News Communication Fine Reading: Communication Volume

Author: Liu Hui-gui, Chief Editor; Dong Guang-an, Volume Editor
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-07-01
Features: The proposal of the "News Excellence Strategy" was one of the most visionary slogans put forward by the Chinese news industry in the 1990s, and also one of the most practical and meaningful initiatives. Looking back at the history of news communication in China and the world, any transformation or development in news communication, or the proposal and formation of any news communication concept, has been closely related to the social development and the context of the time. At the turn of the century, as the world stood at a crossroads and China was deepening its reform and opening-up, new phenomena, contradictions, and problems were emerging every day, innumerable in quantity. Under the market economy, news, as a special commodity, was inevitably involved in market competition. With the maturation of the news market, it can be said that the market has shifted from a seller's market to a buyer's market, and the market demands high-quality news works. Any media that does not wish to be complacent 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 took center stage. 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 broad audience of China, in the past, had frequently encountered news reports that were often exaggerated, vague, and empty. They longed 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 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" originally referred to high-quality commercial products. News excellence, therefore, means high-quality, high-standard news works—what is commonly referred to as "good news," including good 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 qualifies as excellence, the political perspective should be the primary consideration. We must firmly regard political nature as the foremost value standard of news excellence, which is also the clear distinction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in news values. News excellence must possess the ability to move people, have a significant impact to a certain extent and in a broader scope, and guide the formation of correct public opinion, helping people overcome difficulties and providing guidance. This is because news work itself is inherently a politically oriented profession. As one 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 truly be considered news excellence.
Of course, truth can sometimes become falsehood if taken to extremes. Blindly pursuing so-called political "height," arbitrarily adding or exaggerating, or obsessively high, grand, and all-encompassing ideals, causing news to deviate from objective reality; or carelessly handling sensitive issues that affect social stability or unresolved problems, in pursuit of a so-called "shocking effect," may all 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 be distinctive and extraordinary. Characters and events should avoid being clichéd, highlighting their unique personalities and characteristics, and striving to differentiate them from others. By definition, excellence emphasizes the "excellent" aspect, and this "excellent" is primarily reflected in the meticulous selection of news figures and events. In recent 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 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. These are indeed important guarantees of news quality and a key component of current news competition, but they are only general requirements. News excellence requires far more than these factors. News professionals should elevate the pursuit of readability and accessibility to a necessity—where the audience, upon encountering the news, feels compelled to read or listen, unable to resist. This requires news reports to reflect matters closely related to the work and lives of the people. When you report on something they care about, reflect their desires, and evoke emotional resonance, they will feel deeply moved and thus feel compelled to read and listen.
When planning this series of books with Gu Qian, a senior editor from Fudan University Press specializing in journalism and communication, we set our editorial strategy from the outset: not only to appeal to college students, enthusiasts of news, but also to frontline news professionals, striving to make it a valuable reference for their news reporting or elevating their journalistic skills and professionalism. This is because the figures and works selected in this series are representative of various eras and fields, and our analyses are thorough and theory-driven, with innovative and distinctive formats.
The volume editors of this series are all leaders at the department level, heads of departments, or professors from journalism and communication schools, who have meticulously crafted the series with their profound academic expertise and scholarly foundation, achieving a high overall standard. Professor Gao Ruo-hai, the Editor-in-Chief of Fudan University Press, and Professor He Sheng-sui, the President of the Press, have given significant 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 editorial 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.