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The news and views about China that the big media can't, or won't, tell you The is no single truth Menu: Home |
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Media Manipulation: A lesson in what is left out of a news story in China
As a blogger whose locked horns with Mainlander, Overseas Chinese and foreigners on many an occasion, ACB often has to explain something which at first seems simple, but then shows itself to be more complex. This being they nature of the Chinese media (and its education system) and its impact on the population at large.
To put things simply, while the media and education system in China does keep Mainlander informed on many topics, it also often leaves out strategic bits of information. Information which, by its exclusion, lead Mainlanders to develop certain views and opinions that are at odds with the rest of the world, and to be (for what of a better word) ignorant of the true nature of certain things.
Here's a good example. The same news story covered by two different news agencies. See if you can spot the differences.
From the website of the China Daily, a state controlled news group.
China said yesterday it would continue offering assistance to the United States in the ongoing search for remains of missing Korean War servicemen.
"China and the US always keep good cooperation on this issue," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular briefing.
"We have kept assisting the US to search the remains of its missing soldiers on domestic soil in the spirit of humanitarianism for years."
In a concerted bid to find lost soldiers, China and the US reached consensus on archival cooperation when China's vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission traveled to the US in 2006 and when US Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited China last November.
"Relevant departments of both sides were consulting on concrete issues of launching such cooperation," Liu added.
The Pentagon said on Tuesday that China had agreed to a long-standing request for access to sensitive military records which US officials believe might resolve the fate of thousands of American servicemen missing from the Korean War and other Cold War-era conflicts.
The US consulate in Shanghai is scheduled to announce the arrangement today.
Analysis said the deal marks a modest step forward in US-China military relations.
China entered the Korean War in the fall of 1950 and succeeded in helping drive US-led forces out of the North.
The war, which ended in 1953, led to the deaths of thousands of US troops - many of whom are still unaccounted for.
The deal implements the goodwill of both sides' military and political leaders to cooperate on defense issues, according to Chinese analysts.
"Military is a most sensitive issue in Sino-US relations and such a deal marks an improving atmosphere for both armies to cooperate in the future," says Major General Yang Yi of National Defense University.
"It also marks a rise in bilateral relations at large and such cooperation is helpful to enhance mutual understanding, as it means a lot for the US people," he added.
From the Time-CNN partnership, a well known US news group with neo-conservative sympathies.
China on Friday agreed to release sensitive records about missing U.S. soldiers and establish a hot line to the Pentagon, in the latest signs of improving trust between the two militaries.
Details of the agreements, signed at a ceremony in Shanghai, remained hazy, although both have long been sought after by the U.S. military and relatives of thousands of American servicemen missing from the Korean War and other Cold War-era conflicts.
China committed to a military hot line last summer, however, and it was not clear how big a step Friday's agreement represented. Calls to spokesmen for the Chinese Defense Ministry and U.S. Embassy defense attache's rang unanswered.
U.S. officials have said that, at least initially, the arrangement will not give U.S. researchers direct access to Chinese records. Instead, Chinese archivists with security clearances acceptable to the People's Liberation Army will do the document searches and turn over relevant records to U.S. analysts.
"For the families of the missing, this is extremely significant," said Charles A. Ray, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for POW-MIA affairs, who participated in the signing ceremony Friday in Shanghai.
Chinese troops killed and captured thousands of American troops during the Korean War and managed many of the prisoner of war camps set up in North Korea during the war.
More than 8,100 U.S. servicemen are still unaccounted for from the war.
China has periodically cooperated with the Pentagon on matters related to the search for MIAs, but it has consistently maintained that all POW questions were settled at the end of the war.
Declassified U.S. Army records from the 1950s make clear that the United States knew of hundreds of American prisoners in China during the Korean War, closely tracked their movements and feared for their lives.
After visiting China in March 2003 to press for access to military archives, Ray's predecessor, Jerry D. Jennings, declared, "Chinese records may well hold the key to helping us resolve many of the cases of American POWs and MIAs from the Vietnam War, the Korean War and the Cold War."
The trick was usually to find out what had influenced the writer to write about events in such a way, and then to deduce what impact this material would have on those who read it, bearing in mind that readers and writers were usually from a different background from the Students, and so the students would need to get inside the heads of the different parties in order to figure out the answers.
ACB learned a lot from this one teacher. In fact it deeply influenced ACBs thinking about history, education and the news media, and still influences it today.
On a closing note, ACB would also like to point out that the US version of events also leaves out a number of strategic points. As always, it pays to remember that "There is no single truth".
Personally I think all roads lead to the same truth. Actually scratch that
around these roads all roads lead AWAY from the same truth. The point
however is the same, you can find some truth buried in every 'goverment
approved' article. (I mean any goverment, not Just China or US.)
Dear ACB,
I had a teacher in sixth grade who sounds a lot like yours. He would tell
us the parts that the history text books left out. In high school, I had a
teacher who taught us to read between the lines – “What they aren’t saying”
is what he taught us to look for. If you’ve studied French, you know what
an exercize for critical thinking an explication de texte can be.
Shakespeare, if properly taught, can give insight into semantics as welll
as psychology.
china daily - continue offering; always keep good cooperation; have kept
assisting ...for years
cnn - China has periodically cooperated
china daily - on domestic soil
cnn - Chinese troops...managed many of the prisoner of war camps set up in
North Korea; the United States knew of hundreds of American prisoners
in China during the Korean War
china daily - reached consensus on archival cooperation
cnn - Chinese archivists with security clearances acceptable to the People's
Liberation Army will do the document searches
china daily - long-standing request for access
cnn - long been sought after by the U.S. military
china daily - The war, which ended in 1953
cnn - China... has consistently maintained that all POW questions were settled
at the end of the war.
china daily - many of whom are still unaccounted for.
cnn - More than 8,100 U.S. servicemen are still unaccounted for from the war
china daily - modest step forward ; an improving atmosphere for both armies to
cooperate in the future; a rise in bilateral relations at large
cnn - improving trust between the two militaries
china daily - in the spirit of humanitarianism ; goodwill of both sides' military and
political leaders to cooperate on defense issues; enhance mutual
understanding, as it means a lot for the US people
cnn - ????
As this is my pet topic I'll come back to it when I have more time. One
thing that I will say though is that I used to regularly come into
arguments with some foreigners that I loosely knew about the value of
propaganda or other self serving material.