A Failure In Chinese Media Communication

The SARS plague broke out in the end of 2002 was called a "crisis" because it forced a threaten to the fundamental value and behavior standard of our social system and, it needed a critical decision under an urgent and highly-uncertain condition. Chinese media didn't function well during the crisis then. So, this assay based on analyzing the failure of the news report on SARS, aiming to arouse a reflection on protecting information communication by means of laws and regulations. Only by so doing, can the society work well and respond better to crisis later on as well as avoid the unexpected lose. This article begins with the governmental control of information in the cause of SARS report, putting forward that we need a government with limited responsibility and entitling freedom to media; it also argues, by analyzing the publics' application and satisfaction, that rumors are bound to be prosperous if the authoritative media failed to meet the public's requirement for information, based on that, the article urges to alter our traditional outlook to reporting; thirdly, it analyzes the fact that our media avoided the focus of the public agenda at first and the mistake in the rebuilding of agenda afterwards, holding the opinion that we are expected to set up reasonable media agendas in China, i.e., to respect the public focus, to report events objectively and exhaustively, to have a deep self-questioning to the crisis and , in all, to lead public agenda correctly. At last, we set our landing-point at how to protect a successful reporting on emergencies and looking twice at our gains and loses in the past reports on emergencies. It points out that the two regulations, Regulations On Governmental Information Publicizing and Regulations On Reacting to the Public Hygienic Incidents, which was drafted and publicized during the crisis, protects the right of media to report on emergencies in the form of laws. The reflections and suggestions in this article are based on an communicational analysis to SARS report. It also has a lot to do with the position and status quo of Chinese media. Some of the proposals might be advisable, some might only be an ideal fiction but, at least, it stands for the way for us to go.