Tripod Advisors Tripod Advisors
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Schlesinger’s Thoughts
  • 关于
2015 Dec.16

Of Course An Alibaba ‘Morning Post’ Can Aid China’s Image Overseas

David SchlesingerBusiness, China, Media
frontpage
I joined a ChinaFile conversation on the SCMP deal. The entire conversation can be read here
This is my contribution:

Overseas is a big place, and China’s soft-power ambitions can fill a large globe.While fears for the South China Morning Post and for Hong Kong’s future of free press and free expression are very real—and I have written and talked about them myself—those fears are greatest among the people China cares the least about influencing. The regular writers and readers of The New York Times or of ChinaFile, or the China experts in the U.S. and U.K. universities, who regularly despair at the state of the Chinese polity never had their views changed by theSouth China Morning Post and never will.

There’s a big world outside, however, and China’s soft power not only has room to grow but it has already found fertile ground.

To be very transparent, I consult for the news agency arm of China Central Television (CCTV), which has ambitions to have its footage used by broadcasters overseas. For some broadcasters in Africa, in Latin America, in southeast Asia, in central and eastern Europe, CCTV has no more (and no less) stigma than Reuters television or Associated Press TV. The price is right, the quality is acceptable (and sometimes high) and the overt politics can be edited around.

Similarly, Xinhua may have a huge electronic screen in Times Square in New York, but I don’t think it has any illusions that the Upper West Side cocktail party set will be quoting articles verbatim. It’s perfectly happy that it has a large online presence and is picked up by many newspapers around the world.

In a media environment where very few consumers of news are loyal to one brand or discerning about the bylines they read, the South China Morning Post, powered by Alibaba’s Internet skills and emboldened by a torn-down paywall, will see its articles picked up by search services, promulgated on social media, and integrated into the fabric of conversation globally.

The question really is to what extent the reporting thus made widely available actually does present an alternative view of China, and a more positive one at that.

Anything too overt will condemn the paper to the space occupied—quite successfully—by the officially-backed China Daily newspaper. That’s available in print editions worldwide and online, but always has the words or ethos of “officially-backed” connected to its name, undercutting its credibility.

The South China Morning Post, in a privately-owned capacity, where the new masters have explicitly blessed the editors with the power to edit—albeit with a world view different from the mainstream Western media—will have a subtler ability to shape coverage and attitudes.

That may be anathema to many in New York, London, Washington, the intellectual salons of Hong Kong itself, and newsrooms around the world where journalists love to sit in commiseration with their colleagues. But to ordinary readers surfing the web and coming across a South China Morning Post story on their twitter feed, their Google search, or their Facebook timeline in Lagos, Mexico City, Bangkok, Vancouver, or Dubai, that will probably be just fine—and very influential.

 

BUSINESSCHINACHINAFILEFOREIGN REPORTINGFREEDOM OF EXPRESSIONINFORMATIONJOURNALISMMEDIA
Share this:
  • Previous

    The Mainlandization of Hong Kong

  • Next

    On My Journey Towards Ambiguity…

Latest in Schlesinger’s Thoughts

  • Hong Kong, Security Law, Sanctions, Compliance and IPOs
  • Webinar on Hong Kong
  • Soft Power – Stirring Symbols in Times of Virus
  • Webinar on Leading During The Crisis
  • New Ways Of Managing in the Age of the Virus

Categories

  • Asia
  • Business
  • China
  • Media
  • Portfolio
  • Speeches
  • Uncategorized

Tags

AGENCY BUSINESS BUSINESS CHINA CHINA CHINAFILE CHINAFILE coronavirus CPJ DAVID SCHLESINGER DAVID SCHLESINGER diplomacy Economy EXPERIENCE FOREIGN REPORTING FOREIGN REPORTING FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION HONG KONG HONG KONG HUMAN RIGHTS INFORMATION INFORMATION JOURNALISM JOURNALISM LEADERSHIP MEDIA MEDIA Military North Korea PRESS FREEDOM PRESS FREEDOM Protests REUTERS SOCIAL MEDIA SOFT POWER SPEECHES Taiwan Trade TRIPOD ADVISORS Trump U.S. United States Xi Jinping XINJIANG

Archives

  • July 2020  2
  • April 2020  1
  • March 2020  2
  • January 2020  1
  • December 2019  2
  • October 2019  2
  • September 2019  1
  • August 2019  2
  • July 2019  1
  • June 2019  2
  • March 2019  4
  • February 2019  1
  • January 2019  2
  • December 2018  1
  • November 2018  2
  • September 2018  1
  • August 2018  5
  • July 2018  2
  • June 2018  2
  • May 2018  3
  • April 2018  2
  • August 2017  3
  • June 2017  1
  • May 2017  1
  • March 2017  1
  • February 2017  1
  • November 2016  2
  • September 2016  2
  • July 2016  1
  • June 2016  1
  • March 2016  1
  • February 2016  2
  • December 2015  2
  • November 2015  1
  • October 2015  1
  • September 2015  1
  • August 2015  3
  • July 2015  3
  • April 2015  1
  • February 2015  1
  • January 2015  3
  • October 2014  2
  • September 2014  1
  • July 2014  2
  • June 2014  1
  • March 2014  2
  • February 2014  1
  • January 2014  1
  • October 2013  3
  • September 2013  1
  • July 2013  2
  • May 2013  3
  • March 2013  5
  • February 2013  1
  • January 2013  1
  • November 2012  2
  • October 2012  1
  • September 2012  3
  • August 2012  1
  • July 2012  1
© 2016 Tripod Advisors. D. A. Schlesinger Limited. Designed by iPulse Design Ltd.