China and Taiwan have very different political and media cultures. First, China is an example of a neo-authoritarian country whereby the government exercise tight controls over the media freedoms. The reason is to pursuit of a developmental agenda that privileges political interests and the continuity of the political status of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Also, the independence of the Chinese media is politically constrained, offering the appearance of a system that can be understood only by a state-centric perspective. The contents of the messages conveyed by both the print and broadcast medias are closely supervised and managed by the authorities from the government sector. Examples of such sources are the national television and press, as well as the political news and information.
On the other hand, after the victory of the presidential election for Chen Shui bian on 18 March 2000, which also marked the end to Kuo Min Tang’s fifty-five years of continuous rule over Taiwan, Taiwan had encouraged and created new opportunities for a brand new public spaces into their society, such as to be open for popular mobilization, protest, and participation in the political processes in its country. The is the main reason of the increase in readership for Apple Daily as they company use new communications technologies, such as the mobile telephony Internet forums and outdoor focus groups to amplify the alternative opinions of the grassroots so as to be heard in a greater extends.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Dynamic relationships with readers
It is important for newspaper publications to understand their readers’needs, such as what kinds of news publications the public prefer and want to know more on. Also, to engage in their potential readers as well so as to provide better news coverages that are relevant to readers’ lives and increase the readerships, and Apple Daily had accomplished these areas successfully though the effective strategies they had used. They had included several innovative interaction mechanisms in its publication, such as the focus group, corrections and comments section in the paper and web message boards that systematically gather readers’ feedbacks and making sure readers’ preferences can be reflected in the daily news selection. These show that the Apple Daily cares about their readers’ preferences more than other newspapers, as it treats newspapers like a "commodity" and believes that it is much more important to publish stories that readers prefer to read.
Moreover, a public community was created by the media, especially the news media after the lifting of political restrictions on newspapers in 1988, as both the formal structures of government and the informal structures of civil society turn to this forum for information. This is when the tabloid style newspaper Apple Daily was introduced into the already competitive newspaper market and it had established a dynamic relationship with their readers by involving them in news production processes. This means that the readers are concerned about the press and the role it plays in a democratic society, they are then treated as information consumers when they provide their opinions to the publication and these feedbacks they had provided had became much more important. Though the enforced, two-party system of representation goes a long way towards making democracy because access to information and ideas remains crucial to the public’s capacity to organize and resist. Thus, newspapers have become more reader-oriented and market-driven (Underwood & Stamm, 1992).
Moreover, a public community was created by the media, especially the news media after the lifting of political restrictions on newspapers in 1988, as both the formal structures of government and the informal structures of civil society turn to this forum for information. This is when the tabloid style newspaper Apple Daily was introduced into the already competitive newspaper market and it had established a dynamic relationship with their readers by involving them in news production processes. This means that the readers are concerned about the press and the role it plays in a democratic society, they are then treated as information consumers when they provide their opinions to the publication and these feedbacks they had provided had became much more important. Though the enforced, two-party system of representation goes a long way towards making democracy because access to information and ideas remains crucial to the public’s capacity to organize and resist. Thus, newspapers have become more reader-oriented and market-driven (Underwood & Stamm, 1992).
Friday, July 10, 2009
Social Transparency for a democratic government system
For the media structure of Apple Daily, Lai encourages the company to adopt a culture of transparency and creativity without hierarchy system. Transparency in newspaper circulation has becoming much more important when an organization is taking a reader-centered approach in order to retain their readership. This is why employees of the Apple Daily are encouraged to tackle readership challenges, such as gathering readers’ feedbacks in a most possible efficient ways through trial and error methods. The main difference between traditional and newer media is the level of interactivity between the media and the public. It basically means the interactivity between newspapers and readers, and is “the degree to which participants in a communication process have control over, and can exchange roles in, their mutual discourse” (William, Rice, and Rogers, 1988).
Control refers to the scope of contents and sequences a participant can make decisions on of a communication act, and the exchange of roles refers to the ability of person and vice versa. Mutual discourse is the degree to which given communications act is based upon a prior series of communication acts. These show that the Taiwanese facilitate political, economic, and social transparency, accountability, and critical engagement, which together help to froster democratic government system in a much efficient way. The history of the media in Taiwan reveals that they acted as “agents of change” throughout the democratization process, and serve as “agents of restraint”-monitoring, checking, and balancing government-as democracy is consolidated (Duncan McCargo, 2003).
Control refers to the scope of contents and sequences a participant can make decisions on of a communication act, and the exchange of roles refers to the ability of person and vice versa. Mutual discourse is the degree to which given communications act is based upon a prior series of communication acts. These show that the Taiwanese facilitate political, economic, and social transparency, accountability, and critical engagement, which together help to froster democratic government system in a much efficient way. The history of the media in Taiwan reveals that they acted as “agents of change” throughout the democratization process, and serve as “agents of restraint”-monitoring, checking, and balancing government-as democracy is consolidated (Duncan McCargo, 2003).
Friday, July 3, 2009
Distinctive features of Apple Daily
The Taiwan Apple Daily (蘋果日報) is a tabloid-style newspaper published in Taiwan and is under the ownership of Hong Kong-based Next Media. Next Media is the largest listed media company in Hong Kong and is also one of the world's biggest Chinese-language media groups. Next Media was founded by Lai Chee Ying Jimmy in 1990 and was known for introducing tabloid-style journalism into Hong Kong and Taiwan, and set trends in both markets. Lai pioneered a reader-centric philosophy with paparazzi journalism in both Hong Kong and Taiwan with his best-selling Next Magazine and Apple Daily newspaper, whereby the publications feature a mixture of strong tabloid material and sensation news items oriented to the mass market with huge amount of bold colours and graphics that attracts a wide range of readers.
The main reason is that Lai is a pro-democracy entrepreneur whom promotes democracy and has been an unrelenting advocate of democracy with high-profile critic of the People's Republic of China government. This is why the publications styles and report contents for Apple Daily are in tabloid sensationalism with hard-hitting political and business reporting association with a prominent critic of the Beijing government. These shows that the founder of an organization gave freedom of the press its constitutional status, to foster the robust exchange of ideas and opinions necessary to democratic governance (N.Y.Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). Also, Apple Daily was the first Chinese language newspaper in Taiwan to use huge graphics, bold headlines, full colour pages and paparazzi-style in its news gathering approach to attract readers, especially to the young readers and had succeeded in securing a strong readership.
The main reason is that Lai is a pro-democracy entrepreneur whom promotes democracy and has been an unrelenting advocate of democracy with high-profile critic of the People's Republic of China government. This is why the publications styles and report contents for Apple Daily are in tabloid sensationalism with hard-hitting political and business reporting association with a prominent critic of the Beijing government. These shows that the founder of an organization gave freedom of the press its constitutional status, to foster the robust exchange of ideas and opinions necessary to democratic governance (N.Y.Times Co. v. Sullivan, 1964). Also, Apple Daily was the first Chinese language newspaper in Taiwan to use huge graphics, bold headlines, full colour pages and paparazzi-style in its news gathering approach to attract readers, especially to the young readers and had succeeded in securing a strong readership.
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