Powerful institutions in the society created the media content, provided the ideology, and in return the status-quo is enhanced and the legitimacy of these institution is reinforced by the media they created.
To my knowledge, China has been practicing this rule by manipulating its international news reporting. Firstly we can look at the propaganda infrastructure of China.
1. From the news agencies structure:
• the state-own China Radio International, which broadcast in 56 languages to the world via shortwave, internet and satellite.
• The state-own China Central Television,(CCTV) which “has a network of 19 channels broadcasting different programmes and is accessible to more than one billion viewers” and “is one of the official mouthpieces of the Chinese government, and reports directly to high-level officials in the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Central Propaganda Department.” “The organization has relationships with regional television stations run by local governments, which must reserve up to two channels for the national broadcaster. The network's principal directors and other officers are appointed by the State.” CCTV also broadcast to overseas via CCTV-Spanish, CCTV-French, CCTV-Arabic, CCTV-English/News and CCTV-Russian.
• The Xinhua News Agency is “the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC. It is the largest news agency in the PRC, ahead of the China News Service. Xinhua is subordinate to the PRC State Council and reports to the Communist Party of China's Publicity and Public Information Departments.” The agency has the largest overseas branches among all the Chinese news organizations. It has more than one hundred affiliates and bureaus across the five continents and there are 4 regional headquarters in Cairo, Hong Kong and Macau, Paris, and New York City. It recently has launched its 24/7 English news channel featured in Time Square, NYC, broadcasted via satellite.
2. From the bureaus –how it function?
• The "State Administration of Radio Film and Television" censors broadcasting programs and movies,
• while "General Administration of Press and Public" ought to censor all the print works.
• The most famous will be the "The Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China" The department oversees the censorship bureaus, giving commands and general disciplines to them. Also, the China's official state media outlets, Xinhua News Agency, China Radio International, China Central Television, People's Daily, China People's Radio have to follow the propaganda directions and censorship rules passing down from this department.”
3. From the media contents and media strategy:
• Mandatory subscription: Most of the news broadcasted in Chinese municipal TV station are mandatorily subscribed from the China Central Television. Most of the print news appeared on the domestic websites, news papers and magazines are cited or purchased from Xinhua News Agency. All the municipal radio stations are required to broadcast the China People’s Radio programs for at least two hours per day.
• The paradigm consistency: the news contents are mainly positive information about domestic issues, and positive images about the officials and political leaders. CCTV and Xinhua’s reportage follow certain template that has been dominated the news production and news writing for decades. People in China often mock on these templates saying that even the illiterate will know how to write a Xinhua paradigm or CCTV paradigm news as long as he/she is exposed to the news content long enough.
• Content consistency: Scrutiny all the content publicized in China, you will find out that the framing and tone in the news stories are ridiculously similar.
• Censorship: Not only the traditional publications in China are subject to censorship, Chinese government has also kicked out Google, Youtube, My Space and Facebook and many other foreign online media in fear of them spreading “unhealthy” information.
4. Public Diplomacy via hosting “Beijing Olympic Games” and the “Shanghai World Expo”
In a speech addressed by China’s foreign minister Yang Jiechi on the success of Shanghai World Expo, he mentioned that the hosting of two events has enriched the theories and practices of Chinese characterized diplomacy. The mission of China’s diplomacy has been even more cleared—which is diplomacy should serve the domestic development. The building of China’s soft power—politics, economy, technology, public affairs, and cujavascript:void(0)ltural aspects have been strengthened. It backed up our national security, development and territory integrity.
No comments:
Post a Comment