Chinese media: a professional perspective
- Source: Global Times
- [22:26 August 13 2009]
- Comments
De Spens: Once in 2007, the French Embassy held a press conference. One of our superiors did not sleep well the night before and his hair looked pretty chaotic. Chinese reporters interpreted his fatigue as a sign of hard work. As far as I know, they did not ask and just put the most positive spin on it, from the point of view of praising a superior.
Matsuno: Chinese media generally reports from a “top-down” perspective. They tell audience that things are like this and that you must believe. If we watch from the outside, we can see that Chinese people accept the media’s viewpoint. This is extremely worrying, because when everyone is speaking with the same voice, the country is often taking a wrong turn. Japan had a painful experience during World War II. Its major media did not reflect any anti-war voices.
The media’s responsibility is to express different views reflecting the interests of all parties concerned. Chinese media is not good enough at this point.
Gordon: US media are businesses with commercial interests. They also have different political positions and they do not represent the US government. But if a CNN commentator says something negative about China the Chinese will think that he is a representative of CNN and the US government, so their reaction is intense.
US media like negative reports. Americans also say that negative reports are not representative. In fact, media make errors too. They do not represent the views of the entire international community. The feelings of Chinese people shall not be that vulnerable. Chinese should not be too sensitive to foreign reports.
Matsuno: Japanese media are doing business. So they like to look for gimmicks deliberately. They do not represent public opinion. A young Chinese asked me, “Do you think the news reports in Japan are correct?” This question was very strange because the media is responsible for reporting the fact but not responsible of whether the point of view is right or wrong.
I think this is a difference between Chinese and Japanese media. Chinese reporters must pay attention to the national position and practice journalistic professionalism report simultaneously.
De Spens: I found some Chinese journalists very smart. They will never comment directly when talking about sensitive issues. For example, the Global Times often quotes the reports of foreign media. French reporters also dare not speak in some cases because some reporters don’t want to give up vested interests.
