How does the Central Radio and Television General Station report on anti-epidemic disease？
Author | Gao Xiaohong
Source | China Broadcasting Magazine (ID:zggbzz)
At present, China is facing the severe challenge of novel coronavirus (NCP or COVID-19 in English, COVID-19 in Chinese). The epidemic situation in COVID-19 is a particularly serious public health emergency, which greatly threatens people’s lives, health and safety. As of February 18th, 72,530 cases have been diagnosed, including 11,741 cases of severe illness and 1,870 cases of death.
On February 3, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader clearly pointed out at the The Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) meeting: "The current situation of epidemic prevention and control is severe and complicated, and some people have anxiety and fear. The propaganda and public opinion work should be intensified to coordinate online and offline, domestic and international, major and minor issues, better strengthen confidence, warm people’s hearts, gather people’s hearts, and better safeguard the overall stability of society."
In this critical period, "the news media is the main body of communication and responsibility of emergency reports, and undertakes important missions such as information communication, comforting people, supervising the government and mobilizing society". The domestic mainstream media, represented by the Central Radio and Television General Station (hereinafter referred to as the General Station), fully responded to the prevention and control of the COVID-19 epidemic, fought in the front line of fighting the epidemic, took the initiative to undertake the anti-epidemic mission of the mainstream media, timely released authoritative information, accurately reported the epidemic, responded to social concerns, grasped the "time effect", actively guided public opinion, and created a good public opinion atmosphere for rallying people’s hearts and enhancing confidence in fighting the COVID-19 epidemic. This paper focuses on the specific measures taken by the General Station during the fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.
01
Unblocked information:
Give full play to the authority and professionalism of mainstream media
1, timely, open and accurate report on the progress of the epidemic
The report of unexpected events refers to the news media’s integration of media resources in the process of the occurrence and development of events, and their reporting and evaluation of various situations related to events to the society and the public. After the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic, a major public health event, the whole society paid close attention to the epidemic information and the progress of epidemic prevention and control. China quickly launched a Class I response to major public health emergencies, and the National Health and Wellness Commission and the health and wellness commissions of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government announced the epidemic information of infectious diseases in their respective administrative regions to the public. The information on epidemic situation of infectious diseases should be published in a timely and accurate manner. At the same time, the news media should also report the true information of emergencies in a timely and accurate manner according to the law, protect the people’s right to know, and contribute to the handling and aftermath of public emergencies.
Since the outbreak of the war of resistance against the epidemic, the general station has released authoritative information in time and continuously spread the epidemic situation around the clock. The News 1+1 column of CCTV, the general station, has been arranged as a whole and specially planned, and has continuously reported the COVID-19 epidemic since January 20th.
On January 20th, this column was connected with Academician Zhong Nanshan, the leader of National Health Commission high-level expert group, to introduce the basic situation of COVID-19 epidemic, which played a role of "setting the tone" in the information dissemination of COVID-19 epidemic. Since January 26th, CCTV News Channel of the General Station has launched "Special Report on the War Epidemic", with the theme of fighting the epidemic, continuously focusing on the national situation of fighting the epidemic, and releasing the latest data of the epidemic in time, so that people can know fairly well. It also connected with reporters from the front-line general station of the anti-epidemic in real time, showing the good mental state of all regions and departments in fighting the epidemic with one heart and one mind. At the same time, we will give full play to the advantages of the platform and share the program resources. From January 29, CCTV will broadcast CCTV programs simultaneously from 10: 00 to 11: 00 and from 15: 00 to 16: 30 every day.
In the reporting of major public health emergencies, the openness and transparency of information is very important. As a bridge connecting the government and the people, the mainstream media should disclose authoritative information at the first time and occupy the first place in the public opinion field.
From January 26th, the press conference of the State Council Press Office, National Health Commission Press Conference and the State Council Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism will be broadcast simultaneously by CCTV’s comprehensive channel and news channel, and broadcast simultaneously by China Voice. Every day, through the live broadcast of the press conference on epidemic prevention and control, the prevention and control information in COVID-19 can be disseminated openly and transparently, and the people’s right to know is fully respected and guaranteed. At the same time, speaking in a timely, active and rational manner has also curbed the spread of online rumors.
2. Interview authoritative sources and release authoritative information on epidemic prevention and control.
After the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic, the spread of all kinds of information, especially the spread of new media space on the Internet, is very active, which makes the people contact with a lot of information every day, and the phenomenon of information overload appears. At the same time, the people are very concerned about the spirit of the central government and the policies, methods, and prevention and control process of epidemic prevention and control. Therefore, the mainstream media need to exert their authority and credibility and master the leading power of public opinion. This is also an initiative to set the agenda and master the right to publish, define and interpret issues. As the authoritative mainstream media in China, the reception desk gathers the advantages of interview resources by releasing official authoritative information at the first time, interviewing authoritative experts and frontline workers against the epidemic, and carefully sets the media agenda for fighting the COVID-19 epidemic.
3, professional team to fulfill the responsibility and mission of news propaganda work.
In the highly developed communication environment of online social media, the mainstream media put forward more stringent requirements for the authenticity, accuracy and security of information in this public opinion campaign against the COVID-19 epidemic. Because if the information is slightly deviated, it may cause the content to spread out of control, and then affect the credibility of the mainstream media.
On the one hand, the main station sent a professional team to the first scene to fight the epidemic, on the other hand, it strengthened the supervision of the contents of epidemic prevention and control to ensure the foolproof dissemination of information. From January 27th, the General Station set up the "Wuhan Live Studio of War Epidemic" in Hubei Radio and Television Station, and set the studio at the forefront of the fight against the epidemic. The broadcasting frequency of the main station gives full play to the emergency role of broadcasting in public health emergencies. By taking advantage of the advantages of wide broadcasting coverage, fast transmission speed and low listening threshold, the emergency reporting plan is launched at the first time, and the propaganda of epidemic prevention and control is intensified. All programs broadcast the progress of epidemic prevention and control in COVID-19 in a rolling way throughout the day. Every day from 19: 00 to 20: 00, the "Voice of China Special Report on Fighting the Epidemic" is also launched. During the week from February 3rd to 9th, there were 1,400 epidemic-related reports and nearly 7,000 written messages.
In 2018, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out in his speech at the National Conference on Propaganda and Ideological Work: "To do a good job in propaganda and ideological work under the new situation, we must consciously undertake the mission of raising flags, gathering people’s hearts, educating new people, rejuvenating culture and displaying image."
Since the outbreak of New Crown Pneumonia, the broadcast time of CCTV’s "News Network" program has been extended for many times, and the coverage of fighting against the COVID-19 epidemic has been increased, which reflects the professional mission and responsibility of the mainstream media, and its professional ability has been widely recognized by the society. On February 12th, Li Zimeng, the host of CCTV News Network, read the manuscript for 8 minutes without any jam, and the professional skills of news reporting were recognized by netizens. "Li Zimeng bowed his head and read the manuscript" was listed on the hot search list of Weibo, and on February 14th, the host Hai Xia broadcast for 12 minutes without any jam, and then went to Weibo for hot search ("Hai Xia bowed his head and read the manuscript"), and CCTV girls also boarded the hot search together, with the above three hot searches.
02
Enhance confidence:
Grasping "Time Effect" and Realizing the Effect of Public Opinion Guidance
1, the importance of public opinion orientation in the war epidemic.
When dealing with major public emergencies, the news media plays an important role in guiding public opinion. The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out, "It is crucial for the masses to know more about what the Party and the government are doing and what they need to do, so as to strengthen the confidence of the whole society and overcome the epidemic." At the critical moment in the fight against the epidemic in COVID-19, it is important for the news media to do a good job in guiding public opinion and grasping the correct direction of public opinion, which is conducive to rallying strength and inspiring people, guiding the public to rationally and correctly view and analyze the epidemic situation, scientifically taking preventive measures against the epidemic, and actively responding to the possible impact of the epidemic.
Past experience shows that public opinion guidance for major emergencies has basically established two footholds: one is to guide with facts, that is, to tell the public the truth; The second is to use value guidance, that is, to influence the public to look at the truth correctly. On the basis of timely, open and accurate reporting on the epidemic situation and its prevention and control information, the guidance of public opinion of news media should always focus on publicizing and reporting the important speech of the Supreme Leader General Secretary and the spirit of a series of important instructions, firmly win the determination and confidence to fight the COVID-19 epidemic, gather social consensus, adhere to the unity of party spirit and people’s nature, carry forward the main theme and stimulate positive energy.
All channels and frequencies of the main station use the all-media matrix to convey the spirit of the important instructions of the CPC Central Committee and the Supreme Leader General Secretary in time, give play to the public opinion power of the main station’s independent comments on the brand, actively interpret the signals of the central meeting, and strictly implement the decision-making arrangements of the CPC Central Committee. Commentators’ articles on epidemic prevention and control published by International Sharp Review show the world China’s determination and confidence to overcome the epidemic and meet the challenges. Commentators’ articles on epidemic prevention and control published by CCTV Quick Review have boosted morale and gathered strength in the propaganda and reporting on fighting the epidemic.
2. Grasping and innovating the principle of "time and efficiency"
The party’s news and public opinion work requires grasping the principle of "timeliness and effectiveness" and acting according to the law of news dissemination. Specifically, it is necessary to deal with the timeliness, rhythm, strength, discretion and effect of public opinion guidance.
In terms of timeliness and rhythm, the reception desk not only released the COVID-19 epidemic in time, but also realized real-time and full-time reporting, which responded to social concerns and met the people’s requirements and expectations for timeliness of epidemic information. At the same time, the reporters of the General Desk raced against the same time and went to the front line at the first time to interview the leaders of relevant institutions, publicly respond to the shortage of medical protective equipment and other issues, interview experts to fight the epidemic, and understand the work content of the front line of epidemic prevention and control and the treatment of severe and critically ill patients; Experts were also asked to answer the hot topics and questions of the masses, which met the deep-seated needs of the people for prevention and control knowledge in the context of the Internet.
In terms of the strength and discretion of news reports, the epidemic reports of the main station are of high frequency, high intensity and high quality, thus achieving high coverage of epidemic prevention and control information.
According to the data of CCTV Advertising Management Center, from January 24th to February 2nd, the viewing rate of News Network increased significantly, reaching 11.72%, and the viewing rate of viewers aged 15-24 increased by 186% year-on-year. The outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic coincided with the Spring Festival. With the escalation of prevention and control measures, the extension of the Spring Festival holiday, and the implementation of personal home prevention and control measures, radio and television, as a family-accompanying media, just played a key role in spreading anti-epidemic information in families.
In terms of the effect and actual effect of public opinion guidance, the general station boldly innovated on the new media platform by means of media integration, and achieved outstanding communication effects. For example, from 8: 00 on January 27th, CCTV News launched an uninterrupted live broadcast of the special program "Common War Epidemic", which was broadcast simultaneously on CCTV Video, CCTV News client, Tik Tok, Aauto Quicker and other mobile new media platforms, providing viewers with an information channel that directly hits the front line of epidemic prevention and control 24 hours a day. The reporter from the General Station visited the epidemic prevention and control site and made a comprehensive, accurate and timely report on the detection, diagnosis and treatment of patients in various regions, the work and living conditions of medical workers, and the production, supply and transshipment of medical protective equipment. The live broadcast attracted tens of thousands of viewers from all over the country to interact in real time, and "Come on Wuhan, Come on Hubei, Come on China" was screened.
At 19: 00 on January 31st, CCTV News Network entered the "Aauto Quicker" short video community and began the normal live broadcast. Within 33 minutes of the first live broadcast, the cumulative number of viewers was nearly 20 million. Since February 1st, "News Network" has been broadcast live on Sina Weibo, with a cumulative audience of 17.658 million, with an average daily audience of 1.358 million. In addition, CCTV news official Weibo initiated the topic of "real-time broadcast of joint prevention and control of epidemic situation", which was read 3.36 billion times and discussed 374,000 times, with a maximum reading of 608 million times in a single day. The topic of "common war and epidemic" has been read 6.07 billion times, discussed 1.55 million times, and the highest reading volume in a single day is nearly 870 million times. Through the way of integrated communication, the mainstream media has exerted great influence among young people and achieved the communication effect guided by public opinion.
3. Storytelling: Reflect the people’s determination and deeds in fighting the epidemic.
"People-centered" is an important working principle of the party’s news and public opinion work. In the report on the fight against the epidemic in COVID-19, the reception desk pointed the lens and microphone of news reports at the people’s anti-epidemic actions. By recording touching stories and accumulating ordinary materials, it told the stories of people around us and described the greatness of ordinary people, conveyed the warmth of humanity and humanistic care behind the severe epidemic, and showed the spirit of the people of the whole country to unite as one and help each other in the same boat.
On January 29th, the Voice of China, the Central Broadcasting Station, launched the special program "Diary of an Angel". The content of this program comes from angels in white who are facing the COVID-19 epidemic and racing against death. It records the daily work of front-line medical staff in the form of voice self-report and first-person perspective. Angel Diary broadcasts an episode every day, and at the same time, it is launched on Himalayan FM audio platform, and published on Voice of China Weibo and WeChat WeChat official account. The program gives full play to the voice advantage of broadcasting, and spreads the positive energy story of fighting the epidemic with a keen perspective and delicate brushwork. According to the data, its single item in Weibo received the highest praise of 19,000 person-times, and the cumulative reading volume of WeChat WeChat official account exceeded 344,000 person-times.
In addition, since February 11th, News Network has launched a column "A Line of Anti-epidemic Groups" to report the effectiveness of joint prevention and control measures by various departments in various regions and tell touching stories about the front line of anti-epidemic. The book "Wuhan at Zero, Here are Stories You Don’t Know" by feature story of the Central Broadcasting Corporation truthfully records the voices of people in Wuhan in the middle of the night and bears witness to the determination and persistence of people from all walks of life. By reporting the great love and responsibility of front-line workers, the mainstream media has established an emotional bond for the people to overcome the difficulties together.
03
Stabilizing People’s Heart: Facing the Social Concern of Major Public Emergencies
1, timely counseling to resolve the crisis of public opinion.
The prevention and control of the epidemic situation in COVID-19 is all-round. In the field of news and public opinion, the first problem is to face and promptly dispel the possible public opinion crisis. The so-called public opinion crisis refers to the phenomenon that public opinion is at a difficult juncture because unfavorable public opinion occupies the central position in the public opinion field. In order to avoid and prevent the public opinion crisis and smoothly resolve the contradictions and problems caused by unexpected events, it is necessary to open the way, promptly guide and master the initiative.
After the occurrence of major public emergencies, the news media should fully predict the current public opinion environment, and make adjustments from the perspective of overall information dissemination, ensure the expression of opinions of the masses, reflect their voices, channel negative and negative public opinion, and encourage and advocate positive public opinion.
The outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic coincided with the Chinese Lunar New Year, so the festive atmosphere became heavy, and the people’s life focus shifted to preventing and controlling the COVID-19 epidemic and ensuring life safety. In this public opinion environment, the reception desk immediately made adjustments, and the 2020 Spring Festival Gala broadcasted a scenario report program "Love is a Bridge" with zero rehearsal. Through the form of scenario narration, it showed the touching scene of Wuhan people facing up to the sudden COVID-19 epidemic and the medical staff selfless treatment.
Later, in the recording of the Lantern Festival special program, we dug deep into the first-line story of epidemic prevention and paid tribute to the "most beautiful retrograde" who silently contributed to the epidemic prevention work, showing the great cohesion of the Chinese nation and the spiritual strength of the people of the whole country to work together to overcome difficulties, which was well received by the audience.
According to statistics, as of 10: 00 on February 5th, the epidemic news materials released by CCTV International Vision and the press conference signals held by state authorities were selected and broadcast by 1,721 overseas TV stations or channels in 112 countries and regions, including Fox and BBC, for more than 362,000 times, which won wide respect and support from the international community.
2. Relieve public panic.
After the outbreak of the epidemic in COVID-19, especially at the initial stage of the outbreak, the public was in a state of panic due to the fact that the focus of the epidemic has yet to be scientifically studied, the situation of epidemic spread is grim, the effect of epidemic prevention and control has yet to be observed, and the drugs for treating and preventing the epidemic have yet to be developed. The public’s panic is manifested in various ways, such as the spread of rumors and rumors, weak awareness of scientific prevention and group prevention and control, and panic buying of masks and medical supplies in some areas. During the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic, it is very important for the mainstream media to play the role of public opinion guidance to alleviate public panic. Previous studies have shown that if we can correctly use the guiding function of the mainstream media, we can promote the original absurd rumors to become a "pedal" for people to understand the truth and scientific knowledge.
On the basis of interviewing authoritative sources and releasing authoritative information on epidemic prevention and control, the Headquarters also launched a series of promotional videos in conjunction with the Propaganda Department of National Health Commission to popularize the knowledge of COVID-19 epidemic prevention and guide the public to enhance their awareness of self-prevention. Each of these popular science videos is about 1 minute long, which effectively and conveniently spreads the practical operation and prevention and control concepts of legal prevention and control, scientific prevention and control, and group prevention and control, and the communication effect is good. Up to now, the series of public service short films have landed on nearly 400,000 digital screens in 50 cities across the country, playing circularly at major airports, stations and ports, and landing in business districts, communities, enterprises and universities in Beijing, Shanghai and other cities.
In the communication environment of media convergence, the new comprehensive audio-visual media flagship "Central Video" 5G new media platform newly built by CCTV based on new technologies such as "5G+4K/8K+AI" was officially launched not long ago, which was put into the prevention and control propaganda of the COVID-19 epidemic. CCTV, the main station, opened up "War ‘ Epidemic ’ The topic "Frontline" includes vlog real shooting, exclusive interview, scientific inquiry, suggestions, real-time panorama and other sections. Record the true story of the "epidemic" front line, follow up the latest progress of experimental research and development, and introduce the knowledge of epidemic prevention science in the form of short video; "CCTV News" broadcasts "Common War" 24 hours a day, and works with hundreds of millions of viewers to supervise, watch, accompany and guard the cloud.
On the evening of January 27th, CCTV opened a 24-hour live broadcast port, and started the "slow live broadcast" of the construction of Huoshenshan Hospital and Thunder God Mountain hospital through the 5G+ optical fiber dual Gigabit network, and multiple aircraft seats presented live real-time pictures around the clock. Without the host, commentary and editing and packaging, it attracted nearly 120 million online "cloud supervisors". The series of live broadcasts were broadcast on 11 online platforms, including Tencent News, Today’s Headlines, Phoenix News, Youku and Wo Video. The total number of viewers exceeded 15 million and the number of interactive comments exceeded 13,000. The series live broadcast and slow live broadcast are broadcast on CCTV News client, @ CCTV News Weibo, CCTV Video client and Tik Tok, Aauto Quicker and Betta Fish. Among them, only the short video of "Tik Tok" was watched by more than 55 million people.
These measures not only mobilized the people’s initiative and sense of participation in the prevention and control of the epidemic in COVID-19, but also helped the people to relieve their anxiety and panic in the high-intensity and fast-paced information environment through the relatively gentle "slow live broadcast".
3. Carry out constructive news supervision by public opinion.
The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out: "This epidemic is a big test of China’s governance system and ability. We must sum up experience and learn lessons." "In the epidemic prevention and control work, formalism and bureaucracy have appeared in some places." The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader also stressed that "authoritative information should be released at multiple levels and at high density, existing problems should be faced squarely, the concerns of the masses should be responded, timeliness, pertinence and professionalism should be enhanced, and the masses should be guided to enhance their confidence and strengthen their confidence, and efforts should be made to stabilize public sentiment." In the process of epidemic prevention and control in COVID-19, the mainstream media actively responded to public concerns, reflected the problems existing in the governance process, especially in the epidemic prevention and control work, played the role of constructive public opinion supervision of the news media, and promoted the epidemic prevention and control work.
On January 29, the Central Steering Group sent an inspection team to Huanggang City, Hubei Province, where the epidemic was serious, for supervision and verification. CCTV reporters covered the whole process. In the report, the working ability of the person in charge of the local competent department was questioned. After the news broadcast, the role and effect of public opinion supervision were produced, and the director of the health and health commission in Huanggang City was immediately dismissed. In the supervision of news and public opinion, the mainstream media always adhere to the problem orientation, which can neither make a mountain out of a molehill to cause panic, nor make a mountain out of a molehill to make the work lax. We should correctly carry out constructive public opinion supervision, meet the audience’s higher-level pursuit of information disclosure in the all-media environment, and promote the solution of problems in the prevention and control of epidemic situation in COVID-19.
The whole people participated in the war against the COVID-19 epidemic, and the effect was obvious. Under the situation of unified and centralized leadership of the CPC Central Committee, mobilization and participation of the whole society, and comprehensive prevention and control, the battle of epidemic prevention and control will surely win the final victory. At the critical stage of epidemic prevention and control, the authoritative mainstream media, represented by the Central Radio and Television General Station, adhered to the duty and mission of news and public opinion work, gave full play to the authority and professionalism of the mainstream media, grasped the principle of "time and effect" and carried out news and public opinion work "people-centered", which unblocked information, enhanced confidence and stabilized people’s hearts.
The author of this paper is Gao Xiaohong, Minister of Journalism and Communication at China Communication University, and distinguished professor, a Changjiang Scholar at the Ministry of Education. Cai Yu is a Ph.D. student at China Communication University, originally published in the third issue of China Broadcasting in 2020.