Quiz 3, Thursday, May 10, 2007:

Part I: News (10 marks).

1) Labour Day and Macau;

Police fires shot into Air at Labor Day Protests (IHT/AP, May 1, 2007)

Rare Macau protest turns violent (BBC, May 1, 2007)

繁榮澳門出現警民衝突的思考 (香港文匯報, May 2, 2007)

 

2) Dow Jones and Rupert Murdoch

SEC files insider trading suit against HK couple (The Standard/ AP, Reuters, Bloomberg – May 9,07)

3 ) Frank Hsieh

Hsieh surprises as Su concedes (The Standard/AP, AFP, May 7, 07)

4) Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal

Royal vs Sarkozy: the policies (BBC, Feb 15, 07)

5) IPCC

IPCC on Friday May 4, 07. issued its third report this year which aims to set out the costs and benefits of various policies.

In quotes, climate report reaction (BBC May 4, 07)

6) China, US and pet food

Pet Food Recall (U.S. Food and Drug Administration)

7) Queen’s Pier

Antiquities backing to save Queen’s Pier (The Standard/AP/AFP, May 10, 2007)
8 ) Mainland stock market

Bourses in China eclipse all of Asia (FT, May 9, 07)

The People’s Republic in the grip of popular capitalism (Economist, April 26, 07)

Most Asian markets rise, China, S Korea, New Zealand and Indonesia hit record highs (IHT/ AP, May 10, 07)

Part II: Lectures and readings (15 marks):

1) Explain what is meant by “PSB should be universal, diverse, independent and distinctive”. (2)

• PSB should be universal: address the needs of the entire population, regardless of race, gender, age and social background.
• Diversity: PSB should produce diverse programmes so that would reach everyone, not through every programme, but through its entire programming schedule and variety.
• PSB should be independent of commercial, political and/or government influences so that it can serve as a credible and open platform in the best interest of the public.
• Distinctiveness is the driving force for PSB to take creative risks, explore new ideas and programme formats, and provide new services or deliver existing ones in new ways.

(Source: Report on Review of PSB in HK, March 07, P, 5-6)

2) State two arguments for transforming RTHK into a new public broadcaster, and two arguments against (4).

3) Name 2 major “beats” covered by reporters and explain why each one is important (4).

4) Suggest 2 circumstances under which anonymous sources might be acceptable (2).

5) What is meant by “watchdog reporting”?

• Monitors power, including government and powerful institutions in society;
• Examines what’s beneath the service;
• Illustrates successes and failures of those in power.

Quiz, Thursday, April 12:

Part I: News

1) Donald Tsang was officially appointed as HK’s CE by Wen Jiabao in Beijing

2) CCTV reported a jewelry shop in HK had sold fake goods to mainland tourists. James Tien, the new Tourism Board chairman, said the report would have a negative impact on the tourism industry.

3) The US has filed a formal complaint with the World Trade Organisation over China’s copyright piracy and counterfeiting (details). China’s Commerce Ministry issued a statement expressing its “great regret and strong dissatisfaction”.

4) Wen Jiabao arrived in Japan on April 11 for an official visit, the first by a Chinese leader in nearly seven years.

5 ) The US issued a statement saying that North Korea funds held at Banco Delta Asia, Macau, have been unfrozen. But North Korea says it hasn’t received the US$25m and will not stick to the agreed denuclearisation framework until it has done so.

6 ) East Timor had its first presidential election since it became independent from Indonesia in 2002.

7) A tsunami swept the Solomon Island following a strong undersea earthquake in the South Pacific.

8 ) 15 British marines were captured by the Iranians. The British insist they were in Iraqi waters. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinajad announced the sailors would be freed on April 4, as a “gift” to the UK.

9) IPCC released its latest report analysing what impact climate change will have on wildlife, habitats and communities around the world, and what can be done to reduce the problems and threats faced by different countries. A number of governments have sought to tone down the degrees of certainty on various issues.

10) Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are US presidential candidates. Recently, they announced the first quarter funds raised. $26m for Clinton, US$25m for Obama.

Part II: Lectures and readings:

1) What are the two main sources of income for newspapers? How do they affect the news we get?

Sales and advertising.

If the goal of the newspaper is to maximise profits, then it would try and maximize sales and advertising.

To maximise sales: produce news that sell and are cheap to produce (infotainment, gossip, sensationalism, false reporting, etc).

Advertisers are attracted by high circulations or affluent readers. So some choose to maximise sales, others might try to attract more affluent readers.

Sometimes newspapers decide not to report on certain issues to avoid conflicts with existing or potential advertisers.

2) Suggest 2 reasons why traditional newspaper circulations are falling. How have newspapers tried to save themselves?

Online news, free give-aways, waning public interest in current events.

Make use of new media, for example, launch online versions which have more participatory elements.
3) Give 3 advantages or disadvantages for news organisations to charge readers for their online content.

Advantages:

• Confident of the value of its content, justified to charge for content that costs to produce;
• Some might think paying assures quality and standard;
• Use income to produce better work;
  
• Ensure returns for shareholders – Don’t have to rely on advertising revenue to cover costs or generate a profit… if ever will…Free content has not generated profits so far…
• Online ads revenues very small.
• IN US, web sites accounted for only 5.4% of all newspaper ad spending in 2006.

Disadvantages:

• Charging would cause user to switch to other news outlets; there’re plenty of free providers around;
• Attract large audiences hence more attractive to advertisers, and build the paper a bigger name via the net (e.g. SCMP articles doesn’t come up in Google);
• Encourage links to the paper, again increase traffic, etc;
• Help to sell print subscriptions. Eg, NY times.com sold 85,000 print subscriptions in 2001.
• 2006 account only for 5.4% but growing, whilst spending in print is falling (down 3.7%);
• Online newspaper ads rose by 35% to US$745.5m in 4^th quarter compared with same period a year ago, Newspaper Assoc of America. (31.5% increase for the year cf last year;)
• Can use registration to obtain user info, for targeting marketing, higher ad rates;
• Sharing of info: encourage better standards – in line with goal of journalism.

 

 

4) What is “participatory journalism”? Explain using an example (such as OhMyNews).

Participatory Journalism: “The act of a citizen, or group of citzens, playing an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing and disseminating news and information. The intent of this is to provide independent, reliable, accurate, wide-ranging and relevant information that a democracy requires.” (We Media, P,9)

5) Who is John Reith?

6) Who is Edward R. Murrow?

Explain, in less than 50 words, the following:

7) the forum function of the press;

• The press performs the forum function by alerting the public to issues that encourages debate and judgment;
• All media forms could serve as such forum: radio call in shows, TV talk shows, op ed pages.
• These offer a platform so that citizens could make their voices heard by people in power,
• The forum function of the press helps to promote democracy and dialogs.

8 ) The principle of engagement and relevance (for news).

• Journalists must make the significant interesting and relevant.
• J not only provides information but provide them in an interesting way
• The use interesting ways to tell stories with innovative ways, such using narratives, giving details or use

Quiz, Thursday, March 1, 2007:

Question 1:

What event at the HK Convention and Exhibition should we all be watching (or listening to) at 7pm this evening?

Answer: CE Election Forum

Question 2:

State two items from yesterday’s budget.

Any two from FS’s budget speech.

Question 3:

What prompted Ma Ying Jeou’s resignation as chairman of Taiwan’s Kuomintang Party?

The Taiwan High Prosecutors Office issued a statement confirming that Ma was officially charged with corruption.

So that he could contest in the 2008 presidential election (“Ma on the Charge”, Economist Feb 15, 2007)

Question 4:

Identify 3 key events in relation to North Korea’s nuclear weapons ambitions in the past 6 months.

October 06, North Korea announced it has successfully conducted an underground nuclear test;

December 06: 6- Nation Talk in BJ – fails;

February 07: 6-Nation talk resumes. Agreement reached.

Or other significant events, for example, see the BBC’s “Timeline: North Korea Nuclear Stand-off“.

Question 5:

Stock Markets around the world fell sharply on Tuesday and Wednesday. Suggest two possible reasons for this:

Part II: Lectures and Readings

1) What is Journalism for?

The primary purpose of journalism is to provide citizens with the information they need to be free and self-governing.

Plus explanation of what this means, for example:

We need accurate and timely information so that we can understand what is going on in the world around us, so that we can make informed decisions on matters that shape our future.

Journalism – by hard questioning and verification – help audiences make order out of the overload of information we have today. So that citizens can be better informed.

Journalism is for community building. It helps identify a community’s goals, heroes, and villains. (Elements, P, 18)

“A newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself.”

Arthur Miller, American playwright, essayist and author, 1961.

2) What is the “Journalistic Truth”? What do good journalists do to get at the truth?

Valid points from Ch. 2:

The “journalistic truth” is more than mere accuracy. It is a sorting-out process that develops between the initial story and the interaction among the public, newsmakers, and journalists over time.

An ongoing process towards understanding – which begins with the first-day stories and builds over time…

Journalism attempts to get at the truth in a confused world by stripping first of any attached misinformation, disinformation, or self-promoting information and then letting the community react, and the sorting-out process ensue. The search for truth becomes a conversation.

3) What is the difference between “journalism of assertion” and “journalism of verification”?

J of V means that the reporters will conduct an accuracy check on the information

The story is supported by facts;

Background material required to understand the story is complete;

People in the story identified have been contacted and given a chance to talk;

All the quotes accurate.

Journalism of assertion takes facts for granted and does not check the accuracy of the facts.

4) “What makes news?” Mr. Young gave 10 different factors suggested by Galtung and Ruge. Name two of these.

Refer to Mr. Young’s lecture.