Li liangrong
First, the guidance: the soul of the party newspaper
News reading guidance used to be the darling of all news media in China. From leaders to scholars, from editors-in-chief to journalists, the phrase "strengthening guidance" can be said to be spoken at every meeting and written in every article, and it is truly reflected in every page and report, and even informative, entertaining and service reports are indispensable. Everyone is familiar with this expression and requirement.
Perhaps this is an old saying of China: extremes meet. Now the guidance has become the "abandoned child" of many news media. From the weekend edition craze in the early 1990s to the evening newspaper craze in the mid-1990s and now to the metropolis daily craze, with the slogan of "audience-oriented, life-oriented" put forward by the press getting louder and louder, the positioning of news media has become softer and softer, and news media have flocked to the road of popularization. News guidance not only lost its former position, but also insisted on guidance as a synonym for "conservatism". Some newspaper editors and scholars openly put forward that "guidance is out of date" because "guidance is the product of the planned economy era"
"Guidance is the product of the planned economy era" is a misunderstanding.
Regardless of history or reality, guidance is by no means a product of planned economy, nor is it just a media feature under the planned economy media.
Political parties need news media, that is, they use a wide range of mass news media to publicize their party's program and ideas, and strive for and unite the masses to achieve their political goals. This nature and function of the party newspaper will not change before and after it takes office. What has changed is only the way of propaganda under different historical conditions. If a political party gives up its propaganda function, then the party newspaper does not exist.
China Party Newspaper has gone through three different periods. Revolutionary war years (before the party came to power); Planned economy era and socialist market economy era (after the party came to power). The guiding concrete writing methods of party newspapers were formed in the revolutionary war era and the planned economy era, and many of them have really failed to meet the needs of the market economy and need to be re-examined. But when you pour out the bath water, please don't throw away the child who is taking a bath. Especially in today's market economy, it is extremely wrong to completely limit guidance to the attic of planned economy. Although the guidance under the planned economy system is somewhat unrealistic, with the operation and maturity of the market economy, the guidance news has a wider recognition. Because the guiding news under the market economy system is conscious and meets the needs of economic development, people need to understand that information is not the soul of party newspaper reports.
Second, new audiences need guidance.
At present, the polarization of China newspapers is becoming increasingly obvious.
One kind is a serious high-grade newspaper. All party newspapers in China belong to this category. They mainly publish hard news and comments, and guidance is the characteristic of such newspapers.
The other is the popular newspaper. Weekend newspaper, evening newspaper and metropolis newspaper all belong to this category, and their service and interest are their characteristics.
Judging from the current situation, the development momentum of mass newspapers is booming. In the 1990s, the weekend newspaper fever, evening newspaper fever and metropolis newspaper fever forced serious senior newspapers to be relatively weak, and their advertisements and distribution shrank accordingly. How to treat these phenomena? Don't the audience need serious newspapers?
The answer is no, of course. The transformation from planned economy to market economy system has gradually transformed traditional society into modern society and agricultural society into industrial society. All these have promoted the change of production relations. The social scale began to expand, and new social forces representing different interests were derived. These social forces are the representatives of emerging productive forces, and they have become or will soon become the targets of media communication. So the audience structure has changed under the planned economy system.
Under the planned economy system, the balance of the audience group was broken and a new audience group appeared.
1, the decision-making level has changed. In the past, under the planned economy system, the decision-making level was dominated by the central and local party and government leaders. Under the market economy system, due to the increasing proportion of foreign enterprises and private enterprises in the gross national product, the decision-making level has gradually expanded to leading cadres, industry leaders, foreign enterprise owners and private owners at all levels of government, and with the improvement of the socialization of the non-public economy, that is, private enterprises and foreign enterprises often adopt socialized forms of existence, their social influence is increasing, and the political participation and social participation of foreign enterprise owners and private owners will also increase.
2. The composition of workers has changed. In the past, under the planned economy system, single state-owned enterprises and collective enterprises were the main bodies, and workers were the masters of state-owned enterprises. Workers rely on enterprises, and enterprises rely on the government, which comes down in one continuous line; Today, under the market economy system, there are many ways for state-owned enterprises, such as contracting, joint-stock cooperation and establishing large collectives. Coupled with different economic forms such as private enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises, the composition of workers is relatively more complicated. On the one hand, there is an employment relationship between workers and owners of various non-public enterprises, and even on some levels, it shows the negative and cruel side of interpersonal relationship in the process of primitive capital accumulation.
3. The new urban population brought by urbanization. The reform and opening up has greatly expanded rural areas and small towns to cities, which has brought about an increase in the total population of cities. Before the reform, China's urbanization level (the proportion of urban non-agricultural population in the total population of the country) has been hovering around 8%. By the end of 1997, the urban population accounted for 43.8% of the total population in China, and the urban non-agricultural population accounted for 17.7% of the total population in China. All the population produced in the process of urbanization, such as individuals, private businessmen and urban migrant workers, have increased the mobility of cities and formed new media audiences.
4. Farmers who account for 70% of the total population in China. From the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1978 to the Third Plenary Session of the Fifteenth Central Committee in 1998, rural reform in China has become a major issue in China's reform and opening up. The implementation of household contract responsibility system and the development of rural non-public economy have broken through the rural economic model of planned economy, and the political and economic status of farmers has changed. 1997, 70.4% of the rural labor force engaged in the primary industry, which was 9 percentage points lower than that of 1990, and reached the level of 18. 1% and1.5. But generally speaking, the differences between urban and rural areas, coastal areas and inland rural areas, and economic differences are all affecting the overall structure of farmers. They become loyal and potential audiences of mass media.
The newly growing economic form in society represents the rise of a certain social force and the expansion of social scale, and is the performance of social progress. In the rising stage, all social strata in China need the guidance of the media. This kind of guidance is by no means a repetition and blunt indoctrination of some lessons in history, but a change in the way of reporting.
Third, guidance should adapt to the new situation.
Diversified economic forms, new audiences and the media structure dominated by party newspapers require that the news should be oriented and adapt to the new situation.
This is because the reporting methods of some instructional news are out of date and very unsuitable for the requirements of the new situation. Mainly manifested in: 1, all newspapers insist on reading guidance, resulting in pages full of reading guidance news, the same. 2. All news must be instructive news, not unpopular instructive news. 3. Reading news is to confirm: from policy to reality, looking for news cases, splitting the internal logical relationship of the development of things, full of big talk.
Therefore, only by changing the way of guiding news can we adapt to the new situation.
First of all, the guidance of news must be aimed at new audiences, and the needs of new audiences can guide the guidance of news to the forefront, rather than "mud ancient".
Party newspapers shoulder social responsibilities, and they are duty-bound to publicize the party's line, principles and policies, communicate information, look at the environment and understand trends and trends. New audiences need knowledge and entertainment, but they also need news guidance. 1994 1 1 to 1995 1, the public opinion research institute of China Renmin University, entrusted by the news research group of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, conducted a national newspaper reader survey. The survey shows that the reading interest of China audience has changed from "soft" to "hard" in the new period. In other words, the reader's primary reading purpose shifts to reading news, and people's reading interests generally focus on "domestic emergencies", "major personnel changes in China", "national policies and decrees", "criticizing reports" and "exposing corrupt elements". However, a considerable number of people expressed "disinterest" or even "great disgust" for the news of celebrities and stars, as well as the news describing murders and sexual crimes that had been "on fire" in the previous paragraph. It can be seen that people need to know the true state of their own environment, which is not to lose the traditional "soil", but to face the impact from the new world.
People need guidance to appear in new ways. If we can't innovate, but repeat past mistakes, stick to the old ways or separate the relationship between news events, we will not attract the audience.
Aiming at new audiences, it means that newspapers should have inclusive masses, position the expansion of newspapers above the interests and needs of newly growing social groups, respect them and reflect them. This way of working is indeed already being done. To guide new audiences correctly is to serve these newly growing social groups, to reflect their lives and to become their spokespersons. For example, some newspapers have set up special editions such as Time and Space for Foreign Enterprises, Private World and Investment Guide to reflect this new camp, that is, to speak for new audiences. In-depth reporting is another support. Touching on the inequality in society, punishing the evil and promoting the good, stimulating the erosion and promoting the clean-up, and improving the democratic atmosphere in society are just promoting the social status represented by the new economic forces. For example, the media should be brave enough to expose some enterprises' illegal phenomena such as deducting workers' wages and unreasonable dismissal, and cheer for the people.
Secondly, guidance focuses on analysis, integrates a variety of science, knowledge and information, points out the path and development trend, and truly grasps the internal development trend of news, rather than simply splitting the logical relationship for verification.
At present, because some newspapers don't understand the trend of China's political and economic development, they can't accurately analyze and judge many phenomena existing in the transitional society, which inevitably makes the information dissemination scattered, chaotic and superficial, which makes the audience lament. This is also a bad phenomenon caused by neglecting guidance. For example, the catastrophic flood of 1998 caused people to think about environmental problems. Natural forest logging is prohibited in many parts of the country, and there are many media reports about it. However, what kind of impact does the ban on logging have on the timber market, what is the overall trend, how to solve the economic contradiction between the national timber market and local forest areas, and how much impact it has on the overall wood products market, and so on. It is very necessary for the media to make some useful reports and explanations. Such instructional news will inevitably affect the interests and behaviors of workers in the timber industry, local villagers, people concerned about environmental protection and consumers, help to adjust the interests and economic relations between regions, markets, consumers and producers, help them solve problems and avoid falling into a blind and helpless situation. Unfortunately, such reports are rare. On September 9th, 1998, the Economic Information Daily published an article entitled "Experts' Analysis of the Wood Market after the Logging Ban", which is a rare news with guiding significance. In the words of Zhang Shiwei, a senior engineer, the article points out the comprehensive impact after the logging ban: "Recently, the timber price in the domestic market has been basically stable, with no big fluctuation, but the price of imported timber has increased. The impact of the ban on logging will appear in the medium and long term. " Regarding the problems and development trend after the ban on logging, the article said: "After the ban on logging, China will reduce the timber output by about100000 cubic meters, which will highlight the contradiction of timber supply in North China and other places. Zhang Shiwei suggested speeding up the planning and development of alternative industries and developing imports. " The overall situation of the timber market is impressive: it has remained stable in the near future and the trend of relying mainly on imports in the future has emerged. This provides guiding information for people in the wood industry, so that they can face up to this reality as soon as possible and prepare for production, operation or conversion to production of substitute products. "Prohibition of logging" has changed economic life, and wood floors, chopsticks, furniture and even paper, which are closely related to the consumption of mass wood products, will change accordingly, but few domestic media have made guiding predictions; At the same time, the "logging ban" will also change people who make a living from it-many people will have career changes, and how to solve these people's lives is something the media should face up to. Not enough has been done for this medium.
In a word, strengthening analysis and explanation, integrating scattered information, excavating the internal logical relationship of event development and making correct prediction, rather than simply confirming, are new choices to guide news.
Finally, the guidance needs should be combined with service and readability, so that the news media can be transformed from media-oriented to audience-oriented and completely changed.
Under the market economy, the economic form has spawned new audiences and emerging industries, and it is imperative for the media to pay attention to the combination of guidance, service and readability. This is because guiding news is news that conveys the party's line, principles and policies. Often grasp the background of things, the essence of facts and the trend of facts. Service news is an information service that meets the needs of the audience, including policy service, information service and direct service. Readability is conducive to improving the interest of the audience. There is a dialectical relationship between instruction, service and readability, which is both opposite and interdependent. Only by combining them can we complement each other. Therefore, it is necessary to avoid excessive "idealization" and "popularization" guidance and turn it into a rigid dogma; Avoid taking service as satisfying all the wishes of the audience, even satisfying some even bad hobbies and unprincipled flattery and catering, but really guide the audience to improve their interest.
In a word, from empty propaganda to reporting chain focusing on a single fact, and then to guiding news focusing on comprehensive analysis, it is also called explanatory news in a sense, which is the track taken by China's news reporting method. So far, people have found that, just like a compass when sailing, a fragmentary, vague but true geographical overview is difficult for people to identify the direction, and people need guiding news to identify the direction.
Fourth, guide the requirements of the news for journalists.
The diversity and complexity of the development of ownership economy and the impact of modernization on traditional society have indeed brought great challenges to the news media. As the mouthpiece of the Party and the people, the news media should serve all social groups, speak for those who have contributed to society and convey their voices. Therefore, the media has surpassed the old reporting mode in concept. It is particularly important to actively guide and scientifically guide the audience. This puts higher demands on journalists. Journalists must make the following changes in their way of thinking in order to do a good job in guiding this traditional and challenging new topic.
First of all, journalists should go beyond the way of thinking under the influence of a single planned economy reporting model.
The overall feature of the planned economy model is that it ignores the market and demand and breaks away from the current situation of low productivity in the primary stage of socialism; Reflected in the news practice, that is, journalists can't follow the old ideas and go beyond the planned economy framework, and use the old ideas to deal with new problems and new situations under the market economy system.
For example, from the current situation, some journalists are still stuck in the thinking of reporting under the planned economy system. What they see in front of them is still the audience under the planned economy system. They are still collecting and writing all kinds of meeting information, from government-led meetings to symposiums held by enterprises. However, in the face of the ever-expanding new mass groups in society, some journalists are still bound by the "left" ideology and cannot be treated fairly. For example, some journalists refer to migrant workers who have contributed to the city as "tramps", "wage earners", "unemployed people" and "hillbilly". When reporting on the private economy or individual economy, some journalists often can't escape their own rhetoric, and only pay attention to the achievements of individuals and individuals in wealth, while ignoring the socialization effects of individuals and private economies, such as the employment problems they have solved and the positive and negative experiences in management.
Guiding news under the market economy system requires journalists to really go deep into the market, find problems and solve them.
Second, journalists should overcome the influence of excessive "soft" news on guidance. There is a soft cultural trend in the media today, that is, the popular cultural trend. It appeared as an emotional compensation after people abandoned the "fake, big and empty" media content. The spread of this trend is manifested in the magazine tendency of newspapers and periodicals, the popularization and kitsch of radio and television, such as soft news lacking information, the rise of pop music, kitsch radio and television language, TV soap operas and so on. This trend of soft culture does reflect a certain aspect of people's mental state and a certain aspect of people's spiritual needs, but in general, it masks the real state of our environment. Journalists with social mission need to cultivate keen tentacles and sharp swords of wisdom to break through the package of this soft culture and inform people of the facts that have happened in society. Reading news is an important way to let people know the nature of the world.
Third, be a scholar-type reporter, analyze and deal with problems with a scientific attitude, ensure that news dissemination has practical significance, and do something down to earth. Russell said: "A scientific society is a society that uses the best science and technology in production, education and publicity." In the news reporting of modern society, journalists should not only use scientific and technological strength, but also use scientific thinking and scientific knowledge structure to analyze the new situation in society, report the new problems in the complex and vast knowledge basin brilliantly, and provide people with real opinions. Recruiting economists, lawyers, scientists, doctors and other experts in the journalist industry should be a talent training strategy implemented in the news reform. The media can no longer stand ignorance of professional knowledge and misleading society.
Journalists are the leaders of the times. How to report news and reflect the environment with a passionate and realistic scientific attitude is related to the improvement of the overall quality of the news media and whether the media can maintain a competitive situation with sufficient advantages. The herald put forward higher requirements for reporters.
Precautions:
① High: "Great changes have taken place in rural economic structure", published in People's Daily, 1998, 10, 1.
(2) Yu Guoming: "China Newspaper Industry: Facing Structural Transformation ―― Overall Analysis Report of the National Newspaper Reader Survey", China Newspaper Monthly 1995/9, p. 1 10.
(3) The Complete Works of Russell Volume III, page 142, translated by Jin Jianguo, Inner Mongolia People's Publishing House, 1997.