First Year of University 2021.9 -- 2022.7
Literature Review on the Research of News Value in the New Media Era
0 Introduction
1 Research on the General Essential Element of News Value, “Freshness”
2 The Humanistic Care in News Value in the New Media Era
3 Research on the Pan-entertainmentization of the Internet
4 Problems Existing in the Research of News Value in the New Media Era
The final form of this course includes two parts: examination and thesis. The following are the essay questions and my answers.
1. Read the following documentary materials and, in combination with the course content and historical background, analyze the reasons for the emergence and the communication characteristics of the small newspapers in the Song Dynasty.
“Small newspapers originated from the Jinzouyuan (the office responsible for transmitting official documents and information), and were mainly produced by the official messengers there. In recent years, when there were matters that were suspicious and the court and the public were unaware of them, the official messengers would surely compete to write them on small pieces of paper and quickly report them far and near. These were called small newspapers.” ——”Hailing Collection: On Banning Small Newspapers”
“The reports from the Du Jinzouyuan (the central Jinzouyuan) are distributed throughout the country. There are so-called internal investigations, provincial investigations, and yamen investigations, etc., all of which are privately run small newspapers. There are always prohibitions against leaks, so they are secretly called ‘news’.” ——”Essentials of the Court and the Public”
“The hobby of collecting anecdotes and strange stories was already very popular in the Tang Dynasty, and it became even more obvious in the Song Dynasty. Printing technology made the circulation of such works very extensive. They were composed of a series of short stories, all of which were extremely absurd and strange, but each had its own eyewitness. The names of people, places, dates, etc. were all accurately provided.” ——Jacques Gernet: “Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion”
Answer：
Reasons: It was convenient for the central government to convey information and instructions to local areas; it was beneficial for the central government to collect local situations, strengthen its control over local areas, and consolidate centralization of power; there was a popular interest in collecting anecdotes and strange stories among the people; the emergence of printing technology provided a technical basis for the increase in the circulation quantity of small newspapers.
Communication characteristics: It had a wide range of dissemination, reaching both far and near areas; it was disseminated rapidly, with stronger timeliness and more characteristics of a news medium; the dissemination content and channels were hidden; the dissemination content was for the entertainment of the common people, highly readable, and the content was short and detailed.
2. Read the following two historical documents and analyze the early Chinese newspaper publishers’ cognition of the functions of newspapers and their influences.
“Now, the benefits of newspaper offices can be roughly summarized into several aspects: Firstly, scholars and officials can understand the situations at home and abroad, expand their knowledge, and improve their abilities day by day. This is called ‘expanding talents’. Secondly, the ministers and high-ranking officials will gradually have a broader understanding, become more familiar with border affairs and the situations of other countries, and will not make major mistakes when handling affairs and signing treaties. This is called ‘protecting the territory’. Thirdly, scholars and officials are busy with their daily duties and then have social interactions. They have no time to read books at all. With newspapers, they can read one issue every day, covering various fields of study, and their knowledge will grow day by day. This is called ‘increasing knowledge’. Fourthly, officials will be afraid that their wrongdoings will be reported to the higher authorities, so they dare not act corruptly. This is called ‘eliminating malpractice’. Fifthly, the sufferings of the common people can be known in detail. This is called ‘conveying the hidden feelings of the people’. It can be said that one action can achieve several good results.” ——”A Brief Account of Newspaper Offices” (No. 18 of “The Review of the Times” (published by Kang Youwei in 1895))
“To remove the barriers and seek communication, there are more than one way, and the newspaper office is the starting point. Without eyes and ears, without a mouthpiece, it is called being disabled. Now, with all countries standing side by side, it is like living next door to each other, and within China, it is like living in the same room. If we don’t know about the affairs of our neighbors, and even don’t know what is happening within the same ‘room’, then we have eyes and ears but are actually without them. When the government makes some arrangements but cannot explain them to the people, and when the people have some sufferings but cannot report them to the monarch, then we have a mouthpiece but are actually without it. The one that can play the role of eyes, ears, and a mouthpiece and cure the ‘disability’ of the country is the newspaper office.” ——”On the Benefits of Newspaper Offices to National Affairs” (The Inaugural Issue of “Current Affairs Newspaper” in 1896)
Answer：
Cognition of the functions of newspapers: Cultivating talents; increasing the understanding of neighboring countries, formulating correct countermeasures, and serving as the “eyes and ears” of the country; improving the general knowledge level of the people; having the function of transmitting information both upwards and downwards, supervising officials, allowing the people’s sufferings to be reflected, and enabling the people to better understand the monarch’s policies, and serving as the “mouthpiece” of the country.
Influence: The early newspaper publishers’ cognition of the functions of newspapers led to the rise of the establishment of modern newspapers in China and set off two upsurges of private newspaper establishment by the people. At that time, it was beneficial for China to introduce advanced Western ideas, enlighten the people, and objectively promoted the process of China’s modernization.
3. According to the following materials, in combination with the relevant course content, analyze the status and influence of foreign newspapers in the development of modern Chinese newspapers, and try to analyze the cultural attitudes of the early Chinese newspaper publishers towards foreign newspapers and their significance for the present.
“Recently, Westerners have established daily newspaper offices in the trading ports in China. The funds all come from Westerners. The chief editors are mostly those who have lived in China for a long time and are familiar with the internal situations of China. Moreover, their remarks often suppress China and praise foreign countries, and even confuse right and wrong and invert black and white. Western people, who know foreign languages, believe that what they say is true. When it comes to Sino-foreign diplomatic affairs, they are influenced by the prior remarks, and it is difficult for China to compete with them. Now that we take the initiative and describe the whole story, the right and wrong will be clear. How can they continue to spread false information?” ——Wang Tao: “A Letter to General Fang Zhaoxuan”
“The conservative ideas of Chinese people have been gradually broken, and they have been inspired to study new learning. Up to this point, the opportunity for the integration of Chinese and Western cultures has been greatly opened, creating an unprecedented situation in history. Tracing back to the source, who is the forerunner of the two-way infusion? It is the books and newspapers published by foreigners.”
“At first, foreign newspapers still showed respect for China and did not dare to make random comments. After several wars, China’s difficult situation was fully revealed, and then their remarks became unscrupulous. They provoked disputes, covered up their faults, confused public opinion, and did all kinds of evil things.”
“The views of Western newspapers sometimes seem to be making plans for China, but in fact, most of them are for their own private interests and are a kind of diplomatic strategy. Now they are even taking advantage of the struggles among warlords, advocating to suppress the reform movement, and spreading a bad atmosphere in international relations. They are doing this without any scruples, which is truly a strange phenomenon unique to our country.” ——Ge Gongzhen: “A History of Chinese Journalism”
Answer：
The foreign newspapers in China are the carriers of Western civilization, and their status and influence in the development of modern Chinese newspapers have a dual nature. Firstly, from their false reports about China, which led to Western countries having a greatly deviated understanding of China and damaged China’s diplomacy, we can see that the foreign newspapers in China are the products of colonial aggression policies and serve the colonial interests of the West. Secondly, the foreign newspapers in China introduced Western ideas in various fields to China. Objectively, to a certain extent, they served as a bridge for the spread of Western civilization, broke the feudal ideas in China, and promoted the process of China’s modernization.
The early newspaper publishers showed a positive attitude of accepting and learning the Western cultural knowledge brought by the foreign newspapers in China, and integrated Chinese and Western cultures to promote their own development. However, they showed great disgust and resistance towards the actions of distorting right and wrong and disrupting China’s politics by these foreign newspapers. The enlightenment it gives us today is that when running newspapers, we must adhere to the truth and not distort right and wrong for the sake of achieving certain political goals. At the same time, when running newspapers now, we must, according to political needs, adhere to the leadership of the Party, publicize our own positive images, and create an image of a great nation for the Chinese nation in the world.
4. According to the following materials, in combination with the relevant course content, analyze the relationship between the news industry and politics.
“It is impossible to advocate giving up politics. All newspapers that advocate giving up politics are also engaged in politics. The question is only how to engage in politics and what kind of politics to engage in.” ——Friedrich Engels: “The Political Action of the Working Class”
“In the life of every party, especially a working-class party, the publication of the first daily newspaper always means a big step forward! This is the first position where it can at least fight against its enemies with equal weapons in the field of the press.” ——Friedrich Engels: “Letter to Victor Adler”
“The colleagues and readers of this magazine (‘New Youth’) often do not approve of my talking about politics. …… The politics I am talking about now is not an ordinary political issue, nor is it an administrative issue. It is a fundamental political issue related to the fundamental survival of the country and the nation. If the Chinese people do not have a thorough understanding of this fundamental issue and urgently seek reform, then other political issues will surely lead to endless troubles, and the country will perish and the race will be exterminated! People of the country, wake up quickly!” ——Chen Duxiu: “The Political Issue in China Today”
Answer：
The news industry, in addition to having an enterprise attribute, is also endowed with a strong political attribute. At every stage of its development, politics has become an indispensable rigid need. Especially after the proletariat stepped onto the political stage, the class nature of news newspapers became more obvious. From the reorganization of “New Youth” into the central organ newspaper to publicize Marxist theory, to the establishment of the “Red China” newspaper during the period of the Nanjing Nationalist Government and the formation of the news communication system in the Communist Party’s Central Soviet Area, to the establishment of the “Xinhua Daily” during the Anti-Japanese War, etc., including the choices of private newspapers after the Liberation War. After the founding of New China, China’s newspapers adhere to the leadership of the Party and establish a series of excellent newspapers such as “People’s Daily”. Whether it is a party organ newspaper or a private newspaper, they all use news newspapers as their theoretical and public opinion positions to publicize their own political ideas, so as to achieve revolutionary undertakings and build the country.
5. According to the following materials, in combination with the course content, analyze the problems and limitations of the theory of social responsibility of the press that originated in the United States.
“The theory of social responsibility is neither a real communitarianism nor a serious threat to the class and corporate control of the media. On the contrary, it actually endorses the status quo by establishing standards for industry performance, making the monopolistic media seem like the mouthpiece of the people, even though the media is keeping the people silent and ignorant.” ——John Nerone, etc.: “The Last Rights”
“The theory of social responsibility has become a theory that causes disputes among various parties regarding the relationship between the news media and other institutions. It is just a joke to imagine that the news media is free and plays an independent role. One thing that should be kept in mind is that insisting on this idea exactly caters to the interests of the real people in power, because only in this way can they manipulate the news industry and make it serve their own goals.” ——J. Herbert Altschull: “
Answer：
Agents of Power: The Media and Public Affairs” The problems and limitations of the theory of social responsibility of the press mainly lie in its failure to point out the essence of the capitalist monopolistic media. It provides explanations and endorsements for the control of freedom of speech by the Western monopolistic media, enabling those in power to more justifiably control public opinion in society. Although this theory was put forward for the freedom of speech of the people, in the American society at that time, on the one hand, due to the great power of the US government during the war, people were willing to sacrifice press freedom, and on the other hand, newspaper owners would not give up the huge profits brought by the news industry. Class nature makes the government and big businessmen have no time to consider the interests of the general public, or perhaps the essence of capitalism is to exploit the workers. Those who hold the right to speak will find countless reasons to prove that the news content they release conforms to and represents the interests of the vast majority of people in society. It cannot prompt the monopoly capitalism itself to think about the freedom of speech in the news. Therefore, although the proposal of this theory is helpful for making the news content closer to the truth and beneficial for rectifying the atmosphere of the news industry, the dominant power of the news still lies in the hands of a few people, and most people still cannot voice their opinions. It is just a theory established on the basis of monopoly capitalism.
Later in the course, we simulated press release writing in different situations. Here are the assignments I submitted.
Q:Write a campus news based on what happened on campus this week.
A:
During the May Day holiday, a close contact of a COVID-19 case suddenly appeared on the campus.
五一小长假校内突然出现新冠密接
5月1日晚十点左右，中国农业大学东校区男生宿舍楼查处一名走读男子父母核酸为阳性，该同学为密接。学校立刻采取排查行动，要求该同学所在宿舍楼层到校医院进行紧急核酸排查，至5月3日排查结果为全员阴性。
5月1日当晚该消息虽未正式通知全校同学，但部分同学提前得知后选择到商业街进行购物囤货，准备充足封在宿舍后的生活必备品。
同时，中国农业大学在上周严格进行过全员“五天三检”后并未放松，依旧在5月2到4日三天五一小长假期间进行全员核酸检测。
Q:Please SIMULATE THE People’S Daily REPORTER, PICK AND WRITE a THING WITHIN a WEEK, WRITE a NEWS MESSAGE of 600 WORDS OR so(Chinese), the title is self-determined, there is news head, genre is not limited.
A:
When the Dragon Boat Festival Meets the Last Day of the Community’s Lockdown
The Heartwarming “Big Whites” Deliver Zongzi House by House
当端午节遇到小区封控的最后一天
暖心“大白”挨家挨户送粽子
（本报讯）2022年6月3日这一天是端午节，也是丰台区民岳家园封控的最后一天。社区考虑到自封控20多天以来，居民无法外出采买，无法接收快递，特意在端午节为大家订购了粽子礼盒，由志愿者挨家挨户送达。让软糯甜香的粽子作为封控生活的句号，为封控中的端午节依旧带来满满仪式感。
自2022年5月15日发现一例新冠阳性患者属于丰台区民岳家园西区后，整个小区迅速升级为封控状态。毫无准备地进入封控状态，以及每天随时被通知集中隔离的紧迫感，一直让所有居民心烦不已。这种状态一直持续到端午小长假前，社区终于通知大家：若无特殊情况，6月4日小区将降为管控状态。居民们都为都为这一消息高兴不已，端午节虽无法像往年一般欢乐度过，但马上就能出门透透气的生活让大家心情舒畅许多。
尽管如此，社区仍然心系大家。在封控的最后一天，也是端午节当天，为大家送上了粽子礼盒。封控期间，所有人都足不出户，核酸都是志愿者上门检测。在结束了一整天的“上门服务”后，“大白”们继续穿着密不透风的防护服，抱着一盒盒粽子，从下午到夜晚，踩着傍晚的黄昏，随着夏日的晚风，敲开了每家每户的门，送上了端午节的祝福。
从最早封控开始，一直独自一人在家隔离的柳女士，在收到社区送的粽子后，将这份端午节的温暖礼物发在朋友圈，并由衷感谢道：“这么晚了，社区心系百姓，送粽子💗，激动的连连感谢🙏。”
Q:Create a theme and edit a news story.
Analysis of the Crisis Public Relations of Luckin Coffee in the Financial Fraud Incident
3.1.1 Implementation of Crisis Communication Management Organization
The implementation of the organization includes five parts: the setting of the crisis management organization structure, the establishment of the “spokesperson” system, the establishment of the rapid response channel at the first time, the prediction of the organization’s crisis situation, and the evaluation of the organization’s potential crisis. The financial fraud of an enterprise exposes many loopholes in its governance. From the perspective of crisis public relations alone, Luckin Coffee is not perfect in predicting the organization’s crisis situation and evaluating the organization’s potential crisis.
When the financial fraud was exposed at the end of January 2020, it did not take corresponding countermeasures. Blocking is the first choice of crisis strategies. When an enterprise has its own problems, it needs to block; when its own fault is not clear but to avoid the expansion of the situation, it can block. Generally, it includes three aspects: blocking the source of the attack, blocking the attack channel, and blocking the reason for the attack [2]. However, Luckin Coffee only denied it and did not take any measures to limit the spread of this information in the media. The crisis public relations department did not timely realize the seriousness of this incident, issue a crisis warning and make a plan. After the situation broke out in full, its overall employees were in a state of confusion and bewilderment.
3.1.2 Analysis Based on the 5S Principles of Crisis Public Relations
When dealing with a crisis, crisis public relations should adhere to the 5S principles of taking responsibility, sincere communication, speed first, systematic operation, and authoritative verification according to the actual situation.
The most direct reason why the Luckin incident spread to such an extent is the slow speed and low efficiency of Luckin in the face of the crisis. Whether it was within the three months after Muddy Waters exposed the false accounts or after Luckin exposed the false accounts by itself, it did not respond in a timely and rapid manner, missing the best opportunity to suppress the spread of information and gain the initiative. Its procrastination and failure to stand up in a timely manner to admit mistakes and take responsibility greatly damaged the public’s trust in its brand.
Reputation is the foundation of long-term operation. Sincere communication requires good corporate credibility. At first, Luckin Coffee once denied the fact of financial fraud but failed to produce strong evidence. Later, it was “forced” to admit this matter, and its corporate credibility in the face of partners and the public instantly vanished.
Three days after exposing the fraud by itself, Luckin Coffee made a small part of the leadership at that time take responsibility. Although finding a “scapegoat” solved the crisis to a certain extent, Luckin did not establish an image of the whole enterprise taking risks.
