Media in Taiwan

Of all the classes I am taking now, my favorite and without a doubt the hardest is "News: Listen, Speak, and Read" in which we read through newspaper articles, listen to recordings of them being read aloud, and discuss them. Taking the class is a great way to build vocabulary, learn formal sentence patterns, and learn a lot about how current affairs are viewed Taiwanese newspapers. In addition to that, I often listen to the radio while cooking or doing chores, which I feel has been a great help to my study of Chinese. But what really made me want to write about the media in Taiwan was the fascinating and quite humorous guest lecture I saw yesterday.

The lecture was on the impact the Taiwanese media has on the upcoming mayoral elections. 60% of Taiwan's population lives in the 5 biggest cities,therefore in addition to the mayoral elections can have a large impact on Taiwanese politics, they are also good indicators of what the current political climate is and which Party is more likely to win the national elections in 2012. The two main political parties are the Nationalist Party (whose color is blue ) and the People's Progressive Party (whose color is green). In addition, there is a New Party (which is different from but often sides with the Nationalist Party) and a Green Party (similar to Green parties in the West). The Nationalist Party (the KMT) is more popular in northern Taiwan, as well as much of central and eastern Taiwan. The People's Progressive Party (PPP) is strongest in the south and parts of the northeast. Generally speaking, the PPP is more critical of China and less willing to establish ties with China while the KMT is more willing to build Taiwan's relationship with China. The PPP can be considered more progressive on issues such as the environment and human rights, but in other ways would not fit into the mold of a progressive party in the West. For instance, the PPP supports strengthening the military to warn away a hostile Beijing, while the more conservative KMT favors more demilitarization.

Taiwan has an enormous media industry for such a small island. Thousands of newspapers, eight 24-hour news television stations, and countless radio stations. By comparison, America, with 300 million people, has four 24-hour news television stations. Taiwan also has the worlds highest concentration of satellite equipped news gathering vans. Apparently, one news station had a lot of money and thought the vans looked pretty, so they bought over twenty. Other news stations did not want to be left out so they all bought some too! Today, Taiwan has 86 such vans, meaning that reporters have the resources to cover just about any story. The lecturer showed us a clip from the news which basically dragged out for five minutes the story of a girl somewhere in Taiwan with a great figure. He said this was mild for Taiwanese tabloid-ism. Some of the radio shows and magazines can put the Enquirer to shame. When it comes to politics, reporting is rarely neutral and can be a lot of fun to watch. In short, the lecture was interesting and lot's of fun.