Government outlets shamed into pursuing greater internet presence
Woods Lee and Adam Chen in Beijing 12 February 2009
The mainland’s three government-owned media giants are scrambling to bolster their online presence and save face after losing out to internet-based media in the reporting of Monday’s blaze at the construction site of CCTV’s new headquarters.
A media source said that since the fire, Xinhua had convened a special multimedia team headed by the news agency’s vice-president, Zhou Xisheng, to realise this year’s goal of a higher online profile.
“Xinhua News Agency is seeking to vigorously expand its news reporting via multimedia, particularly the [internet-based] video,” it reported yesterday.
It added that CCTV and Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily were also seeking to strengthen their internet divisions and become all-round media outlets, while boosting their influence at home and abroad.
Mobile phone recordings of the CCTV fire hit the internet at around 9pm on Monday, about an hour after pedestrians saw the fire.
It was not until 10pm - about one hour after forums had already been flooded with posts, pictures and videos, and chat rooms were abuzz about them - that any state media mentioned the blaze. Xinhua was the first of the big three to report the fire, issuing just a one-sentence brief.
Television viewers scoured the spectrum, but there was no reference to the incident on the scores of mainland channels.
Without internet access, Beijing sales manager Li Hailin rushed to his TV set for updates after his friends told him about the fire. But there was nothing.
“I felt ashamed of CCTV,” he said. “The fire was burning at their gate and they just kept their feet tied and their mouths shut. Why?”
Viewers were not the only ones who appeared to be embarrassed by the collective tardiness and scarcity of reports by major state media outlets.
“With the aid of the internet, the ‘grass-roots’ media are becoming a more significant contingent of influence and are worthy of close attention by the traditional media,” Xinhua said.
A media source said: “Xinhua has decided to send reports via internet videos to every corner of the world, using news platforms from mobile phones to outdoor screens.
“This has been marked as an overriding task for the agency this year.”
Analysts said the state media was habitually late in responding to negative news on the mainland because of tight government controls.
“The rigid response procedures [in the state-owned media] to major accidents actually ensure tardiness,” Renmin University’s journalism school dean, Yu Guoming, said.
Professor Yu said the public’s spontaneous reporting of public events would pressure the state media to make changes.
“The government media have to take in some basic principles in mass communications: balance, objectivity and timeliness,” he said.
“These media also have to heed the public need rather than just deliver their own blather, otherwise society and the market will abandon them.”
The South China Morning Post reported last month that Beijing planned to spend 45 billion yuan (HK$51 billion) to expand its main media outlets abroad, with Xinhua, CCTV and People’s Daily getting an equal amount.
1 comment:
Media giants race to expand online services
Government outlets shamed into pursuing greater internet presence
Woods Lee and Adam Chen in Beijing
12 February 2009
The mainland’s three government-owned media giants are scrambling to bolster their online presence and save face after losing out to internet-based media in the reporting of Monday’s blaze at the construction site of CCTV’s new headquarters.
A media source said that since the fire, Xinhua had convened a special multimedia team headed by the news agency’s vice-president, Zhou Xisheng, to realise this year’s goal of a higher online profile.
“Xinhua News Agency is seeking to vigorously expand its news reporting via multimedia, particularly the [internet-based] video,” it reported yesterday.
It added that CCTV and Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily were also seeking to strengthen their internet divisions and become all-round media outlets, while boosting their influence at home and abroad.
Mobile phone recordings of the CCTV fire hit the internet at around 9pm on Monday, about an hour after pedestrians saw the fire.
It was not until 10pm - about one hour after forums had already been flooded with posts, pictures and videos, and chat rooms were abuzz about them - that any state media mentioned the blaze. Xinhua was the first of the big three to report the fire, issuing just a one-sentence brief.
Television viewers scoured the spectrum, but there was no reference to the incident on the scores of mainland channels.
Without internet access, Beijing sales manager Li Hailin rushed to his TV set for updates after his friends told him about the fire. But there was nothing.
“I felt ashamed of CCTV,” he said. “The fire was burning at their gate and they just kept their feet tied and their mouths shut. Why?”
Viewers were not the only ones who appeared to be embarrassed by the collective tardiness and scarcity of reports by major state media outlets.
“With the aid of the internet, the ‘grass-roots’ media are becoming a more significant contingent of influence and are worthy of close attention by the traditional media,” Xinhua said.
A media source said: “Xinhua has decided to send reports via internet videos to every corner of the world, using news platforms from mobile phones to outdoor screens.
“This has been marked as an overriding task for the agency this year.”
Analysts said the state media was habitually late in responding to negative news on the mainland because of tight government controls.
“The rigid response procedures [in the state-owned media] to major accidents actually ensure tardiness,” Renmin University’s journalism school dean, Yu Guoming, said.
Professor Yu said the public’s spontaneous reporting of public events would pressure the state media to make changes.
“The government media have to take in some basic principles in mass communications: balance, objectivity and timeliness,” he said.
“These media also have to heed the public need rather than just deliver their own blather, otherwise society and the market will abandon them.”
The South China Morning Post reported last month that Beijing planned to spend 45 billion yuan (HK$51 billion) to expand its main media outlets abroad, with Xinhua, CCTV and People’s Daily getting an equal amount.
Post a Comment