Mr.6 talks about the English bloggers’ circle in Taiwan starting with a very interesting and occasional news event about David Reid’s blog post on the road signs near Hsinchu station of Taiwan High-Speed railway. According to Mr.6’s post, David’s blog entry was picked up by many English newspaper both in Taiwan and abroad. He thinks that Taiwanese bloggers who are mainly blogging in Chinese should have more conversation with the English bloggers. Also, David told Mr.6 that a new startup produced by David and his Israeli geek friend will soon be on the table.
1/23, three big-heads from two minor Internet companies in Taiwan, Webs-tv and PChome, overtly declared their objection against a shocking merger case–Yahoo!Kimo buying Wretch.cc–and in the press conference,
the two minor online business players showed many market statistics claiming that Yahoo!Kimo in Taiwan has already owned the biggest bite in online advertisement market, and if this merger case passes, Wretch.cc, the biggest blog service provider and the runner-up in the ad market will be another property of Yahoo!Kimo with the price of 700 million NTD(20 million USD).
And right after the conference, the CEO of Yahoo!Kimo, Rose Chao, “cried” out that their accusation was totally unfair, inaccurate, and narrowed.
However, bloggers react to this press conference with different and diversified opinions. Most bloggers don’t treat this “quarrel” between bigheads as “something real” about anti-trust, instead, they viewed this case as several Internet companies fighting for limited online ad budgets but without paying any attention to all of their anti-innovative business attitude which bloggers believed to be the true reason that damps Taiwan Internet business and Web 2.0 phenomenon from burgeoning. And, most bloggers can simply opt for foreign online services in a click-away, many of these services already have or are building their Chinese interface. Switch costs nothing.
The following two links aggregate all major discussions about this press conference in Taiwan blogosphere until now. (Well…they are all in Traditional Chinese)
http://blog.serv.idv.tw/2007/01/25/605/
http://blog.serv.idv.tw/2007/01/26/606/
Nov.27 marked the darkest day in Taiwan blogging history, because about one third of Taiwan bloggers found their themselves unable to see their blogs or enter their blog platform. These bloggers set their blogs on one of Taiwan’s largest blog service called YamRoodo(maintained by Roodo while promoted by Yam, a minor player in Taiwan’s Internet portal competition).
However, recently Yam was aquired by Webs-tv, an burgeoning online video and blog service provider, whose boss is known for his strict and arbitrary leadership.
Swpave records a podcast featuring headlines and hot blogging topics for the last week gathered fromHEMiDEMi(a social bookmarking service in Taiwan, just like a combination of del.icio.us and digg.com) along with 6 stories fromGlobal Voices Online in Chinese for the last week. He says the making of this podcast took him about one and a half hour…however it was fun and vivid when recording short stories from GVO in Chinese.
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.
Publication Date：06/01/2006
By line：
Publish Date: 06/01/2006
Story Type: SOCIETY; MEDIA
Byline: KELLY HER
PHOTOS BY HUANG CHUNG-HSIN
Taiwan’s effervescent media have a new regulator and a public broadcasting group in the works, both prompted by higher public expectations.
Cameramen jostle for the shot that will thicken their slice of market share.
Over the last two decades, Taiwan’s media have evolved into a 24-hour cacophony of ferociously competitive voices. The media’s rampant free-market nature and the overwhelming volume of unfettered information have created a rare consensus –that it is time for some kind of reform, both in terms of the government ownership and oversight, and the restructuring of media organizations themselves.
During the early 1990s when cable television channels were blooming, the prime target of media reform was state ownership. The Kuomintang (KMT)–the political party that governed Taiwan from 1949 to 2000–maintained a virtual monopoly on most radio stations and all three terrestrial television stations. Since the establishment of a multiparty system in the 1980s, the government has been liberalizing the media environment and political parties have been encouraged to shed their media holdings. Last December, for example, the KMT sold its controlling stakes in the Broadcasting Corporation of China (BCC) radio station, China Television Co. (CTV) and the Central Motion Picture Corp. to the China Times Group for NT$9.3 billion (US$290 million).
The great selloff is part of the fundamental shifts in the media environment in Taiwan and reflects the general consensus that the media should operate independently and be regulated by a nonpartisan body. That consensus is evident in recent legislation. In January this year, the long-stalled law on disposing of public shares in terrestrial TV stations was eventually given a green light. According to the statute, the state-owned Taiwan Television Enterprise (TTV) must sell all of its shares through a public and transparent procedure. As for the Chinese Television System (CTS), another national television station, the government will spend approximately NT$2 billion (US$63 million) to buy back its privately owned shares before donating them to a planned public television network. The government plans to integrate the Public Television Service (PTS), a terrestrial channel founded in 1998, with CTS and existing Hakka and aboriginal television stations into a public network.
Independent Oversight
Apart from tidying up its own backyard through these selloffs, this February the government launched the independent National Communications Commission (NCC), charged with regulating the country’s communications and broadcasting indus tries. The new regulatory body consolidates responsibilities formerly shared by the Government Information Office (GIO) and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.
These reforms have all come about largely from increasing public concern over the state of the media. Hung Chen-ling, assistant professor at National Taiwan University’s Graduate Institute of Journalism, argues that the current state of the media is undermining public confidence in the industry. “Taiwan’s media coverage has fundamental quality problems,” she says. “Journalists are no longer respected, in fact they’re despised.” She sees the Taiwanese media veering toward a tabloid style, particularly since a Taiwanese version of the Apple Daily, a Hong Kong newspaper, hit the newsstands in May 2003.
Wei Ti, an assistant professor in the Department of Mass Communication at Tamkang University, has similar ideas about media quality, but asserts that the problems are homegrown. “The domestic media were like this before the Apple Daily arrived,” he says. “That’s why it does so well!” He believes that the island’s newspapers, magazines and TV channels rely on sensationalism and gossip to boost market share. Wei says that after the lifting of martial law in 1987, the airwaves and cables were flooded with newcomers and that their arrival was virtually unplanned and unmanaged, which has led to the saturated market of today.
Competition is indeed fierce. The island’s 23 million people can choose from five terrestrial television stations, 173 radio stations and 130 cable television channels. In fact, cable TV is viewed by 80 percent of the population, the world’s highest penetration rate. Chiang Hsia, former president of the CTS, agrees that the unregulated establishment of so many cable TV channels is an important factor behind the heated competition. “There used to be only three terrestrial TV stations carving up the NT$20 billion (US$625 million) advertising pie,” she says. “Now some 100 TV channels are vying for a slice.”
Maximizing profits and minimizing expenses, however, have resulted in some lackluster programming. “What Taiwan’s media lack are not operational platforms, but funding and talent,” Chiang says. “Due to shrinking budgets, most of them just buy foreign programs or produce low-budget talk shows.” Chiang thinks that this practice not only deprives local entertainers of work opportunities and forces many of them to relocate overseas, but also limits the viewing options of the general public. “Given the influence they have on society, the media really need to shoulder social responsibility and produce quality programming,” she says.
The public are increasingly concerned about the quality of what is broadcast.
Breathing Life into Public TV
Chiang believes that to be successful in the long run, TV stations must build a style of their own through the production of quality programs. During the last year and half as head of the CTS, she required program production to address the real lives of ordinary people and the things that interest them. Market response toward this initiative has been good, and for her this indicates it was not that audiences did not like this kind of content before, but simply that they were not offered such alternatives.
A desire for more variety is something that compelled Wei Ti to help organize a watchdog group, Campaign for Media Reform (CMR), in 2003. One of the group’s main objectives is to set up media role models. “Free from commercial pressure, public TV stations can pay more attention to quality and diversity,” says Wei. “In this way they’ll become a guiding force.” The CMR has been closely involved with the government in its plans to form a public television network. Wei thinks that the financial resources of the PTS are trifling and that Taiwan should act more like South Korea, which has two public TV stations, each of which receives approximately 15 times more than the NT$900 million (US$28 million) the PTS gets from the government. “Right from the beginning, PTS was designed to be ’small’ and ‘beautiful,’ that has limited its development,” says Wei. “The government needs to increase funding so the channel can be influential.”
To counter fears of publicly funded media draining government coffers, he points out that the Korean public TV drama series Jewel in the Palace, which has been immensely popular at home and abroad, cost the government very little. He also notes that public stations, such as the British Broadcasting Corp., provide quality programs while supporting themselves financially.
Other community groups have recommended that the government create a public radio network by combining the facilities and talent of state-run National Education Radio, the Police Radio Station and the Voice of Han Broadcasting Network. Helen Chao, director-general of the Police Radio Station, however, does not approve of this proposal. She thinks that the nature and performance of networks need to be considered individually and that making them public is not a panacea for all media problems.
According to Chao, some government-run networks, including hers, have clearly defined briefs. “Our mission–providing citizens with advice and reporting traffic conditions–are very specific and, as ACNielsen’s ratings show, very well received,” she says. The station functions so well largely because of its limited goals and direct sponsorship from the National Police Administration. Chao likens the station to a well-equipped patrol car. “Why would you want to turn it into a public bus?” she asks.
Satellite news gathering trucks afford immediate and sensational news coverage.
Debating the Government’s Role
The GIO is currently seeking the advice of professionals like Chao, along with community groups and scholars on the objectives, size and organizational structure of the planned public broadcasting group. “We want to expand the public TV network appropriately,” says Cheng Wen-tsang, minister of the GIO. “Nevertheless, public TV stations will have to target a large audience so that they can be responsible for their own survival.” Putting its money where its mouth is, the Executive Yuan recently approved a special budget of NT$9.2 billion (US$288 million) for the public broadcasting group to be completed in two years.
Hung Chen-ling has high expectations for the public media group, particularly in regard to the number of channels and types of programming. “There is a shortage of programs on the arts, children, culture and international affairs,” she says. “Hopefully, the public broadcasting network can address these deficiencies.”
As a member of CMR and equal rights group the Awakening Foundation, Hung finds her position as a teacher undermined by the poor quality of media. “To some degree, we academics share the same fate as the industry,” she says. “If the industry does not perform well, people question our role.” She sees the government as entitled to exercise reasonable control over the media, and believes the broadcast license review system under the newly established NCC, which rates programming quality among other things, is a positive step in this direction. Miscreant networks may have their operations suspended or be fined if their performances are not up to standard.
Wei Ti concurs on the government’s role in regulating the media, but emphasizes positive reinforcement. “Focusing media reform on regulation is a passive approach–preventing misconduct is less effective than creating incentives or setting good examples,” he says. “However, the current chaos in the marketplace has necessitated government intervention.” He is happy to see the NCC set up and the public broadcasting group taking shape. “Our role is changing. In the past, we were in a position to encourage and support the government to revamp Taiwan’s media,” he says. “In the days ahead, we’ll play a critical and supervisory role over the public TV network and the NCC.”
While the balance between government regulation and a free marketplace of ideas is worked out, the people of Taiwan will continue to tune in to their radio and TV programs and scan their newspapers. Though sometimes described as unruly, the competitive media environment most importantly provides a wealth of choices.
CCB 2.0(beta) found that the website of next ICANN meeting which he is going to attend in Marrakech “forgot” Taiwan.
He also found something interesting that “if you go to www.president.ma, (.ma is the ccTLD extension for Morocco), it will take you to the unofficial, fans site for Ma Ying-Jeou, current Major of Taipei and possible future President of Taiwan after 2008.”
I just found this conference from Ethan and Rebecca, and I am now wathing the live webcasting.
We will explore the thesis that traditional public media — public broadcasting, cable access television, etc — face a unique opportunity to embrace new participatory web-based media models — podcasting, video blogs, social software, etc — and create a stronger and more vital public service.
This is just the right conference that I want! Public media should evolve immediately.
Public media in Taiwan is like a baby in th wood, however, we are catching on on several aspects, but not WWW, which in my opinion should be develop right away before it’s getting too late “again”!
遊戲噗 introduces a 6 minutes documentary depicting the new kind of job in China: Online “Farmers”.
These farmers are not growing virtual fruits or rices on virtual Internet farms; they are playing online games and gaining “levels” and “treasures” in order to make a living.
This documentary features some direct sayings from Chinese professional online gamers and their local managers about why they choose to become “farmers” working online for their Western employers. The reason is simple: they get paid, and it is also entertaining when a dozen of co-workers play games together, live together, work together.
Unlike migrant workers, these Chinese farmers can still stay in China while working for their Western employers. However, according to 遊戲噗, some Western gamers often view all Chinese and Asian gamers as farmers and talk about them with discrimination and classism. However, “this cash-treasure market is completely supported by Westerners, regardless of buyers and sellers”, says 遊戲噗.
I was shocked when watching this short video, because I never play any online games, or never knew this new kind of job. I asked one of my friends who play online game a lot about this, and he told me that:”Not only Westerners, many Taiwanese businessmen who based in China are in fact part-time brokers between Chinese farmers and Taiwanese buyers.”
I am not an insider in this case, but I do care about the working situation of these farmers. From the short documentary, I don’t think this would be an easy job.
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