China: The Covid-19 Story: Unmasking China’s Global Strategy 12 May 2021
China: The Covid-19 Story: Unmasking China’s Global Strategy
New research by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has found that China successfully activated existing media infrastructures to seed positive narratives globally amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The IFJ’s new report The Covid-19 Story: Unmasking China’s Global Strategy, released on May 12, outlines the findings of an international survey of journalist unions to explore the impact and influence of China’s global outreach strategy on the media ecosystem.
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The findings reveal an activation of the existing media infrastructure China has put in place globally, which includes training programs and sponsored trips for global journalists, content sharing agreements feeding state-sponsored messages into the global news ecosystems, memoranda of understanding with global journalism unions, and increasing ownership of publishing plat
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese President Xi Jinping enjoyed prime real estate in the centre of Serbia’s capital, Belgrade: his face plastered across a billboard with the words “Thank you brother Xi”.
The sign, courtesy of the pro-government tabloid Informer, was in response to China sending COVID-19 medical supplies to Serbia. It joined a long list of pro-China offerings of thanks from nations around the world during the pandemic in the form of overt propaganda or more subtle media messages.
A new report being published today by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), which I co-authored with Louisa Lim of the University of Melbourne and Johan Lidberg of Monash University, has found Beijing’s global image has benefited from the pandemic, despite its origin in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Covid 19 coronavirus: When Covid hit, China was ready to tell its version of the story
11 May, 2021 02:41 AM
9 minutes to read
Under Xi Jinping China has inserted money, power and perspective into the media in almost every country in the world. Photo / AP
Under Xi Jinping China has inserted money, power and perspective into the media in almost every country in the world. Photo / AP
New York Times
By: Ben Smith
The government has been using its money and power to create an alternative to a global news media dominated by outlets like the BBC and CNN. In the fall of 2019, just before global borders
Ben Smith, The New York Times
Published: 10 May 2021 11:43 AM BdST
Updated: 10 May 2021 11:44 AM BdST A giant screen shows news footage of Chinese President Xi Jinping attending a video summit on climate change with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, at a shopping street in Beijing, China April 16, 2021. REUTERS
In the fall of 2019, just before global borders closed, an international journalists’ association decided to canvass its members about a subject that kept coming up in informal conversations: What is China doing? );
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What it found was astonishing in its scope. Journalists from countries as tiny as Guinea-Bissau had been invited to sign agreements with their Chinese counterparts. The Chinese government was distributing versions of its propaganda newspaper China Daily in English and also Serbian. A Filipino journalist estimated that more than half of the stories on a Philippines newswire came from the Chinese state agen
The report is based on an original survey that polled 54 journalist unions from 50 different countries and territories. The survey probed the extent of China’s global media outreach in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. The report notes, “
Beijing has managed to parlay the pandemic into positive coverage for its handling of the new coronavirus. Globally, 56 per cent of all countries reported that coverage of China in their country had become more positive overall since the Covid-19 outbreak, while only 24 per cent said coverage of China had become more negative. The percentage of respondents reporting memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with Chinese bodies remained stable at around one-third, with several respondents remarking that travel bans had frozen negotiations regarding media agreements.”