(Something asked) Lin Keqin: Is “authenticity” still the lifeblood of Western news reports?
China News Service, Chongqing, October 19th, title: Is “authenticity” still the lifeline of Western news reports? ——Interview with Professor Lin Keqin, School of Journalism and Communication, Sichuan International Studies University
China News Agency reporter Zhong Yi
“Dog biting is not news, but dog biting is news.” John Bogart, the editorial director of the American “New York Sun” in the 1870s, explained the news in an abnormal way, and was later reported by the Western bourgeoisie. As a standard for objectively judging news, it has continued to this day.
At the beginning of the 21st century, “constructive news” originating from Northern Europe began to begin. Do Western news reports still advocate that “bad things are good news”? When it comes to the authenticity of news, how should we treat the BBC “Underworld Filter” and CNN’s Xinjiang news fraud? At present, what impact does the Marxist view of news that China advocates and practices have on international communication? Lin Keqin, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Sichuan International Studies University and the executive vice president of the Chinese Society for Cognitive Communication, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Service on “Questions of East and West” to provide an in-depth analysis.
Data map: Xinjiang has increased employment through tourism, so that more people can get rid of poverty and become rich.Photo by Alia Turhon
The summary of the interview record is as follows:
A reporter from China News Service: For many people who have been exposed to the news, “Dog biting people is not news, people biting dogs is news” is the iconic slogan of the Western press. How does this point of view affect Western news? Influence? Are there any new changes now?
Lin Keqin:“A dog biting a person is not news, but a dog biting a dog is news” reflects the prevailing values in the Western press at the beginning of mass communication. In the era of the proliferation of “yellow news”, under the banner of liberal journalism theory, the press was digging out bizarre anomalies in all aspects of society to satisfy the public’s vulgar imagination of news reporting at that time. It has profoundly affected the value judgments of the Western press, and presupposed “conflict” and “dramatic” as the logical tone of news reports. Theodore Roosevelt vividly described this type of reporter as “holding a dung rake, ignoring beauty, and trying to clean up the dirt on the ground.”
In the later period, under pressure from all parties, the industry and academia jointly reflected and used “journalism professionalism” to end the infinitely expanding social ailments of “yellow news”, and the social responsibility theory that emphasized serving the public interest and reporting events objectively replaced liberal journalism. Theory has become the ideological guide of the press.
From the academic and logical point of view, the theory of social responsibility has a rational consciousness, but it still has a long way to go before it becomes a reality, because in the past two hundred years, no matter how the Western countries have changed their political power and the social development is diversified, The basic logic of “conflict journalism” has never changed.
Nowadays, the traditional western news concept that emphasizes abnormality and conflict is under new challenges. In 2008, the Danish press took the lead in proposing the concept of “constructive journalism”, requiring the press to reduce the “stick” of criticism, and to provide the society with delicious “carrots”, learn more from positive psychology, and reduce news. The anger and prejudice in the report call on reporters to pay more attention to “positive, inspiring, solution-based news” instead of continuing to unearth negative news to please the public and society’s pathological preferences. At present, this trend of “constructive news” has spread to news media in Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, Japan and other countries.
However, it should be pointed out that “constructive journalism” is not inconsistent with mainstream Western journalism theories. It is just to remove the traditional abuses of the press and explore the social function of journalism and its role in advancing the process of democratic politics from the psychological experience of the audience. The role played by the media has little effect on the institutional reform of Western journalism. Moreover, “constructive journalism” has little impact on Western mainstream media, and it is mostly marginal media and academic tributaries who are chanting for it. Therefore, it is not appropriate to place too much hope on the fundamental changes it will bring to Western journalism.
China News Agency reporter: In recent years, incidents such as the West citing false or fabricated news, slandering and discrediting China’s religion and Xinjiang-related policies have still occurred. What do you think of the BBC “Underworld Filter” and CNN’s Xinjiang news fraud?
Lin Keqin:In recent years, Western mainstream media has been catching up on the wind, fabricating false information, slandering and discrediting China’s religious issues and Xinjiang-related, Tibet-related, and Taiwan-related policies. This reflects a post-Cold War mentality that demonizes China.
BBC “Underworld Filter” and CNN Xinjiang-related news fraud are low-level behaviors of Western media using modern technology to conceal their ears and steal the bells and discredit China. The ideological logic behind it is still to randomly piece together various fragments of Cold War thinking to produce some superficial and superficial fact transfers, stir up troubles, stir up troubles, and deliberately create oppositions and ideological prejudices between the East and the West.
The process of “demonizing” the East by the West is essentially a way for the West to control, rebuild, and even overtake the East. In the minds of Westerners, the West is always outside the East. The so-called Near East, Middle East, and Far East are all divided according to the distance between the eastern region and the center of the West. Coordinating the East. The formation of this perspective fully reveals the cultural superiority of the West towards Eastern countries, including China.
The West’s gaze toward China is fermented and promoted by a modern instrumental rationality of questioning, dwarfing, and repulsion, that is, the foreign moral framework emphasized by Sartre. This look of contempt for others is a look of surprise and prejudice, full of strangeness and curiosity. The West’s gaze towards China is precisely this kind of subjective review with the power and norms of the Western world as footnotes. Under the arrogant and arrogant psychological expectations of all Western leaders, China has been alienated into the “other” in the perspective of Western society. .
This is the collective unconsciousness of western society that repeatedly confirms the subject and strengthens itself for a long time. In its realist interest orientation, China’s peaceful rise has seriously affected the superiority of Western civilization, and the hegemonic discourse on the “China Threat Theory” will continue to emerge. The aforementioned Western media disregarded news ethics and the laws of communication, used all kinds of media technology to rudely discredit China, and did not hesitate to fake and sell fakes, but this kind of realist traditional discourse takes the lead.
China News Agency reporter: Authenticity is the lifeblood of news reports. In your opinion, what is the “root” of Chinese news reporting? What are the advantages and highlights?
Lin Keqin:Authenticity is the life of news, and it shouldn’t change for whom it serves.
Gan Xifen, a leading Chinese journalism scholar, believes that “bourgeois journalism and proletarian journalism have a lot of differences in fundamental views, but there is a surprising agreement on the proposition that news reports must be truthful.” Fourth, the U.S. “News Statute” The article stipulates that “sincerity, truthfulness, and accuracy-loyalty to readers is the veritable basis of all newspapers.” It can be seen that both Chinese and Western media recognize that “authenticity” is the iron law that news reports must follow.
But it is one thing to recognize in theory, and another to weaken in practice.
The American press has confused and replaced authenticity and objectivity from the very beginning. To this day, the most recognized feature of Western journalism is still objectivity, not authenticity.
The “fundamental” of Chinese news reports is authenticity, which is beyond doubt. The ideological line of the Communist Party of China is “seeking truth from facts” and strictly abides by the law of authenticity of news dissemination.
Under the guidance of the Marxist outlook on news, there are still some differences between the “authenticity” we insist on and the “authenticity” that the West means. We divide the “authenticity” we strive to achieve in news reports into three levels, namely, the authenticity of details, the authenticity of interactive development, and the overall authenticity.
Reporter from China News Service: Under the topic of “building a community with a shared future for mankind”, what can the Marxist outlook on journalism bring to China’s international communication narrative?
Lin Keqin:The external communication of Marxist journalism and the establishment of international narratives can build a discourse framework of “parallel history and horizontal integration”, thereby providing a fair, rational, and orderly operation of the world news dissemination system with a Chinese plan that mirrors the West .
Specifically, the international narrative of the Marxist news outlook should include the following:
The first is to upgrade from the Marxist view of journalism to the starting point of Marxist journalism. From the perspectives of international perspective, historical evolution, comparative framework, political logic and other aspects, Marxist journalism is considered in an all-round way, so as to establish a scientific, legal and effective socialist journalism system with Chinese characteristics.
The second is the transition from cross-cultural communication to cross-ideological communication. In the context of China’s advocacy of building a community with a shared future for mankind, it has become possible to transcend ideological conflicts and oppositions and move towards a common and beautiful future. Such as replacing struggle with dialogue, gaining mutual understanding, opening the door to understanding between various ideologies, correctly cognizing the current problems facing human beings, and jointly constructing a beautiful society; looking for the mutual interest ties in cross-ideological communication, Promote mutual benefit and win-win cooperation; organize cross-ideological dissemination based on the standpoint of cultural integration, highlight the value line of peace and eliminate conflicts, and emphasize the interdependence, organic integration, development and innovation between different elements; further broaden the official and Channels for non-governmental foreign exchanges to enhance mutual understanding between different ideologies and reduce misunderstandings, confrontations and conflicts, etc.
The third is to establish a global paradigm for China Communications. Strengthen the role identity of the people as a “world citizen”, reproduce and rebuild the unique identity of Chinese culture, take “the common value of all mankind” as the basic prerequisite for the construction of national values, and provide solutions for the development of world civilization with Eastern thoughts and Eastern systems . (over)
Expert profile:
Lin Keqin, Academic Committee Member and Professor of Sichuan International Studies University, Distinguished Expert of the US-China Postmodern Development Institute, Visiting Professor of Sapporo University, Japan, Distinguished Professor of the School of Literature and Journalism, Guizhou Normal University, Editorial Board Member of “Film Criticism”; presided over the National Social Science Fund 2 projects, 1 international publishing fund project, 4 major and general social science projects in Chongqing, was named a “serious and responsible appraisal expert” by the National Social Science Foundation Office in April 2019; monograph “Strategy for Chinese Culture Going Global” “Research on Path Innovation” was rated as “2019 Sichuan Good Book” by the Propaganda Department of the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Provincial Press and Publication Bureau, and was introduced by Academic Press to publish the English edition in the United States; long-term experience in cultural discourse, cognitive communication, and cognitive communication He has been invited to give regular lectures at Clermont Graduate University in the United States, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, Hong Kong Baptist University, and Sapporo University in Japan.
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