Reading between the headlines: SARS, Focus and TV current affairs programmes in China
Identifieur interne : 000A73 ( Istex/Corpus ); précédent : 000A72; suivant : 000A74Reading between the headlines: SARS, Focus and TV current affairs programmes in China
Auteurs : Xiaoling ZhangSource :
- Media, Culture & Society [ 0163-4437 ] ; 2006-09.
English descriptors
- Teeft :
- April, Beijing, Cctv, Central committee, Chinese media, Communist party, Critical reports, Culture society, Current affairs programme focus, Current affairs programmes, February, Guangdong, Headline, Health minister, Hong kong, Jiaodian fangtan, Many problems, Media discourse, Media supervision, Medical staff, Negative topics, News programmes, Ordinary people, Outbreak, Political stability, Presenter, Programme, Propaganda department, Public opinion, Sars, Sars cases, Tiananmen incident, Yang weiguang, Zhang, Zhao.
Abstract
This article first examines the coverage of SARS by Focus with a view to examining whether there really was a 'breakthrough' for TV current affairs programmes in China in the coverage of SARS after two decades of reform that has greatly increased the power of the market relative to the old political imperatives. The article then explores why Focus, as a product of reform, has failed audiences' expectations. The article concludes that TV current affairs programmes in China have been exploited to play a key role in shaping public discourse and creating a social or psychological climate favourable for political stability, and at times of crisis has far less freedom than usual to violate the guidelines set down by the state. Focus will remain as 'an example' of media supervision for other TV current affairs programmes in China and for the outside world.
Url:
DOI: 10.1177/0163443706067023
Links to Exploration step
ISTEX:C3E7114025123AA1F4F6CB12EDD38F83FF2133CBLe document en format XML
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1998</json:string><json:string>Sun, 1995: 4</json:string><json:string>Chan (2002)</json:string><json:string>see Yan, 1995</json:string><json:string>Keane, 1991: 67</json:string><json:string>Xin, 1996: 11</json:string><json:string>Li, 2001: 9</json:string><json:string>February and March 2004</json:string></ref_bibl><bibl></bibl></unitex></namedEntities><ark><json:string>ark:/67375/M70-WZKV65R7-Q</json:string></ark><categories><wos><json:string>1 - social science</json:string><json:string>2 - sociology</json:string><json:string>2 - communication</json:string></wos><scienceMetrix><json:string>1 - arts & humanities</json:string><json:string>2 - communication & textual studies</json:string><json:string>3 - communication & media studies</json:string></scienceMetrix><scopus><json:string>1 - Social Sciences</json:string><json:string>2 - Social Sciences</json:string><json:string>3 - Sociology and Political Science</json:string><json:string>1 - Social Sciences</json:string><json:string>2 - 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The article then explores why Focus, as a product of reform, has failed audiences' expectations. The article concludes that TV current affairs programmes in China have been exploited to play a key role in shaping public discourse and creating a social or psychological climate favourable for political stability, and at times of crisis has far less freedom than usual to violate the guidelines set down by the state. 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<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zhang</surname><given-names>Xiaoling</given-names></name><aff>University of Nottingham, UK</aff></contrib></contrib-group>
<pub-date pub-type="ppub"><month>09</month><year>2006</year></pub-date><volume>28</volume><issue>5</issue><fpage>715</fpage><lpage>737</lpage><abstract>
<p>This article first examines the coverage of SARS by Focus with a view to examining whether there really was a 'breakthrough' for TV current affairs programmes in China in the coverage of SARS after two decades of reform that has greatly increased the power of the market relative to the old political imperatives. The article then explores why Focus, as a product of reform, has failed audiences' expectations. The article concludes that TV current affairs programmes in China have been exploited to play a key role in shaping public discourse and creating a social or psychological climate favourable for political stability, and at times of crisis has far less freedom than usual to violate the guidelines set down by the state. Focus will remain as 'an example' of media supervision for other TV current affairs programmes in China and for the outside world.</p>
</abstract><kwd-group>
<kwd>formal democracy</kwd>
<kwd>investigative journalism</kwd>
<kwd>media supervision</kwd>
<kwd>political and social stability</kwd>
<kwd>sensitive topics</kwd>
</kwd-group><custom-meta-wrap><custom-meta xlink:type="simple"><meta-name>sagemeta-type</meta-name><meta-value>Other</meta-value></custom-meta><custom-meta xlink:type="simple"><meta-name>search-text</meta-name><meta-value> Reading between the headlines: SARS, Focus and TV current affairs programmes in China Xiaoling Zhang UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM, UK Recent research has shown an increasing interest in Chinese media, as they have been taken as sensitive barometers of political, economic and social changes in a transitional society. The response of the Chinese media to the extraordinary event in 2003 the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) provides another opportunity to observe changes in China, revealing a complex relationship between government, media and society in a partially reformed system. U-turn in the coverage of SARS In spring 2003, the world learned a new word and a new cause for anxiety SARS. Media reaction throughout the world was instant, following an alert from the World Health Organization (WHO). The Chinese media, however, followed its own agenda and reacted to this epidemic in its own way. Although the first recorded case of SARS appeared on 16 November 2002, in Foshan in China's southern province of Guangdong,1 the first reports on SARS from the state media did not appear until mid-February.2 On 17 February 2003, the Central Chinese TV Station (CCTV) current affairs programme Focus (Jiaodian Fangtan) put out its first coverage of the deadly virus. These first reports on SARS were followed by an outright silence from all media for a number of weeks.3 Like other media, the second programme by Focus at the beginning of April was again followed by weeks of limited coverage. But, from 18 April, the world saw a significant increase in the state media's coverage of SARS. On 21 April, news of the dismissal of Beijing Mayor Meng Xuenong and China's Health Media, Culture & Society © 2006 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi), Vol. 28(5): 715737 [ISSN: 0163-4437 DOI: 10.1177/0163443706067023] Minister Zhang Wenkang was reported in state newspapers one day after they were charged with mishandling the outbreak of the disease. That followed an announcement by the Health Ministry that the number of SARS cases in Beijing had jumped from 37 to 339 nine times as many cases as previously reported. From that day on, SARS dominated Chinese state media, which carried daily reports on SARS until 17 August 2003, when the last two SARS patients were discharged from hospital. This change from limited to overwhelmingly all-out coverage of SARS has been taken by some observers, both Chinese and overseas, as a turning point (U-turn) in media reform in China.4 They believe that, although China's pre-reform style of secrecy will hardly vanish overnight, a new trend is emerging. An example in point is the resumed daily reports on the re-emergence of SARS in China from around 22 April 2004. This article first examines the way CCTV's current affairs programme Focus responded to the emergence, rise and fall of SARS, with a view to examining one major research question: has there really been a 'break- through' for Chinese TV current affairs programmes represented by Focus in the coverage of SARS after two decades of reform which has greatly increased the power of the market relative to the old political imperatives? The findings from the study show that, contrary to some observers' optimistic belief, the change in the coverage of SARS is a matter of frequency rather than content. Of further interest is that the change in frequency absolutely conforms with the agenda set by the party, suggesting that the party has complete control of the propaganda apparatus at all times. The article then examines earlier programmes by Focus, and official speeches, in order to find out why Focus, as a product of reform, has failed to act in the way it was expected to. The article finds that, contrary to some scholars' belief that Focus was a test for the party, it is actually a political response from CCTV to the call by the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party to engage actively with issues of public concern and to provide an official frame on controversial topics (or to 'provide correct guidance to public opinion', as the official terminology puts it). It is a result of the party's wish to produce a programme that is 'innovative and democratic in form' to achieve greater propaganda effectiveness. The response of Focus to SARS is only another example of the party's manipulation of TV current affairs programmes. Content analysis is employed to examine the coverage of SARS by Focus from 17 February 2003, when the first report on SARS appeared, until the WHO gave Beijing the all-clear in late June.5 Discourse analysis, practised in a variety of disciplines today, is also employed to 'comple- ment, more qualitatively, the traditional method of quantitative content analysis, as it allows us to inquire into abstract formal structures of news reports as well as into their subtle underlying meanings, in a way usually ignored in content analysis' (Van Dijk, 1988a: x). A critical analysis of 716 Media, Culture & Society 28(5) media discourse, understood as an attempt to show systemic links between texts, discourse practices and sociocultural practices (Fairclough, 1995: 16), allows the investigator to examine the intricate relations between media discourse and its political, social and economic contexts. The analysis is extremely useful as it is 'sensitive to absences as well as presences in texts' (1995: 58). The analysis is enhanced by the examination of the programme from 20 April 2001 to 31 January 2003,6 the study of official rhetoric on TV work during the last decade7 and interviews with media practitioners during the investigator's field trip in February and March 2004. It is hoped that the examination of the Chinese TV current affairs programme Focus, especially during the outbreak of SARS, will throw some fresh light on the trajectory of media reform in a transitional China. Chinese TV current affairs programmes and CCTV's Focus As economic reform in China deepens, Chinese media have undergone great changes, with television's influence and penetration throughout the country increasing. The following is Hugo de Burgh's depiction of the popularity of television sets in China: Virtually everyone in China watches TV, and at the end of 1997, there were 400 million sets on private homes and over a billion people had acquired regular access to TV programmes. In 1998, in terms of household penetration television and the number of TV sets counted on a per capita basis, China was already well ahead of all other developing countries and high above the average level for the world and Asia. (2003: 36) Because of its vast public, TV plays a more central role in public information processing than other media. According to a survey conducted by the Institute of Opinion Studies at the People's University in Beijing in April 2003, of all the channels from which people obtained information on SARS (e.g. TV, newspaper, radio, media from abroad, personal contacts, mobiles), 34 percent of the informants learned about the disease from TV.8 Among all the changes and developments in media in the early 1990s, the rise of the state-owned (like all the TV stations in China) CCTV's current affairs programme Focus became the most noticeable. Launched on 1 April 1994, it is a 13-minute programme that starts at 7:38 p.m. on the primary national television channel, CCTV-1, immediately after the 7 o'clock evening news and the national weather forecast, and is broadcast on several other CCTV channels at different time-slots. The programme produces news features with a special in-depth or investigative aspect, and adopts the format of discussion on topical issues rather than merely echoing official political slogans. Most important, it breaks the convention of covering good news and avoiding the bad, marking the first time that 717Zhang, Reading between the headlines television in China has come out to openly criticize bureaucracy, corrup- tion, pollution and other social problems. The public warmly welcomed this intervention into the fraught relation- ship between the state and the people after the Tiananmen Incident in 1989. According to Zhao Yuezhi (Zhao, 2000: 583), around 30 percent of the audience 300 million people watched this programme every night in the mid 1990s. Its impact is unprecedented. Stories from Focus, for example, were often carried in the print media and transcripts of Focus appeared in many books. As Focus gained popularity throughout the country, almost every provincial and local television station started its own current affairs programme, adopting the form of Focus. As a result, over 60 similar programmes9 emerged throughout the country, making criticism of wrongdoings a common practice.10 Soon other media radio stations, newspapers and magazines started to report investigations and revelations of corruption. Some scholars believe that the programme is an attempt by CCTV to test whether the government and the public are truly prepared to accept exposures of truth and criticism (Li, 2002: 22), while others express their optimism that the multi-media cross-promotions have significantly ampli- fied the theme of 'supervision' of government officials by the media (e.g. Guo, 1999) and that this open atmosphere for public discussion of real-life cases is conducive to the development of a more open, tolerant and democratic society in the long run. As Focus has become a famous vehicle of investigative journalism in China, it is natural that, at times such as the SARS crisis, audiences would expect Focus to scrutinize the system for its failure to curb the disease. However, an examination of the programmes reveals otherwise. Altogether, 45 programmes on SARS over a period of 116 days were collected, from the first on 17 February 2003, to the last on 11 June 2003. These programmes are analysed on both macro-level and micro-level for various discursive dimensions, including headlines, topics, voices and interview strategies. Reading between the headlines In Van Dijk's news schemata, 'which both journalists and readers at least implicitly use in the production and understanding of news' (1988b: 57), headlines, together with leads which may or may not be present, structur- ally function to express the major topics of the text. That is, they function as an initial summary (1988b: 53). Van Dijk regards headlines as the most prominent feature of news discourse: 'They subjectively express the most important of the text, that is, the main topic or the top of the semantic macrostructure. They define the situation and, thus, programme the reader 718 Media, Culture & Society 28(5) with a preferred reading and interpretation plan' (1988a: 226). Thus, headlines take up a central and revealing role in the production and reproduction of ideologies in a report. Because of the importance assigned to the headline in a news item, this section starts with an analysis of the headlines on SARS during the period covered to address the following questions: what topics tend to be expressed in the headlines and what inferences can be drawn from their structural form or style? Table 1 shows the dates of the programmes on SARS and their headlines.11 The headlines fall into four categories according to their semantic aspect: the first type is categorized as positive, which includes those on progress in dealing with SARS; on eulogizing government officials at different levels, Communist Party members, military and medical staff in fighting against SARS; and on instigating the masses to unite and fight a people's war against the disease. The second type is categorized as 'neutral', which includes those on explanations of policies or laws related to the prevention and control of epidemics, and offering warnings or advice, as well as those intended to educate. The third category, the 'critical', consists of criticism of social ills. The last category is that of the 'unclear', as the headlines do not give much information about the topic(s) of the programmes. This article argues that the headlines for the coverage of SARS from Focus are illustrative of the programme's function as the 'tongue and throat' of the party, especially at times of crisis. The programme has followed completely the government's strict guidelines and served to dispel panic among the masses in order to preserve social and political stability, to improve the image of the party as close to the masses, and to boost the unity, confidence and morale of the people. One would expect Focus's first programme on SARS on 17 February to be informative if not revealing about the disease, which should be reflected in the headline. However, the headline 'Speaking about SARS' (Huashuo Feidian) did not give any clue at all about the situation of the disease. On the contrary, its lexical choice of the word 'huashuo' reveals that the programme was intended to talk down the risk of the disease. The Chinese dictionary Cihai (1989: 1033) defines the word 'huashuo' as being mostly used at the beginning of a chapter of a novel (the form of which was developed in the Ming Dynasty), or a script for story-telling (in Song and Yuan folk literature). 'Hua' refers to the story of the speaker. Therefore a more literary translation of the headline can be 'Story about SARS'. Imagine the shocking effect of a headline that reads: 'Unidentified Epidemic Likely to Cost Hundreds of Lives'. Of course this hypothetical headline is completely unutterable due to the particular form of ideological hegemony in the Chinese media. The second headline, on 2 April, claimed that SARS was 'under Effective Control Interview with Health Minister Zhang Wenkang'. In 719Zhang, Reading between the headlines TABLE 1 Dates of the programmes on SARS and their headlines Dates Headlines February 17 Speaking about SARS April 2 4 6 7 13 14 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 27 28 30 SARS under Effective Control Interview with Health Minister Zhang Wenkang Feeling the Pulse of SARS International Joint Efforts in Preventing and Curing SARS Out of the Shadow of SARS Working in Full Cooperation to Prevent and Cure SARS Cross-strait Efforts in Overcoming SARS Heart to Heart with People in Fighting against SARS Bounden Duty Soldiers Stories of Medical Staff in ICU in Guangzhou Successful Development of Speedy Check Technology for SARS by Military Medical Institute Faced with the Challenge of SARS Fearless Soldiers Fighting against SARS Sea, Land and Air Preventing SARS together Enquiry Line with Boundless Love Rely on Law to Prevent and Cure SARS Going near Quarantine Area Millions of People all of One Mind, Be United as One Great Wall and Carry Forward the National Spirit to Fight against SARS Wholeheartedly May 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 20 21 22 23 Unite and Help Each Other and Work Together with One Heart in Times of Difficulty Meet Difficulties Head-on and Do not be Afraid to Win Miracle Report on the Construction of Xiao Tangshan Hospital Increased Input to Prevent and Cure SARS Measures Taken from Village to Village to Stop SARS from Spreading Cut Off the Source of SARS Garbage Going Out of the SARS Quarantine Area Do Away with Superstitions and Fight against SARS SARS in Hong Kong Stabilizing Read and Understand the Regulation for Sudden Outbreak of Public Health Incident Recovery Report on SARS Patients Leaving the Beijing Chest Hospital Recounting the Kindness of Yimeng Rely on Law to Prevent and Control Epidemics and Natural Disasters Epidemic under Control, but No Slackening Yet National Law Does Not Allow Interference with Prevention of Epidemics Strike Criminals and Maintain Stability Declare War on Bad Habits Small Habit, Big Disaster Declare War on Bad Habits Unhygienic Food Causes Diseases Declare War on Bad Habits Dangerous Garbage 720 Media, Culture & Society 28(5) the headline, which provides much information about the programme, it was made clear that the programme was to be an interview with an authoritative figure. The minor headline thus served to emphasize the authoritativeness of the announcement in the main headline: 'SARS under Effective Control'. It is an odd headline for the second programme on SARS, after a period of complete silence, when the number of SARS cases in Beijing and around the country continued to climb. In the following days, a number of programmes carried headlines that provided little information on the spread of the disease. Instead, they kept making claims about the state's efforts, in cooperation with international and across-straits organizations (e.g. the programmes on 6, 13 and 14 April). Amidst all the programmes with positive headlines, the one on 7 April 'Out of TABLE 1 continued Dates Headlines 24 25 28 30 31 Black-hearted Businessmen Making Money out of National Difficulties Epidemic Easing Up, No Slackening in Prevention Twenty-one Days in the Intensive Care Unit Meet Difficulties Head-on and Further Development Quarantine Comes to an End in Dong Gan Village June 2 6 11 Fight against SARS Hand in Hand Perseverance Is the Most Precious Prevent Epidemics Scientifically and Go to the Doctor with No Misgivings TABLE 2 Categories of the headlines Type Numbers Percentage Positive a. progress in dealing with SARS 19 b. eulogy 8 c. instigation 3 30 67% Neutral a. educational 4 b. warning/advice 3 c. explanatory 3 10 22% Critical 3 7% Unclear 2 4% Total 45 100% 721Zhang, Reading between the headlines the Shadow of SARS' could easily lead audiences to believe that the epidemic was coming to an end, while in fact the disease was rampant in China. After many days of headlines with clear positive messages, the headline on 22 April stood out from the previous ones because of its unclear nature: 'Faced with the Challenge of SARS'. Although the headline itself did not contain any topics covered in the programme, to a critical audience this was certainly an indication that a different stage was starting in the coverage of SARS. Indeed, from 18 April, Focus changed from intermittent to almost daily coverage. On 18 April, the headline 'Heart to Heart with People in Overcoming SARS' reassured the audience that the party and the government were concerned with this matter. Headlines indicating topics other than positive progress made an appearance as well, although they constituted a very small percentage. A number of headlines started to appeal to patriotism and national unity in fighting against SARS, such as the extremely long ones on 30 April and 1 May. Although the direct or indirect use of the metaphor of dealing with SARS as fighting a war (e.g. referring to medical staff as soldiers on 23 April; referring to Railway Ministry, Communications Ministry and Civil Aviation Bureau as 'Sea, Land and Air' on 24 April, as the three terms together are normally used in Chinese to refer to the three army forces, and 'War' on 21, 22 and 23 May) reminded audiences of the typical Maoist-era rhetoric during political campaigns, it is also significant in terms of the headlines' explicit claim to a relationship of solidarity and common identity with the audience. It drew upon war as an evocative theme of the memory that it was the Communist Party that led the people of China to victory in the most recent wars: the war against the Japanese invaders from 1937 to 1945 and the three years' Civil War after that. The headline on 6 May 'Measures Taken from Village to Village to Stop SARS from Spreading' reminds one of the well-known film Tunnel Warfare, in which villagers built up what is termed an 'underground great wall', from village to village under the leadership of the Communist Party, and successfully fought a people's war against the Japanese invaders. The headline 'Recounting the Kindness of Yimeng' on 14 May again serves to remind people of the film Song of Yimeng, the story of a peasant woman in the Yimeng area saving a People's Liberation Army soldier with her breast milk during the Civil War. Headlines indicating criticism started to appear as well on 17, 20 and 24 May. Headlines with educational purposes were also put out, such as those on 21, 22 and 23 May, as, in addition to regulating the flow of information, TV current affairs programmes constitute part of a broad cultural development agenda that aims to develop the attributes of the Chinese population by raising people's moral and intellectual quality. Headlines for the programmes on 16 and 25 May suggest that warnings and advice on taking precautions against the disease were given even when the epidemic was declining. 722 Media, Culture & Society 28(5) It should be noted that, during this period, headlines offering criti- cism, education, warnings or advice are all in the form of imperative sentences resembling rally cries. They function as demands while exercis- ing authority. It may be concluded that, similar to normal Western practice, in Chinese TV current affairs discourse topics are generally expressed in headlines, which apparently have summary functions: 'topics may be expressed and signalled by headlines, which apparently act as summaries of the news text' (Van Dijk, 1988b: 35). The exceptions are those of 17 February and 22 April. Neither of these gives any clue as to what the topics of the programmes on these days would be. An attempt is therefore made to explore the topics by looking at the texts of the two programmes, in order to reach a better understanding of the underlying meanings of the absence of information in the headlines. 'Unclear' headlines and topics An examination of the text of the first programme 'Speaking about SARS' shows that in the lead, which is as important as the headline in summarizing general information, we only see words such as 'rumour' about the disease, and the statement that 'the market has been stabilized as a result of measures taken by the Guangdong government' serves to dispel panic. The second paragraph contained only one sentence of information on the situation: According to news from Guangdong, up to three o'clock on 10 February, 305 cases of SARS were reported, with five dead. However, it immediately went on to say: People have already been discharged from hospital and the disease is on the decline. Contrary to the lexical choices made in the lead, such as 'news from the bamboo telegraph' and 'false news' about the disease, terms that are related to authority were employed, such as 'Guangdong government', 'news conference', 'Health Ministry of the Nation', 'experts' and 'medical statistics', to project the presenter as a figure of authority, someone who knew (had the 'facts'), and someone who had the right to tell. One objective here has to be to create a sense of authority. The programme is wrapped up with the presenter's statement, declaring that everything was under control: In recent years, our country has established a whole system for the inspection, prevention and control of any epidemics. This system can not only cope with 723Zhang, Reading between the headlines epidemics on a normal scale, it can also deal with epidemics on a bigger scale effectively. No topics of this programme were signalled in the headline or in the lead, which, instead, together defined the overall situation and indicated to the audience a preferred overall meaning of the text do not believe in rumours; the government is dealing with it. They took on a light tone to minimize the panic it may cause, despite the fact that in Beijing and Sanxi, as well as in some other places, the epidemic was getting worse. It is found that in the text with the headline 'Faced with the Challenge of SARS' (22 April), Focus for the first time in its coverage of SARS admitted that 'at the moment SARS is still spreading'. In the second paragraph, it went on to say that 'new cases in Guangdong start to drop off, while in Beijing and Sanxi there is a rise in new cases. Some other places are also starting to have cases.' A more or less representative headline for this programme, therefore, could have been 'SARS on the Increase'. However, just as it did in its first report on SARS, it stated firmly and categorically, in the same paragraph after announcing the spread of the disease: 'the government has taken effective measures to prevent the epidemic from spreading'. Fairclough pointed out: 'In any representation, you have to decide what to include and what to exclude, and what to "foreground" and what to "background" ' (1995: 4). In the Chinese case, negative topics are either backgrounded or excluded altogether from the headlines. Therefore, we may conclude that a headline with an 'unclear' nature may contain negative topics: the story on 17 February at least admitted there was a 'rumour', and the one on 22 April went further, saying that 'the situation is still very serious'. Further examination of texts with positive headlines reveals that several topics may be expressed in one programme, but that only one is signalled as the main topic by the headline, and that one is usually the positive side of the picture. Most headlines only cover part of the information in the texts. Headlines indicating criticism Of the 45 programmes collected, there are three headlines strongly suggesting criticism (17, 20 and 24 May). However, a reading of these three texts reveals that not only is no criticism of the failure of the system that contributes to the spread of the epidemic ever found in the coverage, but the level of criticism is also far below what is usual in non-crisis situations. Before SARS, expos´es of failures in the system, along with repudiations of the policies of those who have fallen from power, were believed to be commonplace in Focus. However, during the outbreak of 724 Media, Culture & Society 28(5) SARS the programme never suggested any shortcomings of the system. The three programmes are only pallid stabs at expos´e, targeting villagers (17 May), or those individuals who tried to make money out of the epidemic (20 and 24 May). To summarize, during the period studied, whether before or after the so- called 'turning point' in the coverage of SARS, high-level negative topics were never mentioned in headlines in Focus. The headlines are mostly positive, even after the party has declared its intention to be more transparent. It would take a critical audience to find out the embedded negative information or topic in any TV news programme. Voices, objectivity and interview strategies Traditionally, Chinese TV news programmes are associated with a voice of authority that was unchallenged and closed to scrutiny. 'The typical protagonists were state officials at various levels (who pronounced and explained policies) and the masses (who cheered and carried out the policies at the grassroots)' (Zhao, 2003: 42). Focus, since its birth, set an example for the media world in China in adopting the democratic approach of interaction and discussion, with experts and ordinary people talking on the programme. However, an examination of the interviews shows that the mere fact that a plethora of voices is included does not entail an absence of control. The interviews do not manifest a real shift from an unchallenged official voice to many voices. They should be seen as merely a strategy to more effectively recruit people as audiences and manipulate them socially and politically. To put it bluntly, what the interviewees said is far less important for the programme than it going through the motions of conducting interviews. Of the 45 programmes, 14 are found to be composed mainly of interviews, with the one on 6 April actually reporting on the interview. A microanalysis12 of the programmes reveals that, for the coverage of SARS, strategic devices were adopted to give an aura of being objective, truthful, plausible, correct, precise or credible. These devices include selective use of reliable, official, well-known and especially credible persons and institutions (e.g. medical experts, military researchers as well as high-level officials, both from China and from the WHO, as well as similar people from Hong Kong and Taiwan) and the description of close, concrete details, and quotations from eye-witnesses or direct participants. Analysis shows the interviews were carried out mainly for the following purposes: to give voice to official figures to eulogize party members and medical staff to pronounce or explain policies. 725Zhang, Reading between the headlines Interviews carried out with authoritative figures13 simply functioned to give voices to these figures. For instance, the questions raised in the interview with the Health Minister are found to serve the purpose of highlighting what he was going to say. Examples: 1. Minister Zhang, why do we call this disease SARS? What special characteristics does this current SARS have? 2. How about SARS cases in our Mainland China so far? 3. What measures do we need to adopt to prevent this kind of disease? 4. What has our country done, what effective measures have been taken, to prevent the spread of this disease? 5. At the moment, some other countries have also found patients with SARS. Is there enough evidence to show that our Guangdong in China is the place of origin? 6. Has our country cooperated with the international health organization to overcome this disease? Apart from asking questions that actually function to highlight the answers from the Health Minister, the interviewer is also found to use the technical device of formulations, a device widely used by interviewers to summarize what interviewees have said by drawing out its implications, so as to help to bring out and emphasize to the audience the implications of what Zhang had said. Examples: 1. So we should not be too worried about this disease. 2. So we should see that, with our government's efforts and medical staff's efforts, we masses are not to be worried. In order to achieve an appearance of being factual and objective, different sources were interviewed for programmes eulogizing party mem- bers and medical staff (19, 20, 23, 25 April), reassuring the masses (7, 21 April) and explaining policies (27 April, 12 and 15 May). Experts like Academician Prof. Zhong Nanshan, group leader of the SARS Prevention and Cure Expert Team in Guangdong, 'add credibility, authority, and even a touch of independence' as they 'speak a universalizing and rationalizing language, which lends legitimacy to the state and its policies' (Zhao, 2003: 42). Indeed, 'a stance of neutrality, an appearance of "objectivity" is created when opinions of different backgrounds or ideologies are expressed on an issue' (Van Dijk, 1988b: 85). Typical examples include the interviews on 4 and 14 April. When the director of the China Disease Prevention and Control Centre, Disease Prevention and Emergency Management Office was interviewed on 4 April, the presenter acting as the interviewer is found to have framed and managed the answers, pushing the interviewee to answer the questions in the way the presenter desired: 726 Media, Culture & Society 28(5) Presenter: Hello, Mr Yang. At times like this, people easily get into an extremely nervous state. A bit of cough or cold and they will suspect that they have got SARS. Can you tell us for sure, what symptoms one must have to be definitely diagnosed as suffering from SARS? Mr McKenzie was the second interviewee that day. Extracts from the interview: Presenter: Welcome to our programme. I know that WHO is organizing a group of experts to observe and study the disease. What is the latest development? McKenzie: We are trying to reach an agreement on the definition of SARS. Presenter: You just said that you are still trying to define the disease. Does that mean you are not sure that the cases in China are exactly the same as the ones in other parts of the world? It is found here that formulations provide the interviewer with a covert means of evaluating what is said and trying to draw out implicit meanings. However, when Mr McKenzie knowingly or unknowingly went in a direction the presenter did not want to go, the presenter simply ignored what was said and then went on to another question: McKenzie: We don't know. Before we reach an agreement on the definition, we cannot confirm that they are of the same type of disease. From the information provided by the Health Department in Guangdong, the symptoms of the SARS cases found three months ago in Guangdong are very similar to the ones found in other parts of the world. Presenter: The public cannot understand why it is so difficult to find the source of the disease today, when science is so advanced? For the programme on 14 April, similar techniques were used, showing interviews between journalists with Mrs Chen, head of the Health Depart- ment in Hong Kong, and with Dr Zhang from a hospital in Taiwan. In the same programme an interview was also conducted by the presenter with Prof. Zhong Nanshan. The aura of objectivity is established, and inter- pretation now stands a good chance of passing as fact. However, it is also noticeable that those who are ideologically safe were given most attention and, in this case, Prof. Zhong was given the final voice word in summing up the situation. To conclude, although Focus adopted the democratic approach of interaction and discussion, with experts and ordinary people talking on the programme, this cannot simply be interpreted as a sign that previously closed domains are opening up. Rather, this serves as a more effective mask for the exercise of power. Despite the superficial resemblance to the Western practice of relying on expert opinions, the journalistic convention of 'balance' that is, citing experts who hold opposing views on an issue is hardly practised. 727Zhang, Reading between the headlines The narrow range of expert sources and their non-contested perspectives mean that these experts are exploited to help explain and interpret government policies. The analysis shows that this kind of democratization is a matter of approach rather than content. Worse still, the approach is far from being mature, as has been demonstrated in the examples. Change in frequency agenda set by the government Both macro- and micro-analyses prove that the change in the coverage of SARS is in the frequency of reports only. This frequency sees mainstream ideas being reproduced, rather than critical reports. Further analysis also shows that every move from Focus was in perfect timing with calls from the government. From the first programme on 17 February to 17 April 2003, only seven programmes were found on SARS. Apparently this limited coverage was the result of Focus following strict guidelines: in late February the Propaganda Department ordered a halt to public reporting on the disease in order to 'ensure the smoothness' of the National People's Congress meetings in March (Link, 2003). As a result, although SARS was far from under control in March, this was hardly reported on throughout the nation.14 The few programmes that were made during that period by Focus relied on positive self-representation and countered the charge of China being the place of origin of SARS (2, 4 and 6 April). On 17 April, at a meeting of the Politburo's Standing Committee, it was ordered that 'government organizations at all levels must know accurately the development of the disease and report honestly. The condition should be released to the public at regular intervals and there should be no delaying and hiding in reports' (Dai et al., 2003: 312). That explains the significant increase on the coverage of SARS, including in Focus, from 18 April. The programmes appealing to patriotism and national unity in fighting against SARS were apparently in answer to the calls of the Propaganda Department, which held a meeting on 25 April presided over by Li Changchun, the Politburo member in charge of propaganda (Fewsmith, 2003: 253). Drawing on the line used by President Hu Jintao, Li emphasized that 'the strongest motif of our times' was 'uniting the will of the masses into a fortress'. Current affairs programmes, media supervision and guidance of public opinion So the questions to be addressed now are: why did Focus as a product of reform fail to fulfil audiences' expectations, and why have the commer- cially oriented developments in Chinese media not led to a lessening of the 728 Media, Culture & Society 28(5) Chinese Communist Party's control, as some scholars (e.g. Zhao, 2000: 5812) have predicted? To answer these questions it is important to remember that TV stations in China are state-owned and party-controlled propaganda instruments. A reading of the speeches by the head of the Propaganda Department, the director of the Radio, Film and Television Ministry (renamed as State Administration of Radio, Film and Television in 1998) and the president of CCTV over the years shows that, although technological developments have changed the face of the media landscape in China since the late 1970s, the guiding principles for news production promoted by the party have changed little. As part and parcel of the party's ideological apparatus, one of the fundamental responsibilities of news media remains to contrib- ute to social changes as desired by the party and government. The lesson the former president Jiang Zemin learned from the 1989 Tiananmen Incident is: The party and its journalism stand together through ups and downs. Journalism is part of the party's life. Working with public opinion means working with political and ideological work. It is linked with the fate and future of the party and the government. (Zhang, 2001: 20) However, as the state lost much of its public credibility and authority due to the 1989 Tiananmen Incident, and as it is faced with the globalization of information, the party-state realized that to be an effective propagandist the news media must adopt new strategies. In 1992, Ding Guangen, head of the Propaganda Department at the time, made explicit instructions on the content and form of propaganda: The effectiveness of propaganda should be paid attention to. The democratic form of discussion and interaction should be adopted so that the programmes are lively and convincing. (in Xin, 1996: 10) At a later meeting specifically held for TV work, he emphasized again: TV stations can add current affairs programmes, invite leaders to explain policies and answer questions, or invite both experts and ordinary people to hold discussions on hot topics and puzzling issues, so that people can inspire each other and draw the correct conclusion. In this way, the programmes will become more attractive and convincing. (Li, 2002: 11) Despite encouraging rhetoric by leaders however, news programmes remained the same in form and content, a phenomenon that could only be explained by the doubtful attitude of the people working at all levels in TV stations. At the beginning of 1993, Ding pushed harder: This year, programmes should try to make greater changes. There should be new programmes, which must relate to the needs of the people. The forms must be original. (Xin, 1996: 11) 729Zhang, Reading between the headlines It is therefore in answer to the requirements, specifications and directions from the Propaganda Department that CCTV, among other reforms, put on Focus in 1994. The formal application of democracy investigative reports, interaction between presenters and audience, discussions on hot topics should therefore be seen to have been adopted under the direct interference of the top leaders with two faces in mind, one turned towards the domestic and the other towards the international audience. To the domestic audience it is a sign of the party and the people sharing the same interest in order to secure the party's legitimacy. To the international community it is a sign of the Chinese government's firm control, growing confidence, stability, prosperity and openness. From the examination of the programmes, and from the response it received from the audience (readers' letters)15 and the authorities, it is certain that Focus in its early stages was bolder in its exposure and criticism. To a certain extent it is not wrong to claim that 'by publicizing cases of wrongdoings, the media have put pressure on the government to take note of the problem and to respond' (Li, 2002: 27). But one must not forget that it was the government that initiated this programme to help to deal with specific problems and to combat bureaucracy and cadres' indifference, thus closing the gap between the government and the masses. The exposure of too many problems was therefore seen as a threat to stability and social order, or as 'misguiding the public' to think that there were too many problems with the party. In his speech, Sun Jiazhen, then Minister of Radio, Film and Television, warned at the 1995 Radio and TV Current Affairs Programme Conference: Although we have spent considerable time preparing for the appearance of the programme, we must know that it has not been long enough for us to put it on widely. Some programmes put on by other stations are just a few months old. There are many problems that require time to study and investigate. Some programmes have made mistakes to different extents. We must draw lessons from these experiences. (Sun, 1995: 4) In the same speech, he reiterated the Central Committee's position: unswervingly follow Deng Xiaoping's theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the party's basic line under all circumstances: to firmly maintain the authority of the Central Committee, the unity of the party and the whole nation. Yang Weiguang, then acting as both the president of CCTV and the deputy director of the Radio, Film and Television Ministry, made a similar speech in 1996: It appears that some departments have not been communicating in a timely way and widely enough the Central Government's intentions and propaganda specifications. Some programmes that are not in accordance with the propa- ganda specifications are still being made or run. (1996b: 5) 730 Media, Culture & Society 28(5) On another occasion in the same year, he pointed out that the most important aspect of propaganda work was to correctly guide public opinion. 'To correctly guide the public opinion', he stated, 'the most important thing is to understand the requirements of the two sides: the nature of policies and lines from the party and government, and the real thought of the people and the changing situations' (1996b: 8). Media supervision and the guidance of public opinion are therefore understood by TV workers to be the two sides of the same coin, with the ultimate aim of producing propaganda for the party-state (Ying, 1997: 16). In other words, media supervision serves the 'correct guidance of public opinion' (Li, 2001: 9). In order to shape public discourse, propaganda officials exhorted the news programmes to play up the positive side of things to boost people's confidence and foster stability and unity (Yang, 1996a: 5), and to take greater care with the negative (see Yan, 1995). To Yang Weiguang, 'If a state TV station reports problems here and there every day, how can it be called the tongue and throat of the party?' (1996b: 5). For this reason, Focus was restricted to putting on critical reports twice a week at most (Yang, 1996b: 5). Positive reports, on the other hand, are to be made attractive and critical reports are to be designed to achieve positive social effects. For better control, local stations and programmes are warned not to deal with hot topics, apart from Focus from CCTV: 'the phenomena of putting on hot topics in every program must be stopped. They are to be done by Focus only' (Yang, 1996a: 4). Under strict control and discipline (Ding, 1998), and by carrying out firm policies and directions from the Central Committee, Focus exercises great caution in relation to the following: selection of topics, timing, level and degree of criticism. Selection of topics A very strict editorial control system is in place for Focus. Journalists are required to submit the topics they have selected to the producer of the programme, who then passes them on to the head of the News Centre if approved. The final decision rests with the president of the TV station (Sun, 1995: 8; Yan, 1995: 8). In selecting topics journalists and producers closely follow the 'two don'ts': 'Do not report anything that cannot be solved quickly, otherwise it can only bring panic. Do not draw the attention of the audience to issues that cannot be solved under the present conditions in the immediate future' (Yan, 1996: 22). The selection of topics also follows the rule that the topics chosen should 'avoid triggering instability at home and providing subjects to be attacked from abroad' (Li, 2001: 9). Under such an editorial system, and in spite of some journalists' aspira- tions, 'many critical reports cannot avoid the fate of being "killed". 731Zhang, Reading between the headlines Sometimes a report got killed even before the journalists reached their TV stations from investigation' (Zhou, 1999: 16). It is not strange that Focus was slow in covering the outbreak of SARS at the beginning. The change in frequency later could be seen as a response to the situation for the following reasons: first, as China actively seeks to be involved in economic globalization, it has increased its economic dependence on the outside world (including Hong Kong and Taiwan). Cooperation with the international community, and the transparency that is demanded for such cooperation, makes it impossible to control information within China. DeLisle rightly pointed out that: 'in an era of extensive foreign trade and investment dependence, the economic and diplomatic costs to China of non-cooperation were too high to bear' (2003: 600). After all, the party- state has maintained its legitimacy through its economic push. Second, in the face of the globalization of information (with the advent of the internet, wireless communication and access to foreign news sources) the once-common strategies of information control popular repression and Maoist-style campaigns became untenable. It is also understood that in different periods different topics should be selected to facilitate the appearance and implementation of policies of the government (Guan, 1998: 19). For instance, around the 20th anniversary of the Land Contracted Responsibility policy, Focus broadcast a timely series of programmes targeting the problems involved. These programmes helped prepare the way for the appearance of the government's new policies. The programmes on SARS on 27 April and 12 May are such programmes as well. Timing Chan (2002) has noted that Focus does not broadcast on such occasions as the Lunar New Year holiday, the National Day and the period when the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Consultative Con- ference were held in 1999, when stability is considered paramount. Similarly, this study finds that there are no reports from 715 November 2002, during which the 16th Party Congress was held. Neither was there any report around the National Day from 30 September to 2 October 2001, nor from 418 March, during which the first session of the 10th People's Congress was held. The best example to illustrate the great sensitivity to timing the programme exhibits is the series on the education of children around 4 June 1994, which started on 28 May and lasted till after 5 June. This kind of timing has often been cited as good practice as the series fits naturally with the time (1 June, International Children's Day, is celebrated every year in China) on the one hand, and avoids sensitive topics around that period on the other (4 June being the anniversary of the Tiananmen 732 Media, Culture & Society 28(5) Square massacre; see Wang, 1994; Xin, 1996). The absence of reports on SARS during the National People's Congress meetings in March 2003 is another example. Level and degree of criticism Because of the nature of media in China, critique of major state policies or open media monitoring of policy-making processes at the top is not possible. It has been noted that Focus's criticism is limited to policy implementation by local cadres. Power abuse, violation or 'distortion' of policies by local bureaucracies can be reported, but must be reported to the 'proper degree' and with the right timing. It is not surprising that, during the sensitive period of the outbreak of SARS, the level of criticism was less than usual. When reporting on the wrongdoing of local cadres, there have been calls (Li, 2001) to give these wrongdoers a chance to correct their mistakes and errors, so that the image of the party to cleansing its mistakes is conveyed to the audience. From April 1998 (Liang, 2000: 50), a follow-up on the problems exposed is generally required, so that 'negative reports achieve positive effect'. As a result, critical investigative reports in Focus follow more or less the same format: the programme either exposes an outrageous instance of injustice, after which the party leadership becomes concerned and instructs that justice be served, or a social ill is exposed, followed by what has been done by related governmental organizations, and the criminals or wrongdoers are punished.16 The format of investigative reports in Focus is revamped socialist realism in new times. As a result of so many constraints on the programme, in spite of some journalists' open protest about the restraints on the supervision media,17 the viewing rate for Focus has been steadily dropping. According to Liu Haibei, the viewing rate from 1995 to 1996 dropped by 5 percent, and the viewing rates from January 1998 to December 2000 are respectively 29.57 percent, 27 percent and 23.86 percent (Liu, 2002: 33). The survey conducted by TV Research in October 2001 shows that the viewing rate has dropped to 21.35 percent. In 2002, the viewing rate dropped further, to below 16 percent. There was a slight increase during the outbreak of SARS in 2003. However, it dropped again soon after, the lowest point being 13.84 percent in October. Two reasons may be named for the decline: first, the audience is getting used to the fixed format of the critical reports. Second, and certainly the main reason that accounts for the drop, is that the audience is becoming disappointed as the reports have stepped back from their early stronger critical stance, when the party first instigated the appearance of the programme. 733Zhang, Reading between the headlines Conclusion: Focus will remain an example of media supervision in China The Chinese government has been very active in trying to resolve the tension between political control and economic openness. This effort is reflected in its encouragement of the rhetoric and formal application of democracy in TV current affairs programmes represented by Focus, which have been used, under government control, as a far more effective force than crudely made propaganda to strengthen political stability by construct- ing an image of concern and care for the people and thus dispersing social frustration. In other words, TV current affairs programmes in China have been exploited to play a key role in shaping public discourse and creating a social or psychological climate favourable for political stability. Analysis of Focus during the outbreak of SARS shows that, although the effects of reform in China have gradually altered media production beyond recogni- tion, Focus's attempt to contain the outbreak of the disease, to minimize economic consequences and to avoid losses of confidence in the regime at home and abroad means that TV current affairs programmes, with their massive audience and thus their immense potential power and influence, have less freedom than ever to violate the guidelines set down by the state at times of crisis. The nature of Focus in China determines its discourse, which has manifested itself in various ways, including the way interviews are structured to ensure that the dominant voices are those of the government and party. The visits from the three generations of premiers18 signal the continuous attention paid to the programme by top Chinese leaders, while Focus's latest announcement that it is to increase its critical programmes from twice a week to 50 percent in 200419 illustrates the party's determination to maintain the programme as an example in order to shape public discourse for other TV current affairs programmes in China, and as a symbol of media supervision for the outside world. It may be concluded that, as long as the party is not willing to give up its control, democracy will stay at a rhetorical and formal level. Therefore it may not be too far from the truth to say that TV current affairs programmes, which must consider political stability and public order as a priority, will not act as 'permanent thorns in the side of political power' (Keane, 1991: 67) as long as the nature of the political system remains unchanged. Notes I am very grateful to the British Council for the generous grant that made my field work possible in February and March 2004. 734 Media, Culture & Society 28(5) 1. From http://www.cctv.com/program/dysj/20040423/100897.shtml 2. For example, on 10, 11 and 13 February in Yangchen Evening Post, Nanfang Daily and Southern Weekend respectively in Guangdong Province, which is considered to be more liberal. The pioneering bi-weekly magazine Finance & Business (Caijing) first reported on SARS on 20 February; in People's Daily the story was not reported until 12 April. 3. With the exception of Finance & Business, which carried a related article on 5 March; its next report on SARS was on 5 April. 4. For instance, the China Daily (22 August 2003) claimed that: . . . the order issued by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to openly disseminate information on the spread of SARS and the warning that any officials found to be withholding or distorting information would be severely punished, led to a real turning point in the Chinese media coverage of SARS. See also DeLisle (2003: 597), Pomfret (2003), Fang (2003), Cheng and Zhu (2004). 5. The content analysed from Focus comes from the transcripts of the pro- gramme on the CCTV website: http://www.cctv.com/program/jdft/01/index.shtml. 6. The starting date chosen for the analysis of the programme is based on the availability of the transcripts of the programme on the CCTV website. 7. The decision to examine official rhetoric from the early 1990s is based on the time that Focus was first broadcast (1 April 1994). 8. From the website C:\sars\sars survey.htm 9. From http://www.tv-view.com/research/2003/Yuguoming/yuguoming_ zhanghongzhong_SARS_spreadabroad.htm&21918369 = 719179166 (consulted May 2006). 10. However, in 1996, for better control, local stations and programmes other than Focus from CCTV were directed not to deal with hot topics. Yang Weiguang (1996a: 4), then president of CCTV, directed that 'the phenomena of putting on hot topics in every programme must be stopped. They are to be done by Focus only. Focus is, after all, one of the party's strategies to do theoretical propaganda.' 11. All the translations in this article are by the author. 12. According to Fairclough, 'Apart from other functions, microanalysis also identifies rhetorical features of news reports, such as features which give reports an aura of factuality' (1995: 30). 13. For example, with the Health Minister on 2 April, with the director of Disease Prevention and Control Centre, who is also a member of the SARS Prevention and Cure Group, on 13 April, with the Head of Sanxi Province, the Acting Chairman of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the Mayor of Shanghai on 22 April, and with the ministers from the Railway Ministry, Communications Ministry, and the Civil Aviation Bureau on 24 April. 14. Of the few voices on SARS, the bi-weekly magazine Finance & Trade (Caijing) reported on SARS on 5 March, after it had first reported on it on 20 February. The next report was on 5 April. 15. See, for instance, a letter from Heilong Jiang, on http://www.cctv.com/news/ focus/focus.html 16. For instance, the item titled 'Strike Hard on Ticket Mongers during the Spring Festival Holidays', broadcast on 19 February 2003. 17. Zhou Hong from Yiyang TV in Hunan, for instance, wrote that all leaders only paid lip service to media supervision (1999: 16). When it comes to reality it is often different. 735Zhang, Reading between the headlines 18. Premiers Li Peng, Zhu Rongji and Wen Jiabao have all visited the crew on set and conferred epigraphs to the programme, a typical Chinese way of great attention and praise from officials. 19. In order to increase the viewing rate, Focus, with consent from the central government, will increase its critical reports to 50 percent of the programme, according to Jin Yidan (2004). References Chan, A. (2002) 'From Propaganda to Hegemony: Jiaodian Fangtan and China's Media Policy', Journal of Contemporary China 11(30): 3551. Cheng, Q. and T. Zhu (2004) 'Changes and Development of China's TV News Concept 2003', TV Research 2: 258. Cihai (Chinese Dictionary)(1989) Shanghai: Shanghai Cihai Publishing House. Dai, Y., Y. Fang, L. Liu, J. Chen, J. Fan, D. Wu and D. Yang (2003) 'Report on SARS and the Objectivity of Journalism', pp. 31225 in W. Deng (ed.) SARS and the Chinese Society. Shanghai: Shanghai University Press. De Burgh, H. (2003) The Chinese Journalist: Mediating Information in the World's Most Populous Country. London: Routledge Curzon. DeLisle, J. (2003) 'SARS, Greater China, and the Pathologies of Globalization and Transition', Orbis 47(4): 587604. Ding, G. (1998) 'Six Requirements for Propaganda Work', Xinhua News Agency 10 May. Fairclough, N. (1995) Media Discourse. London: Edward Arnold. Fang, M. (2003) 'Satisfy Citizens' Right to Know and Increase the Credibility of Media', Communications Studies Forum. URL (consulted May 2006): http:// ruanzixiao.myrice.com/mzgxzqqtsmtgxl.htm Fewsmith, J. (2003) 'China and the Politics of SARS', Current History 102(665): 2505. Guan, H. (1998) 'Tentative Discussion on the Characteristics of "Focus"', China TV 10: 1920. Guo, Z. (1999) 'Supervision by Public Opinion and the Western Concept of Journalistic Professionalism', Guoji Xinwen Jie 5: 328. Jin, Y. (2004) 'Media Supervision will Constitute 50 percent of Focus', Xinmin Evening Post 9 March. Keane, J. (1991) The Media and Democracy. Oxford: Polity. Li, X. (2002) ' "Focus" (Jiaodian Fangtan) and the Changes in the Chinese Television Industry', Journal of Contemporary China 11(30): 1734. Li, Z. (2001) 'Exert Positive Influence of Media Supervision', TV Research 11: 910. Liang, J. (2000) 'Degree, the Critical Point for the Success of "Focus"', TV Research 1: 5052. Link, P. (2003) 'Will SARS Transform China's Chiefs?', Time Asia 5 May. URL (consulted May 2006): http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501030505/ viewpoint.html Liu, H. (2002) 'How Will Focus Come out of Plateau?', TV Research 4: 324. Pomfret, J. (2003) 'SARS, a Political Issue in China', Washington Post 23 May. Sun, J. (1995) 'Make Efforts to Run Well the News Commentary Programme, Enhance the Level of the Guidance of Public Opinion', TV Research 10: 410. Van Dijk, T.A. (1988a) News Analysis: Case Studies of International and National News in the Press. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 736 Media, Culture & Society 28(5) Van Dijk, T.A. (1988b) News as Discourse. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Wang, X. (1994) 'Perspectives on the Selection of Topics by Focus', TV Research 9: 1316. Xin, W. (1996) 'Ten Years' Exploration and Pursuit: Review on CCTV's Reform', TV Research 4: 1021. Yan, L. (1996) 'Positive Reports and Media Supervision', TV Research 10: 2022. Yan, S. (1995) 'Follow the Basic Lines, Be Dauntless in Reform', TV Research 8: 711. Yang, W. (1996a) 'Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth from Facts, Deepen Reform and Promote All Work at CCTV to a Higher Level', TV Research 9: 49. Yang, W. (1996b) 'Be Worthy of the Great Trust from the Party and the People, Offer More and Better Programmes', TV Research 10: 47. Ying, Y. (1997) 'Correctly Understand and Grasp the Relationship between Media Supervision, Reform, Development and Stability', TV Research 10: 1619. Zhang, Z. (2001) 'Reflections on Comrade Jiang Zemin's Work on Journalism', TV Research 5: 20. Zhao, Y. (2000) 'Watchdogs on Party Leashes? Contexts and Implications of Investigative Journalism in Post-Deng China', Journalism Studies 1(2): 57797. Zhao, Y. (2003) 'Enter the World', pp. 3256 in C. Lee (ed.) Chinese Media, Global Contexts. London: Routledge Curzon. Zhou, H. (1999) 'On the Effectiveness of Media Supervision', TV Research 9: 1618. Xiaoling Zhang is a lecturer at the Institute of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham. Address: Institute of Contemporary Chinese Studies, China House, Nottingham University, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. [email: xiaoling.zhang@nottingham.ac.uk] 737Zhang, Reading between the headlines</meta-value></custom-meta></custom-meta-wrap></article-meta></front><back><notes>
<p>I am very grateful to the British Council for the generous grant that made my field work possible in February and March 2004.</p>
<p>
<list list-type="order">
<list-item>
<p>1. From http://www.cctv.com/program/dysj/20040423/100897.shtml</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>2. For example, on 10, 11 and 13 February in <italic>Yangchen Evening Post</italic>, <italic>Nanfang Daily</italic> and <italic>Southern Weekend</italic> respectively in Guangdong Province, which is considered to be more liberal. The pioneering bi-weekly magazine <italic>Finance & Business</italic> (<italic>Caijing</italic>) first reported on SARS on 20 February; in <italic>People’s Daily</italic> the story was not reported until 12 April.</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>3. With the exception of <italic>Finance & Business</italic>, which carried a related article on 5 March; its next report on SARS was on 5 April.</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>4. For instance, the <italic>China Daily</italic> (22 August 2003) claimed that:</p>
<p>... the order issued by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to openly disseminate information on the spread of SARS and the warning that any officials found to be withholding or distorting information would be severely punished, led to a real turning point in the Chinese media coverage of SARS.</p>
<p>See also DeLisle (2003: 597), Pomfret (2003), Fang (2003), Cheng and Zhu (2004).</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>5. The content analysed from <italic>Focus</italic> comes from the transcripts of the programme on the CCTV website: http://www.cctv.com/program/jdft/01/index.shtml.</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>6. The starting date chosen for the analysis of the programme is based on the availability of the transcripts of the programme on the CCTV website.</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>7. The decision to examine official rhetoric from the early 1990s is based on the time that <italic>Focus</italic> was first broadcast (1 April 1994).</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>8. From the website C:/sars/sars survey.htm</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>9. From http://www.tv-view.com/research/2003/Yuguoming/yuguoming_ zhanghongzhong_SARS_spreadabroad.htm&21918369 = 719179166 (consulted May 2006).</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>10. However, in 1996, for better control, local stations and programmes other than <italic>Focus</italic> from CCTV were directed not to deal with hot topics. Yang Weiguang (1996a: 4), then president of CCTV, directed that ‘the phenomena of putting on hot topics in every programme must be stopped. They are to be done by <italic>Focus</italic> only. <italic>Focus</italic> is, after all, one of the party’s strategies to do theoretical propaganda.’</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>11. All the translations in this article are by the author.</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>12. According to Fairclough, ‘Apart from other functions, microanalysis also identifies rhetorical features of news reports, such as features which give reports an aura of factuality’ (1995: 30).</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>13. For example, with the Health Minister on 2 April, with the director of Disease Prevention and Control Centre, who is also a member of the SARS Prevention and Cure Group, on 13 April, with the Head of Sanxi Province, the Acting Chairman of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the Mayor of Shanghai on 22 April, and with the ministers from the Railway Ministry, Communications Ministry, and the Civil Aviation Bureau on 24 April.</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>14. Of the few voices on SARS, the bi-weekly magazine <italic>Finance & Trade</italic> (<italic>Caijing</italic>) reported on SARS on 5 March, after it had first reported on it on 20 February. The next report was on 5 April.</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>15. See, for instance, a letter from Heilong Jiang, on http://www.cctv.com/news/focus/focus.html</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>16. For instance, the item titled ‘Strike Hard on Ticket Mongers during the Spring Festival Holidays’, broadcast on 19 February 2003.</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>17. Zhou Hong from Yiyang TV in Hunan, for instance, wrote that all leaders only paid lip service to media supervision (1999: 16). When it comes to reality it is often different.</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>18. Premiers Li Peng, Zhu Rongji and Wen Jiabao have all visited the crew on set and conferred epigraphs to the programme, a typical Chinese way of great attention and praise from officials.</p>
</list-item>
<list-item>
<p>19. In order to increase the viewing rate, <italic>Focus</italic>, with consent from the central government, will increase its critical reports to 50 percent of the programme, according to Jin Yidan (2004).</p>
</list-item>
</list>
</p>
</notes><ref-list>
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</ref-list></back></article></istex:document></istex:metadataXml><mods version="3.6"><titleInfo lang="en"><title>Reading between the headlines: SARS, Focus and TV current affairs programmes in China</title></titleInfo><titleInfo type="alternative" lang="en" contentType="CDATA"><title>Reading between the headlines: SARS, Focus and TV current affairs programmes in China</title></titleInfo><name type="personal"><namePart type="given">Xiaoling</namePart><namePart type="family">Zhang</namePart><affiliation>University of Nottingham, UK</affiliation></name><typeOfResource>text</typeOfResource><genre type="other" displayLabel="other" authority="ISTEX" authorityURI="https://content-type.data.istex.fr" valueURI="https://content-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/XTP-7474895G-0">other</genre><originInfo><publisher>Sage Publications</publisher><place><placeTerm type="text">Sage CA: Thousand Oaks, CA</placeTerm></place><dateIssued encoding="w3cdtf">2006-09</dateIssued><copyrightDate encoding="w3cdtf">2006</copyrightDate></originInfo><language><languageTerm type="code" authority="iso639-2b">eng</languageTerm><languageTerm type="code" authority="rfc3066">en</languageTerm></language><abstract lang="en">This article first examines the coverage of SARS by Focus with a view to examining whether there really was a 'breakthrough' for TV current affairs programmes in China in the coverage of SARS after two decades of reform that has greatly increased the power of the market relative to the old political imperatives. The article then explores why Focus, as a product of reform, has failed audiences' expectations. The article concludes that TV current affairs programmes in China have been exploited to play a key role in shaping public discourse and creating a social or psychological climate favourable for political stability, and at times of crisis has far less freedom than usual to violate the guidelines set down by the state. Focus will remain as 'an example' of media supervision for other TV current affairs programmes in China and for the outside world.</abstract><subject><genre>keywords</genre><topic>formal democracy</topic><topic>investigative journalism</topic><topic>media supervision</topic><topic>political and social stability</topic><topic>sensitive topics</topic></subject><relatedItem type="host"><titleInfo><title>Media, Culture & Society</title></titleInfo><genre type="journal" authority="ISTEX" authorityURI="https://publication-type.data.istex.fr" valueURI="https://publication-type.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/JMC-0GLKJH51-B">journal</genre><identifier type="ISSN">0163-4437</identifier><identifier type="eISSN">1460-3675</identifier><identifier type="PublisherID">MCS</identifier><identifier type="PublisherID-hwp">spmcs</identifier><part><date>2006</date><detail type="volume"><caption>vol.</caption><number>28</number></detail><detail type="issue"><caption>no.</caption><number>5</number></detail><extent unit="pages"><start>715</start><end>737</end></extent></part></relatedItem><identifier type="istex">C3E7114025123AA1F4F6CB12EDD38F83FF2133CB</identifier><identifier type="ark">ark:/67375/M70-WZKV65R7-Q</identifier><identifier type="DOI">10.1177/0163443706067023</identifier><identifier type="ArticleID">10.1177_0163443706067023</identifier><recordInfo><recordContentSource authority="ISTEX" authorityURI="https://loaded-corpus.data.istex.fr" valueURI="https://loaded-corpus.data.istex.fr/ark:/67375/XBH-0J1N7DQT-B">sage</recordContentSource></recordInfo></mods><json:item><extension>json</extension><original>false</original><mimetype>application/json</mimetype><uri>https://api.istex.fr/ark:/67375/M70-WZKV65R7-Q/record.json</uri></json:item></metadata><serie></serie></istex></record>Pour manipuler ce document sous Unix (Dilib)
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