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 | | Reporting Hong Kong: Foreign Media and the Handover by Alan Knight (Editor), Yoshiko Nakano (Editor) ISBN-10: 031222429X ISBN-10: 0-312-22429-X ISBN-13: 9780312224295 ISBN-13: 978-0-312-22429-5 Hardcover 1999-10-01 Palgrave Macmillan Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Book Description In the summer of 1997, thousands of foreign journalists converged on Hong Kong to record one of the last episodes in Western colonialism. How foreign journalists chose to report the handover, and what they decided to ignore about it, reveals much about foreign news agendas and how they are framed by ideological and cultural assumptions. This book uses the handover of Hong Kong to illustrate the process of media reporting as well as the product. The authors consider how a "reality" is constructed through press releases and visual spectacles. Also featured are interviews with thirteen Hong Kong-based journalists from seven countries who took part in this media jamboree and who discuss the restrictions they worked under, including the pressure for colorful stories and the inability to pose questions to the key players. | ||
Reviews | ||
About time I was a resident of HK for 3 and a half years before the handover. I remember speaking to some obnoxious Australian "journalist" at Christmas time 1996-97 who was absolutely convinced that the Chinese army was going to invade HK and that there would be a Tiananmen Square-style bloodbath. This guy had been sent from Australia to report on the build-up to the hand-over and was simply not interested in hearing any opinions that did not fit into his doomsday nonsense. At the time I was finishing off an MPhil in pol sci at HKU, but this was of no interest to our journo "expert"! I also remember watching the appaling coverage on CNN with some ridiculous American "journalist" making the most innane comments and getting it all wrong. He had obviously been flown in from the States a week before June 30 and was now "the expert" on the handover. I also remember him making continual petty digs at the British. Anyway, what I am saying is that if this book is about exposing the "instant experts" that popular journalism creates and about showing up the pathetic parachute journos (from whom most people get their info from - scary!) then it is an excellent venture and I'm going to buy it! | ||
A Book against parachute journalism The book is very attractive for a reader who, like me, did follow the handover of Hong Kong to Communist China by being on the spot. I was one of the reporter mentioned in the book. This work, edited by Alan Knight and Yoshiko Nakano is also due to Barry Lowe, not mentioned on the book cover and who was actually the real motor behind its publication. This is a study on how journalists should not report a complex string of facts and events unfolding under their eyes without adeguate preparation. In few words it speaks against "parachute journalism". During the handover all the televisions and newspapers of the World sent people here to report on facts which they could hardly grasp, because they were too complex, too fast and all interconnected. Most of these parachute journalists ended up interviewing each other and consulting the few residents newsmen. Once a mistake was broadcasted or printed by one of them it was automatically taken up by all and it became the official truth, even if the truth was exactly the contrary. All the awful limitations of the TV are clearly exposed: moving images are good to discribe something spectacular and simple. But for something like the handover the real picture could have been given only by an "old china hand" with a philosophic mind and open eyes. The television created a lot of historical distorsions. It makes a good reading this book and can teach a lot on how not to report facts and news, more than how to report them. Angelo Paratico | ||