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Media leave much to be desired

The Broadcasting Development Fund was commissioned by the Government Information Office to conduct this year's review of television news programming. This review revealed that international news coverage, looked at superficially, was exciting and varied, but actually accounted for only a small portion of total news coverage. It was also of poor quality and was generally broadcast during unpopular time slots. This should not be the case in a country like Taiwan.

The review took a stratified sample of 5,068 items from news programming between 7pm and 8pm from 12 free-to-air and cable television stations. Of this sample, only 9.1 percent of content focused on international news coverage. Even if we add the 131 items of news about China, this only increases the total proportion of non-local news to 11.6 percent -- just over one-tenth of all programming. It is obvious from this sample that international news coverage in Taiwan is quite limited. The quantity of coverage is also an indication of the importance that television stations ascribe to international news. GTV's First Channel, Set TV news channel and TVBS-N are slightly in the lead with over 11 percent international news coverage. ET TV news channel and Formosa Television share last place with just 5 percent. It is evident from this that even media organizations which hold alliances with media outlets in the Europe, the US and Japan have not performed very well in this respect.

As for quality, the selection of international news is totally skewed towards the exotic, the sensationalist, sports, entertainment and other "soft news" topics. If we take news items in June for example, there is a plethora of "soft news" stories about dancing dogs, two headed goats, gorillas watching pornography to stimulate their libido, nude shopping in the UK, and even US President George W. Bush's umbrella blowing out. If it weren't for items such as the death of Ronald Reagan and the 60th anniversary of the Normandy landings, we might think that we were watching Wildlife Tales or America's Funniest Home Videos rather than the news.

As for its time slot, most international news covered in Taiwan tends to be "soft news," and is usually relegated to the end of a news program, and is often presented as filler or scattered through the main news items. While foreign wars or natural disasters might get headline billing, little else happening overseas receives any prominence.

According to a recent review of Asian media by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), in terms of press freedom, Taiwan was ranked eighth out of 12 countries and territories. It was narrowly ahead of China and North Korea, but lagged significantly behind the Philippines and India. While many Taiwanese might find this ranking surprising, the reasons given by the report are valid. Apart from the high level of self-evident media manipulation exercised by political forces, the PERC also cited the lack of international news coverage. It said that Taiwan's news media was too focused on domestic issues, generally at the expense of quality international coverage. This parochialism not only limited the potential for economic development, but also created the danger that Taiwan would be ostracized by the international community.

Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍), Singapore's new prime minister, visited Taiwan just prior to taking office. He hit the nail on the head when speaking of his visit. He said that Taiwan's political parties, both the government and opposition, as well as the media, were too concerned with internal political issues and lacked awareness of the rapidly changing international scene. He added that Singapore could not disregard the possibility that this would lead to serious misjudgments within the political leadership that could affect Singapore and the region as a whole.

It is said that "the depth of the sea is created by the flow of many rivers." So too can localization and internationalization coexist. They are complementary rather than contradictory. As members of a maritime nation, Taiwanese people in the 21st century should be world citizens with wide horizons, and it is the news media which should act as the catalyst for achieving this end. It is unfortunate that this is not the case, and international news is limited, poor in quality and relegated to less popular time slots. All attention is focused on trivial local affairs and there is little concern for serious international issues. We worry that if things go on like this, the international perspective of Taiwanese will suffer.

In the early days, because access to international news was controlled by foreign wire services, we accepted everything that was given to us without giving it much thought. The problem with this was that we were at the mercy of a kind of "media imperialism." Now we have gone to the other extreme, and we are largely unconcerned; we let much international news pass us by. Localization does not mean closing the door to the world, and internationalization does not mean we have to blindly follow the US' lead. The media should have its feet grounded in Taiwan, but cast its gaze around the world, giving international news the same weight as local news. We hope that one day this will be the case.

Connie Lin is the the chief executive officer of the Broadcasting Development Fund. Chuang Po-chung is an assistant professor of journalism at Chinese Culture University.

Translated by Ian Bartholomew
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