Chapter 5 4. The New Trend of News Governance

In today's highly developed media society, news governance has become a new trend of governing the country.Governance by news is to govern through media news, that is, to use the media to improve the image of the public sector in power, credibility and legitimacy in power, and to disseminate the lines, principles, policies and decisions of the rulers to the general public, so as to achieve the purpose of implementation. U.S. rulers and politicians attach great importance to the use of news to govern, that is, to use news to improve the governing image, credibility and legitimacy of public policy departments.A series of related practices and systems of the US government are worth learning from.

First, use statements to create news.Government officials at all levels attach great importance to expressing their views in a timely manner after the incident, and quickly gather the people around the government; they pay attention to the government's government affairs disclosure and the improvement of the government spokesperson system, and try to make the government's voice heard by the people of the country and the world in a timely manner; Pay attention to the rules of news release, so that the government's agenda, the media's agenda, and the public agenda interact positively.

Second, use actions to create news.American leaders often inspect speeches across the country. They tell reporters the daily schedule of activities in advance, allowing reporters to turn the actions and speeches of the leaders into news in a timely manner and inform the public, trying to make the public always follow the actions and speeches of the leaders of the country. and thought action.These actions of American leaders are all to win the hearts of the people through the media. Third, use policy to create news.That is, formulate policies around "news".The so-called "news" refers to the modification or formulation of a policy, which must have new content and be welcomed by the public.If there is nothing new about a policy, it will not be popular with the public.

Fourth, plan "today's lines".The U.S. government's highest decision-making meeting is a meeting held by the president of the United States at the White House every day.However, the main time of this meeting is to discuss nothing else, but what should be the news today?What are the "news lines" and "news keywords" that the White House should release to the media today?Through the top-level news planning meeting of the White House, through a caliber and a key word, it is ensured that the agenda that the American people, the media, the people of the world, the media of various countries, and even the government pay attention to are all agendas planned by the White House, and the power of agenda setting and news selection is tight. Hold it tightly.

Fifth, carefully organize the press conference.An effective press conference not only conveys information, but also boosts morale and creates public opinion through various forms of programming.U.S. press conferences are usually well-planned, and each press conference will reflect the political intentions of the U.S. government, and make the audience unconsciously accept the government’s propaganda, believing that it is the truth, and at the same time agreeing with the U.S. government as the world’s policeman and the image of a democracy evangelist. China is currently in a critical period of profound adjustment of social contradictions and interests.In response to this situation, the party proposed the goal of building a "harmonious socialist society" and the task of "building governance capacity".Building a harmonious society is not about avoiding "contradictions" and "conflicts", but on the basis of acknowledging the existence of multiple interests, providing an institutional public game platform and communication channels for the expression, compromise, and synthesis of different interests, so that the interests of all parties can be negotiated. Achieving balance and harmony through compromise and compromise.The media naturally has the function of building a "political communication structure" and "interest expression mechanism", and has the ability to serve as a public platform for social interest games.To build a harmonious society, it is necessary to ensure that this function of the mass media is brought into full play.In our country, leading cadres at all levels are "helmsmen" who shoulder special responsibilities, and they should have good news governance capabilities.Specifically include the following aspects:

First, understand the media, understand the basic theory and basic business of news communication.Leading cadres should understand a series of general characteristics such as the nature, type, and function of the media, as well as the basic relationship between the media and social politics, economy, and culture; Effects to apply them individually as needed.In addition, one should also understand the general principles of journalism and communication, including the understanding of the communication process and each link - source, disseminator, channel, audience, effect, feedback, selective attention to the audience, understanding, memory, and formation, Changing understanding of various ideas and behaviors, understanding of social control of news dissemination, etc.

Second, be able to skillfully use news reports to set the daily agenda of the party and the government, manage public crises, and do a good job in positive publicity of major events, so as to strengthen the credibility and legitimacy of governance.First of all, leading cadres must learn to actively provide information to the media, and transform the information that the party and the government are trying to convey through the agenda set by the media into an agenda that the masses pay attention to.Second, we must strengthen public crisis management, that is, when destructive incidents that negatively affect the image of the party and the government and damage social stability and unity occur, how can the relevant departments and relevant personnel use the media to calm people's minds as soon as possible and minimize losses .Thirdly, we must master the skills of effective positive publicity and learn to organically integrate publicity into fresh news.

Third, learning to manage and serve the media correctly and effectively can not only make the media's subjective initiative fully play, but also limit its possible negative impact to a minimum, thus promoting the healthy development of the media.As the reform of the economic system and the political system continue to deepen, the single means of administrative management of the media can easily lead to "rule of man", which is increasingly unsuitable for the needs of media management under the conditions of a market economy.Therefore, it is the general trend to explore more reliance on legal, economic and social means to make media management on the track of rule of law and standardization.The Party's management of the media should be mainly political, organizational, and ideological, focusing on macro-management, such as the access system, system reform, and industry order, and it is not appropriate to directly interfere with specific news business too much.It is necessary to respect and support the media to independently carry out the business of collecting, editing and broadcasting in accordance with the principle of organically combining the law of publicity and the law of news; it is necessary to support news reform, advocate freedom of the press within relevant laws and regulations, and support the media to carry out normal supervision by public opinion.In addition to management, leading cadres should also establish a sense of serving the media, provide comprehensive public services for media development, and create a fair, open, orderly, healthy, and vibrant media ecological environment.

Fourth, be able to critically interpret media information, discover new problems, find new ideas to solve problems, and apply them to your own governance work.Media reports are the product of the media's selection, processing, and arrangement of external information according to its own standards, permeating the media's own value concepts.Therefore, some media reports often hide the appeals of various interest groups under the seemingly "objective and fair" appearance.This requires leading cadres to conduct anatomical interpretations of media information based on their own comprehensive qualities, look at the essence through phenomena, and draw their own conclusions after independent thinking. , and can’t accept everything as it is ordered, and be led by the nose by the media.China Journalism and Communication Review (http://www.cjr.com.cn), January 4, 2007.

In short, our life is inseparable from the media, and the government is no exception.News governance has become a new form of governance, and the general trend has "trend". Leading cadres cannot avoid it, but must face it bravely, actively change their concepts, change "I want to spread" into "I want to spread", and actively communicate with Deal with the media, make full use of the media in the process of governing, guide public opinion at home and abroad, mobilize the enthusiasm of the broad masses of the people, and form a joint force between the party and the government, the media, and the masses to promote the smooth implementation of various principles and policies and promote scientific research. develop.