Media star system in Television

Media Star system is a commercial means which appeared in the early 20th century in Hollywood. The main purpose is to emphasize the actor mainly, but put the film itself or other elements in a support position, in order to get more viewers and financial interest.

It runs with stars as the center, using script writing, creative lyrics, costume design, marketing, promotion as well as advertisement to support it, in order to make the stars become the focus of attention of the public, and use the influence of the stars to attract more consumers.

Along with the fast growing in the TV media today, TV presenters and journalists not only exist in television programs, but as individuals showing up in the public attention, their programme style, image characteristics, personal life have all become the focus of public attention. This is because the public have a natural interest and concern with celebrities or the stars.

According to this trend, many media organisations pushed the anchors and reporters to the front stage, packaging them in the same way as packing singers, film stars and so on. They trained them to make them have a fixed and special programme style, by which they’ll obtain their own loyal groups of audience.
The media star system also helps the media have a distinct personalization feature, which would benefit the media in strengthening the brand image in order to enhance competitiveness.

Phoenix Satellite TV has taken the first step in establishing the core image of the columns and creating competitive strength in taking media star system.
The audience remembered a series of TV programs, such as "Luyu talk show"," Qiang qiang san ren xing "," Xiaoli looking at current affairs", through Chen Luyu, Dou wenchao, Wu Xiaoli, who have different styles and distinct personality.

Moderator CCTV trained a number of well-known presenters, such as NI Ping, ZHAO Zhongxiang, Zhu Jun, LI Yong, Cui Yongyuan and Wang Xiaoya, who have become the spokesmen for these gold medal column as "Zhengda Arts," "Animal World", "Artistic life." "Lucky 52", "Happy Dictionary" and so on.
Their achievements to the programs and also television have build core competitiveness for the media organisations.
There is still a long way to go for China's TV media on how to compete with other media organisations in the world market. And what we have to work towards is how to create more and stronger media brands.

Privacy

More then a hundred years ago Warren and Brandeis produced their classic essay “The Right to Privacy” in 1890. They wrote:

“The press is overstepping in every direction the obvious bounds of propriety and of decency. Gossip is no longer the resource of the idle and of the vicious, but has become a trade, which is pursued with industry as well as effrontery. To satisfy prurient taste the details of sexual relations are spread broadcast in the columns of the daily papers. To occupy the indolent, column upon column is filled with idle gossip, which can only be procured by intrusion upon the domestic circle.”

Privacy has been defined as “the claim of individuals, groups or institutions to determine for themselves when, how and to what extent. It’s obviously that little has changed nowadays. Press intrusions upon the personal sphere are currently on the increase, more and more reports spy and disclose private life of the celebrities barbarically.

Douglas Keay said in 《Royal Pursuit: the Palace, the press and the people》 that, ‘Recent cases splashed across Fleet Street include the intruder in the Queen’s bedroom; the resignation of her personal bodyguard Commander Trestrail; the engagement, wedding and early married life of Charles and Diana, including most flagrantly photographs of Princess Diana bathing in a bikini on a private beach in the West Indies during her first pregnancy; and the friendship between Koo Stark and Prince.’ And the most serious outcome is that the Princess died because of the crazy tracing by the media.

The main reason for that condition is interest of press. The source of revenues of media organisations determines the media’s major function. Advertising revenue is the main source of Western press, which determines that their news must be able to attract the reader's attention. So they have to choose the topics and figures which the readers may be interested in to report. Thus they always pay more attention to the entertainment function of news.

Therefore, journalists’ own professional standards will be more and more important. Journalistic ethics will play a more important role in the relationship between press freedom and self-regulation.

Journalistic professionalism in wartime

Definiion of ‘journalistic professionalism’ :
The journalistic professionalism was a belief of "public service", which was developed in the United States after the dissolution of political parties in the Press, it is part of a general trend of administrative rationalism and professional neutralism.

The following are its main characteristics:
First, objectivity. Journalists should report the news without personal bias and objectively reflect the fact that news at the same time, journalists act as the "gatekeeper" according to the "news value" neutral standards rather than personal preferences of a choice.

Second, truth. News reports must truly reflect the original appearance of objective things, we can not only cover part truth or details of truth, and it must achieve the overall real. Truth is the first principle, without it, objectivity will be out of the question, the independence will be lost.

Third, independence. The media has the function of a public institution, the purpose of journalism is to serve all the people, but not limited to service of political or economic interest groups, so the operation of the media should be completely independent and should not succumb addition to industry standards or stay in the control of any authority.

Fourth, freedom. Press freedom, including freedom of interview, freedom of publication, freedom of expression and freedom of access to information which is the "right to know." Press freedom is the cornerstone of the Western press theory, as the Western media has always boasted.

The Western society always emphasized the independence of the press and the media, stressed that news reports must be "objective", "factual" and "multiple" and emphasized that journalists must abide by "the journalistic profession", the most important news career norms.

However, in the western media reality, a large number of news reports, which contrary to the journalistic professionalism, often show up, especially in the war time.

"War is a continuation of politics." Modern information warfare have not changed this rule, but made political integration and interaction much closer at a higher level. National interests and political objectives and implementing the war completely, the news media has increasingly become a battlefield of warring parties.

Along with the rapid development of information technology, the warring parties around the news media and the struggle will be more complex and intense, the right to information has become a system of modern warfare information an important component of the right.

The truth and objectivity of news have not been enhanced because of technological advances, but have been harmed. If the special nature of the war will inevitably harm the nature of news, then the war reports in future will not be able to be called as news, war reports will lost their need for its existence.

Press Freedom in China

In today’s class our study group has a debate with group three, the topic is whether press freedom is a western dogma. Our standpoint is agreeing with it, and my assignment is giving proof that there is rare or even press freedom in China. It makes me feel very complicated.

Before the debate when I tried to search some relative information from the internet, most articles about it I got were critical. There was even a report claimed that “China is among the worst offenders. According to the New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists, China has the highest number of imprisoned journalists -- forty-two -– of any country in the world.”
I don’t agree with that point of view completely, but there is no doubt that the situation in China is not optimistic.

Chinese news is the socialistic journalism. Media organisations, particularly the national media have received the direct leadership of the Central Propaganda Department. And they stressed the party spirit, the party's line, principles and policies as their most important task, so the publicity function is more important than the other functions. And the reported figures tend to heroes, models and other advanced characters.

All those above are the reasons why press freedom in China in under so much limitation. In law and in theory, people have press freedom in China, but actually they rarely can enjoy this right.
These years, some journalists have raised the awareness of press freedom and they do struggling for it, and we can see some progress in it. However, to fulfill the real press freedom in China, they still have a long time to go.

Blogger

Starting from a certain time, it seems that we all began to write blog, which turned into a common social phenomenon from a fashion gradually.

Take my family as an example, my parents, who present mid-aged people have their own blog in qq space, my little sister, who is a high school student, has a blog in msn space, and I myself have four blog addresses, in one of them I write for my parents and relatives to tell them my life in UK, one is used for daily communication among friends, and one of them is a private space which is secret for others, the last one is this blog, which is built for course assignment.

I always think blog is a tool for people to express themselves and communicate with their friends, except some professional blog. People feel free if they write articles in their own way and always begin with the word “I”, and they have the freedom to write anything they’re experiencing, feeling and thinking, they have the freedom to write everyday or just leave it there for a long time, they also have the freedom to tell anyone they trust and be willing to share with, or keep it in secret.

Apparently the appearance of blog changes people’s lifestyle in some extent, but can we say that bloggers are all journalists?

I don’t think so. The definition of ‘news’ or ‘Journalist’ is strict. For example, some experts define ‘news’ as ‘information about recent events or happenings, especially as reported by newspapers, periodicals, radio, or television’, and they describe ‘journalism’ as ‘the collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts’. The traditional definition is made in the context of traditional media, without including blog.

Well the appearance of new media, as web, indeed put lots of pressure on traditional press, but the newspaper, radio or television is irreplaceable in short term. As a blogger, I enjoy the freedom to express myself and practice myself through writing, and as a journalism student, I have to study hard to be more professional.

News localization

After four years' study on Television and Broadcast Journalism in China, I feel that things are a little different here in JUS from that in China.

The new term which impresses me most is "local news". I'd like to quote the definition of it from the internet:

In journalism, "local news" refers to news coverage of events in a local context which would not normally be of interest to those of other localities, or otherwise be of national or international scope.

I feel that people have more interest in local news. For example, we have news quiz every Monday morning, and most of those news are local news, it's much more useful to read Star then Guardian if you want to prepare better for it. What's more, for other course, the course leader always asks us to do local news, or make national news localize.

However, in China the headlines in newspapers are always national news or global news about policy, war or tragedy. Of course there will be lots of local news in local newspapers, but they usually have short length and are put in inferior space. People want to know what's happening in Beijing more then things around themselves. To them, newspapers sometimes act as teachers who give them knowledge about international policy, national economy, fashion and something else.

When I was in China this summer, I heard very interesting news about Sheffield, it told that a cat climbed up a tree but couldn't get down and people wanted to help it. I was very confused at that time, how could things like that be news? But now I understand little by little that maybe in Britain, the traditional consciousness about news value is that anything what attracts people's interest can be news.

It's still controversial that whether most news should be localized. Some people think it's beneficial for them to know more about the community they're living in, the neighbors they know or want to know, and what's happening around them. But some others believe it's important and meaningful to know more about other people who live in other parts of the earth.

I think it's better to avoid being too extreme and find a balance between them.

To be a thoughtful journalist

"To be a thoughtful journalist!"－－This is the slogan of a competition named "Mr. and Ms. Journalists" I ever took part in when I was in China.

It was a competition held by our university for the university students from the whole province (Hubei Province) when I was in my second year, I defeated more than seven hundred other competitors to get into the final and received the Third Award. But years later, the result which made me glad at that time has become no more important. Finally, what remains in my heart is its slogan: To be a thoughtful journalist!

After graduation, most of my classmates chose to work at the media, mostly at newspapers
(Cause it's very difficult to enter into TV stations in China). Sometimes I chat with them in OICQ or MSN, they always tell me that being a journalist in China is really becoming more and more difficult.

The competition has become more and more serious, because whatever your major is, you can be a journalist as long as you'd like to . This situation results in the increasing of the number of journalists, and lots of Journalism professional graduates cannot find jobs in media, and those who get the opportunities to work there have to work harder to keep their jobs.

The futher conclusion is that being a good journalist is much more difficult, because the first problem the journalists have to face is their their own survival issues, and the standard in which they judge the news value has been changed accordingly.

For example, They may think more about the government's policy in the reporting restriction and try not to breach it, in order to avoid doing work without economic benefits.

Of course, not all journalists work like this, it's just an occasion that they may have to undergo.What I mean is that you should have to refuse the temptation of money, to sacrifice time together with your family and to spend more time thinking about how to report news if you really want to be a good journalist, then you should do it!

Well, there might be lots of discussion about how to act as a journalist, I'd like to end my opinion with some words I ever used in my personal statement when I applied for my university:

"I have always believed that anyone fortunate enough to combine earning a living with following his or her own personal interests is very fortunate indeed. I intend to do my best to be such a person."

A comparative study of differences between newspapers in China and America

Due to the economic, cultural and social backgrounds are different, Chinese and the western newspapers reports are quite different in terms of expectation of content, news writing, and the bias of newspapers. I'd like to present the differences from these three aspects and make particular analysis.

First, the expectation of content of the two kinds of newspapers is different. Chinese news is the socialistic journalism. Newspapers, particularly the national newspapers have received the direct leadership of the Central Propaganda Department. And they stressed the party spirit, the party's line, principles and policies as their most important task, so the publicity function is more important than the other functions. And the reported figures tend to heroes, models and other advanced characters.

However, in America entertainment has become a priority task in today's media, news is being treated as a special entertainment industry. For example, the sports competition has uncertain outcome, the intensity of the process and the variability, so American newspapers fully take advantage of these features in its news reports to appeal more and more readers, in order to attract advertisers who can bring large amount of advertising revenues.

Second, the differences of Chinese and Western writing skillswill be presented from the aspects of the headlines, pictures, figures depiction and the use of direct quotation.

(1) Chinese news headlines are generally on the news brief, so that could be read clearly, but most were relatively dull. Western news always uses abstract titles and exaggerates a kind of feelings, this suspense is set up to attract readers to continue to read the text.

(2) With the arrival of "an era of pictures”, American newspapers are often reported in the press coupled with pictures, seize extremely convincing image of the moment, greatly improved the readability of the newspaper press. By contraries, Chinese newspapers still lack the awareness of attracting readers by photographs. Chinese news are coupled with little picture. Even with photographs, they are generally black and white, or very small, having no good visual results.

(3) Chinese newspapers focus on abstract thinking and ignore details on the content, so that the personal image is low. Abstract thinking embodied in the reported figures makes the personality characteristics of people in the news have a strong conceptual and subjective. Statements reported in the figures used to express the author of the subjective feelings of people in the news, to deepen the perception of readers and to enhance reports appealing. Western focus on the image of thinking, things objectively reflects the direct mapping, sending rich information to deepen people's understanding. Meanwhile, the diversity of thinking reflected in the reported figures endues the character traits with multidimensional nature and rich meaning.

(4) Direct quotation enables readers to directly listen to the news who "speak”, and enable the reader to feel the news is true. Using the direct quotation establishes direct links between the speakers and the readers. Western media used to add direct quotation in the report to enhance its credibility. However, Chinese news reports usually lack of direct quotations.

Third, the apparent perspective and possible bias of the newspapers are different in different countries. Chinese newspapers are all state-owned, belonging to the party, and the main function is the publicity, so it generally gives positive reports.

However, the United States is a highly developed commercial society, all media operations are to be able to win the largest commercial interests as the supreme principle. The interests of Media and sponsorship are closely linked together. Some big media itself has teams or major competitions, or acts as the main sponsor. Therefore, some newspapers in United States effected by its sponsors and advertisers inevitably, to some extent they destroy the news objectivity.