President Chen Shui-bian (
Taiwanese media are in no way different from major foreign media in terms of the number of trips they make to China and the quantity of their reports, despite the constraints on Taiwanese reporters with regard to the length of their stays in China. There is, however, room for improvement on the part of Taiwanese media coverage of the issues.
First, the media has the discretion to judge, with journalistic professionalism, what is a news event and what is not. But the media also has the obligation to conduct rational analyses of important news events. A society with freedom of speech can tolerate different viewpoints, but what ideas are the media trying to sell with their angle on the news events? If the media simply use a news event to reinforce their own political platforms, then that news event is no different from an election campaign commercial. Many countries have prominent media that adopt right-wing or left-wing stances. They are not respected for their particular standpoint, but for their succinct commentaries and insightful views, which seem to be precisely what Taiwan's media should learn.
Second, in terms of the angle of coverage, reports that ignore the difference between the social structures of Taiwan and China should be criticized. In my view, "election-driven society" (選舉社會) and "big-nation mentality" make for the biggest differences between Taiwanese and Chinese society. A report on China will be seriously out-of-focus if it fails to understand the country's big-nation mentality.
Take financial and economic reports for example. A report written from a cross-strait affairs angle would only address commercial activities between the two sides (especially the ups and downs of Taiwanese investments and China's stock market). But it would fail to understand how foreign investors do business in China, what industries they are in and where Taiwanese businessmen stand in that competitive market. Apart from this, when ostensibly similar events happen in Taiwan and China, the media seem to forget the differences between them and media hype which ensues as a result.
China's stock market is a case in point. All of a sudden, daily fluctuations on the Shenzhen and Shanghai markets have become news. The dark secrets behind China's stock markets, which are hotly-debated even inside China, have been ignored.
Finally, Taiwan's media could learn from their Japanese counterparts' long-term, persistent tracking of news events. Years before Hong Kong was returned to China, NHK set up a special team to keep track of the issue so that it was able to come up with insightful analyses. By contrast, Taiwan's media, after broadcasting the handover ceremony, did not give much follow-up coverage to Hong Kong under "one country, two systems." Economically, in its debates over whether to relax the "no haste, be patient" policy, Taiwan has overlooked Hong Kong's experience, including its economic interaction with Shenzhen and its industrial exodus.
China is a complicated issue for Taiwanese. It is the country that makes military threats against Taiwan, so many people detest it. But many Taiwanese businessmen also see China as a gold mine. Like it or not, Taiwan still needs to face China and therefore needs to know the country. This is exactly where the media's responsibility lies!
Hsu Tung-ming is a freelance writer based in Beijing.
Translated by Wu Pei-shih
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