What you read:

Over the summer, the Hong Kong protests were at its climax. I followed many news sources reporting on the events including state owned news sources from mainland China.

Personal Response:

For me, I discovered the vast differences in perspectives between the news sources in mainland China and western news and how, sometimes, facts are distorted to fit an overarching narrative. Instead of reporting on “fake news” and falsified events, both China and foreign sources contain some sort of bias. For instance, China obviously avoids reporting about police brutality happening and undercover policemen pretending to be protestors and instead focuses on how a reporter from Chinese news sources was beaten by the protestors and calling for aid from mainland Chinese residents. On the other hand, there was little to no coverage on how the protest affected innocent people travelling through the Hong Kong airport as well as violence towards Chinese reporters. For me, it was very horrifying to realize that news sources would completely ignore events in order to fit a narrative that pleases the readers, especially with such major issues when Hong Kong protestors are fighting for such a significant cause.

Literary/Non-Literary Feature:

On the mainland China side, the articles appeal to pathos a lot, calling for action by appealing to the patriotic emotions of the Chinese citizens. A lot of propaganda techniques are also used such as name-calling the protestors as “rioters” and simplification of the issue by portraying protestors as blood thirsty young people that want independence. Card stacking is also a very common technique used by both sides to form the general narrative. A lot of the non-literary features are present in the comment sections of articles, where two sides are likely to argue intensely with each other.

Concept:

The reading I have done greatly relates to the concept of ideology between two sides clashing. The context behind the beliefs and values of each side is different and the target audience of the articles influence how they are written and what the contents are.