The BBC’s website has a piece by Michael Bristow about the pop-up notices that appear on our computer screens at CCTV. It’s pretty accurate and gives three true examples. But “pretty accurate” can still be misleading. The problem part of the article is the first two sentences:
When journalists at China’s national broadcaster CCTV log on, one of the first things that pops up on screen is a notice about what not to report.
These notices are often short and seldom say who has authorized them, but they all contain strict instructions about how to report a story.
That gives the impression that we get these instructions every day. We don’t. True, pop-ups do greet us when we log on. But the vast majority of them have nothing at all to do with what can or cannot be reported, or how to report it. They’re just notices to directors and producers saying that such-and-such a promo is ready for use, or messages from the IT department warning that the system might be unstable during an upgrade. Banalities that are of interest to practically no one. And if there is some instruction on how to report a story, it usually consists of nothing more than “be objective, don’t sensationalize.” Not very exciting at all.
Even the interesting messages don’t get read by very many people. I seem to be one of the few who actually do read the damn things - I treat them like ESWN’s Recommended Reading or Danwei’s From the Web. Not so convenient, though, because you can’t just follow that link - you have to go to another computer with an Internet connection and start searching based on what is often very vague information that hardly anyone can understand. It’s sometimes almost impossible to work out what on Earth they mean. I often already know the story anyway from the domestic newspapers, but it’s always nice to be told about something you might have missed.
At this point I feel the need to say two things: 1) I have never blogged about these snippets; and 2) I am NOT Michael Bristow or Chris Bandurski’s source. They obviously know that, but I want my bosses to know it too.
My point is that while the BBC article is broadly true, it gives the impression that we get these instructions every day - and that’s definitely not true. To my great disappointment, management sometimes goes for several weeks without giving us these handy tips. There was a good one this week, but I’m not saying what it was.
3 Comments
Dear Rob
The article is accurate. The notice pops up EVERYTIME you log in. It doesn’t really matter whether these instructions on the pop-up are updated daily, weekly, or monthly. The point of the piece is that there ARE instructions on what can be reported. And these instructions apply to you the day they were put up, and the day after, and the day after that etc.
kind regards
Paul Danahar
BBC Asia Bureau Chief, Beijing
I’m not criticizing the article, Paul. It’s accurate, and the examples given are true. My quibble is the impression that the instructions in the pop-up box are given on a daily basis. Other than that, it’s true - and includes Chris Bandurski’s point about wriggle room.
But I disagree with your clarification here. Yes, instructions are given. However, these messages only appear in the pop-up box if the individual user hasn’t read them. They’re like emails that stay unread in an inbox. Once they’ve been opened, they disappear. Important notices are stored in an archive, but they’re not on the screen as a daily reminder unless they are still unread.
I also disagree that these instructions apply indefinitely. Some do, some don’t. At one extreme end of the spectrum we decided that a direct order from the government (these are rare in this context) no longer applied several hours after it was given. No notice was given that the order had been rescinded. It just no longer made any sense. Other notices can be safely ignored after a day or a week etc. It depends on the time and the issue.
As the article points out, a number of journalists and media in China push the boundaries. And as you know, these boundaries move from one time to another and vary from one medium to another. CCTV tends to be on the conservative side.
Dear Paul,
I used to work at CCTV-9. Unless the system has changed since I left in late 2005, it does not work in the way you and Michael Bristow describe.
What pops up when you log on is a notice header with a subject, usually “important notice” which you have to click through to get to your message inbox. Once in the inbox, all the notices still on the system, including the directives, are listed. However, once you click open your notices they are considered read. If you then log off and log on again, you do not get the pop up, which only appears when you have unread notices in your inbox, regardless of whether they are directives or something more mundane. In other words, you only get the logon reminder if you have any unread notices in your inbox. But only in that case.
When I was there, most of the notices on the system were technical: broadcast changes, satellite shifts, etc., which people sometimes don’t bother clicking open. This may explain why some people get the pop up reminder every time they log on. Non-Chinese speakers might ignore the message system too, forcing a pop up every time they log on.
What struck me about the internal messaging system at CCTV-9 was how few directives on reporting guidelines there were on it, rather than how many.
Best Regards.
John Jirik.
PhD. Candidate,
Radio TV Film Dept.
The University of Texas at Austin.
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