Dear Ms. XY:
I hope you are doing well, my name is XXX and I have been asked to write about a report about the United States media coverage on China. The latter purpose is the report about the CNN - one of the major United States news sources on reports on China. The source was used to make an analysis of the quality of the reporting on the topic. The articles are showing the overall presentation of Chinese culture, history, society and norms through the reporting of Chinese media. I will present that the United States news channels and newspaper report are not explained, analyzed and are superficial since they are subjective and do not present fact through the society, historical and cultural difference that are immense between the countries.
All reports examined had in common that they lacked to present the background information in the reporting of a foreign country issues. The evidence that there was a lack of cultural and historical background on values will be presented in the reports examined. One of the articles examined by the CNN was about the TV regulation in China. The news article represents China as a villain where there is no freedom of the media. The report focused on the China ban gay and abnormal sexual relationship and behaviors or any sexual orientated drama. It has reported of the gay community being upset. The Chinese government has blocked and made the drama unavailable and inaccessible in China. The article is reporting about China trying to increase the morality with censorship of songs and movies, but express also greater control over the public life. The article is not expressing Chinese values and showing their culture which is presented as closed, non-liberal and opposed to gays. The reasons why the China’s government has blocked such videos, music and films should not be looked in such a superficial way without taking the history and Chinese culture into an account. It is seen that the report was written from the eyes of American and has not taken the basic differences of culture and values into an account. It is unfair to judge China based on the American standards without pointing out the background. Chinese society has different development stages and standards as the United States. The article is reporting about an individual opinion and show it as a mainstream, but it does point out that the majority of the population believes homosexuality is unacceptable. The quick judgments of Chinese were therefore made without taking into an account the culture of the country. The second article points out that “this drive to control how the media tells China's story does not seem to be limited to the country's mainland”. With stressing out the controlling of all spheres has some similarity to the first one, with pointing out different facts, but lacking to present that the Chinese have always had centralized power and also the media is therefore centralized and under the governmental control. The changes have been made in the recent past on improving media autonomy. The government is allowing much more broadcast as it did in the past. The ethical values have been maintained for thousands of years and the article does not take any of this into an account it does not even mention the values and different cultures. CNN news represents China in the surface, but it did not take their national inter value into an account. The article does not explain in detail the background information for the audience and reader to wholly understand China. The article points out strong opinion of the country and does not let any space for explaining why it is the way it is. It is guiding the reader into one sole direction without the holistic picture. The China is represented as non-liberal and conservative in comparison to the United States since the article has been written based on the authors values, culture and history background and did not focus on the differences between the Chinese long history and development of values. Chine’s government and media system are portrayed as a propaganda machine, without giving author a slight chance to understand why such media industry and system exists in the country. The third article is also reporting about the firewall and internet censorship in China. The report presents the great firewall and surveillance of the internet and describes the overall picture of the internet companies and access to limited information and blocking pages, where the biggest internet market is closed for the Western companies. Once again, there is no background information on the development of the internet in the country, why the country went in the direction it did. The article does not present the cultural background and history that resulted in the development of the internet in the way it is seen today. China is presented and portrayed to the readers as a rich country which is accumulating money and wealth arising from blocking of information and as making “fortune at the expense of freedom.” The article clearly represents China in one direction without the sufficient information on the background of the culture on which author could make more objective conclusion. The point of the paper is not to point out the working or correct reporting, but it is obvious that all three examined reports were just stating the facts without any mention of culture, history or Chinese values.
Tomlinson general ideas were focused on presenting globalization process. He argues various different views on cultural globalization. His main argument is that the process of globalization tends to homogenize economy and political systems, but the same cannot always be said about the culture. Based on the author the globalization has destructed the cultural identities around the globe and has also increased them. The author does not support nor contradicts the impact of globalization of the western world on the developed one. The authors of the CNN articles examined were not aware that even though globalization has reached all parts of the world also China it has not destroyed the Chinese identity and culture. Globalization is creating hybridity and therefore emerging of more than one single culture, which can be explained why in China not all share the same values. The mixing caused by globalization is producing a globalized culture and not a global culture based on the Tomlinson and should be respected in the main news media in the country. Second author - Curtin’s general ideas were focused on media reporting and media industry. The author has argued about the media industry and the overview of the media industry research. His main argument was that the majority of the media industry is done from the American perceptive. The reason for the lack of background reporting can be found in the fact that reporting about China and outside English language areas has not been common in the past and have evolved in years 1990 onward. Based on the Curtin the majority in media industry is derived from an American context. The perspectives should be changed beyond the Anglo-Americans. He expressed various views on the media imperialism and globalization impact. China has evolved their media, which is the result of different functioning of the media industry in the country today. The concern about American perspective is not new but it seems it has not been eradicated based on the articles presented that are showing the picture from the United States perceptive only. China has created its own system with its own music and movies based on their past, identity and values. The prohibited videos and music should be presented also from this perspective. The third author McMillin general ideas were presenting the global and local media patterns around the globe with including examples. The author has argued and presented various hybrid identities where media industry and media has included, incorporated, copied programs and television broadcasts. His main idea is that the development of the media industry on different continents in different times brought different results. Deregulation and privatization did not reach all countries and also in China the state has control over the area. Different policies were shaped and the past development and background should be included when reporting about the foreign country with different values, history and culture that shape different identity.
I am hoping that this assessment of the articles has shown some shortcomings of one of the major United States news source channel. They have reported about the foreign issues, but from the lances of their culture, values and history and had not taken into an account the differences between the countries. For objective writing the differences must be taken into an account from the articles have proved the United States newspaper reports are not explained, analyzed and are superficial since they are subjective and do not present fact through the society, historical and cultural difference.
Sincerely,
XXX
Bibliography
Curtin, Michael. Media Industries: History, Theory and Method, Edited by Holt, Jennifer, Perren, Alisa. United States: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
Griffiths, James. “From Xi to Shining Xi China’s Propaganda Machine Goes Into Overdrive.” CNN. 24 Feb. 2016. Accessed Apr. 7 2016. http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/23/asia/china-xi-jinping-propaganda/
Lu, Shen, Hunt, Katie. “China Bans Same-sex Romance From TV Screens.”. CNN. 16 Mar. 2016. Accessed 7 Apr. 2016. http://edition.cnn.com/2016/03/03/asia/china-bans-same- sex-dramas/index.html
Lus Stout, Kristie. China’s Great Firewall: Fortune at the Expense of Freedom? CN.N 25 Mar. 2016. Accessed 7 Apr. 2016. http://edition.cnn.com/2015/03/25/asia/china-internet- censorship-kristie-lu- stout/
McMillin, Diva. International Media Studies. United States: Blackwell Publishing, 2006.
Tomlinson, John. Globalization and Cultural Identity. Cambridge: Polity, 2003.
