Media scholars yesterday welcomed the suggestion that they establish a committee to monitor the media and report their observations to the public every 10 days.
The support for a media self-regulatory body comes following reports that a TV station will scrap a popular entertainment show after it apparently exposed the private life of the president of the company's parent.
"We could form a communication committee to monitor our media, by gathering resources from private foundations and colleges with courses related to communications studies nationwide. Public opinion, influenced by such a committee, might be able to reverse the current obvious degeneration of media culture," Yu Ping-chung (余秉中), of Chinese Culture University (中國文化大學), told a seminar organized by Media Watch Foundation (台灣媒體觀察教育基金會) to discuss talk shows.
The scholars stopped short, however, of committing themselves to creating the committee.
The seminar was prompted by the planned termination next week of the ET Jacky station's program Maniu Gossip (
The show, screened every weekday night on ET Jacky Station, delves into the private lives of celebrities, giving strong hints as to their identities without actually naming them.
A recent episode apparently referred to Gary Wang (王令麟), the president of Eastern Broadcasting Co, Ltd, ET Jacky's parent company.
The program suggested Wang frequently visited bars and had extra-marital affairs with actresses.
Brian Kang (
Nelson Tsai (
"While we have sought to teach students the ethics behind the production of TV programs, the results are often very frustrating because of the way media function today," Tsai said.
"Forces must come from society to boycott sensationalized programs featuring celebrity gossip. If we form a committee in society we could use the power of public opinion to help the GIO to monitor our media," she said.
Lan Tzu-wei (
Saying that media today would "do anything to get high ratings," Yu Fu (魚夫), cartoonist and former talk-show host, said, "The media not only no longer serve the function of educating the public but have also lost their ability to inform the public properly."
The scholars suggested that the committee could hold press conferences every 10 days to inform the public of their latest observations and identify programs that will "have a bad influence."
A section head from the GIO, Huang Chieh-shan (
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