This week's class we have discussed the media literacy as part of combating the biased mass media products.
However, I think the forms of the application of media literacy and the results and effects of the media literacy really depends on the social and political structure and the media control level of that host nation-state. From the reading,we know that the media literacy receive well attention within the European and North American countries--these countries have something in common-democratic political system, comparatively free press, and less political control over the mainstream media outlets.
Especially for the Europe, which is famous for its public service oriented media outlets--the media literacy is getting more access to the public and having influence in policy changes and combating partisan media products.
While looking at China, I found the situation is incomparable. Most of the Chinese media outlets are government controlled and it is written in the guide book that "Media should be the voice of the government and the Chinese communist party". Not only China, other countries such as Iran, North Korea, Vietnam are also following the similar media policy.
So here comes the question: Is it possible to conduct media literacy to counter propaganda in China? If so, how and in what way?
I think it is not impossible to conduct media literacy in China.There are groups that are actively advocating for social justice and media literacy, such as the China Youth Daily, and the South China News group. These media outlets have been a pioneer in the past 2 decades while they are both loosely supervised and censored by the Central Propaganda Department of China.
Besides the current advocacy media groups, media literacy can also function within higher education system and the forms can be varied-- such as offering elective courses on media literacy or media ethics in college,opening a partnership program between a Chinese university and an American university that provides students with basic knowledge about media ethics and media literacy during a summer boot camp or a short term training program which could be counted for academic credits, or career development credits, cooperating with Chinese local non-profits groups, such as the environment China. org to instill the awareness of media literacy through educating the citizens with the environment protection knowledge.
There are many ways to conduct media literacy in China and I am confident that given some time, the citizens in China will be more active in seeking for media literacy and be more capable to think critically about media and propaganda.
I know very little about Chinese media, but I still would like to limit my ignorant bias while I try to come to grips with these ideas.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, that China cannot be compared to the countries of Western Europe and North America in terms of media relations. In fact, they really should not be compared in any sense, they are literally from two different side of the world, and cannot be held to one common view of governance; at least not at this point in time.
With the understanding that a lot of media outside of the western world is state-run, and there are not too many voices of dissent, I wonder how groups like CYD and SCN function. Also, why are they loosely supervised and censored by the Central Propaganda Department of China? Again, these questions come from my limited knowledge of Chinese media, but the only thing I can infer is that these two groups are somehow still connected to the state-run service. Looking back to your second sentence in the same paragraph, ‘MOST of the Chinese media outlets are government controlled...’ with that being said, and also with the ideal of Chinese media being the voice of the government and thereby the CCP, I wonder how any media outlets in China are not connected to the government, and under what level of scrutiny are the held?
As for the teaching media literacy itself, I do not believe it would be too different from any other country in the world, apart from general academic teaching/training styles. A few further questions: How does China to get to this point? And, what is the point? If Chinese media is for the mass education of CCP affairs (what they want the people to know) and all media in China serves this purpose, then why are their multiple groups, outlets, and networks all serving the same purpose? AND, if there is the plurality, what would media literacy do for a populous where the only participation with the media is to regard?