Blog 5

1)     Progress report - How many interviews did you do so far? And/or how many materials (i.e. media texts) did you research, and how did you research on the texts – textual analysis, genre study, etc.?

 I had interview one people and researched 3 - 4 eassies about self-censorship of News medias including

1. Self-Censorship and the Press in Hong Kong  https://martindale.cc.lehigh.edu/sites/martindale.cc.lehigh.edu/files/Shemwell.pdf
2. Hong Kong ' s news media five years after the handover: Prospects for press freedom

http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1081&context=apme

3. The Effect of self-censorship on news credibility: public' s perception of Hong Kong newspapers after the 1997 Handover

http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4846&context=etd

These eassy analysed the statement of “the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong”, and the credibility and shareholders change of the News media in these years. These eassy let me know more about the situation of Hong Kong and the reason of why their standpoint and points of views are so different. In addition, several opinion polls about how Hong Kong citizen think to the News media have analysed. Moveover, the background of the News medias group have included for drawing the findings.

I decided to focus on the “Ming Pao”, “Oriental Daily News”, “Apple Daily” about how these three newspaper describe “Fish ball revolution” on the 8 February, 2016. To see the standpoints of these newspaper group.

2)     Preliminary findings – What do you discover up till now? (For example, what are the commonalities amongst the texts/interviews?) How do your findings help you answer your research question?  

After reading these essay, I discover press freedom has declined with the development of closer economic and political ties with Mainland China after the 1997 handover. "Several media owners are current or former members of the National People’s Congress, China’s parliament. Many have significant business connections in the mainland. Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that news stories reflect mostly the interests of the dominant class. Even those that do not receive direct funding from Chinese businesses choose to stay away from stories that may cast the mainland in a negative light (Lee & Chen,2009). Self-censorship is now common in the newsrooms of Hong Kong." " Media critic Zhang Tao (2006) says that more and more self-censorship happens in Hong Kong because some media outlets have been acquired by big businesses with economic ties with China. Thus, they now serve their owners’ interests instead of functioning as advocates for the general public’s concerns."
Those are the reason why self-censorship happens in HK.

Blog 4

Question: Is our News media companies really not fair?

After the research, I got some useful information.In the article. In ‘Hong Kong’s news media five years after the handover: Prospects for press freedom’, I know that The HKJA & Article 19 noted just before the handover that, with pressures from China growing, “[i]t is self-censorship, rather than direct intervention, that will more likely undermine freedom of expression” (HKJA & Article 19, 1997: 4). In the annaul reports that self-censorship remains a problem, though a changing one. As noted, coverage of China is the main area where journalists hold back. Before the handover Chinese officials warned that “advocating” freedom for Tibet and Taiwan would not be tolerated, and journalists take great care when reporting on these subjects and probably drop stories that might be seen to be crossing the line.  

It remind that when the journalists want to report some sensitive topics, they need special care to handle.

Correspondents Association and the Hong Kong University of Hong Kong Public Opinion Programme at the end of each year to carry out the investigation so far, the former visited 537 journalists, who visited 1035 people.

Surveys show that up to 90% of the respondents believe journalists, press freedom over the past year as a whole slip, 7 adults agree that the Government is to suppress the freedom of the press sources, reflecting the shrinking of press freedom.

Journalists and generally believe that industry self-censorship in serious condition, have access to information generally difficult circumstances interview.

The results showed that, in order to calculate the score 0-100, respondents give the public in 2014, "Press Freedom Index" score of 48.8, compared with 2013 for the first time the index fell 0.6 release, more journalists ratings fell 3.1 to 38.9.

According to the announcement, journalists interviewed noted that, in the face of difficulties generally get coverage information, and "manipulating the situation to media reports news and information is also common." Government.

Journalists refer to last spate of attacks on reporters have been incidents of violence, including Liu Jin FIG attacked early event, and during the occupation have as many as 30 cases of reporters attacked suspected cases, the situation is unprecedented.

Hong Kong Journalists Association also criticized the Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying during the occupation movement has never held a press conference in response to a question, just look for the selective media organizations interviewed believe that government control of the media coverage of the case generally.

In "The Effect of self-censorship on news credibility: public' s perception of Hong Kong newspapers after the 1997 Handover" I know that if we need to understand self-censorship, it is important to comprehend the motives and reasons behind the acts. The self-censorship practice results form social (external) and psychological (internal) factors. The external factors maybe political, economic, social and extra-legal, while internal factors include journalists’ personalities and inclinations, as well as the media organization’s editorial stance.

So, I need to find out the motives and reason for these news media in Hong Kong and figure out the relationship between and political economh approach media ownership and media content.

References:

BBC NEWS

http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/trad/china/2015/03/150327_hk_media_freedom

HKU POP SITE - Whether the Local News Media have Practised Self-censorship

https://www.hkupop.hku.hk/chinese/popexpress/press/self/

Clarke, J., Hong Kong's news media five years after the handover: Prospects for press freedom, Asia Pacific Media Educator, 12, 2002, 44-61.

http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1081&context=apme

Sun, Yuwei, "The Effect of self-censorship on news credibility: public's perception of Hong Kong newspapers after the 1997 Handover" (2014). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. Paper 13839.

http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4846&context=etd

Research Progress

Finished the design of survey, will interview in next week (around 27/3-8/4)

Starting research

Hello, I am Audrey Pun, a student from UWE, I am studying in Media culture and practices. Now I would like to ask your opinions on some social issues, this will only take you a few minutes, and the information you provide will be kept stictly confidential.

1. Gender

• Male
• Female

2. Age

• 18-22
• 23-27
• 28-32
• 33-37
• 38-42
• 43-47
• 48-52
• 53-57
• 58-62
• 63-67
• 68-72
• 73 or above

3. Education Attainment

Primary or below

Secondary 1 to Secondary 3

Secondary 4 to Secondary 5

Secondary 6

Secondary 7

Tertiary, non-degree course

Tertiary, degree course

Master's degree

Doctoral degree 4. Which of the following channels are your main source of news?（Interviewer to read out the first 7 choices, multiple answered） 以下邊一種渠道是你主要既新聞來源？（讀出頭七個答案、可選多項） Television Radio Newspapers Magazines Friends Family members Internet Others 5. Are you satisfied with the existing freedom of press in Hong Kong? 你滿唔滿意而家香港新聞自由程度? Very satisfied Quite satisfied Half-half Quite dissatisfied Very dissatisfied 6. Do you think the news media in Hong Kong are responsible in their reporting? 你認為而家香港新聞傳媒既報導負唔負責任? Very responsible Quite responsible Half-half Quite irresponsible Very irresponsible 7.  Do you think the news media in Hong Kong have any scruple when criticizing the Central Government? 你覺得香港新聞傳媒係批評中央政府既時候有冇顧忌? Yes No 8.  Do you think the news media in Hong Kong have any scruple when criticizing the HKSAR Government? 你覺得香港新聞傳媒係批評特區政府既時候有冇顧忌? Yes No 9. Do you think the news media in Hong Kong have practised self-censorship? 你覺得香港新聞傳媒有冇自我審查? Yes No 10. Do you think the news media in Hong Kong have given full play to the freedom of speech? 你覺得香港新聞傳媒有冇充份發揮言論自由? Yes No 11. Do you think the news media in Hong Kong have misused or abused the freedom of press? 你覺得香港新聞傳媒有冇誤用或濫用新聞自由? Yes No 12. Please use a scale of 0-10 to rate the credibility of the news media in Hong Kong, with 10 representing absolutely credible, 5 half-half, and 0 being absolutely not credible. What rating would you give the media? 請你用0至10分評價香港新聞傳媒既公信力。10分代表非常可信,5分代表一半半,0分代表非常不可信,咁你會俾多分? Student name: Pun Shuk Kwan, Audrey (10644377)

blog 3

What is the refined research question that you are setting out to answer? (Please be specific in your research topic)

Is our News media companies really not fair?

How does this develop themes and debates explored within the lectures of this module? (Please put down the revised short introduction to your project based on the one in blog 2. Remember that the introduction should include the purpose of your research project, significance and key concept(s) that may be useful for your analysis.)

In Hong Kong, the citizens always said that our news media company are not fair. Some of them are controlled by China and some of them are controlled by Foreign forces. In Lunar New Year’s Day, police and FEHD refused unlicensed cooked food hawkers sell their food in Mong Kong, causing conflict. On the next day, the news company are using the different ways to describe the issue. So, I am interested in finding out that whether they are really unfair or our citizens misunderstood them. Morever, why they have to do so or why can they do so.

What critical methodologies are you going to use? How are you going to produce the evidence you’ll need to answer your research question?

Example: In-depth interviews with five immigrants from Mainland China

1)  Analysis the background of most of the famous news media in Hong Kong will be conducted, comparison of the points of views of the same events, the focusing news types, and the background of the owners of the different news media will be compared in the research, he research will try to figure out the relationship between and political economy approach media ownership and media content.

2) An online survey will be hold and at least 50 copies of questionnaire will be delivered to Hong Kong Citizen randomly, to know which media they would like to read, how they feel the credibility of it and how they feel about the Hong Kong government.

Now you should have some references in mind. If so, please put down a short reference list at the end of this blog so that you have a better plan of what articles that you are go to read for the project.

* * *

List of Hong Kong newspaper

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E5%A0%B1%E7%B4%99%E5%88%97%E8%A1%A8

Public comments on Hong Kong News Media

http://www.pentoy.hk/%E7%A4%BE%E6%9C%83/s270/2015/04/24/%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E%E8%87%AA%E7%94%B1%E6%8C%87%E6%95%B8%E7%9A%84%E9%9D%A2%E9%9D%A2%E8%A7%80/

Some of the possible factor(s) on why the News Media are not fair

(Please also complete the following parts in the hard copy of your research proposal if you are going to do ethnographic study and interviews in a location where you may encounter potential dangers. Otherwise you can leave the following parts blank.)

What physical resources (e.g. camera) will this primary research require?

No / Yes (Please specify):

Where and when exactly is this primary research going to take place?

(NB for health and safety reasons, we need to know the EXACT locations at which this research will take place and the EXACT times that you’ll be working there)

Place(s):
Date and Time:

Which key persons (e.g. family members, trustworthy friends, business owners, etc.) have agreed to help and support you in carrying out this research?

No / Yes (Please provide name and contact):

Self-assessment of risk:

Is this research exercise likely to expose you to any health and safety risks or any risk to property? (If the answer is yes, please specify the risks)

(NB these might include: exposure to theft by using a camera in a public place; journeying into an unknown area of town; entering into people’s homes; carrying out ethnographies in places in which excessive alcohol consumption or drug use takes place; etc.)

No / Yes:

Name: PUN Shuk Kwan, Audrey

HKU SPACE Student Number: 10644377

Research Diary 2 - Statement of Intent

Summary statement of what I would like to explore for my final project:

Research Question: Why people in Hong Kong always think that our News media companies are not fair? Is it really happening? Why they have to do so?

A short paragraph on how this develops themes and concepts raised in lectures:

Last year, i saw a korean drama called Pinocchio, it talk about  one of the fireman was missing in an explosion accident, but all the other has dead. Then all the News reporters focused on whether the missing one is quited the rescue operations because of afraid to die instead of reporting the details of the accident. In the very next day, the son of the missing fireman found that the News reporters were controlled by large consortia. This remind me that in my home country, Hong Kong. The citizens always said that our news media company are not fair. Some of them are controlled by China and some of them are controlled by Foreign forces. So, I am interested in finding out that whether they are really unfair or our citizens misunderstood them. Morever, why they have to do so or why can they do so.

Methods to be used:

First, we will analysis most of the famous news media in Hong Kong will be conducted. These includes the TV news such as, TVB news; Newspaper such as Oriental Daily News, The Sun, Apple Daily, Hong Kong Economic Journal; and also the online media such as 100 most, Speak Out HK. Comparison of the points of views of the same events, the focusing news types, and the background of the owners of the different news media will be compared in the research. Then, the research will try to figure out the relationship between and political economy approach media ownership and media content.

Also, survey will be executed in this research in order to gather information and data. An online survey will be hold and at least 50 copies of questionnaire will be delivered to Hong Kong Citizen randomly, to know which media they would like to read, how they feel the credibility of it and how they feel about the Hong Kong government.

The textual analysis and the survey will be the primary source for my research, these can make the audiences would like to trust my research more.

In Addition, some reading reference will be consulted in this research. For examples, some books about the histories and income sources of the media owners or the companies, may help me to discover more about the background of the media such as what political economy are they want to approach.

Student number: 10644377

Name: Pun Shuk Kwan, Audrey