Abstract:The General Secretary of the Supreme Leader profoundly pointed out that it is necessary to respect the laws of news dissemination, innovate methods and means, and effectively improve the party’s news and public opinion dissemination, guidance, influence and credibility. This is the requirement for the overall communication effect of the news and public opinion work led by the party, and actually points out the direction and path for the traditional media to realize effective communication in the all-media era. This paper makes a dialectical analysis of the communication power, guiding power, influence, credibility and their relationship of the party’s news public opinion, and discusses the pragmatic path of effective communication in the all-media era.
In the all-media era, from the traditional media such as radio, television, newspapers, magazines and movies, it has developed into hundreds of dazzling media forms; There are more and more media that share the communication power, and the communication power of the media is seriously diluted. Coupled with the accurate grasp of people’s needs by some new media and the deliberate catering to some human weaknesses, the decline of traditional media communication power is becoming more and more obvious and serious. Even though the coverage of traditional media is guaranteed by means of administrative subscription and downloading due to the support of the party and government departments, the arrival rate of communication and effective communication are still declining year by year.
On February 19, 2016, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader presided over a symposium on the Party’s news and public opinion work and delivered an important speech, demanding respect for the laws of news dissemination, innovative methods and means, and effectively improving the Party’s news and public opinion communication, guidance, influence and credibility. [1] This is the requirement for the overall communication effect of the news and public opinion work led by the Party [2], which actually points out the direction and path for the traditional media to achieve effective communication in the all-media era.
This paper makes a dialectical analysis of the communication power, guiding power, influence, credibility and their relationship of the party’s news public opinion, and discusses the pragmatic path of effective communication in the all-media era.
First, the communication power
In the "four forces", communication power is the premise, which solves the information acquisition of the audience. Communication power is the ability to spread news and public opinion information, which belongs to the category of communication capacity building. The media use all kinds of media to spread the information they want to spread on a large scale, so that it can be received by as many audiences as possible. Strong communication means that information can not only be transmitted, but also spread widely. Communication power is reflected not only in the breadth of communication scope, but also in the accuracy and depth of communication content.
Communication power is the basis for the media to perform their communication duties, a kind of hard power, and also the main problem to be solved in the current media integration; It is not only a kind of ability, but also the embodiment of the effect of media integration and transformation. From the perspective of communicators, the elements of communication power include the talent team, technical level, channel strength, equipment level and management ability of communicators. From the information point of view, including the quantity, propagation speed and arrival rate of information; From the user’s point of view, including user scale, structure, coverage and so on. It reflects the media index, product index and user index.
On August 18th, 2014, General Secretary of the Supreme Leader presided over the fourth meeting of the leading group for comprehensive deepening reform in the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and deliberated and adopted the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Integration and Development of Traditional Media and Emerging Media. And media integration focuses on solving the problem of the decline of traditional media communication power. Communication power is the basis of guiding power, influence and credibility. Without communication power, guiding power, influence and credibility cannot be realized. In the past five years, the mainstream media have achieved great success in improving the technical strength and communication power of the media by increasing the number of media information platforms. At present, People’s Daily has 780 million users, among which, the total number of fans of People’s Daily in Weibo has exceeded 100 million, the number of fans of People’s Daily WeChat in WeChat official account has exceeded 20 million, the number of independent downloads of People’s Daily clients has reached 240 million, the number of overseas social media fans of People’s Daily has exceeded 80 million, 46 media-melting studios have been set up in the Central Kitchen of People’s Daily, and there are more than 20,000 digital screens of People’s Daily in China. Since the launch of the national party media information public platform, the content pool has aggregated more than 28 million articles … This kind of communication coverage and power was almost unimaginable when there was only a paper version of People’s Daily.
On March 27, 2019, People’s Network Research Institute released the 2018 China Media Convergence and Communication Index Report, which investigated the convergence and communication of 284 major newspapers at the central level, provincial level, provincial capital cities and cities with separate plans. It showed that in 2018, the average report of each newspaper website was reprinted by the whole network for 151,000 times, the average number of fans of newspaper Weibo account was 4.11 million, the average number of articles published per newspaper Weibo account was 19, and the average reading volume of blog posts was 19. The average reading of the newspaper WeChat WeChat official account is 6,900 times, and 95.4% of the newspapers have settled in news aggregation platforms such as Sohu News, Tencent News, Little Information, Netease News and Today’s Headlines. The average subscription volume of 238 newspapers (including websites) that have settled in today’s headlines is close to 400,000. Nearly 20% of the newspaper headlines have a total reading volume of over 100 million in 2018, and the self-built client ratio is 90.8%. The average number of 271 clients has settled in 5.7 app stores, with an average download volume of 3.136 million per client. In other words, most of the information we come into contact with every day comes from the spread of mainstream media through various channels.
Second, the guiding force
In the "four forces", guiding force and influence are both goals, and guiding force focuses on solving the subjective judgment of the audience and is a soft power. Guiding power refers to the ability of communicators to guide users to grasp the correct direction and correct the deviation of public opinion. This is an important effect embodiment of media communication ability. Guiding power is the power of news public opinion to lead and guide people, and it is the ability to lead and guide public opinion and make it move in the expected direction. From the guide’s point of view, the elements of the guiding force include the identity of the guide, the guiding mode and means, etc. From the information point of view, it includes the perspective, tendency and thought of guiding information; From the point of view of the guided person, it includes the scale, level and will of the guided person. Guiding force generally includes attraction, persuasion and motivation. These three levels are the key points for the mainstream media to improve their guidance.
First of all, the media should adhere to the correct direction of public opinion. This is the basis and core meaning of continuously improving the party’s news public opinion guidance. However, the correct public opinion guidance is only a condition to ensure the guiding force, not a sufficient and necessary condition, and we must also pay attention to the ways and means of public opinion guidance. If the reporter is arrogant, condescending, simple in preaching and blunt in indoctrination, and leads with a guiding shelf, it will inevitably lead to resentment and the goal of public opinion guidance will not be achieved. In terms of ways and means, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader requested that the content to be disseminated be more attractive and appealing, and adopt a differentiated and differentiated approach. Let the masses love to listen and watch, and resonate. These are very practical and instructive.
Secondly, the mainstream media must adhere to the correct concept of public opinion guidance. At present, many people still adhere to the "magic bullet theory", thinking that the audience is the target of a hit, and at the moment when the new media is so mature, they are still talking to themselves in a self-righteous way. In fact, the truly effective and correct public opinion guidance is not to defy the people’s hearts and refer to the deer as a horse, but to gradually guide the off-track public opinion to the right track. It should follow the trend, not the opposite. In the US presidential election, most mainstream media in the United States voted for Hillary early. In related reports, mainstream media in the United States have abandoned the so-called neutral stance, tried their best to support Hillary, and constantly tracked and reported Trump’s negative news; But obviously, they abandoned public opinion and tried to "guide" public opinion, which led to the disappearance of the guiding effect of public opinion and damaged their credibility. Most mainstream media in the United States are anti-Trump, and the only one who supports Trump with a clear-cut and continuous banner is Fox News, but Fox News has become the highest-rated TV station in the United States for three consecutive years, with an average audience of more than 1.4 million in the whole year and an average audience of more than 2.4 million in prime time, more than double that of CNN.
Third, influence
Influence is the essence of media competition in the current media structure. In the "four forces", influence is also the goal, which solves the problem of changing the attitude of the audience and is also a soft power. Influence is the ability of news public opinion to touch and even change users’ thoughts, behaviors and attitudes, and it is the effect embodiment of media communication ability; Influence is an "indicator" and "barometer" to evaluate the effect of media communication [3], which generally refers to positive influence. The elements of influence, from the perspective of influencers, include the identity of influencers, ways and means of influence, etc. From the information point of view, it includes authority, value content, closeness, etc. From the perspective of the affected, including the breadth, intensity and depth of the affected. Whether there is influence or not depends mainly on whether the audience and the affected objects have echoes or reactions, such as compliance, opposition, forwarding, quotation, comments, etc. expressed by actions, or only the inner recognition, doubt, denial, happiness, anger, contempt, etc.
From the perspective of effective communication, the main functions of news reports are to spread information, express opinions and convince users. As a result, the influence of the media is divided into positive and negative points, and some users agree with the media after receiving news reports; Some users dislike this media, and this influence is negative. Moreover, there are different levels for users to accept the influence of media. It is the primary level for users to accept the influence of the media to identify with and not dislike the media. Being able to listen to what the news media say and be willing to obey it, either consolidating their original correct views or changing their original biased views is a higher level for users to accept the influence of the media. Being able to admire and yearn for it is the highest level for users to accept the influence of the media. In February 2017, two scientists, Yang Zhenning and Yao Qizhi, chose to give up their foreign nationality. After media reports, some netizens rallied to attack Yang Zhenning, thinking that Yang Zhenning did not return to serve the motherland like Deng Jiaxian at the most difficult time when the new China was founded. Now that the motherland is strong, he will "come back to pick peaches". Faced with such negative public opinion, People’s Daily tweeted an article on WeChat WeChat official account, "Do you say this about Yang Zhenning? Have you asked Deng Jiaxian? ",with a large number of facts and sufficient evidence, Yang Zhenning’s great contribution to the construction of science and technology in new China refuted the absurd views of netizens. Such reasonable reasoning has profoundly influenced many people’s existing views. Belong to a higher level of influence. From the analysis of this case, influence can not be achieved only through opinions.Only the viewpoint based on objective facts can make people accept the influence of the media.
Moreover, the influence is actually mutual. Since the media age, people will not simply accept the influence of the media in one direction. People’s concerns and opinions about an event will in turn affect the direction of media public opinion, and may make the media a "follower" of the agenda set by people, just like the popular "hot spots" in the new media field, and even make news public opinion turn because of the influence of users. In addition, various public opinion fields compete with each other for people’s attention and influence users. People are also easily influenced by other public opinions, such as the public opinion field of new media represented by self-media.
In the influence competition of public opinion communication, the volume and level of media are not decisive factors. The spreading power, guiding power and credibility of the media are all supporting factors of influence. All these come from the image, positioning and value accumulated in people’s minds by daily media reports. Events are factual elements in the influence of the media, and the aphasia or the lag of reporting when major events occur will damage the influence; Rationality implies profound and thought-provoking truth and wins people’s hearts with rationality. Things contain reason, and things are integrated; According to reason, convince people with reason; Convey feelings and move people with feelings; Wait a minute. These are all ways to enhance the influence of the media.
Fourth, credibility
In the "four forces", credibility is the guarantee. The communication, guidance and influence of news public opinion depend on credibility. A news media lacking credibility will inevitably not have strong communication, guidance and influence.
Credibility refers to the degree and result of news information being trusted by the public, and it is an internal strength and social trust resource that the media should have. Credibility is also a component of capacity building. From the perspective of communicators, it includes whether the communicators are honest, brave, rigorous and fair. From the perspective of information, including whether the information is true, objective, comprehensive and balanced; From the user’s point of view, it includes the degree of recognition, acceptance, dependence, loyalty and so on.
In a sense, authenticity is the cornerstone of credibility. [4] General Secretary of the Supreme Leader held a symposium on the Party’s news and public opinion work in 2016, reiterating that "authenticity is the life of news. It is necessary to describe facts according to facts, not only accurately report individual facts, but also grasp and reflect the whole picture of events or things from a macro perspective. " In fact, the General Secretary of the Supreme Leader is well versed in the law of news dissemination. Twenty-six years ago, in an article entitled "Grasping the Basic Points of Journalism" published by China Reporter magazine, he pointed out: "Journalism, as a science, has a close relationship with politics. But it doesn’t mean that news can be equated with politics, and it doesn’t mean that it can be true for political needs. Therefore, it is necessary to emphasize the party spirit of journalism and not ignore the regularity of journalism itself. " [5] Undoubtedly, the principle of news authenticity is the basic point of news law and the basis of media credibility. In addition, the "clarifying fallacies and distinguishing right from wrong" in the 48-word journalist’s duty and mission put forward by the Supreme Leader General Secretary also contains the cornerstone of credibility-authenticity.
At the end of 2018, an article entitled "No matter how white the snow in Xuexiang is, it can’t hide the pure black heart! Don’t go to Snow Country again! After the publication of the article, the local public opinion response mechanism was launched, "putting public opinion prevention and control in the first place". Four days later, a network in Heilongjiang launched a report entitled "The Latest Experiential Interview of Journalists: Snow Township People Inject Heart into Polishing Service", eager to "bleach" Snow Township with the credibility of the media. In many public opinion incidents, we can also see that some mainstream media have similar performances. When major local public opinion incidents occur, they lack a correct concept of public opinion guidance. In practice, they repeatedly use the credibility of the media to endorse the interests of a small number of people, at the painful cost of damaged media credibility, and the effect of public opinion guidance is getting worse and worse.
The truly effective and correct guidance of public opinion is by no means to avoid contradictions. The media, which shoulders the responsibility of guiding public opinion, cannot be the initiator of splitting the social discourse system. After the incident, there were different opinions from the media, but the clues and opinions of the professional media were always absent, and even they became the other side of the extreme discourse division, causing social opposition at the expense of long-term credibility and influence. This is the performance that the media did not perform their due duties correctly. The deviation and complete disconnection between the two public opinion fields eventually led to the loss of credibility of one of the public opinion fields and was abandoned by the people.
"Small scolding helps a lot" is, in a sense, a kind of historical wisdom guided by public opinion. Indifferent "small scolding" is the foundation of media credibility. Only by helping to maintain media credibility can we "help" at critical times. The mainstream media should be used at the most critical time. And how can we expect him to be a good "anchor" at a critical time if we don’t let the mainstream media talk or let him "talk nonsense" on seemingly trivial matters?
[Notes]
[1] Du Shangze. The supreme leader stressed at the party’s forum on news and public opinion work: stick to the right direction and innovate ways and means to improve the credibility of news and public opinion [N]. People’s Daily, 2016-02-20.
[2] Chen Lidan. "Improve the communication, guidance, influence and credibility of news and public opinion"-study the discussion on news and public opinion in the report of the 19th National Congress [J]. News lovers.
[3] Zhao Yanhua. Analysis of the concept of media influence [N]. China News, 2003-8-25.
[4] Lv Yiran. The cornerstone of consolidating the "four forces" of news public opinion: truth [N]. Wen Wei Po, 2016 -2 -23(5).
[5] Xu Yiming. Grasp the basic point of journalism-Fujian Ningde prefectural party committee secretary’s top leader talks about journalism [J]. China reporter, 1989(7).
(AuthorKwok Kuen Chan He is a consultant of Military Journalist and editor-in-chief of China Journalist magazine).