Monday, April 08, 2013

Comparison of news between Mainland and Taiwan

I like to look at politics with a symmetrical perspective; I also like to observe media behavior. So why don't I combine the two and share what I observe from news from Mainland China and in Taiwan.

People's RepublicRepublic
We see this everydaySome minister-level official signed an agreement with his/her counterpart. Our leaders are busy.Key found in drink, dog jumped off a building, automatic doors of a convenient store slammed on customer, disputes between restaurants and consumers (news with no journalistic values)
International newsIsrael is bombarding Palestine again. Civilian death toll has reached X. (But never mention how many civilians Hamas has killed.)Did Beyoncé mime when she performed at the U.S. presidential inauguration?
Political alignmentalign with The PartyTVBS, CTI, China Times, Era, ETTV, UDN, and the China Post obviously pro-Pan-Blue
FTV, SET, the Liberty Times, and Taipei Times obviously pro-Pan-Green
Workers and farmersnow produce much more, thanks to xyz program from the governmentare protesting on Ketagalan Boulevard
College/grad studentsinnovate new techonlogyare protesting on Ketagalan Boulevard
Bad habits die hardlike to educate viewers so and so land has been Chinese territory since antiquitylike to speculate the emotion of the person being reported. Must use literary 4-worded idioms.
Female anchor's voicelowsharp
LanguagesMandarin, dialects of Han Chinese, Mongolian, Uyghur, Tibetan, Zhuang, English, Spanish, Russian, French, Arabic, Korea, Japanese, and PortugueseMandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, English
English newsPropaganda to native English speakersEnglish learning material. Sometimes they speak very slowly.

If I were to describe the two positively, then I'd have to say that Mainland news have broader vision, while Taiwanese news enjoy higher press freedom.

Last but not least, let's enjoy 2 new clips