The government-owned Chinese media is expanding rapidly to include more non-government run TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers. One station, Blue Ocean Network, is a Chinese network aimed at international audiences. "At the very beginning, we realized that is probably our lifeline -- to be totally independent and non-government funded," Justin Ku, co-founder of BON TV said.
Does this change bring up the larger issue of how China is percieved by foreigners? Li Cheng, the director of the National Committee on U.S.-China relations at the Brookings institution stated that the Chinese government believed that their international image was becoming a problem. Of 28 polled nations, only countries within the Middle East polled to view China positively.
"They believe part of this misunderstanding is the lack of knowledge of China, and the Chinese," Li said.
"And they also believe as China's economic power continues to grow, it should also have cultural and political influence as well. That is the mindset."
3 comments:
Sounds like a good idea, to incorporate more Chinese culture into the West, especially here in the US. I wonder how much the Chinese will actually be willing to air though. Especially negative news.
Although BON TV is not state-owned, that doesn't mean that they are free of state regulations and oversight. China has the reputation for censoring, I don't think that this network has any sort of immunity, although it would be nice if that were so- to get a more honest look into China (positive and negative), so that we can become more familiar with them.
I agree with you. It seems particularly important to have a good exchange of information between the US and China so that each country can understand the other better. This is especially important considering how closely tied the two economies are. With more perfect information about each other perhaps cooperation and compromise will become easier between the two countries, both economically and politically.
I also agree, but this new media expansion is just a product of the ever growing globalization of media throughout the world. New inputs like this will provide economic productivity in many aspects.
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