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Media driven by market ignore ideas and ideals
By Wan Lixin |
November 3, 2010, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AS a "veteran" journalist by Chinese standards (it is not easy to find an active journalist with more than 10 years' experience), I sometimes find myself in a position of defending China's media.
This usually occurs when some Westerners begin to bash government control of media, restricted Internet access and lack of freedom of expression.
China's media leave much to be desired, but media problems are global. Some of the most vehement and condescending critics, in their eagerness to accuse others, are surprisingly myopic about their own weaknesses.
And unlike those Chinese bureaucrats who are obliged to be self-congratulatory about our media prosperity, most tributes (Western or Chinese) to Western media are sincere.
This distorted perception of the reality can be partly attributed to effective media management that carefully keeps out the voice of, say, Noam Chomsky.
This 82-year-old linguist's TG (transformational-generative) grammar was a nightmare for me during my graduate years.
But his influence outside academia has earned my respect.
In a recent interview with India's Outlook magazine, Chomsky delivers a penetrating analysis of Western media.
He says the crisis in the media is not so much a result of its declining revenues as of its intellectual dishonesty, and that the so-called liberal media's major commitment is to the centers of power - state and private.
"The task of intellectuals and the media is to ensure the public is quiet, obedient. That's the liberal viewpoint," Chomsky said.
A Western newspaper pride itself on its diversity and freedom, though it is surprisingly efficient in manufacturing consensus when needed, for instance during the 9/11 incident and the subsequent invasion of Iraq.
The trick is to keep the audience busy. "When you read day after day and watch television day after day, a certain picture tends to sink into an overwhelming majority of the population. They don't have the time to do research projects," Chomsky said.
Western media, like other aspects of Western lifestyle, has been idealized as the best a human being can dream of in this life.
In the politically charged era, China's media had been depicted as restrictive, totalitarian, and ideological.
For some time, our new faith in the market seems to point to the path to heaven.
When media become elevated as the handmaiden of big capital, we are lauded as "progressive."
The progressive media rely on advertising, circulation, and traffic.
As Chomsky said, "When newspapers become dependent on advertisers for their income, they are naturally going to bend to the interest of advertisers."
And after decades of evolution, the media here and there in the West are essentially similar.
Recently, both have been complicit in fueling bubbles, in amplifying the clamor for bailouts and stimulus, and now fueling fresh bubbles.
The chase for profits makes media decisions easier.
Few, if any, care about our mission.
Last year, Yin Minghua, vice chairman of the All-China Journalists' Association, said that at the beginning the precursors of what are known today as newspapers were not created for news, but for ideas.
Given the inundation of information today, Yin believed there is more need for ideological direction.
Do ideas make sense in the marketplace?
Last Friday, a senior editor at People's Daily said the paper does not represent a particular interest group, but the interest of the whole nation.
It can be argued what is "the interest of the whole nation," but I do have high hopes for that paper, because it has the privilege of not being too worried about its advertising revenues.
Since it is apparently in no hurry to turn in a profit, it still has time to stand and stare.
For instance, on November 1 it commented that "many buildings in China are short-lived because governments crave exorbitant profits from relocation."
A newspaper purely driven by market needs not be so concerned.
This usually occurs when some Westerners begin to bash government control of media, restricted Internet access and lack of freedom of expression.
China's media leave much to be desired, but media problems are global. Some of the most vehement and condescending critics, in their eagerness to accuse others, are surprisingly myopic about their own weaknesses.
And unlike those Chinese bureaucrats who are obliged to be self-congratulatory about our media prosperity, most tributes (Western or Chinese) to Western media are sincere.
This distorted perception of the reality can be partly attributed to effective media management that carefully keeps out the voice of, say, Noam Chomsky.
This 82-year-old linguist's TG (transformational-generative) grammar was a nightmare for me during my graduate years.
But his influence outside academia has earned my respect.
In a recent interview with India's Outlook magazine, Chomsky delivers a penetrating analysis of Western media.
He says the crisis in the media is not so much a result of its declining revenues as of its intellectual dishonesty, and that the so-called liberal media's major commitment is to the centers of power - state and private.
"The task of intellectuals and the media is to ensure the public is quiet, obedient. That's the liberal viewpoint," Chomsky said.
A Western newspaper pride itself on its diversity and freedom, though it is surprisingly efficient in manufacturing consensus when needed, for instance during the 9/11 incident and the subsequent invasion of Iraq.
The trick is to keep the audience busy. "When you read day after day and watch television day after day, a certain picture tends to sink into an overwhelming majority of the population. They don't have the time to do research projects," Chomsky said.
Western media, like other aspects of Western lifestyle, has been idealized as the best a human being can dream of in this life.
In the politically charged era, China's media had been depicted as restrictive, totalitarian, and ideological.
For some time, our new faith in the market seems to point to the path to heaven.
When media become elevated as the handmaiden of big capital, we are lauded as "progressive."
The progressive media rely on advertising, circulation, and traffic.
As Chomsky said, "When newspapers become dependent on advertisers for their income, they are naturally going to bend to the interest of advertisers."
And after decades of evolution, the media here and there in the West are essentially similar.
Recently, both have been complicit in fueling bubbles, in amplifying the clamor for bailouts and stimulus, and now fueling fresh bubbles.
The chase for profits makes media decisions easier.
Few, if any, care about our mission.
Last year, Yin Minghua, vice chairman of the All-China Journalists' Association, said that at the beginning the precursors of what are known today as newspapers were not created for news, but for ideas.
Given the inundation of information today, Yin believed there is more need for ideological direction.
Do ideas make sense in the marketplace?
Last Friday, a senior editor at People's Daily said the paper does not represent a particular interest group, but the interest of the whole nation.
It can be argued what is "the interest of the whole nation," but I do have high hopes for that paper, because it has the privilege of not being too worried about its advertising revenues.
Since it is apparently in no hurry to turn in a profit, it still has time to stand and stare.
For instance, on November 1 it commented that "many buildings in China are short-lived because governments crave exorbitant profits from relocation."
A newspaper purely driven by market needs not be so concerned.
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