JMSC0101: Principles of Journalism and the News Media

1
JMSC0101Principles of Journalism and the News
Media

• Professor Ying Chan
• Journalism and Media Studies Centre
• JMSC0101
• Lecture Four, 2007

2
Outline

• Why ownership matters
• Types of media ownership
• Global ownership trends
• Media ownership in Hong Kong
• Public broadcasting current state and
  controversies
• The seven sins of commercialized media
• Case study the Donald saga
• The future of media ownership paradigm change?

3
Why Study Media Ownership?

• Who controls the message?
• Who are the gatekeepers? The publisher? The
  editor? The producer?
• What are the conditions under which reporters do
  their job? What are the constraints?
• Are reporters free to write about important
  issues? (and exercise their conscience?)

4
Media Kinds of Ownership

• State ownership
• Private ownership
• Public ownership listed companies
• Public ownership with private control
• Non-profit ownership
• Independent ownership

5
Trends in Concentration of Ownership

• Concentration of ownership within one industry
• Cross-media ownership - owning more than one type
  of medium
• Conglomerate ownership - owning businesses other
  than the media
• Vertical integration - controlling several
  aspects of a single media industry (e.g.
  production and distribution)

6
Media Concentration

• Increasing Concentration
• Most people unaware
• Media ownership increasingly trans-national

7
U.S. Media Ownership

• Top 10 chains own 1/5 of the dailies
• 20 corporations control more than half of annual
  magazine revenue
• ONE broadcast company own more than 500 radio
  stations
• More than half of the TV stations are network
  affiliates
• The top six book publishing companies account for
  40 of total annual publishing revenue
• 98 of cities are one-paper towns 24 media
  giants own over half the television, newspaper,
  magazine, movies and radio in the US.
• Most of the remaining independently owned
  stations and news outlets are dependent on the
  media giants for all but purely local news
  coverage.

8
(No Transcript)
9
Media Ownership

• 19th Century Press Industrialization
• 1837 start up cost under 1,000 pounds
• 1867 start up cost over 50,000 pound

10
The Scene

• 14 daily Chinese language newspapers
• Three English language dailies
• Two commercial radio stations (4 channels)
• Television
• Four free-to-air terrestrial channels, TVB the
  market leader ATV the distant second
• HK cable (HK cable )
• Satellite TV Star, Phoenix
• Web TV NOW
• ??? Internet portals and sites

11
Internationals

• AOL/Time Warner CNN
• News Corp/Star TV and Phoenix
• CNBC
• Bloomberg News

12
Internationals

• Dow Jones AWSJ, Dow Jones Wire, International
  Herald Tribune
• Financial Times
• Reuters

13
(No Transcript)
14
Who owns the SCMP ?

• South China Morning Post (Holdings)
• Malaysian tycoon
• ranked 104 on Forbes 2007 list
• net worth of US7 billion
• business empire in more than a dozen Asian
  countries - hotels, shipping. real estate, media,
  plantations, commodities and more.
• Owns major shares of the Bangkok Post and the
  Siam Post in Thailand

15
The Man Behind Ming Pao

• Tiong Hiew King, timber baron
• Ranked 840 on Forbes 2007 list
• Net worth US1.2 billion
• Owns extensive forest in Malaysia, Papua New
  Guinea, Siberia, Brazil, Central Africa and New
  Zealand.

16
The Man Behind Ming Pao

• Sin Chew Jit Poh, the largest-circulating Chinese
  newspaper in Malaysia
• 45 interest in Ming Pao Group of 10
  publications
• Launched The National in Papua New Guinea and a
  Chinese newspaper in Cambodia.

17
Who Owns Sing Tao ?

• Charles Ho, China Global Technology Group
• Sing Tao Daily - Hong Kong, United States (NYC,
  SF, LA, Chicago,) Canada ( Vancouver, Toronto)
  Australia, New Zealand
• HK Standard
• Eastweek

18
Framing Studies
19
Case Study The Donald Saga

• Donald Tsang, Chief Executive, HKSAR since July
  1, 2005
• No. 2 in govt as Chief Secretary under Tung
  Chee-hwa 38-year in civil service
• Took office after the unpopular Tung stepped down
  March 1, 2005

20
Danolds Dateline

• 3/1, Tung resigned
• 3/2, Tsang became acting CE
• 3/12, Tsang resigned to prepare for campaign
• 6/16, was declared winner with 716 of 800 vote in
  small-circle election
• 7/1, sworn in as new CE

21
Tsang the CE-in-Waiting

• 3/2 to 6/30, offers unique window to examine the
  coverage of Tsang
• Intensive Tsang-watch by the news media
• Expect intense scrutiny of his records, pledges,
  positions on critical issues and plans
• Opportunity to examine split between hard news vs
  soft news and tendencies towards infotainment
  tabloidization

22
Methodology

• Newspapers
• Oriental News, top selling mass market
• Apple Daily, second selling mass market
• Ming Pao quality paper targeting intellectuals
• Select all articles focused on Tsang(913)
• Looking for trigger, frame and narrative style

23
Identifying the Trigger

• What "triggered" the story to become news in the
  first place.
• Was a poll released?
• A statement from a news maker?
• Event organized by Tsang?
• An official announcement?
• Enterprise story by news organization?

24
Framing the News

• Campaign news, poll ratings
• Review of policies
• previous records
• Future political moves
• Personal and trivia
• Post-election plans
• Activities as CE
• Trivia/personal stories
• (Ref Project for Excellence in Journalism,
  http//www.journalism.org )

25
Findings

• Nearly one in three stories are horse-racing
  stories, the up and down of polls
• Nearly one in four stories are trivia and
  personal snapshots
• Nearly half of the total stories were triggered
  by Tsang, the newsmaker, reflecting successes in
  his aggressive PR campaign
• Only 17.8 of the stories resulted from
  enterprise by news organizations

26
Ming Pao coverage
campaign 32

• trivia 21

personal 12
policies 9
CE activities 4
CE plans 13
record 9
27
Trigger of Personal Stories
Enterprise 18

• Government/others 24

Tsang 58
28
HK Newspapers On Tsang
Enterprise 21.1
Triggered by Tsang 34

• Triggered by Government/others 49.9

29
Typical Tabloid Coverage

• Flashy presentation, bold pix and graphics
• Emphasis on personal background
• Reliance of rumor and hearsay
• Use of sources with low or uncertain credibility
• Paying sources for stories
• Use of dramatic enactments
• (Howard Kurtz, Fit to Print, 2001)

30
Private Life/Trivia

• What he wears, notably his bow-tie
• Family dinner
• His wife
• His pet fishes, feeding pattern and unfortunate
  death
• Overtures to reporters, greeting, group pictures,
  giving them flowers
• His daily movements, going to church, his plane
  delayed,

31
(No Transcript)
32
(No Transcript)
33
Policies and Politics Sidelined

• The West Kowloon Project 40 hectare prime water
  front public property, US400 m investment
• Universal Suffrage and outlook for political
  reform
• Medical and public health services reform
• Educational reform, Chinese vs. English as
  teaching languages

34
The Future of Media Ownership
35
The Future

• Convergence
• Convergence
• Convergence

36

• Technology is revolutionizing the media
• systemfrom news gathering, management,
• production, distribution and ownership

37
Future Trends in Media

• Digital based media (convergence)
• High definition screens (quality/plasma)
• Portable (wireless) palm sized computers
  
• Direct broadcasting (satellite)
• Miniature appliances (weight and size)
• Memory (greater/faster/storage)
• Fiber optics/laser

38
Convergence the New World

• Convergent Media Print, video, audio, Web,
  wireless, e-mail, mobile devices
• Convergent Newsrooms
• Convergent Journalists
• Whats the implications for training journalists
  for the 21st century

39
Ownership Converging

• Integration with Mainland China in ownership,
  market, and production
• Non-media companies launch or acquire media
  properties
• PRC media expanding in Hong Kong
• Intensive competition leading to sensationalism
  and ..

40
TV paradigm Change

• Television on demand, anytime, anywhere TV,
  mobile phone, back of your car
• TV delivered by traditional broadcasters, cable
  or satellite operators, telecoms, ISPs and
  portals, IPTV
• Explosion in the number of TV channels
• Niche programming and Web sites
• User-created networks - QQ, Bittorrent
• Personal media - MP3 players

41

• Top 20 US websites
• Top sites World
• Top sites China
• Looking back at 2004

42
Other than the Mainstream

• www.fas.org
• www.thenation.com
• www.truthout.com

43
DIY-Journalism in Asia

• Ohmynews
• Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
• Malaysiakini.com

44
Global Voices

• Global
• Voices

45
An Enabling Environment for a Free Responsible
Media

• Build civil society media monitors, active
  citizen groups, citizen and collaborative
  journalism
• Create and promote professional culture
• Empower journalists unions, continuing education
• Funding support for non-commercial, and citizen
  and public media
• Conduct research that inform media reform and
  policy changes