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The incidence and mortality rates of COVID-19 in the country are now showing a downward trend, indicating that the turning point in epidemic prevention and control has arrived. Looking back at the situation before and after the outbreak, a surprising fact is that none of the 200,000 news organizations in the country issued a warning report at the beginning of the epidemic! There was not a single journalist who acted as a "whistleblower"! Where did the problem lie? Which link played a "blockage" role? If the news industry and the whole society cannot summarize the lessons learned well, when the next epidemic comes in years, we will still repeat the same mistakes. 17 years ago, we experienced the SARS coronavirus epidemic, but 17 years later, we still did not make good use of the experience and learn relevant lessons from SARS.
Now everyone knows that the first person to issue a warning signal before the outbreak of the Wuhan COVID-19 epidemic was Dr. Li Wenliang, and he paid the price with his life, and people praised him as a hero. As a professional warning tool of society, the media and journalists as professional "whistleblowers", why were they absent in this epidemic warning? Almost none of the journalists in the national media successfully acted as "whistleblowers"! This is the sadness of the journalism profession and the society.
If a journalist had interviewed Dr. Li Wenliang promptly after he knew about the epidemic in the hospital and posted information in his circle of friends, and published a report, the disaster would have been greatly reduced. Over the years, various regions have attached great importance to the development of the media industry. The media has received more investment than any other industry, and its hardware and software are quite advanced. It is easy to spread the epidemic to a larger range, enabling the national epidemic prevention department to take timely response measures and allowing the public to know the truth of the epidemic and take preventive measures. Unfortunately, the national media did not play its due role in this epidemic.
According to statistics from the National News Association, as of the end of 2015, a total of 208,126 journalists in the country held valid press cards. According to the type of media, there were 82,198 newspaper journalists, 5,411 magazine journalists, 2,599 news agency journalists, 116,735 radio and television journalists (including news film production plants), and 1,183 news website journalists. This team can be considered large, and the equipment and software of today's journalists in writing, photography, broadcasting, and the internet are not inferior to journalists from other countries. However, the news industry and journalists have problems in adapting to the requirements of the new era in terms of news system, concepts, training, and assessment.
The news media is a public tool of society, and journalists are the most powerful "whistleblowers". The old journalists believe that among the 200,000 journalists in the country, there must have been someone who received information about the Wuhan epidemic at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. After the official news conference in Wuhan stating that the epidemic was a rumor and the virus would not be transmitted between humans, there must have been journalists who insisted on going to hospitals, interviewing doctors and experts, and observing the situation of medical rescue on the scene, and wrote reports. Even in the situation where the epidemic was not clear at the time and it was inconvenient to release public news, journalists could still send internal reference materials to higher-level leadership agencies, and the consequences would have been very different. It's a pity! So, where did these warning news disappear?
The old journalists believe that the warning information of the "whistleblower" about the epidemic must have disappeared in the following aspects:
The definition of news is the objective reporting of fresh and valuable facts, which should not be changed by political ideas or group interests. Discovering news and reporting news is the responsibility of the media. Media reports often serve as reminders to society and play a warning role before the outbreak of disasters, so that the disasters are not so severe. Nowadays, the functions of the media and the public opinion environment have changed. What to write, how to write, when to publish, when not to publish... the media no longer has autonomy, everything must obey the politically correct news concept, and must follow the official will of a certain period. Anything that is not approved by the leadership or higher authorities cannot be reported. In the long run, the leadership of the media understands that there is no autonomy in news, and it is impossible to fight for it, otherwise it would be a political mistake.
As a result, the leaders of the media are trapped by such news concepts, and they think that it is better to do less than more. They do not encourage journalists to be the first discoverers of news, and reports written by journalists based on their own undercover investigations and private interviews are often rejected. As a result, after many warning reports by journalists were rejected, they lost their vision and sense of smell, and no longer shouted "wolf is coming". One day, the wolf really came.
During the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, the news conference held by the leadership of Wuhan and Hubei Province stated that the epidemic was a rumor and the virus would not be transmitted between humans. The media leaders would never dare to publish reports with different views from this. Some journalists' warning news died in the hands of media bosses. The media, which is supposed to be professional, has become the most unprofessional. Newspapers, television, radio, and online media all have arrangements from above on what to report, how to report, and when to report. The media no longer needs to use their brains, they just need to send reporters to follow the arrangements from above; reporters no longer need to discover and find news by themselves, they just need to follow the organized interview team, and they won't be left out or criticized, and they will enjoy privileges. The media has become the best place to mix. There are even cases where after journalists participate in interview activities, the organizers send them a news release and ask the journalists to publish it without any changes under their own names. Journalists have become "journalists" who just write down what others say, regardless of right or wrong. It's easy to be a journalist, and it's easy to be in the media. There is no need to issue warnings anymore, and disasters will come, and society and the people will suffer.
If news is not required to be completely accurate, and if journalists are allowed to report with some deviations from the basic facts, journalists will dare to write, and the situation will be different. Warning news is a possible information when the situation is not completely clear and the epidemic has not completely broken out. If it is not strictly controlled by the media, and if the right of citizens to know is respected, the disaster would have been different. You can shout "wolf is coming", and if the wolf doesn't come, you can endure being a "whistleblower" and wake up the dreamers, which is much better than being helpless when the disaster comes and the consequences are much smaller.
Some new news regulations have also affected journalists' interviews and reports on warning news. In the past, when major events occurred in local areas, important media from all over the country would rush to the scene, and no news would be missed. Some local news organizations and journalists, due to their long-term work in one place, have various interests with the local authorities, and they often dare not publish reports that differ from the views of local government departments, let alone publish critical reports. Allowing national and out-of-town media to interview and report on the scene of emergencies can break local protectionism and prevent major disasters, epidemics, and emergencies from being missed. However, in recent years, the concept of not allowing out-of-town news media to interview and report nationwide has affected the dissemination of warning news.
Now all media in the country are state-owned, and they all have certain levels. National media are at the ministerial or deputy ministerial level; provincial and municipal media are at the bureau or deputy bureau level; and prefecture-level media are at the primary or deputy division level. In this way, the bosses of the media have higher-ranking leaders or agencies above them. Under the politically correct concept, the bosses of the media must be loyal to their superiors, and what their superiors say is right, and what their superiors say is wrong. They must obey and dare not make their own judgments on major local events. In major events like the epidemic, media leaders must closely follow local leaders, and local news organizations will definitely not publish the epidemic when local leaders conceal it.
Due to the hierarchical system of news organizations, the bosses of the media are inevitably uninterested in improving their professional level. Many media personnel are focused on maintaining good relationships with leaders in order to be promoted in the future, and they will not allow journalists to write critical reports about the local area. Some media that are stationed in local areas and are eager to obtain financial and land assistance from the local government also try to please local leaders in exchange for publishing reports on their achievements. In this way, how can the media tell the truth, and how can journalists be "whistleblowers"?
In this news system, journalists no longer have a position and have fallen to the level of workers. In the media, they are just typists, and the bosses of the media are the bosses of journalists. Journalists do not have the right to speak independently in the unit, and everything must be in line with the boss's views. If there is a disagreement between journalists and bosses, they will be fired immediately. As a result, journalists cannot truly play a role in disseminating news and criticizing social problems.
Journalism is a special industry that produces spiritual products, and the cultivation mechanism that enables journalists to play an independent and autonomous role should be studied. Respect for the autonomy of journalists' work is important. 40 years ago, whether it was national or local journalists, they were all part of the cadre team. We had a lot of say in news organizations, and the leadership of news organizations attached great importance to journalists' opinions in terms of what to report, how to report, and so on. They even allowed journalists to have different opinions from the leadership, and allowed heated debates. These good traditions should be inherited.
Nowadays, the demand for information by various media has increased significantly, and the assessment policy is biased towards the quantity of articles written. Journalists who write more general dynamic news will receive more fees, which is beneficial for title evaluation, while journalists who write in-depth reports waste time and receive less fees, making it difficult to be evaluated for titles. As a result, journalists focus on rushing for news, and they no longer engage in in-depth reporting or critical reporting. Reporting the truth about disasters and epidemics requires a lot of effort. It is important to change the training and assessment policies for journalists.
The COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control is not over yet. The media and leadership departments need to summarize the heavy lessons, accept the advanced theories of modern administration and mass media, and handle and solve the epidemic and emergencies based on the research results and laws discovered by modern administrative and media theories. Only then can they meet the requirements of the times.
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