I remember when I first got here, in the heat of the "red ant" Chen protests, there was a flurry of posts on Taiwan related sites berating the Taiwanese media for their lack of balance, fact-checking, and general credibility. Around the same time there was a slew of Taipei Times articles essentially authenticating said bloggers' claims of rampant disingenuousness.

Some examples [all emphasis mine]:

• "Taiwanese distrust media, say it lacks credibility: survey":
  

  The credibility of the country's media is in jeopardy, dropping to a "trust rating" of only 1 percent among major business stakeholder groups, according to an annual survey on Asia-Pacific business stakeholders.

  Alan VanderMolen, president of consulting and public relations firm Edelman Asia-Pacific, said of the finding in the annual Asia-Pacific Stakeholder Study that "Taiwan's media is in trouble."

  VanderMolen said the survey was based on interviews with 1,050 consumers, employees, investors, media members, government officials, non-government organization workers and business executives -- the seven stakeholder groups -- in various countries including Taiwan.

  He said it polled 70 people in Taiwan.

  The Taiwanese respondents gave the media only 1 percent in trust rating with regard to credibility, according to VanderMolen. Government, NGOs and businesses — the other institutions rated — all received trust ratings of 11 percent, he said.

  The survey also found that the trust rating of the mainstream media in Taiwan is lower than foreign mainstream media, Web-based media and even bloggers, VanderMolen said. Only 3 percent of the respondents in Taiwan believe what the media prints about corporations, he said.

  Among the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan's media credibility was ranked last, with Australia second from the bottom, VanderMolen said.

• "Turning a blind eye to global news"
  

  International news has all but disappeared from the local broadcast media. Recent major East Asian events, including Thailand's military coup, the inauguration of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the summits between Japan and China and Japan and South Korea and North Korea's claim to have successfully tested a nuclear device, were largely ignored by the local TV stations.

  This is not a recent problem, but rather a unique problem that has long plagued Taiwan. Despite the country's ongoing democratization and localization, it has failed to pay attention to the forces of globalization and international developments.

  This has resulted in public indifference to international news and an unwillingness to face up to international competition, resulting in Taiwan's marginalization in the global and East-Asian communities. The importance of staying informed about international news is not limited to understanding world affairs; rather, it is about Taiwan's involvement in the international community, national development, educational level and personal benefit.

• "Editorial: The media has lost the public's trust"
  

  The local media has paid a great deal of attention to Taiwan's improved ranking in the recent 2006 Worldwide Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without Borders on Tuesday. The index ranked Taiwan 43rd this year, up from 51st last year, whereas Japan was ranked No. 51 and the US 53rd.

  However, the results of another study [from the first article] touching on the media industry seem to have been largely ignored by local media.

  ...
  

  The results from the two separate studies suggest that even as Taiwan's press freedom is rising, the media's credibility has hit an all-time low.

  Nonetheless, the result of the Edelman study should serve as a warning to the nation's media -- that is, if any of its members still care to engage in introspection.

  It seems, regrettably, that the liberalization of the media has given birth to intense ideological and political competition which, as a result, has lowered the quality and credibility of the industry.

  The media, which is supposed to play the role of the "Fourth Estate," often points to governmental misdeeds and corruption with an air of righteousness and moral superiority.

  Indeed, when it acts in an unbiased manner, media can be powerful. However, in many cases, the nation's media outlets abuse this power in order to further political goals.

  The media cannot credibly help to uphold justice, offer a voice for the powerless and hold the government accountable when it suffers from such low credibility and fails to act in a responsible, unbiased manner.

  Readers in Taiwan often find themselves reading stories that have been labeled as "exclusives" or "scoops," only to discover that the contents consist of unverified "facts," hearsay and unsubstantiated allegations.

  The nation's media sources, broadcast and print alike, are coming under fire from critics for their lack of professionalism and their over-emphasis on trivial, sensational and "exclusive" stories.

  It's time that the media takes a long, hard look at itself, searches its heart and starts to live up to its social responsibilities.

  Sooner rather then later, the media industry needs to wake up and begin to earn back the nation's trust by working for the betterment of society and advancing the interests of the public, rather than the interests of politicians and political parties.
  

All three of these articles came out in a period of only two days. I have thought about these articles almost every time I watch the news here. Not only is the general presentation of the news unprofessional and bombastic, it's content is laughable. Most of the stories, since they squeezed every last story out of the protests, are about purse snatchings, car wrecks, ghosts, political scuffles, etc.

They are generally presented as follows:


Flurries of cameras and microphones thrust before every person who might be inclined to cry or scream, chaos, etc. I believe this particular video is about some sort of natural disaster during a vacation. The youtube poster wrote " 這就是台灣的新聞水準" or "This is exactly the standard of news in Taiwan."

My perspective is very skewed, of course, due to my minimal, but growing, comprehension of what's being said. Yet, it still seems to me -- based on what I read on a regular basis and on my on the spot translations, grâce à Fanfan -- there seems to be very little analysis of the issues. They just skim the surface, giving the juicy bits -- who hit who, who died, now here's the shocking video -- without giving any of the why, what led up to it, what's the debate about, what are the two sides saying, etc.

Case in point, once Fanfan and I were sitting in a restaurant eating lunch, and like nearly every public place in Taiwan there is a TV set to whichever news channel they like (or bought them the television).* The story at the time was about Rush Limbaugh accusing Michael J. Fox embellishing his Parkinson's as an emotional appeal to Americans to support stem cell research. Our conversation followed as such, in French:

Me: I can't stand Rush Limbaugh.
Fanfan: Who is he?
Me: They didn't say?
Fanfan: No, they just said he didn't believe MJF's disease was that bad.
Me: They didn't say what he does? They didn't mention why it matters that he said what he said? I mean, he's not just some guy on the street.
Fanfan: No. They just said that MJF made a commercial and that RL didn't believe it.
Me: Did they say what the commercial was about?
Fanfan: No **

This sort of thing happens quite often. Though, far worse still than neglecting important aspects of an issue is the Taiwanese press' portrayal of pure hearsay and rumor as fact. Recently, a group of students from Hong Kong/Macau new this and took advantage of it to make a point [via Michael Turton]:

In Taiwan, three university students from Hong Kong/Macau found the news reporting on certain television channels to be unacceptable in many ways. "If you grasp the media tastes, it is easy to manipulate the media because they never verify anything." To demonstrate this assertion, they created two fake news items and forwarded them as tips to seven cable television news channels. Eventually, four of them broadcast those stories.

In the first story entitled "The Ghost of the Dog," a female university students pretended to be troubled by the appearance ghost of her beloved dog (e.g. she found dog hair by her bed when she woke up) and asked for help on the Internet. An anonymous netizen then faxed the plea for help to the media. This story was broadcast on August 18 by Era TV.

In the second story entitled "Internet auctions of luck," a female university student was able to buy a bottle of "luck." Prior to that, she had a quarrel with her best friend, she lost her winning lottery ticket, she misplaced her mobile telephone, and had general bad luck. After spending NT$1,380 to buy a bottle of "luck," things improved. The best friend came back, apologized and made up. She found her misplaced mobile telephone and so on. On August 25, ETTV, CTTV and SETV broadcast this story.

Based upon the current AGB Nielsen Media television ratings, these two stories were seen by 360,000 viewers.

I actually think this is a wonderful way of incurring change within the Taiwanese media establishment. I hope some concerned Taiwanese citizens will take to barraging different outlets with juicy stories that they just can't resist until they get so deep in viewer complaints of their mistakes that they will have to start doing some factchecking.

There, I'm making one big assumption: that the viewers will complain.

I know these kinds of things happen within the American media establishment. Still, I have no reason to believe that it is near as systematic as it is here in Taiwan.

One final note, I'm constantly asking myself if some of the problem comes from the fact that a large number of journalists in Taiwan may just be people willing to do it, for the rush. That's to say, I wonder how many journalist actually have any qualifications. Having a girlfriend who is a Taiwanese journalist, I meet a fair amount of people here that don't seem to know what they're doing. A lot of them like the job because it pays better than being a secretary. Yet, someone with the qualifications Fanfan has under her belt, it's hard to find a respectable job where the pay resembles anything like what a Western journalist would be getting (I would guess at least eight to ten times less), which is probably why she's translating a French novel, which pays a lot better, and not doing what she really loves.


*I've been told that, allegedly, some news companies buy televisions for restaurants who want one, as long as the restaurant will keep the set tuned to their channel.
**This is a translation from French of a translation from Chinese of a news story and conversation that all took place months ago. It's just meant as an example of the kind of things that get me thinking about the state of Taiwanese journalism