The spread of coal between China and the West from TV comparative news reports

National Interest Articles in International Communication/Bai Mei Qian Hong

——Taking the Prisoner Abuse Incident of U.S. Forces in Iraq as an Example

Abstract: As a political constraint Cross-border information dissemination, international dissemination and national interests are inseparable, with obvious political tendencies and ideological overtones, but the performance is different for countries with different political systems. This article takes the US military prisoner abuse incident in Iraq as the background, briefly introduces the main activities of the US domestic media during this period, analyzes the challenges that the facts disclosed by these media bring to the US government, and its negative impact on the international reputation of the United States. Through these contradictions, The in-depth exploration of the surface illustrates the advanced nature and universality of the inherent error correction mechanism in a democratic government. At the same time, taking a news forwarded by China Daily as an example, it reveals the limitations of the international communication vision of my country's domestic mainstream media, and attempts to propose methods for reference and improvement.

Keywords: international communication, national interest, mistreatment of prisoners and confrontation with the government, inaccurate review and improvement

1. The definitions of international communication and national interest used in this article

There are many definitions and arguments about the terms international communication and national interest. To ensure smooth writing, first explain the definitions and reasons used in this article.

International Communication refers to the transnational and cross-cultural exchange and dissemination of various information in the world today, in which different nations and countries are the recipients of each other. International communication can be divided into broad and narrow senses, and this article mainly discusses the latter. The definition is: international information exchange and dissemination with mass media as the pillar and targeting an international audience.

International communication includes outside-in communication: conveying important events and changes in the international community to the people of the country; inside-out communication: conveying information about the country’s politics, economy, culture, etc. international community. Different from general forms of communication, the leaders of international communication are sovereign states and other international actors. As a part of international politics, international communication is restricted and controlled by political power. Screening, filtering, seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages are axioms of international communication, and Chinese and Western media are no exception.

In today's world, national interest is the highest criterion for diplomacy and international communication. Its complete expression includes three parts: survival, rise and fall, and honor and disgrace. Without responsible international communication, there will be no recognized international status.

2. How the prisoner abuse incident by the US military in Iraq was exposed

In principle, international communication follows the unspoken rule of "do not publicize family scandals". When communicating externally, communicators often select information that helps establish a good image of the country and eliminate information that is unfavorable or harmful; when communicating internally, they must avoid negative and harmful information and focus on Introducing information that is beneficial to you. However, since the end of April 2004, thousands of photos of prisoner abuse have appeared in American newspapers and on television, which shocked the world and also dealt a heavy blow to the US government (the Communist Party and the party government). .

Ever since Army Special Forces Joe Darby placed a disk with photos of prisoner abuse on a military investigator's bed, thereby launching the military's criminal investigation into the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. , the military has invested a lot of manpower and material resources to resolve this matter. An officer and a company commander working in the prison were dismissed. Six soldiers also faced prosecution for abusing prisoners. At the same time, the commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Sanchez The warning was issued to General Janice Karpinski, the top official running the prison. From this point of view, it is entirely possible that the incident can be solved secretly internally. However, CBS notified the Pentagon on the "60 Minutes" program that it would release photos of prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib prison. Although General Myers privately asked CBS twice to postpone the release of the photos to avoid causing anti-American riots, CBS still released the prisoner abuse photos to the public on April 28.

The world's public opinion is in an uproar. Many international human rights organizations have issued statements condemning the barbaric behavior of the US military. Some US allies have issued statements attacking the US government. In the United States, 270,000 people have signed a petition demanding that Secretary of Defense Lahm Sfeldt stepped down, forcing President Bush to apologize to the public several times.

However, the major media are still unyielding, rushing to report and expose: The Washington Post reported on May 8 the truth told by the female soldier who tortured prisoners, "My superiors ordered me to torture prisoners as much as possible." "On May 9, a signed article titled "Apologising Country - The Art of Apology" was published, criticizing the lack of responsibility behind the US government's apology. On May 19, the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that in addition to the seven US military policemen who were indicted, dozens of US soldiers participated in the prisoner abuse incident at Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad. The Pentagon is trying to hide this fact. Although the photos were mainly taken from the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, the Los Angeles Times insisted that "it happened all over Iraq" and made no secret of the fact that "many people believe that this kind of organized punishment (by the US military) has been going on for many months."

"Time" magazine published on May 23 reported that at least 2,000 pages of investigation reports on the US military's abuse of Iraqi prisoners were missing, and the possibility of deliberate intent cannot be ruled out... Although the authenticity and accuracy of some of the reports have been affected to varying degrees. However, it is obvious that in the case of prisoner abuse, the major media seem to lack the consideration to protect the government's image.

3. The contradiction and reconciliation between media rights and national interests

In the United States, media practitioners are known as the "uncrowned kings." The news media is the "fourth power" that is independent of the legislative, judicial, and administrative powers. The media wants to be on an equal footing with the government and challenge the ruling party. Consciousness will inevitably conflict with the unspoken rules of maintaining the country's image in international communication. The prisoner abuse incident has raised many questions: Is the political character of Americans also changing? Is this a model of human rights in the United States that has always been flaunting it? In a new stage, will we continue to use violence for violence, or will we balance hardness and softness, and treat both symptoms and root causes? The US government will appear somewhat incompetent, and its international reputation will fall to the bottom in an instant.

In any country, government power is always prone to infringement. Human rights, among which administrative power is the most likely to violate human rights, and military power is the administrative power among administrative powers. The military pays attention to efficiency and subordinates to obey their superiors. It enjoys many privileges, is not subject to the constraints of ordinary courts, and is not easily affected by the media. Supervision of the military is a top-notch headache for any country. The liberal democratic system implements the policy of nationalizing and professionalizing the military, which effectively restrains the military's impulse to interfere in politics. This is a huge progress, but The barbaric nature of the military has not been completely eliminated. Therefore, maintaining international order with the US occupation force is a difficult thing to control: it must not only maintain local order and protect the military and economic interests of the liberal democratic regime, but also maintain the occupied countries. The various interests of the country must control the military to exercise various powers in a manner consistent with freedom and democracy. The U.S. military has many violations of the rights and interests of local people when stationed around the world. This time, the U.S. military's abuse of Iraqi prisoners of war is even more serious. Seriously. The United States certainly deserves the criticism from various countries. However, some Americans who practice liberal democracy should be responsible for this incident, not Rumsfeld. If the goal of establishing a free and democratic political system in Iraq is shaken, it will be equivalent to wasting all previous efforts.

But what is certain is that the phenomenon of prisoner abuse is also a part of world integration and globalization. Characteristics. The gap between the East and the West is shrinking. When people are condemning the abuse of those criticized during the Cultural Revolution, the United States, the pearl of Western freedom and human rights, also has serious human rights problems. It can be seen that human beings have such a mentality of abuse. Similarity, no matter what cultural background, no matter what political system, there is such a collective sadistic mental state and sadistic behavior. When a country is involved in a great cause and movement that it considers to be just, it will have a negative impact on the country. The enemies we face, "capitalist roaders" and "terrorists", will use extreme political descriptions and political confrontation. An act of cruelty becomes an "act of justice." The difference is that the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution that occurred in totalitarian China took several years to be exposed, and have not yet become a collective and independent reflection of the entire nation; while in the free United States, they were exposed "now" and triggered The conscience of the United States, from the president to the civilians, has condemned, criticized, and apologized. All this shows that the traditional American liberal values ??and systems created by the founding fathers such as Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln are still functioning.

In international competition, national interests are the primary consideration of all countries. It can be said straightforwardly that countries in the international community are also selfish. However, for a liberal democratic regime, it has to regard the expansion of liberal democratic regimes as part of the national interest, because liberal democratic regimes cannot survive stably and without infringement in a world where authoritarianism and authoritarianism are prevalent. . What's more, liberal democracy itself is moral. Just as moral people like to deal with moral people, moral regimes also like to deal with moral regimes. (This is not to say that there are no conflicts between liberal democratic regimes. The conflict between the French cultural area and the English cultural area has been around for a long time. France, the United Kingdom, and the United States are all countries with mature liberal democratic political systems, and there will be no conflicts between them. War, but economic disputes and cultural disputes are still inevitable.) Therefore, even if the news media’s relentless criticism and exposure of the current government and the ruling party damages the national image of the United States, it is also for the purpose of safeguarding the democratic system of government. The vocation of the fourth estate.

Of course, if the American media dares to pick up on its own shortcomings, it does not rule out the fact that it has strong ships, powerful guns, and deep pockets. This is because it is in an absolute leading position in the world today. But this is a secondary reason and is not discussed in this article.

4. Examination and improvement of the international communication vision of China’s domestic mainstream media in the past

After the prisoner abuse incident by the US military in Iraq, the performance of China’s domestic mainstream media failed to satisfy the public. A comparative report in the above section can provide a glimpse of the whole situation. Seemingly objective facts, after biased selection and screening, add up the partial truths, covering up the overall falsehood, and can only mislead and fool the audience.

China's consistent propaganda policy is mouthpiece theory, resolutely implement relevant national policies, maintain a high degree of consistency with the government, and put stability above all else, especially in the field of international communication. However, one authority or one voice often hurts the wisdom and rationality of the entire nation. Without the protection of the right to know as a premise, all judgments are futile and powerless. The direct manifestation of people's ignorance is foolish loyalty. The danger of foolish loyalty is that the country's international reputation cannot be improved, and external communication, dissemination, and cooperation are difficult to carry out.

Therefore, when looking at the past international communication perspective and how to improve it, we need to consider it from two perspectives. One is how to deal with external news dissemination, and the other is how to develop its own external news dissemination.

For a long time, China has always been wary of the dissemination of foreign news information, lest it disturb people's thinking and destroy social tranquility. Since the reform and opening up, the country has opened up and foreign news information has poured in, and people's attitudes towards it have become much more open-minded. However, old stereotypes are still visible, and practices that interfere with listening and viewing have not disappeared. In today's world, the international information network is developing rapidly, the news dissemination style has undergone major changes, and the closed mentality has long been no longer feasible. In fact, except for the dissemination of content expressly prohibited by international conventions, general news dissemination can be completely unprotected. Whether it is information or reports that have nothing to do with ideology such as economy, finance, science and technology, sports, or ideological reports or comments about political changes in various countries, social life, international political relations, etc., there is no need to contain them. Since various social systems and ideologies coexist in the world, there is no reason or possibility for the government not to let the public know about these social systems and ideologies, as well as their various views on world affairs. Only by letting the public understand them can it be possible to compare their advantages and disadvantages, distinguish their rights and wrongs, learn from them the positive and beneficial things, discard the negative and fallacious things, and increase the discernment ability of the whole society.

At the same time, China’s external communication is too propaganda-heavy and should be improved. The news and information nature of external communication should be strengthened in order to be close to the actual reception of foreign audiences. A country's external news dissemination must be integrated into the international news market. There, the news with the most news value and the most public attention is the most sought-after news; the media that can best provide accurate, timely, objective and comprehensive news with high news value are naturally the most popular media with the public. This is a basic rule that runs through international news communication activities. Especially in a few years, when high-speed information networks gradually become the main body of international communication, people will have greater initiative, freedom and breadth when choosing to watch news on the Internet. If they want to control the audience according to official propaganda needs, It is naive and unrealistic to choose to accept other news based on their own news needs (or news values).

Endnotes:

Cheng Manli: "International Communication in the Era of Information Globalization", "International Press", Issue 4, 2000.

Wu Yuling: "The Development and Change of International Communication under New Technology Conditions", China Journalism Research Center.

"Ten Notes on China's Diplomacy through Storms and Tribulations—Discussions on China's Diplomacy in the Past 20 Years", "World Knowledge" Issue 1, 2004.

"CBS Releases Prisoner Abuse Photos", "Century Salon" website, May 13, 2004.

"U.S. media looks at the prisoner abuse scandal: a president who only apologizes but is irresponsible", China Daily website, May 9, 2004.

"Dozens of U.S. soldiers participated in prisoner abuse, Pentagon wants to cover up the truth", China Daily website, May 19, 2004.

"Prisoner Abuse Storm Hits the White House", author Tang Ben, "South Wind Window", second half issue of May 2004.

"Is there a better international police force than the United States?" "Source: Century China Forum Highlights

"Prisoner Abuse Storm Impacts the White House", author Tang Ben, "South Wind Window" second half issue of May 2004.

"International News Communication: Leap and Challenges across the Century" Zhang Yunruo from Yunruo Forum.