5 Reasons a Chinese Al Jazeera Is a Good Thing

Recent revelations that China is planning on investing over US$7 billion in an effort to create a credible global radio and television news service using Al-Jazeera English as a model have provoked comments that range from the dismissive to the skeptical to the paranoid.

I am not convinced China is going to create a credible global voice in the near term, but I think it is only a matter of time before it happens. Rather than concern America and the world, however, we should see this effort as a positive development because even the sketchy details we have of the program suggest a new maturity in China's approach to strategic communications, public diplomacy, and indeed world opinion.

1. China Needs to Care About What the World Thinks - The fact that China is ready to undertake this effort means that China's senior leadership acknowledges that global opinion matters to China. This may be obvious to those of us steeped in communications, international relations, soft power, and/or public diplomacy, but it is a light-bulb moment for China's leaders. Since declaring the People's Republic sixty years ago, China has maintained an almost cussed independence of action, speaking and acting as if it cared nothing for what the world thought. This is apparently no longer the case, and that opens a new series of doors to influence Chinese policy.

2. If You Build It, They May Not Care - Whatever else China Radio International, CCTV-4, and CCTV-9 have accomplished, their growing availability worldwide has not had much apparent effect on how China is perceived abroad. China's leaders have learned an important lesson: they do not get a hearing purely by virtue of China's size or growing importance.

3. Propaganda Fails - The acknowledgment that the service's credibility depends on a level of editorial objectivity unknown elsewhere in Chinese media (including the current global radio and television services) is an implicit recognition that propaganda is dead as a tool of public diplomacy. This is not only a rejection of previous practice but of orthodox Communist communications doctrine.

4. The Audience is King - The initiative recognizes that China must communicate with the world in a way that audiences can appreciate, rather than using the intonation and buzzwords of Chinese political orthodoxy. If you've ever heard a government official speak in public - or watched a Chinese newscast - you know what I mean.

5. Being Heard Means Looking Good - The initiative recognizes that China must compete in a global marketplace of information, and China's take on world affairs will not be heard unless it is packaged and delivered in a format and context that is comfortable to non-Chinese viewers. If there is a single lesson from Al-Jazeera, this is it.

If you are not certain that China coming to these conclusions is necessarily a good thing for the rest of the world, consider this. If I have learned one lesson in my career as a communicator, it is that the more a government or company alters its approaches to appeal to an audience, the more responsive that entity becomes to its audiences in its thinking, policies, and behavior.

The unspoken secret of the "perception management" process - the part we don't always share with our clients - is that the process changes both sides, not just the audience. This will be especially true as we move out of the Age of Broadcast and into the Age of Conversation.

I am in no way suggesting that China will suddenly change its domestic policies, drop single-party rule, or gang-stomp the Somali regime because the PRC desires greater global influence. But if China is committed to its stated global communications objectives, small but significant changes in the nation and its international relations are an inevitable result. As the Bush administration learned, global influence is unsustainable when foreign policy and strategic communications are formulated and conducted in willful ignorance of global opinion.

On the other hand, I have had some people suggest to me that, providing China sticks to its commitment to offer evenhanded reporting on its global channels, this may signal to Chinese leaders that they can use the same approach at home. At best, this is wishful thinking. Media aimed at overseas audiences will serve the purpose of building Chinese credibility abroad. Media aimed at home will remain focused on maintaining social stability and supporting the evolution of a "harmonious society." We can expect a wide "Chinese wall" between the two.

For now, anyway.

Comments

[Steven Hansen:]

david,
what good does it do to emulate Al Jazeera when Al Jazeera has difficulty getting a foothold on USA cable. i do admit Al Jazeera does a good job (arguably better than CNN) - but it needs market penetration.

Having watched China news in English, i too am skeptical that the government would release control of content (like Al Jazeera and Qatar).

Feb 04 05:48 AM

[Doc 224899:]

"Propaganda Fails" !??

Since when does propaganda fail? Huge crowds softly chanting "Yes, we can," in unison, when asked if 2 + 2 equals 5, tells me it still works.

Feb 04 08:08 AM

[farmer448:]

Propaganda Fails?

Politics
Big Rove's game plan, "FEAR". make them afraid, very afraid.


Military.
We are fighting for freedom in Iraq and Afganistan??????

As far as I can tell Afganistan was a lesson in do not harbor an organization that uses violence against America. Kinda like the Marines vs the Barbary Pirates
Iraq, I just do not have a clue why it was important to over throw Sadam? I am thinking from a practical standpoint.


TSA
I feel so safe paying an extra five bucks so I can be humiliated and searched. The TSA has nothing on the reality shows on TV. We could call it Hijacker instead of Survivor

Keeping a hijacker out of the cockpit is what makes us relatively safe.
This was done in the 1970's when the Palestinians were hijacking aircraft and it ended.

War on Drugs..
Never has less been accomplished and more democratic values been destroyed then the supposed war on drugs.
Just ask the Major of the small Virginia town who has his dogs killed, his house destroyed from a "No Knock" warrant. Or how is it possible to arrest money?

Feb 04 01:37 PM

[James Lewis:]

I am sorry but reading this article I think it is fair to say that you dont understand how the Politburo thinks. They are not creating this entity because they care how the world thinks. They are creating this entity to drive their propoganda. I can assure you that the content communicated through this entity will be created/edited and censored by exactly the same people who create/edit and censor their current international content.

In fact this new propoganda project illustrates that they have become so emboldened by controlling content at home and other international activites. ie paying pro-chinese supporters wherever they feel anti-chinese protectors will be. That they now feel they can start manipulating the minds of people in the west.

This is a new strategic weapon in their arsenal.
Nothing less...

Feb 04 04:21 PM

[M.R. Henderson:]

Mr. Wolf, I would like to hear your response to James V. While you make the point that never is just one side changed through public relations, the CCTV world project is a singularly nationalistic nation's tv channel. It is not a corporation. There could not be any "diverse" point of view coming through any project of this size in China.

Tenecent company, one of the most successful internet companies in China, tried to broadcast online a silly new years show, and the government stopped it, wanting no competition for their show. China's government has over 50,000 internet bloggers, who push government agendas under their own name while making sure companies delete non-aligned content. This is why Chinese Wikipedia was a failure. Every television show is carefully controlled and scripted to further government interests, whether they be social, political or economic.

So my question, in particular, is how does a broadcast system aimed only at furthering the government's goals change the government? Is it not likely the government will do what it does in its own interest, and this channel will be assigned the task of aiding it internationally, just like it currently must aid the country domestically. In the rare instance that a reporter hits on a story the government finds objectionable, that reporter's career ends. There will likely be shows on happy and creative Chinese, thankful foreigners, and then those foreigners doing bad things or being racist against China. Now I feel that China deserves to struggle to further its aims, and one more voice on the international cable circuit is a fine thing to balance out the other bland views out there. But can you detail for us how the feedback loop you hope for will prosper? What is the model by which one could make assumptions about this sort of project?

Feb 05 06:53 AM

[HALFTRACK:]

WELL :WHAT DO YOU KNOW: "CHINA IS FINALLY BREAKING OUT OF THEIR {ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT ORDER }THINKING" AND "BECOMING A MEMBER OF THE CAPITALISTIC CLAN" !!

Feb 06 08:52 PM