The Evolving Of Concept In China's International Communication

It has been more than two decades since China's television industry experienced a rapid development in its international broadcasting around 1990.During that period,the concept of international communication underwent tremendous changes.Although the Chinese television media greatly adapted to the mechanics of international public opinion,yet it continued to retain some of its own characteristics.In the current environment where China's national strength and international standing are on the rise,the issue of building power to discourse in international communication has also been put on the agenda.China's international communication is about to enter a new era.Therefore,it is necessary to comb through the history of international communication with respect to the Chinese television media,especially the evolution of the said concept in the past two decades.This paper studies the case of China Central Television(CCTV)for tracing the general trend of change in China's international communication as CCTV is the most significant part of the Chinese television media for the country's international communication.Starting with a perspective on the history of Cold War,this paper firstly provides an overview of New China's history of international projection and divides it into two major stages with 1990 being the point of deflection.In the first stage,a strong idea of "struggle"was projected globally,while China's established system of discourse was also completely different from the internationally-practiced system of public discourse and opinion-making.This was the situation facing the Chinese television media when it started to intensify international communication in the 1990s.The junction between the 1980s and 1990s was a period when the focus of China's international communication turned to television media.This process completed in 1992.Symbolized by the establishment of CCTV's International Channel and Overseas Program Center,the international communication of Chinese television media entered a new stage.Post 1992,varying traces of the evolution of the concept of China's international communication are found at different levels.However,each period had a main trend.This stage can be roughly divided into three periods.For the period from 1992 to 2002,the stance of the concept of international communication changed from being "media-oriented" to "viewer-oriented".From 1992 to around 1997,China's international projection through the television was basically about"hitting back" at foreign reports on China.An aptitude of "fighting" was adopted in conducting international communication while the method of communication was greatly based on China's own needs.In terms of program production and scheduling,this enabled the Chinese side to quickly and forcefully respond to related Western reports rather than pursuing the purpose of attracting viewers.Around 1997,the Chinese television media finally realized a serious gap in the levels of production and broadcasting of their own television programs for international publicity and their mainstream Western counterparts.At this point,the Chinese television media started to gradually tone down its "hitting-back"approach and started focusing on "Professionalism" and enhancement of program content quality and broadcasting skills.The Chinese television media finally began paying attention to the feelings of their viewers.However,the main reason for their pursuit of"Professionalism" was their realization of the gap between the Western television mainstream and themselves.Objectively,this also catered to the needs of the viewers.By 2001 and 2002,the pressure of external public opinion on China slightly eased and its international communication work began to focus on "explaining China".Pushing aside retaliation or competition with the Western media,the Chinese television media presented a systematic introduction to the "real China" to the overseas viewers.This was a conscious move for realizing viewer-oriented communication.From 2003 to 2012,a change from "passive communication" to "active communication" became the main trend in the evolution of international communication.Despite being conscious about developing an independent communication system,the Chinese television media's approach of "explaining China" was nevertheless based on countering China's image built by the West.In other words,it continued to be a retaliatory approach centering on "passive communication".From 2003,capacity building for international communication became the focus of Chinese television media's international communication.Efforts for improving international news broadcasting abilities,building overseas television broadcast platforms,establishing overseas bureaus,raising the rate of channel penetration into overseas households and hotels,and setting up multilingual channels were all undertaken in a planned and systematic way and accomplished tremendous achievements.After acquiring certain overseas communication abilities,the Chinese television media began focusing on the global projection of the Chinese culture.It used Chinese culture for attracting overseas viewers and expanding its overseas market reach.This is what can be categorized as "active communication".After 2013,the main line of development for international communication became to be the building of a comprehensive power to discourse.With its national strength on the rise,China is bound to look for a discourse power in international public opinion which matches with its national strength and international status.In the past few years,CCTV has made various useful attempts in the areas of localization and in-depth international cooperation,while enhancing its overseas recognition.The process of building a comprehensive power to discourse is still in full swing.It will also constitute the developmental direction for a period of time in thef future.In the era of further building the power to discourse in the future,the most critical point pertains to properly handling the relationship between the Chinese discourse and the Western discourse,so as to neither make the viewers feel alienated nor fully integrate into the Western discourse.China faces three obstacles in building its power to discourse in the international public opinion domain.First,domestic communication rules restrict international communication.Second,overseas viewers have already formed a fixed "China Image" in their mind.Third,an alienating nationalistic thinking is now prevalent in Chinese folklore.To address these issues,the personnel concerned need to develop an independent thinking approach and carry out rational analyses,besides learning from the successful experience of foreign media,especially that of the Russia Today TV.At the international publicity policy-making level,China should establish international publicity mechanisms which are different from the ones for domestic publicity.In the meanwhile,CCTV should have a clear positioning and adopt unconventional means to create new conditions for easing the nationalist sentiments in the domain of international communication.