I was born in Taiwan, so I'm going to
talk about media in Taiwan. No matter if you are talking about TV news,
newspapers, or the headlines of some Internet websites, the most obvious
problem is that most of them only post news about Taiwan itself. They rarely
report things that take place outside of Taiwan, and for that reason, some
Internet users call Taiwan a "ghost island".
Take TV news
for example. Recently, America has some actions that target ISIS, but in
Taiwan, almost all of the TV programs are reporting news about Asian Games
(Asiad), about how many gold medals Chinese Taipei have won so far, and what is
our rank comparing to other Asian countries right now. You can barely see
anything that’s related to ISIS anywhere else. However, there are still some
international news that the TV programs will report. However, rather than
actual report the news, they make the international news a list, and all the
reporters have to do is to read the titles one by one. In less than one minute,
the international news' part is done, then move on to the next news that's
about Taiwan.
But during my
childhood, the media in Taiwan weren't like this. The reason that changed the
environment is because Hong Kong's NextMedia came to Taiwan. NectMedia focus on
artist's personal lives, whether an artist is having an affair; or an artist is
dating with another artist, all these kind of gossips are what NextMedia
reports all day long back at the time. Other TV news programs found out that NextMedia’s
rating is better than them, so other TV programs started to report news like
these one after another. Gradually, TV news became only to report some local
news, and no international news. This kind of situation remains unchanged even
after NextMedia moved out of Taiwan.
I didn't know media in Taiwan was only focus on them, its interesting to hear. I believe America is the same way, to a certain extend. We do hear about things over seas but only what they really want to let us know. Im sure there is plenty more our media keeps under the radar.
ReplyDeleteTaiwan does sound like a "ghost island" but I have never actually heard that reference until now. It sounds as if they are just providing entertainment rather than important news. I'm not surprised it is because of competition, ratings and money make the world go around.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, that's interesting information about Taiwan, but what about your own media autobiography?
ReplyDeleteI think that, it is smart of Taiwan to keep their media locally based. It allows them to get more direct access to what going on in there neck of the woods. I feel America is almost the opposite of that, our media does everything it can to keep us away from the news that really applies to our local communities.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to see how centered another country's news is on itself. Im curious to know if its to help keep people involved in contributing their country and its image or to keep people unknowing of whats going on outside, because I think international crisis's would bring in high ratings also.
ReplyDelete