Platform, content and subject, three key words for international communication.
Direct news press
On May 31st, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader delivered an important speech on strengthening and improving international communication. Shenzhen Satellite TV Direct News specially launched a series of comments on "Strengthening the Construction of International Communication Ability". Who will tell the eighth China Story published earlier? It is pointed out that international communication depends not only on the official media, but also on the multi-point resultant matrix, and cultural output can be achieved by combining the official and the folk, telling more stories and triggering the audience’s personal experience, which can achieve better results. The following is the ninth in a series of comments.
Two years ago, when I was still studying for my doctorate, I had short-term exchanges in Australia and South Korea. Whether I visited people from different countries in Sydney, a global immigrant city, or participated in a youth exchange program in China, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam in South Korea at that time, I was most impressed that some people who knew a little about the current situation in China would lament that China was developing too fast. Some people who know a little about China’s history and culture are basically curious about China; Some people who have really been to China for a walk often like China’s cultural and natural scenery and have an understanding of China’s current system and governance. Those who only touch China in the eyes of foreign media tend to have a negative impression of China.
Before writing this article, I also specially contacted my classmate who is currently studying for a master’s degree in the UK. She once engaged in international reporting in a well-known domestic media and had exchanges with many foreign friends. In the conversation with her, my general judgment was also verified, and our impressions were basically consistent.
Combining these basic impressions and observing the current actual situation, we can try to spy on the challenges of China’s international communication.First, foreign people’s information receiving channels are mainly monopolized by European and American media, and their reporting framework on China is hard to change in the short term. Second, the theoretical discourse, core content and representative works that support telling China’s story well are scarce, and the quality and effect of international communication need to be improved. Third, due to the spread of the epidemic and anti-globalization forces, international business and trade, study abroad and other humanities exchange activities have slowed down, and the sense of presence and experience of international communication has been suppressed.
In order to effectively strengthen and improve international communication, we may wish to make precise policies and concentrate our efforts on these issues. The author thinks that strengthening and improving international communication can be carried out around these three key words: platform, content and subject.
Keyword 1: platform. Encourage China’s Internet platform to "go out to sea", support the development of overseas platform accounts of mainstream media, and strive to break through the platform channel dilemma of China’s international communication.
The problem of China’s international communication is not entirely that the content is not well built, but also that the communication channels are not smooth enough. The fact that foreign people don’t know China is that it is difficult for foreign people to know China. As mentioned earlier, European and American media have long dominated and monopolized the ways and channels for foreign people to receive information, and their reporting framework has directly affected the impression and value presupposition of foreign people on China. In the short term, it is not realistic to reverse this situation. Just like standing on this hill, you can only see these scenery. Change the hill to see the new scenery. At present, Internet platform enterprises in China, represented by TikTok and WeChat, go to sea, which provides a new opportunity to break through the channel dilemma of international communication in China. On these platforms, we can present the details of Chinese history and culture, the magnificence of mountains and rivers, the ever-changing face of cities and the various scenes of daily life. Increase the supply of content by borrowing a boat to go to sea.
Of course, the media in Europe and America are not all monolithic. We should pay respect to those media that report China relatively truthfully and objectively, take the initiative to strengthen cooperation and expand the circle of friends for international communication. In addition to competing with the international media for the right to speak in the "main battlefield" of major international events, our mainstream media can also actively settle in foreign Internet platforms, build a new media matrix by opening accounts, strengthen the operation of accounts, and unblock China’s international communication channels, so that content can have a chance to reach the eyes and ears of foreign people.
Keyword 2: content. Strengthen the development of Chinese historical and cultural resources, increase the effective supply of content, tell the story of China well, and strive for the right to speak internationally.
To strengthen and improve international communication, the key is to strengthen content construction and tell the story of China well. Discourse studies carried out by international academic circles always remind us that we should not only pay attention to what we spread, but also pay attention to how they spread. Without basic content supply, it is impossible to balance the information asymmetry between the two sides, and it is also difficult to block prejudice. Without telling the story of China well, it is impossible for the other party to understand, let alone agree.
So what exactly should be spread? The author thinks that international communication is like a gathering of friends. You can’t always talk about the development achievements such as "promotion and salary increase", but also talk about the interesting side of your life. These interesting places may come from China’s history and culture, from language, literature, food, martial arts, painting, Hanfu and so on. How to tell the story of China? The story itself is a coherent narrative with a specific motif and meaning system. To tell a good story about China, we must first make China a story. We want the international community to understand the rule of China, emphasizing both the effectiveness and the legitimacy of governance. The theories of modernity, transitional society, political party and state that the international academic circles are concerned about, can we use China’s experience to develop these theories, or can we have a dialogue with European and American scholars? For example, "one country, two systems" not only develops the national theory, but also promotes the solution of major practical problems. There are also important expressions such as "the right to subsistence and the right to development are the primary basic human rights" and "the community of human destiny", which strongly respond to the concerns of the international community on human rights, epidemic prevention and control, ecological environment and other issues.
Keyword 3: subject. Strengthen the construction of the main team of international communication, and give play to their key roles and advantages in policy interpretation, voice in major international events, knowledge sharing and cultural exchange.
Who is the subject of China’s international communication? In my opinion, it includes at least the following categories: first, the mainstream media in China and their editorial teams, represented by People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China National Radio and Television Station and China Daily, make full use of their powerful editorial team resources and policy interpretation advantages to strengthen their struggle for the right to speak in major international hot events. Local media such as The Paper’s Sixth tone and Shenzhen Satellite TV’s Live Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan can strengthen the vertical and characteristic content dissemination. The construction of the international communication team of mainstream media should set up special posts and personnel and increase the construction of incentive mechanism. The new media matrix built by the central and state ministries and agencies can cooperate with mainstream media to strengthen external communication.
The second category is mainly China enterprises that are committed to global distribution. Internet platform enterprises represented by Tencent, Beijing ByteDance and Alibaba are encouraged to strengthen platform construction, realize localized social scene application, intelligent algorithm technology improvement and mobile convenient payment function optimization, and provide quality services to foreign people. All China enterprises going out to sea should pay attention to abide by local laws, regulations, customs and habits, and strengthen corporate public opinion risk resolution, image management, social responsibility and public communication team building.
The third category is a huge group of overseas students from China, a film and television production team with a growing scale, an international team of humanities and social sciences scholars, and self-media experts who understand network communication, etc., giving full play to their advantages in humanities exchange, art communication, knowledge sharing and daily life presentation.
In short, China’s international communication ability needs to be improved systematically. At present, China’s Internet platform enterprises can break through the channel dilemma of international communication by going to sea, intensify the development of Chinese historical and cultural resources, build theoretical discourse to support the story of China, and increase the effective supply of content. Constantly expand the main team of international communication, strengthen incentives, and pay attention to building the "trump card army" of international communication.
Author: Zhang Zhen, Ph.D. in Political Communication, Sun Yat-sen University.
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