TV news 電視新聞報導

19th July 2016 1 By livinguktaiwan

在台灣已經超過三個月,對於本地電視新聞我實在不敢恭維。雖然晚間有時事評論節目,但一般的新聞報導真的沒有甚麼值得看。

平時的電視新聞報導主要都是有關交通事故,人在街上吵架或娛樂新聞。雖然也有一些國事如政治或經濟問題,但都是不太詳細的報導。若以一個有超過二千三百萬人口而又渴望在國際舞台上佔一席位的國家來說,新聞報導的國際視野實在少得可憐。重大新聞如英國脫歐,歐洲恐怖襲擊,美國槍擊案件,美國總統大選等也只是略有提及。我跟幾個本地人閒談英國脫歐時,他們都說電視新聞並沒有提供太多資訊。

幾個星期前,台北松山火車站區間車爆炸,炸傷25人,幸好沒有人死亡。當時還沒有人知道爆炸原因,但傳媒很快就把這事件跟其他西方國家的公共交通爆炸案件相提並論。電視新聞很快就播出2004年馬德里火車爆炸案,2005年倫敦7/7連環爆炸案,2015年布魯塞爾地鐵站爆炸等案件的詳盡報導。我當時覺得傳媒這種報導手法很有趣,因為這些爆炸事件全是精心策劃的恐怖襲擊,而台灣從來都不是恐襲的高危地方,為何這麼快就將這次爆炸跟恐襲比較?後來發現原來這只是個別人士對生活不滿的宣洩。

台灣傳媒平時都不那麼在意國際事務,但是當覺得有可能彰顯台灣國際地位時,這些國際新聞就突然變得非常重要。傳媒好像是想透過這些比較,給大家一個印象,台灣跟其他西方國家也一樣會發生這些重大事件。

我覺得如果想真正在國際舞台上突出自己, 平日實實在在的多報導些國際新聞,先從最基本的人民認知入手可能是更實際的方式。

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Having been in Taiwan for over three months, I have concluded that the local TV news programmes are pretty poor.  There are topical debate programmes in the evening but the general news doesn’t really offer much worth watching.

On a typical day, the general news coverage is predominantly either about road accidents or people arguing on the streets, and often with entertainment news rolled in.  Even at a national level, there isn’t significant coverage on general economic and political issues.   For a nation with over 23m population who aspires presence on the international platform,  apart from a flash mentions of really major issues such as Brexit, terror attacks, shooting sprees, US presidential elections etc, global news is pretty scarce.  When chatting to quite a few locals about Brexit and they all say that the TV news doesn’t really tell them much.  True you can search this online but that’s not the point.

A few weeks ago a bomb exploded on a commuter train in Taipei injuring 25 people, luckily there were no deaths.  At the time nobody knew what caused the explosion but the media was quick to compare this incident to various other public transport bombings in the western world.  There was quite an elaborate overview of the Madrid train bombings in 2004, the 7/7 London bombings in 2005, and the Maalbeek metro station attack in Brussels in 2015.   I thought the way the media made these comparison was rather amusing.  All of these were carefully planned terror attacks but Taiwan has never been known to be high on the attack list.  In fact, it turned out that the culprit was a loner who was fed up with life. Secondly, normally Taiwan media doesn’t seem to care much about international affairs, but when it helps them to elevate Taiwan to international status, then international news suddenly becomes very important.

By reporting and comparing these incidents from Europe, it seemed that the media wanted to give the impression that Taiwan, like the western world, has just the same issues.  I think this is an odd way to try to elevate yourself on the global platform.  Maybe reporting more international news to increase the public’s knowledge and interest in the international arena may be a more practical way?