Chinese Media and Its Content - Research Paper Example

 Chinese Media and Its Content Outline Western media’s portrayal of China................................................................................3 China’s portrayal by foreign media..................................................................................4 Consequence of Chinese media correspondence..............................................................7 Can foreign media play a watchdog role in China...........................................................8 Chinese media coverage of foreign events.......................................................................9 Impact of nationalism on Chinese media.........................................................................10 Bibliography.....................................................................................................................11 How have western media framed China? Why? In the past three decades, China has made remarkable progress in many fronts (Zhang & Stening, 2009.p.247). In 2007, its GDP (measured by purchasing power parity) accounted for about 16 percent of the world total, not nearly as significant as it was before 1840 but substantially increased from what it had been a few decades before. Its quick catch-up on the one hand has amazed the world; on the other hand, the developmental model China used in achieving this growth is not one that is familiar to many Westerners and has caused unease in the West (Zhang & Stening, 2009.p.248). It is difficult for average people in the West to fully comprehend and appreciate something so far outside their experience in a country that is still, for most of them, very mysterious. The problems faced are compounded by the fact that most Westerners get limited information about China through the lens of mainstream Western media, with few other sources of information or opinion (Lai & Lu, 2012). Often, and as a result of limited China information, Western media have a certain slant in their coverage of China and a built-in assumption about China, and more so about the Chinese political elite. It is not so much that such coverage is overtly or demonstrably wrong, it is that Western media largely stress the real problems but ignore the real success, for example, emphasizing the continuing limitations on certain freedoms in China, such as constrained democracy, lack of public political dissent and no free media, while downplaying the enormous advances in personal and social freedoms (Rein, 2012). In essence, it may not be that Western media are malicious or deliberately distort the truth, as most Chinese believe. This coverage may result from the overall view of Westerners that unless a nation’s political system has multiple political parties that compete legitimately in free elections, a one person-one-vote democracy, and a free media, that nation is a dictatorship (Malek, 1997.p.53). Furthermore, giving apparent credence to the assumption, there was a time, when Mao still ruled and before the 30 years of reform began, when China was indeed such a dictatorship-a chaotic, self-destructive one at that and the consequences to the Chinese people were devastating (Kuhn, 2011). Thus the common perception in the West is that China’s leaders are authoritarians, not as brutal as was Mao, but they are coercive nonetheless, and that their primary, if not their sole interest is perpetuating their own power. Such believe, coupled with limited information of an alternate governance system, and has informed negative coverage by Western media. Is there a problem with the way China is portrayed? Does it matter? The role of journalism is to inform, the information supplied must be as objective and well researched as thoroughly and humanly possible. This objectivity helps create the right image and give people an actual account of issues or matters on-going in a certain place, country or region. In light of this duty, any untrue or biased information fed to the people is problematic as it creates a force image. For a long time, Western countries have been socialised into anti-communism for so long, have a hard time moving beyond the fear and suspicion of a communist society despite the many “un-communist” realities of China (Yongnian, 2010.p.211). Any reports of political oppression in China quickly get filtered through this ideological lens and reinforce negative public opinion about China. Chinese observers have often lamented the obvious tendency of Western media to side with any enemy of the communist government and “demonize” China. When riots broke out in Tiber in 2008, Western media reporting of the events was, as often, quite negative toward the Chinese government. Chinese both inside and outside China protested against such reports for deliberately distorting facts and damaging China’s international image (Yongnian, 2010.p.211). Zhang (2009) notes that Chinese are of the opinion that Western media need to be somewhat more respectful of other cultures (248). Even if they have the right to air views about politics, religion, or even individual’s personal lives in their own society, culturally insensitive comments about other countries might be taken as insulting. Culturally, China is a nation that does not take criticism easily, especially from outsiders and especially if it is direct. Sensitivity to criticism is not confined to those in power. Many Chinese who are critical of their own government also think Western condemnation of China are unfair and biased (Rein, 2012). The greatest source of frustrations and irritation for Chinese, one that evokes strong nationalism, is the idea that the West expects all nations and cultures to follow the Western path in achieving social and economic progress. To the Chinese, this is not only naive but also somewhat foolish. Irrespective of this overall Chinese view, Western media continues to agitate the supremacy of Western institutions and ideologies, often seeming as they are pitting them against the Chinese institutions and ideologies. This study considers that this type of biased coverage that causes national uproar does matter. This is because the more the Western media continues to report on China in a biased and negative way the more it creates a mentality of competitive ideologies. Given the increasing influence of China and the sure economic and technological gain there is no telling how far this competitive feeling will go. There is also not telling the likely consequences, however, a look at history that reminds us of the years of wrangling between U.S. and the then USSR all tells us there is a road we cannot travel down. China correspondents of western media outlets led the way in 2012 investigating high level Chinese officials. What are the consequences of this new role? Generally, the role of correspondents is to report on actual facts and on-goings within their area of operations. Basically, the decent of the correspondent does not matter as the population is interested in the content. However, due to the perceptions people have had of Chinese they do not expect them to handle investigative pieces especially those castigating their own government or part of the high ranking officials within the communist party (Zhang & Stening, 2009.p.250). Therefore, when Chinese correspondents carried out the story it played several roles. The first of these roles is that it altered the perceptions people hold on the position of media in China. It does not matter that the story was carried on Western media but the fact that those behind the story were Chinese helped indicate how far Chinese journalists have come. The gut to report against the officials was a precedence expected to help other major stories to come out of China. This is largely good news for the largely closed country (Rein, 2012). The more local journalists take an active role in telling of the actual occurrences in China the more the world will have a clearer and objective view of China. Of course, hope is that Western media will be receptive of positive stories coming from China as told by Chinese instead of just airing those that are in line with the widely held perceptions of China. The Western media has a responsibility to look at the entire world with a lens that allows objectivity (Malek, 1997.p.60). By allowing Chinese journalist to cover local events they are allowing a perfect chance to help create the right image as these understand the Chinese cultural context and offer the right interpretation of events. The other role and subsequent effect of Chinese correspondents reporting for Western media is that this provides a chance for the growth and integration of Chinese media with media from the rest of the world. This may not be immediate but with the physical boundaries being fast extinct due to technology it would be hoped that with the right information and correspondence an acceptable degree of collaboration would be achieved in the long-term (Kuhn, 2011). Irrespective of these merits, and dependent on individual point of view, Chinese correspondence can also act to reinforce existent stereotypes about China. This is especially because the featured story is largely in line with the negative thoughts already propagated by the Western media for a long time. Could western media play a watchdog role in China? Or are they irrelevant? Media is expected to monitor and control the power holders on behalf of citizens-that is, they are supposed to act as the ‘watchdog’ of the government and other power holders. For this reason, it is necessary that the media should be independent from the government and other political forces who might want to use the media to spread their influence (in the form of propaganda). Given the long tradition of the notion of the media exercising watchdog functions, it comes as no surprise that some consider this notion as out dated (Guo, 2012.p.102). The traditional watchdog argument requires journalist to expose the abuse of the authority of public officials. While there is some merit in this argument, it can lead to an undue concentration on institutionalised political power, and the neglect of other forms of power, economic, social, and cultural that can also injure or restrict. Indeed, modern democracy has brought forth new centres of power, in addition to the state. The watchdog role of journalism, therefore, is extended in scope to all other realms of public life where powerful actors determine the life of others (MacQuail, 1992.p.120). In fact, the watchdog role on non state power holders is even more important as in many cases no other democratic control is built into the system. The watchdog role of the press is perhaps best viewed as mediating the investigative resources of a free society-its whistleblowers, dissenting elite members, civil society watchdogs, independent think tanks, and critical researchers-rather than acting as a substitute for them (Trappel et al, 2010.p.142). This description of the roles and position of a watchdog illustrates a need to be independent, and a need to be free of propaganda. A watchdog role also requires that one be in a position to acquire and distribute information in a large scale. This has the implications that to perfectly play the role of a watchdog one has to hold and be in line with the investigative resources of a free society as enumerated (Rein, 2012). Therefore, given these requirements of an effective watchdog, it becomes important to look at the Western media and its qualifications in regard to the role in China. To start with, there is immediate doubt on the free and fair reporting role of Western media. Western media has for a long time been associated with propaganda and bias while reporting on matters affecting China. Secondly, Western media has minimal access to information on governance as well as social and economic situations in China (Lai & Lu, 2012). This makes it hard for the media to report on actual facts and tell of situations where the government is overstepping its mandate. These two factors, limited access to Chinese related information and a history of bias casts major doubt on the capacity or capability of Western media to play a watchdog role in China. Are the increasing volume of images and ideas crossing China’s borders offering the Chinese people access to new and liberating ideas? For a long time, the media has had a major influence in defining the national culture, especially in the Western world. In the nineteenth and twentieth century’s the newspaper press was elemental in nation building and in creating the public sphere necessary to integrate different social forces to the democratic process (Trappel et al, 2010.p.144). From the viewpoint of cultural democracy, the media principally fulfil two functions, in their role as public disseminators of information they create a common symbolic sphere uniting their audiences for public debate; and in their role as the facilitators of public opinion, they offer ways to different social and cultural groups to define and identify themselves as members of the national public (Chin-Chuan, 2003.p.6). In this way, media mobilize different communities for negotiation processes where different interests and values can be commonly weighed. There is a close correlation between political and cultural dimensions: for an inclusive political democracy to be realised, an inclusive common culture is required; on the other hand, the development of common or civic culture needs well-developed political democracy. Medias’ role is central it involves bringing to the fore ideas from different thinkers and forums for discussion (Lai & Lu, 2012). It is by generating these debates and amplifying their results that social change and ideas for transforming culture are gathered. In the same regard, most of the images and ideas crossing China’s borders are largely from Western countries. Western cultures though different have undergone transformations and have helped nurture democracies through the years. These carry valuable lessons on the public sphere. This cannot be said of China, a country which underwent a brutal regime under Mao and even though the political set up has flexed a bit democracy is still to be attained (Latham, 2007.p.78). The state still retains a grip on public resources such as the media and a tight scrutiny on China’s blogosphere. This creates a government desired environment as opposed to the people driven set up evident in the West. Therefore, it is expected that with the increased coverage and access of images and ideas from the West, most of which highlight liberation whether political, social or economic the Chinese will slowly assimilate the said ways into their culture (Malek, 1997.p.63). This will pave way for public debate based on the images and ideas supplied by the Western media something that will help generate/improve these ideas and eventually help liberate the country. How do Chinese media cover foreign events? There has never been so much information highlighting the activities, coverage and general operations of Chinese media. However, there has been adequate information pointing to the Chinese government emphasis on local content as opposed to Western content. This is largely understandable given the need to retain the Chinese culture and the Chinese way of doing things which is credited with positioning China as a global power (Latham, 2007.p.75). Focus on Western content is seen as a way of eroding the gains made in highlighting the supremacy and positives of the Chinese culture. However, this insistence in local content does not entirely mean that Chinese media do not focus on international matters. They in fact do, however, any feature mostly in the government controlled media, is dependent on the government’s interest in the mentioned issues (Lai & Lu, 2012). They will often focus on great emphasis occurrences in which they have greater interest in. The Chinese will also tend to ignore any coverage or events that tend to paint the country in bad light. Though there is great emphasis on avoiding confrontation, the Chinese are do not shy off when faced with negative publicity. They counter this with the facts from their end and tend to smear those against the Chinese way of doing things or their systems (Gries, 2004.p.33). In general, Chinese coverage of foreign events cannot be said to absolutely objective this is because the way in which they are portrayed is down to the country’s interest and relation with the party. What is the impact of nationalism on Chinese media foreign news reporting? In China, there are two forms of ‘nationalism’, one form is state-inculcated nationalism and populist reactive nationalism, these two forms only reconcile when national sovereignty is at stake. The media has have served as a meeting ground upon which these two forms of nationalism surge, fuse, and converge in portraying China as being encircled by an ocean of potential enemies who are out to destroy it, often mixing collective victimhood and historical memories (Chin-Chuan, 2003.p.3). In the more open news environments, the media play out the expected role of bringing out the actual facts as happening across the world. Therefore, there lacks a clear cut judgement on the impact of nationalism as in some regions there is the inclination to portray the rest of the world as against China whereas in other regions there is an actual presentation of foreign news (Lai & Lu, 2012). The difference is largely the level of freedom with greater objectivity being recorded in areas where there is greater media freedom. Bibliography Chin-Chuan, L. (2003). Chinese Media, Global contexts. New York: Routledge. Gries, P. H. (2004). China's new nationalism: Pride, politics, and diplomacy. Berkeley: University of California Press. Guo, X. (2012). China's security state: Philosophy, evolution, and politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Kuhn, R. L. (2011). How China's leaders think: The inside story of China's past, current, and future leaders. Singapore: John Wiley & Sons (Asia. Latham, K. (2007). Pop culture China!: Media, arts, and lifestyle. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO. Lai, H. & Lu, Y. (2012). China's Soft Power and International Relations. New York: Routledge. MacQuail, D. (1992). Media performance: Mass communication and the public interest. London [u.a.: Sage Publ. Malek, A. (1997). News media and foreign relations: A multifaceted perspective. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Rein, S. (2012). The end of cheap China: Economic and cultural trends that will disrupt the world. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Trappel, J., McQuail, D., & Euromedia Research Group. (2011). Media in Europe today. Bristol, UK: Intellect. Yongnian, Z. (2010). China and International Relations: The Chinese View and the Contribution of Wang Gungwu. New York: Taylor & Francis. Zhang, M. Y., & Stening, B. W. (2009). China 2.0: The transformation of an emerging superpower and the new opportunities. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Read More