holding a press conference is to give the reporters the copy of the story they'll publish along with their 'travel' reimbursement. But, whatever... it's not as if western dominance of global media actually results in any greater amount of useful information anyway. The system gets played for what it is: a self-perpetuating apparatus of crass consumerism. Little doubt as China assumes the status of being a consumer society, it will also come to embrace a media system with seven or more news channels ready to devote hours of coverage to Brittany Spears' latest foibles. |
Posted by Anonymous at 1:37 PM, 29/3/2008 |
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Correct but ...
You are quite right. I happen to agree with the Chinese commentators who say that the reporting of the Tibetan anti-Chinese riots by western media was based on false preconceptions, stereotypes and often sloppy. But the Chinese are not in a strong position to complain because 1. They don't allow foreign journalists to report from Tibet. 2. Their own reporting has with good reason little or no credibility. 3. The Chinese media has worked well in winning over the dometic audiences but its service for international audiences is of very poor quality. This need not be so - just look how Al Jazeera has come out of nowhere to become a major iinternational player and an alternative source of news to the US/European media empires.
Having worked in the Chinese media I have seen first hand how they are blessed with generous resources and yet fail in the most basic aspects of news and current affairs reporting. Audiences are impressionable but not stupid, they scan smell a propaganda item a mile off. |
Posted by Anonymous at 5:20 PM, 30/3/2008 |
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What were you guys thinking?
Just kept on negatively criticizing everything not to your likings ...Climate changes, pollution, military threats, dictatorship & authoritarian regime, space armaments, Darfur, one child policy, unfair trade pratices, colonizing Africa, competitive resources, undervalued Yuan, Taiwan, poisoned food and toys, three gorges dam, tibet-CH railway....oh! also Irag, Iran, Russia, Kosovo, North Korea, Mexico, Venezula, Cuba...The world have so many problems from the bad guys, according to your Western reporters, I just might as well kill myself.
Fact 1: There were 20 Tibetian protesters in India who held a candle light vigil and got reported. Fact 2: There were 4000 protesters that were pro-China & held a protest in Toronto and did not get a blip from all your western repoprters.
Keep inflaming the emotions of your readers on both sides of the problem, any problem, and let's start violences & wars. Just like your politician said, "Bring them on!" You might finally get bonuses and go to exotic lands. |
Posted by Anonymous at 6:28 AM, 31/3/2008 |
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A Widespread Problem
The only thing I'd add to the argument above is that the situation affecting Chinese journalism is actually a lack of creative ability and creativity (resulting from the lack of freedom you mentioned). This absence of creativity, so important to Western life and culture, is absent from most aspects of Chinese life and culture today...
Why? The only thing I can come up with from personal experience is that most Chinese people are taught to obey their superiors, be good members of a group, and never think for themselves. How often have you actually heard a Chinese person express an opinion that isn't popular? It happens, but rarely. |
Posted by beiheyangrouchuanr at 3:59 PM, 31/3/2008 |
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Untitled Comment
"If the Western media dominates world opinion, then it is because the Chinese media isn’t allowed to innovate and create articles from firsthand sources. "
That's only one of the problems. The more important one is that the Chinese media have not yet demonstrated to the world outside of China that they are even reporting news. |
Posted by Anonymous at 11:06 AM, 12/4/2008 |
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youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9QNKB34cJo&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xsoc4-QnplY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7_lWHLT7d4&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XhG9-LdwG_k&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=XhG9-LdwG_k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRROPO_JJ9U&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4J6nfyb-3k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rut-tXh_TEI&feature=related
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Posted by Anonymous at 2:25 PM, 23/4/2008 |
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