Taiwan:Media Riot

September 26, 2006 in Taiwan

Mainstream media in Taiwan have longtime been the highest “Chinese wall” on its way to a matured democratic society, and recently, the whole island is bombarded by newsreports that cover nothing but rallies opposing and/or supporting Taiwan’s President Chen Shui-bien. Most od the newsreports are biased, one-sided, trivialized, and even fictional. Many Taiwanese bloggers are furious about the lousy performance of Taiwanese mainstream media, because they are way from the “neutral”, “non-partisan”,”professional media” that they claim they are.

Senior reporter and blogger Guan-yu is asking the big media to care more about our natural environment, give the floor to our land and our ocean. She says:

Revently I was so feisty and even angry because of those exteme opinions, however, I just figure it out that “most extreme opinions have a hidden agenda, that is to abet everyone’s anger, and when people lose their balance, they’ll lose their rationality easily. But in order to protect my beloved home and land, making yourselves calm is the best shield against the unrest.”  TV news channels want to raise their temporary viewing rates, so they manipulate antagonism to make extreme opinions louder and a handful of conflicts bigger; they are in certain degree tearing Taiwan apart.  This worries me, but once I turn off the TV and return to living people, I feel much optimistic about our future because around every corner, people are still dedicate themselves without crying out loud, they are bolstering the society, just as what I had highlighted at the end of “Believe in Taiwan, and move forward”.
前陣子還會被那些偏激言論弄得心浮氣躁、甚至怒氣沖沖，後來突然想通了：「許多偏激言論的背後目的，就在煽動所有人的怒氣，當人失去平靜，就很容易失去理性。但為了保護我所愛的故鄉和土地，平心靜氣就是面對動盪最好的盾牌。」電視新聞為了提升瞬間收視率，以二元對立手法操作、不斷放大某些偏激的言論和少數的衝突，確實某種程度撕裂著台灣，這部份是令人擔憂的，但關掉電視回到人民生活現場，我對未來時局還是比較樂觀，因為各角落都還是有人在默默奉獻、支撐著社會，就如我在「相信台灣，再出發！」文末強調的。
關於關魚:把麥克風還給土地和海洋

Another senior reporter Chui Yung from HongKong answers a commenter about Taiwan mediascape with a Taiwan TV program producer, Lio Shi-feng’s words: Politicians’ scripts, people’s blood.

Politicians are very clear that getting people fighting with each other would surely attracts media reports, and media reports always bolster their voting in coming election. Therefore during the long-time face-off, audience were unceasingly seeing two city assemblymen’s advertising jeeps and election signboards in front of the camera.  Even though we cautioned our photographer againand again about that, but they were just unavoidable. The two election runners suddenly earned their celebrity by street fighting. Though we cautioned our journalists and editors not to simmer to antagonism, but under the fierced competition between news channels, we were forced to follow politicians’ scripts.
政客很清楚，民眾對決一定會吸引媒體報導，媒體報導一定能拉抬選情。於是在長時間的對峙中，觀眾就不斷看到兩個市議員參選人的宣傳車和競選招牌出現在鏡頭前。即使我們一再告誡攝影記者，但怎麼避都避不開，兩位參選人的知名度，藉著街頭衝突一夕打開。雖然我們一再告誡記者和編輯注意措辭不要激化對立，但是在新聞台激烈的競爭下，我們被迫跟著政客的劇本走。
政客的劇本 民眾的血 : 真實筆記

PipperL is aware of something wrong (zh)in Taiwan’s newspaper journalism, and he deliberately probes into  one alleged news reported by China Times and separate the paragraphs which cited ans quoted unidentified sources from others. Sarcastically, he finds out that paragraphs containing unidentified sources account for 3/4 of the whole news piece. This has been the third time he do this kind of examination, he calls this “news filtering”.

Dreamf asks: Who is mob? (zh) He is not happy seeing people worshipping some kind of hero in either rally, nor is he satisfied watching heroic portraits of political celebrities on media. He believe that the real heroes are citizens on their own feet, carrying their own protest signboards and gadgets。”The real heroes are these nameless people” he says.

ijiliao describes his talking(zh)with his friend Wang about the biased media. ijiliao tell Wang to watch two news different-sided channels so that you can pretend they were not biased, and Wang answered back that watching no TV news was the real solution. Judie35 also urges her reader not to watch TV news because “only if we turn off our TVs can we have clearer hearts and brighter eyes(zh)”. And at Lavendersea a Taoist magic figure is made to convey bloggers’ anger and disgust toward mainstream media.

Ping Ping just came back from the United States, and he said that he finally realized why all his friends told him that they were getting melancholia. He said “sometimes I incautiously watched TV news, and either I felt like treated as an idiot or wondered why the hell was other people’s daily lives related with me?”

annpo writes down her sincere words and earnest wishes: “Do not be controlled by media. Voice yourselves!“

In the ideological war between “blue” and “green”, only media are laughing in the back(though the reporters are all working and crying). The major crisis is not the mister in the Presidential Palace, not people gathering in Ketagalan Avenue, not Shih Ming-teh the old mister, but the 24hr non-stop restless news channel and print media, and a bunch of talking heads busying showing off on TV. Though our journalism classes say that media should be unbiased, we all know that is impossible for media to be unbiased…but they shouldn’t be so bad at pretending to be unbiased!?
在藍綠的意識形態鬥爭中，現在能在背後狂笑的就是媒體了（雖然媒體記者加班加到很想哭）。台灣目前最大的危機，並不是總統府裡的那位先生，也不是凱達格蘭大道的紅衣民眾，或是那個每天都要愛肝的施先生，而是，24小時不休息的新聞台跟平面媒體。還有忙著趕通告上電視說嘴的那些人。雖然新聞學中老說媒體要中立，我們也知道媒體不可能中立，但不能連裝裝中立都那麼無能吧？！

But she does not fully support No TV activities.  She said:

“Cover our eyes and pretend that we can’t see” is just cheating ourselves. Those who are influenced and kidnapped(by TV news) are still powerless to fight and filter the news messages. It is because that I can keep myself not being influenced so that we shall watch over them and critisize them….We should own the power to supersede media commentaris and reports and do the things that we believe worth of doing them. Of course, choosing to be detached is also a way…just don’t play antagonistic hatred.

我不是很支持不看電視新聞的活動，因為，更加失去了監督、評論的權力，「矇上眼睛，就以為看不見」，只是自欺欺人。被影響的、被綁架的人，仍然是無力反抗、過濾新聞訊息的人。正是因為我可以不被影響，我們才該監督、才該批判…對於這場運動，我們要有能力超越媒體的評論跟報導，做自己覺得值得的事。當然，選擇冷漠也是一種，就是不要搞對立的仇恨。

Benla Kung, a college teacher of journalism, analyzes the real reason that all news channels keep staying in Ketagalan Avenue: low cost news.

Because you need only 2 or 3 SNG vehicles and then separate the reporters to different corners to witness various incidents, plus a lot of people wanting to be heard and politicians actively searching for stage.  The reporters need no efforts finding materials; there will be many issues and characters flooding autimatically to fill up the ever-replaying news section.
因為。只要2、3台SNG車，讓分佈凱道不同角落的記者四處觀察各樣的偶發事件，再加上一群有話想說的民眾，以及主動尋找舞台的政客，記者無須用力採訪，自然會有不少新聞議題與人物自動湧現，填滿不斷重播的新聞時段。

However, not everyone is a good speaker and audience are uninterested in ever-replaying conflict news, so the reporters begin to use lower cost model. They search for hot girls in red, fainted old mister, girls who looks like stars, and dogs that knod their heads to show admiration to their masters’ anti-President activities, right at the same place. Therefore, these kind of cheap and shollow informations once again rape our perspectives through news channels.
有趣的是，不是每個人的演說都很精彩，觀眾對一再重複的零星衝突新聞也沒太大興趣，因此，記者便啟動更低的採訪成本，在原地蒐尋紅衣辣妹、昏倒的老伯、明星臉女郎，以及對主人反扁行動點頭稱是的靈犬，於是這種廉價與膚淺的資訊，再次透過新聞頻道強暴我們的視野。
Benla’ Blog:遭兩極化踐踏的知的權利 – Yam 樂多日誌

At the same time, oikos is worrying about the importance of those unreported news (zh), such as Taiwan’s aborigine students’ preferential service, dioxin found in mutton in Taipei county without knowing the source…..he asks:”These issues are also concerned by many people, and are closely related to people’s life, but why they can never be seen in the news?”

And finally, Tenz points out (zh)how TV news exaggerated the number of people rallying on Avenue Ketagalan with two snapshot from one TV news channel in 7 seconds.