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Author: Yin Hongchao Source: Far and Near
What should the news media report during a major disaster? This article will bring the real experience of a frontline journalist in a epidemic area in a city in Hubei Province.
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Brother Chen has been a journalist at a daily newspaper in a city in Hubei Province for 6 years. On the eve of the Lunar New Year, he had just finished dinner at his hometown in the countryside when he received an urgent notice to return to his unit. At that time, the number of confirmed cases in the city ranked among the top four in Hubei Province, making it a severely affected area.
During a major disaster, the sense of mission for journalists is far greater than usual - reporting at this time can save lives. After receiving the task, Brother Chen hurriedly rushed to the city and took on the task of going to the front line for interviews. The so-called front line refers to journalists going to the scene for interviews and reporting, traveling to hospitals, grassroots communities, government units, and other places.
On the third day of the Lunar New Year, Brother Chen went to the hospital for the first time for an interview. Before setting off, he reported three topics to the director of the newspaper: 1. Report on a doctor couple in the same hospital; 2. Go to the hospital canteen to see how the medical staff and patients are eating, and what problems exist in the supply of materials; 3. Understand the shortage of protective materials in the hospital and call for support.
Brother Chen's three topics cover the spirit of medical staff, the current situation of the hospital, and solutions to problems, which are valuable reports during a disaster. However, the director only wanted the first topic, a positive report, and turned a blind eye to the other two topics that reflect problems and seek solutions.
For the first topic, the director also requested that the doctor couple be portrayed as "generous sacrifices" typical characters. In order to further highlight the character's image, the director suggested that Brother Chen "reasonably fabricate" emotional plots, such as the doctor couple voluntarily writing a letter of request after learning about the severity of the epidemic, and leaving blood fingerprints. For example, they say to their children, "Mom and Dad are going to the hospital to fight the virus monster, and we'll come back to play with you after we're done."
During the epidemic, shaping typical characters became the focus of the local media in Hubei, and the characters in the reports were described as "voluntarily sacrificing" inhuman images, mixed with many false deeds. Not only medical staff, even hospital security guards have transformed into spontaneous fighters in the fight against the epidemic.
The local media in Hubei, including Brother Chen's, is not an exception. For example, the Wuhan Evening News once had a more embarrassing report: a nurse had a miscarriage and then rushed to the front line after 10 days of pain.
Medical staff should have been cared for, but in the writings of some Hubei media, their sacrifices have become cheap propaganda tools. It seems that the more heroic characters are portrayed, the more the problems exposed by inadequate prevention and control can be covered up.
In order to capture typical characters, the chief doctors of the major hospitals in the city were interviewed by the newspaper and radio station one by one, and the director hoped that Brother Chen would go to the intensive care unit or have video calls with doctors every day. Once, Brother Chen went to the hospital's red zone (the diagnosis room for critically ill patients) for an interview with two radio journalists. They needed to wear protective clothing to enter and shoot. The radio journalists went in with two sets of protective clothing and came out after only one minute. The hospital also prepared a set for Brother Chen, but he refused, with a simple reason: there is a severe shortage of medical supplies, and I don't want to waste a set of protective clothing just for a shot.
On one hand, medical staff are too busy to eat and can't even go to the bathroom, on the other hand, local media occupy the time of medical staff and waste medical resources in order to promote typical deeds. Local media creates a scene of "no problems, only touching moments" with full positive energy, not only causing chaos for medical staff, but also a serious deviation in news value orientation.
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The more reports there are about good people and good deeds, the more anxious Brother Chen feels: as a journalist, I could have discovered and solved problems through reporting, in other words, doing something useful. But the reality is that only good news is reported, and problems are covered up, treating funerals as celebrations.
Speaking of "doing something useful," Brother Chen found that the epidemic prevention and control in rural areas exposed many problems, and he wanted to do an in-depth investigation and report. For example, in the village where Brother Chen is located, there are more than 700 households, and many villagers have returned from Wuhan, but there is only one health center in the village, and the only rural doctor in the health center doesn't even have a mask. When the focus of epidemic prevention is on the cities, the medical situation in rural areas is severely neglected.
However, reporting on similar practical problems does not conform to the local propaganda values. At the same time, the city where Brother Chen is located keeps holding "successful experience summary meetings". After extensive promotion of positive energy deeds, writing meeting reports has become Brother Chen's main job.
During a major disaster, public opinion supervision is the soul of news reporting. Journalists who risk infection to go to the front line for interviews and reporting should focus on reflecting problems. Unfortunately, local media journalists like Brother Chen, who have news ideals, are unable to report even if they discover problems.
On February 9th, a report by the Global Times caused a huge reaction. Journalists took photos of a bus in Wuhan filled with critically ill patients, revealing serious coordination problems. This report led to a severe questioning of the Wuhan municipal government by the central guidance group sent to Hubei, and relevant officials were summoned for talks.
This kind of report is what people expect, and this kind of media is what news organizations should be like. Just as Brother Chen said: doing something useful, because investigative reports during a disaster can save lives.
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Central media such as the Global Times have the power to conduct supervisory investigations in local areas, but so far, the news media in Hubei has not done any investigative reporting, and there have even been articles commenting "why not give the mayor of Wuhan more warmth".
Is it that the media and journalists in Hubei don't want to report and solve problems? Is Brother Chen's newspaper director willing to report only good news and not report worries? I don't think so.
In a previous article, I wrote about a Wuhan citizen named Gao Yu who volunteered to provide free transportation for medical staff to and from work. The Changjiang Daily, the official newspaper of Wuhan, also interviewed Gao Yu, but the article did not pass the review of the higher-level propaganda department. The reporter from Changjiang Daily explained the reason why the article was rejected during the conversation with Gao Yu, as shown in the red box in the picture below:
(The Wuhan) government believes that the voluntary transportation of medical staff by non-governmental organizations is a way to discredit them, so the article was not approved for publication. The newspaper and the reporter are powerless and unable to control the rejection of the article...
In the 2010 "Government Work Report," there was the following solemn declaration: "Create conditions for the people to criticize and supervise the government, and fully play the supervisory role of news public opinion, so that power operates in the sunshine."
We look forward to the news media fully playing the role of public opinion supervision, and we hope that journalists like Brother Chen can realize their news ideals: shouldering the responsibility of righteousness and writing wonderful articles. But ideals are rich, and reality is harsh. It is not easy for local media to supervise local governments.
"Let the powerless have power, let the pessimistic move forward" is a sentence from the New Year's message of Southern Weekend in 1999, which once became the motto of Chinese journalists. Don't let those journalists who rush to the front line with enthusiasm become the most powerless and pessimistic.
After running around on the front line of the epidemic for more than 20 days, Brother Chen is completely tired of writing about "capturing typical characters and summarizing experiences". He is now considering resigning after the epidemic is over - "Now is a time of disaster, and I will stand at my post until the end. I am willing to die for my news ideals, but I am not willing to live for writing fake news."
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