Opportunities And Challenges For Image Building Of Chinese Army

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The tide of Internet technology revolution has brought a disruptive impact on traditional newspapers. The contemporary newspaper industry must undergo a lot of labor pains before it can be reborn. It is an inevitable choice for the newspaper industry to survive and develop in the era of media. Early convergence, early benefit, great integration and great development.

In this historic wave of media revolution, the army newspaper reporters must catch up and strive to write a new chapter for the new era of Military Journalism. Representatives of the fourth military news forums, CO sponsored by the PLA newspaper and the flag newspaper, expressed their own views respectively, and expounded the practices and intentions of the media, inspiring and inspiring. The last issue of the "military correspondent" published 7 representatives' speeches, and the 11 representatives' speeches were published again.

With the advent and development of the era of Internet as the core platform, the barrier of communication between countries has gradually disappeared in the traditional media era. This provides an unprecedented opportunity for our army to display its true image in a wider communication space. At the same time, in the face of such an almost boundless era of media, how to compete with world-class media giants and excellent international media players will be a great challenge we must face from now on. Therefore, we should explore the characteristics and rules of communication in the era of the whole media, so as to make better use of the whole media platform to transmit the voice of the Chinese army, to express the views of the Chinese armed forces, and to shape the good Chinese army. Media image It is not only necessary but also urgent.

Part One

Challenges and opportunities

(a) reality: the image of the Chinese army in overseas media.

One is to render "China's military threat theory". With the continuous improvement of China's comprehensive national strength, especially the modernization level of national defense, "China" Military Threat theory is becoming more and more intense. As long as there are any incidents related to China's military power, the West will throw out the argument that "Chinese military forces pose a threat to the surrounding areas and even to the world". Many media will also follow the hype of "China Threat Theory".

The two is to accuse the Chinese army of being "opaque". In 2009, China's military budget increased by 14.9% compared with 2008. Foreign media speculation: "in the past 20 years, China's military spending has been growing by two figures, causing unrest in the surrounding countries." In 2010, the growth of China's military expenditure dropped to 7.5%. Foreign media also accused us of "Opacity" and the existence of the so-called "hidden military expenditure".

The three is to focus on the Chinese army with prejudice. From 2000 to 2005, the amount of China's military news dispatched by the three major news agencies of the United States, Reuters and France reached two times. According to the newly completed "2009: Chinese Army's overseas media image survey and research", Xinhua News Agency reported that in 2009, three major world news agencies, including 36958 news related to the Chinese armed forces, accounted for about 22.9% of the total Chinese News broadcast in the same period, which increased by 5.9 percentage points compared to 17% in 2005. The survey also showed that positive and positive reports rose to 25% from 6.9% 4 years ago, but negative reports also increased in the reports on China's military released by the above media in 2009.

The reasons for the serious departure from the real image of our overseas media are caused by the following three aspects: first, ideological differences; two, the international communication order is unreasonable; three, our international communication force is not enough.

Statistics show that the amount of information flowing to the developing countries such as the United States and other western developed countries is nearly 100 times that of the developing countries in the developed countries.

In the new field of Internet communication, the United States has also gained the global hegemony with the strength of economy, culture, information and language. According to statistics, 70% of all Internet addresses are from the United States. Only one country in the United States provides 80% of online information. The proportion of Chinese information is not very high. This means that the image building power of the Chinese and Chinese military overseas media is also largely controlled by the western media.

(two) opportunity: what opportunities have been given to us in the era of the media?

It is impossible for us to reverse the irrational international communication order in the short term. It is even impossible to radically change the deep-rooted ideology of Western media and the cultural differences between us. What we need to do is to enhance the overall communication ability of the whole country, including military news dissemination, and strive for more overseas audiences' understanding and understanding of China, especially the Chinese army. The advent of the era of mass media has undoubtedly brought a historic opportunity to enhance our international communication capacity. {page_break}
 

First of all, the era of mass media, which is developing rapidly based on the Internet, will be the process of media reshuffle. This will provide opportunities for China's media dissemination to expand overseas. In this process, some traditional media giants who can not adapt and make timely changes begin to decline; some new media relying on new technology and new platforms are exploding into new media giants. And more will be traditional media and emerging media integration and symbiosis, shoulder to shoulder on the way of the development of the whole media. The change of the world media pattern is undoubtedly an opportunity for China's media to develop rapidly with the rapid development of the economy.

Secondly, the whole media has broken the old barriers to communication. Internet terminal Mobile terminals and various new reading and browsing terminals make the media more and more capable of directly delivering the content to the individual audience, which has created the conditions for the expression of our country's claim. The spread of this direct audience is also a great opportunity for the creation of our army's overseas image. In the past, because of the Western barriers to communication, China's mass media could hardly reach the overseas audience. Reaching the audience directly can make China's ideas and opinions less deliberately obstructed and restricted by the West.

Thirdly, the new trend of universal communication in the era of media has made it possible for individuals to communicate with each other. This broadens the way to transmit Chinese voice. This kind of private and private communication can not be ignored in the image building of China and the Chinese army. After the "3 / 14" incident in Lhasa, a large number of private websites represented by the anti CNN website came forward, which made western audiences concerned about the discontent of Chinese folk's distorted reports on Western media.

(three) problem: four real challenges come from the era of the media.

Although opportunities have emerged and actually exist, we still face many challenges in enhancing our international communication capability.

First, our army lacks the production platform and communication mechanism based on the development of all media, and the corresponding talent team. The whole media not only refers to the coexistence and mutual reflection of traditional and new media, but more importantly, a media state closely integrated among various media. The Associated Press announced in February this year that it is planning a new business department, AP GATEWAY, to create a "digital cooperative" on the basis of AP and online video networks to meet the requirements of the digital publishing era. In our country, as far as the Xinhua news agency of the state news agency and CCTV, which have strong influence, have reached the level of media production and dissemination to a certain extent, such as "Yantai daily". The multi-media and multi-channel characteristics of the whole media bring new challenges to the existing information collection, processing and broadcasting mechanism of traditional media. How to build a platform for the collection, processing and dissemination of military news based on the whole media, and how to build a set of mechanisms for dealing with the military news release in the era of the whole media, and how to train a team of military news talents adapting to the whole media format are important issues.

Two, compared with the whole space-time and pluralistic angle of communication in the era of the whole media, the awareness of military communication, the consciousness of space-time and the sense of pluralism are not strong enough. Modern means of communication have spread massive information into a horizontal state. In the past, due to various reasons, our response to emergencies and hot issues is not too fast. In terms of public opinion guidance, speed is the most important principle for handling emergencies. It is impossible or impossible to wait until one hundred percent correct decisions are formed. In the era of the whole media, we need to seize the opportunity and take the lead.

Three, compared with the trend of popularization and niche, the voice of military communication is still relatively simple, and the "dissemination" skill is not mature enough. In the era of mass media, the boundaries between propaganda inside and outside China were eliminated. In such a boundless or boundless communication environment, a message, a picture, a voice and a video may be globally concerned in a short time. In the era of the whole media, we need to introduce the principles and skills of publicity to the field of internal propaganda and spread Chinese views and opinions. That is "Chinese story and international perspective". At the same time, in the era of the whole media, personalization and popularization have considerable potential influence. From the perspective of communication, the affinity of folk communication that official communication does not possess is an important supplement to official communication. So far, in the dissemination of public opinion and image building, the potential of non-governmental communication has not been fully exploited and utilized.

The four is the ubiquitous era of the all media, and more active and effective public opinion guidance. The awareness of military dissemination to publish news and influence public opinion is not strong enough. In May and June 2004, some overseas media hyped up the so-called "Dongshan Island exercise". Under the prevailing circumstances, such speculation was confusing. Our army only carried out small-scale military training on Dongshan Island. Although there are some elements of malicious speculation, it also reminds us that in the face of overseas reports, if we publish news in a timely manner, the effect may be quite different. By contrast, the news conference on Wenchuan earthquake resistance and Yushu earthquake resistance organization has a better effect. In today's highly developed era of information, every move, every word and act of the Chinese army may be caught by the smell of domestic and foreign media at any time. To deal with the whole media, we need to set the agenda voluntarily, effectively guide and lead the public opinion.

Next chapter

Strategy and method

With the rapid development of media industry to the whole media, how can our media image be changed in the era of media?

(1) innovative communication concept {page_break}
 

Faced with the opportunities and challenges in the era of the media, we need to adhere to the principle of party spirit and strictly abide by the political discipline of the party and the army, so as to adapt to the new mode of communication and the development and changes of the audience's acceptance of information at home and abroad. This requires us to effectively implement the "5 innovations" emphasized by President Hu Jintao at the world media summit, namely, innovative ideas, innovative content, innovative forms, innovative methods and innovative means.

First, the concept of turning passive into active. In today's era of universal communication, consciously or unconsciously closing facts often leads to more negative guesses, leading to the widespread dissemination of inaccurate information. Therefore, in the field of military news dissemination, we should release objective facts as soon as possible, grasp the dominant power of public opinion, guide the audience to view events objectively, and do not give the overseas media with ulterior motives an opportunity.

Second, mode: from single to multiple. Taking into account the long-standing prejudice against China and the Chinese army in the western society, our army's media image building, especially for overseas audiences, needs to adopt the way and the angle of the target audience's habits, to put the views and opinions in the facts, to highlight the elements of the Chinese army and to create the image in the subtle way with the angle and way that the Western cultural custom is easy to accept. At the same time, we should spread our views with multiple perspectives, spread our views on the platform of folk communication, and spread our voice through the "grass roots". It will become an important way of communication of military news in the era of media.

Third, media: integration in understanding. In August 20, 2009, the Ministry of defense website opened. According to the British times, the opening of China's Ministry of defense website reflects the PLA's "open" policy of following and practicing. Today, with the establishment of a number of official military websites such as the Ministry of defense website, the Chinese military network and the Xinhua military network and the central Guangdong military, the military news dissemination of our army has taken the first step towards the era of the all media. However, the adaptation of our military propaganda to the whole media era has just begun, and the concept and method of Internet news communication are still in a one-way stage.

Only by understanding the media can we achieve convergence. In the first half of 2010, China's Internet users reached 420 million, 740 million of mobile phone users, and the number of users accessing the Internet by mobile phone reached 277 million. Mobile phone information, forum blogs, micro-blog, and all kinds of new receiving or reading terminals that have just been born have not yet formed a huge trend. They may become a new form of communication relying on the image of the Chinese army.

(two) create a platform for all media communication.

The foundation of all media communication is the acquisition, processing and production capacity of the whole media.

At present, the degree of integration of our military communication platform is relatively limited, and all platforms are operating in accordance with their own propagation inertia and have not yet formed the power of all media transmission.

In terms of media convergence or the creation of a full media platform, the US Army has taken substantial steps over the years. In September 2007, the concept of the initial construction of the US Defense Media Organization came out: in October 1, 2008, the operation of the merger of media and institutions in the general office was formally handed over to the National Defense Information Bureau. The Merged Institutions and media include news agency, radio, television, media center, print media and Information Bureau. In 2009, the National Defense Media building was opened. The media building, which is planned to be completed in September 2011, covers an area of 186 thousand square meters and costs US $68 million. It is directly under the Assistant Minister of public affairs and has 2400 staff members.

Then, is it possible for our army to create a military news communication center based on all media? In such a center, the text, pictures, audio and video materials of a certain military news will be unified into a database. Different media departments will make special processing and dissemination of raw materials according to the characteristics of their media. This "flexible production line" can even be turned into a public opinion center at any time.

(three) forward moving position.

Focusing on the construction of international communication capacity, Xinhua has recently put forward a strategy of "forward position" to strengthen regional and intercontinental development, and to participate more directly and effectively in international media competition. CCTV also plans to build multiple overseas regional positions. Shaping the good image of the international media of our army can also consider the "forward position" of military news dissemination.

First, we should improve the monitoring mechanism of public opinion and understand the opportunities of public opinion. If the international opinion market is also a battleground, knowing yourself and yourself is also an important magic weapon to win. This requires the establishment of a sensitive and accurate monitoring mechanism for public opinion.

The two is to move the port forward and improve the reaction speed. "First impressions" is an important point in communication studies. In the face of news, which is a special battleground in which every minute wins or loses, we should explore a more scientific mechanism of military communication and management so that we can not only observe the political principles and confidentiality disciplines of military news, but also be more efficient and professional.

The three is to move forward the platform and expand the effectiveness of communication. It is impossible for the military media to build positions overseas. But we can rely on the forward position strategy of the state key media such as Xinhua news agency and CCTV. Through intervention or cooperation, we should establish or utilize various overseas communication platforms to actively carry out the international spread of military news. In the era of media, new media forms are constantly emerging, and actively exploring mobile terminals, such as mobile phones and mobile readers, is also an effective way to move forward.

(four) establish a military news team adapting to the development of all media.

The result of media convergence has caused great changes in the field of Journalism and communication, making the traditional news talents face new challenges in the era of the media. What is the ability and quality of Military News Talents in the era of media?

First, we should have the ability to control multimedia acquisition and editing. Without in-depth understanding of the characteristics of various media, if we do not have the ability to carry out multimedia editing and editing, if we do not have a profound grasp of the technical background of various media in the era of media, then we will not be a qualified military journalism talents in the era of the whole media.

Second, we should have a global vision and thinking. The development of technology pushes communication to the world. In the era of mass media, the news audience of Chinese army will be global. This naturally puts forward higher requirements for our communication team: in understanding the situation of our army, we should also consider the characteristics of different regions, different religions and different cultural groups, and make personalization in the process of globalization. {page_break}
 

Third, we should have diversified international expression ability. In the era of the media, military reporters must be good at understanding and adhering to the established standards of the higher authorities, flexibly apply facts, and spread them in different media in different media and different audiences. Only in this way can the maximization of communication benefits be achieved.