Studies On Shen Bao And The Sino-French War

The late Qing Dynasty is the initial period of Chinese journalism development. Originated from the western concept of the news, as one of the basic carrier of public cultural system, through continuous attempt to build consensus in the public sphere, modern mass media began to gradually realize its role of opinion leaders. However, with unique attributes from the mass communication, to truly become opinion leaders, mass media must also include a series of Influential key reports. This is because the key reports not only relates to the news event itself with the time span, the depth and breadth of the development of the region, but also relates to whether the news event can be a good and suitable topic for mass communication. Besides, this one topic should be fully discussed in the public. Therefore, to study the development status of early Chinese journalism, we must study the planning, organization, and deployment of modern mass media and its key reports.The Sino-French War (1883-1885) lasted 3 years, which was longer than any foreign war Qing government had previously taken; the whole combat region was extremely vast, covering battlefields including Vietnam Tokin, Fujian Majiang, Taiwan Penghu, Zhejiang Zhenhai, etc.; also, in the process of the war with France, two sides negotiated from time to time, making the contradiction more complicated, and making the war interweaved with peace, which was a status so special that had never happened before in the foreign war history in Qing Dynasty. Therefore, this war is not only one of the focus of attention of the whole society news at that time, but also had a profound influence on the historical development of modern China. In this sense, the Sino-French War was indeed a good, suitable topic for mass communication. The outbreak of the Sino-French War not only provided mass media with huge-numbered, rich-contented news materials, but also created a golden opportunity for the key reports in mass media.Since the foundation in 1970s, Shen Bao (中文名《申报》) had soon become the leader of the mass media in modern China. Due to its implementation of localization method, Shen Bao’s key report of the war was after careful planning and deployment, and was even with the efforts of the whole newspaper staff. During this period, in Shen Bao, there were not only dynamic news with extensive source and continuous reports, but also the viewpoint of sharp comments on current events. In addition, in order to let the public know the war more accurately and objectively, Shen Bao also provided a large number of digested news from Western newspapers, trying the best to provide background information in the news. Among all the fully-commercialized and influencing Chinese newspapers’reports, Shen Bad s battle reports for the Sino-French War certainly got ahead of the pack, both in depth and in breadth. Therefore, Shen Bao’s sales increased rapidly, and its’social influence has been improved obviously, which made its role of leader position increasingly clear. We need to point out that Shen Bao’s reports about the Sino-French War also made its relationship between official circles closer. Since it reported war-related news in correspondent with official mainstream ideology more and more often, the previously arrogant official circles started to turn its attitude to media from indifference to concern. The change let Shen Bao and other mass media see the possibility of the realization of the ideal "Although the voice comes from the people, the authority will still listen and respect it".Shen Bao did not stop with this. Thanks to the rapid development of new communication technology in modern times, during the Sino-French War, Shen Bao tried to make breakthroughs from the abstract concept of the news to the specific news operations, etc. During the war, Shen Bao aimed to establish and improve innovations of modern Chinese mass media news standard, and to emphasize internal functions of the newspaper from a deeper level, thus to help people further understand the operation and report rules in news editing process of modern China.This article summarizes the early days of Shen Bao since its foundation; organized and analyzed several battle news reports of Shen Bao; pointed out that from the communication history’s point of view, major changes in the rapid development of modern journalism and communication methods often benefited by wars. It is true for modern Chinese mass media, including Shen Bao.The article summarizes the situation not long after ShenBaowas founded. We think that the appearance of modern Chinese mass media, including Shen Bao, not only met the needs of people for news and information, but also created a expected topic suitable for people. As for the early newspaper people who has initiatively accepted Western media ideas, they all wished to complete the transition from traditional Confucius scholars to modern intellectuals through the realization of the ideal "politics are made by intellectuals" by modern magazines and newspapers including Shen Bao. This article summarizes and analyzes the early reports of Shen Bao about three wars:"Taiwan Shengfan Incident", Qing army’s pacification of Xinjiang Agubo Rebellion, and armed interference into North Korea’s "Renwu Mutiny". We point out that such reports shows that Shen Baowas intended to create public discussions and in this way to affect Qing government’s decisions. They also shows that ShenBaohas the attitude of creativeness on the fast transmission of war information.With this background, we study Shen Bao and the Sino-French war. This article firstly discusses the national images of France and Vietnam, the two important participants in the Sino-French War, based on the international vision of Shen Bao. We think that related reports in Shen Bao gave the public a deeper understanding of the basic situation of France and Vietnam, as well as the relationship between China and other East Asian countries. At the same time, these reports also settled the basic tune and made the groundwork for the subsequent Sino-French War reports in Shen Bao. This article focuses on the analysis of the public opinions of Shen Bao on Sino-French War during that period, and how these public opinions generated social influence. These public opinions included:Before the war:Shen Bad s conjecture on the objective of France invading Vietnam, its comparison on the national power of France and Vietnam, and its advice on which position China should take; During the war:Shen Bad s attitude on war and peace, its different evaluations of Qing’s army and French army, and its view on the public international law; After the war, Shen Bad s summary on the experience of the war, including the strengthening of national defense construction, the promotion of the Westernization Movement, and the importance of "protecting dependent countries and strengthen the border defence", etc. According to the agenda setting for the reporting of the Sino-French War, the aim of Shen Bao is to address across the country the interest in the war to enable the public to describe, interpret, and debate topics of the war from different aspects. For Shen Bao, it is not only the responsibility and duty of the mass media, but also the only way to opening the newspaper market and to expanding the social impact.This article is also concerned about characteristics of public opinion of Shen Bao during the Sino-French War. According to Shen Bad s shaping on Yongfu Liu, Mingchuan Liu, Peilun Zhang, Hongzhang Li, and other important military or political figures during the Sino-French War, with the initiation and development of modern Chinese mass media, more and more people in the news had become the focus of public. This focus of newspaper, while being an increasingly important mass media center, also left a vivid footnote to expand the study of the modern history of China.During the Sino-French War, Shen Bao showed distinctive features superior to others in tones of settings and means of editing, which shows Shen Bao’s process of pursuing authenticity, objectivity and comprehensiveness. For example, Shen Bao insisted on the standpoint of fighting against French invasion. It tried to protect Chinese national sovereignty, by means of reporting the war objectively, impartially, and comprehensively. This patriotic tones of report setting and emphasizing, besides gathering and controlling readers and expanding the newspaper’s social influence, also accelerated and improved the localization process of Shen Bao. During the war, Shen Bao revised the "news type", "as long as there is a news, we record it", and tried to transform it into a means of finding the truth. To some extent, it changed the journalistic convention of making "as long as there is a news, we record it" an excuse of irresponsibility.In addition, this article makes a sampling statistic analysis on Shen Bad s important reports during the Sino-French War, and through which the article makes a quantitive analysis on journalists’geographical locations and the activity levels, categorization of the resources of news reports, and the creative types of news. We also analyzes some operating phenomena that Shen Bao released the first illustrated newspaper in China, Dian Shi Zhai Illustrated Newspaper, and other extra newspapers during the war. We point out that Shen Bao not only strengthen the media function of reporting news and providing opinions, but also tried to expand the brand functions and reputation actively. Through the complement of the main brand and extra brands, Shen Bao expanded the area it covered effectively, so that it created conditions to further control the initiative of media opinions. In a word, journalists’growing profession, information resources’growing variety, and news types’growing flexibility all show that the Sino-French War has positive influence on the professionalism of modern Chinese media.The article think that in the face of such major news events such as the Sino-French War, modern Chinese mass media, including Shen Bao, always tried to respond to the discussions and expectations of officers, scholars, and the public about the image of war by setting the agenda accurately; they tried to influence "the image of world" in the mind of the public by making various reports and comments; they tried to increase the viscosity of the audience by focusing on public opinion, in order to promote the mass media to become another power outside of the traditional power system. Shen Bad s war report eventually made itself to be gathered around by those Qing court officials, Qing army generals, and gentry intellectuals who had used to have a sense of alienation. The social influence of Shen Bao was rising rapidly. Modern Chinese mass media made such indefatigable efforts and attempts, due to the inner requirements of commercial newspaper, and the outpouring of nationalist sentiment.The article also believe that although based on strong nationalistic standpoint, from the news professionalistic point of view that was still in an initiative stage, Shen Bao showed dissatisfaction with, or even criticism towards western reports about the Sino-French war. But from the importance of where media locates in public discussion, Shen Bao and other public media showed apparent disparage between western newspapers. The position where western newspapers stand is indispensable among so many Chinese newspaper. However, although subjected to multiple constraints of subjective and objective conditions, without a doubt, modern Chinese mass media, including Shen Bao, made efforts and attempted to play the role of opinion leaders, which always have a strong positive influence on the development of Chinese journalism.