Journalism and Communication: A Guide to the Best of News Reporting (Communication Volume)

Author: Liu Huihui, Chief Editor; Dong Guang'an, Volume Editor
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Features: The proposal of the "News Excellence Strategy" was one of the most courageous slogans put forward by the Chinese news industry in the 1990s and also one of the most practical and significant initiatives. Throughout the history of Chinese and world news, any transformation and development in news communication, or the proposal and formation of any news communication concept, are closely related to the social development and historical context of the time. At the turn of the century, as China was deepening its reform and opening-up, new phenomena, contradictions, and problems were emerging every day, innumerable. Under the market economy, news, as a special commodity, must inevitably participate in market competition. With the maturation of the news market, it can be said that the news market has shifted from a seller's market to a buyer's market. The market calls for high-quality news works. Any news media that wishes to avoid stagnation must demonstrate its talent in fierce competition to secure space for survival and development. Therefore, the proposal and implementation of the News Excellence Strategy naturally became a priority on the agenda. This is an inevitable trend, not subject to individual will. The audience is the lifeblood of the media, and everything the media does is for the audience. The vast Chinese audience, having previously encountered a great deal of false, grandiose, empty, and vague news reports, yearns for authentic and excellent news works. Thus, we can fully say that implementing the News Excellence Strategy is a need of the times, a need of news competition, a call from the broad audience, and an urgent and significant issue facing the Chinese news industry in the new era and new circumstances. The Party Central Committee, with a keen understanding of the situation, proposed the famous four sentences in the historically significant 14th Plenary Session of the 6th Central Committee and its resolution: "Arming people with scientific theory, guiding people with correct public opinion, shaping people with noble spirit, and inspiring people with excellent works." This served as a requirement for the entire ideological and cultural front, including news, and can also be seen as the clarion call for implementing the News Excellence Strategy. The term "excellence" is originally a commercial term, referring to high-quality goods. News excellence refers to high-quality, high-standard news works, commonly known as "good news," including good news reports, good commentaries, good editorials, good layouts, good columns, good special features, good photographs, good advertising works, and good public relations cases. The famous four sentences proposed in the 14th Plenary Session of the 6th Central Committee can be fully regarded as a criterion for evaluating news excellence. In light of news practice, the specific criteria for judging news excellence mainly include—
Political nature. When determining whether a news work is of excellence, the political perspective should be considered first. We must firmly regard political nature as the primary value standard of news excellence, which is also the clear distinction between the working class and the bourgeoisie in terms of news values. News excellence must possess the quality of moving people's hearts and having a significant impact to a certain extent and on a broader scale, capable of guiding the formation of correct public opinion and helping people solve difficulties and find guidance. This is because news work itself is a highly political endeavor, as a seasoned news professional once said: "News professionals are not mere 'writers'; they should approach things with the perspective and attitude of a statesman, extracting 'treasures' that can resolve social contradictions and promote social progress." It can be said that if a news work contains weak or no political elements, it will lack strong appeal and, let alone impact and, and thus cannot be truly considered news excellence.
Of course, truth can sometimes become falsehood if taken to extremes. Blindly pursuing the so-called "height" in politics, arbitrarily adding or exaggerating, or obsessively high, grand, and complete standards, causing news to deviate from objective reality; or carelessly handling sensitive issues that affect social psychological stability and issues in the exploratory stage, blindly "sensational effect"—all of these may become constraints on news excellence and are things we must be vigilant about.
Significance. Many experts and scholars have pointed out that news excellence must possess authority and persuasiveness, and I fully agree. The news figures and events involved in news excellence must have distinctive and extraordinary qualities. Characters and events should avoid being commonplace, highlighting their distinct personalities and characteristics, and striving to make them stand out from others. As the name implies, excellence emphasizes the "excellent" aspect, and this "excellent" is primarily reflected in the meticulous selection of news figures and events. Over the years, Chinese news media have introduced figures like Kong Fansen, Xu Hu, Zhong Nanshan, and Yang Liwei, as well as reports on the 1998 flood relief and the firefighters of the Hengyang fire, all of which have had a tremendous impact and persuasiveness. Their success primarily lies in the careful selection of people and events, all of which possess significance.
Necessity to read. When discussing how news reports can win the audience, factors like readability and accessibility are often mentioned, which are indeed important guarantees of news quality and a key part of current news competition. However, these are only general requirements for news reports. News excellence requires far more than these factors. News professionals should elevate the pursuit of readability and accessibility to a necessity to read, meaning that once the audience encounters a news report, they cannot help but read or listen. This requires the news report to reflect matters closely related to the work and lives of the people. By reporting on things they care about and reflecting their wishes, the audience will feel emotionally resonant and compelled to engage, unable to resist.
When planning this series of books with Gu Qian, a senior editor from Fudan University Press specializing in news and communication studies, we set the editorial principle from the very beginning: not only should university students and news enthusiasts like it, but also frontline news professionals, striving to make it a good reference for them to report and write news, or to elevate their news reporting and writing to a new level in terms of both philosophy and practice. This is because the figures and works we selected are representative of different eras and fields, and our analyses are thorough and theory-driven, with innovative and distinctive formats and models. The volume editors of this series are all leaders at the department level, department directors, or professors in news and communication departments, who, with their profound academic expertise and scholarly foundation, have meticulously crafted the series, achieving a high overall standard. Professor Gao Ruo Hai, the chief editor of Fudan University Press, and Professor He Shengsui, the president of the press, have given great attention and support to the editing and publication of this series. It is worth mentioning that Professor Gu Qian, with his deep insight and decades of editing experience, fully recognized the value and broad readership of this series, dedicating his efforts to its planning, organization, and successful publication. On behalf of all the authors, I extend our sincere gratitude to the experts of the publishing house.