China Daily Asia Weekly News Agency Analysis

Findings on China Daily Asia Weekly News Agency

China Daily Asia Weekly news agency has been used by us in reporting the issue of demonstration in Hong Kong. We have monitored this news agency for one month started from 1^st October 2014 until 30^th October 2014. We were observing the news agency in terms of the format of news they portray. The format of news includes total of news reported per day, photos and videos the author uploaded, the paragraph of each news, the author of the news and the theme of the news reported. The total number of news that have been collected by us for one month is 120 news. The news reported in China Daily Asia Weekly are mostly neutral in terms of news slant. However, there is some news reported by them that is negative western but it is just a minority in number. Besides, China Daily Asia Weekly news agency also did not provide any subtitle for their news. Moreover, the news source for each news are mostly the government which includes Chief Executive, Ministry’s Spokeswoman, Secretary General and many more. However, there is also minority news that have demonstrators as their news sources such as the leader of Federation of students and many more.

To begin with the analysis, we will start by explaining on the total number of news reported per day by China Daily Asia Weekly. The total numbers of news are vary to each day. The highest numbers of news reported per day is 13 news while the least number is zero news per day. There were no news reported by China Daily Asia Weekly regarding the demonstration issue in Hong Kong on 12^th, 19^th, 25^th and 31^st of October 2014. The highest number of news reported was on 6^th of October 2014. There is also 1 news reported per day on 17^th, 28^th, and 29^th October 2014. Mostly news reported on 6^th of October were talked about the negative consequences that have been caused by the protesters movement.

We also noticed that the news on the issue of demonstration in Hong Kong reported by China Daily Asia Weekly were becoming lesser towards the end of the month. The total numbers of news reported per day is high until 8^th of October 2014 and then decreased to 1 news reported on 9^th of October. After 9^th of October, the news reported regarding the issue were become lesser until the end of the month and the higher news reported after 9^th of October was 6 news per day which is on 16^th of October 2014. Thus, we can conclude that the issue in Hong Kong are becoming less popular to be reported by China Daily Asia Weekly news agency than the beginning of the month and maybe it is because of the issue is going to meet its solution soon.

Second thing to be analyse is about the photos and videos the author uploaded in each news per day. China Daily Asia Weekly has not posted any video in their news. The agency only posted photos to their readers and the photos are all in colour. However, the highest total number of photos the agency uploaded on each news is 3 photos and the least is no photo uploaded on news. The highest number of photos uploaded was on 15^th of October and about 39 news were reported without any photos on it.

In addition to that, if we want to compare on the frequency of the photos uploaded by the agency, we can say that half of the news with 68 numbers of news reported has 1 photo uploaded on it and only 7 news that has 2 pictures on it. Besides that, each of the photos uploaded on the news were also come with the description under it that represent the situation of the photos. From this, we can see that China Daily Asia Weekly news agency is not emphasize more on photos and videos as the highest number of photos uploaded per news is only 3 photos.

Thirdly, another thing to be analyse is regarding the numbers of paragraph written on each news. As we have observed from the data we collected, the highest number of paragraph is 23 paragraph and it was on 2^nd of October where the news entitled “Occupy taking luster off Golden Week” was reported. The news is about the decreasing of sales for retail sectors to making some profit on the Golden Week holiday as the date is usually the great time for them in getting more profit. This is because of the protesters movement who blocked the roads which then prevent their customer. The least paragraph written in the news is 4 paragraph.

There is some news that have only 4 paragraph in there which is on 3^rd, 13^th and 22^nd of October 2014. The news that have 4 paragraphs on it is usually reported about announcement and economics. It cannot be conclude that the least number of paragraph per news, the less credibility of news they convey as the credibility of news cannot be seen through the length of the paragraph written because sometimes it is only the repetition of previews news. However, the least paragraph of the news is actually portray the less significance of the news to the readers.

Next, we further our observation to the authors of the news reported. From one month observation, we found that there are two authors that written most of the news in China Daily Asia Weekly news agency. The authors’ names are Timothy Chui and Kahon Chan. Timothy Chui has written total numbers of 31 news from the beginning until the end of October. Same goes to Kahon Chan who started written the news from the 1^st of October until the end of the month and have written the total numbers of 31 news. There is also some news that have been taken from the International news agency which is Reuters. In addition to that, there is also some authors that only wrote one news in China Daily Asia Weekly such as the news written by Andrea Deng, Selena Li, and Edmond Tang. We also found that there are several news that have been wrote by two authors. There were only 3 news that have been written by two authors while majority of news reported are from single author. From the observation of the authors of news reported, we can conclude that Timothy Chui and Kahon Chan are the reporters that have significant roles or works in China Daily Asia Weekly news agency as they covered more news than other authors did.

Finally, we were also focussing on the theme or denominator of each news that have been reported. We can see that from 30 days of observations, the most common theme and denominator of the news is talked about the negative consequences and effects of demonstration. There are about 30 news that talked about the negative effects of the protests towards the citizens. Among them are the news written by Ming Yeung and Wang Yuke on 1^st of October where they wrote about how the protesters or demonstrators endanger the life of the people in Hong Kong. They wrote in their news about how the protest cause chaos and bad traffic to the streets that trouble the local emergency services such as Ambulance & Fire Fighters to reach the victims on time. They reported on their news that said, “Deputy Chief Fire Officer, Joseph Leung Wai-hung told the media on Tuesday that emergency services have fallen significantly short in their promise to reach those in dire need, that is, to respond to emergency situations within 12 minutes”.

There is also other news on the same theme which talked about negative impacts of demonstration to the citizens. The news written by Celia Chen and Agnes Lu covered about how the businessman and businesswoman live around the paralyzed districts encounter great loss to their business. They wrote that some of the workers in some affected restaurants have been forced to take leave as the tourists absent. Among the restaurants and hotels that have been affected by this demonstration protest is Tung Yuen Banquet on Hennessy Road, Wan Chai. The manager of the eatery told China Daily that, “On Fridays, we normally had bookings for at least 20 tables in the past, but tonight, for instance, we only have three tables booked. There is many other news that have talked on the negative consequences and effects of demonstration protests.

Besides that, other common denominator that is usually found in the news is calling for peace. There are some news reported in China Daily Asia Weekly that talked about the public calling for peace and put an end to the protest. There is a news reported by Timothy Chui on 5^th of October 2014 that wrote about a man who climbed up roof of footbridge just to call demonstrators to end the protests and clear the roads. The man surnamed Yip climbed onto the roof of a footbridge around 1 pm to call demonstrators to end their sit in and clear roads. After 4 hours and 45 minutes the police negotiators tried to calm the man down, finally they were able to bring him down. However, he demanded to speak with protest organizers and delivering an hour long speech to express his feeling that he would rather die rather than seeing his daughter are not able to return to school because of the protests. This shows that mostly news in China Daily Asia Weekly portray the news about the negative impacts of protests. This also can be conclude that this news agency view “Occupy Central” which is the name of the protest as irrelevant and cause harm to many people.