Media Power in Hong Kong by Charles Chi-wai Cheung

Author:Charles Chi-wai Cheung [Cheung, Charles Chi-wai]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781317266587
Google: rXSPCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2016-02-12T06:01:13+00:00

However, detailed analysis of the second-period coverage suggests that many alternative views presented did question the cores of the official accounts about the events. In the HKCC case, I regard that the cores of the hegemonic accounts were: what happened was serious public disorder; what young people did was seriously deviant; young people rather than external social factors were the key causes of the rowdiness. To demonstrate clearly that the balanced-reporting practices and opinion page authors did challenge the cores of the hegemonic representations of the HKCC events, what follows is a necessary in-depth discussion of the range of alternative views available in the second-period coverage (for discussion of the coding methods for different types of alternative view, see Appendix 2).

The first type of alternative comment was ‘celebrations did not involve serious disorder’. Several responses belonged to this type, many of which questioned the core condemnation of serious disorder:

Normal festive behaviour: ‘Festival revelry is ordinary’ was the headline of a column article by a local columnist (Ming Pao 10 January 2003). In fact, a number of commentators also strongly refuted that the HKCC crowd was overly rowdy. A letter to the forum section of Ming Pao (8 January 2003) mentioned that the Tomato Throwing Festival in Spain (in which revellers sling tomatoes and cover the streets and buildings with squashed tomatoes) was not deemed to be a social problem since a certain extent of indulgence was acceptable in festivals. Another columnist (Sun 3 January 2003) suggested that the rubbish problem was a necessary by-product of revelry: ‘Like friends coming to the party at my home. If cups and plates were not scattered across the place, how can it suggest that both guests and hosts had a good time?’ Two adult passers-by also told the press that they did not mind being sprayed by snow spray since it would add Christmas spirit (Ming Pao 26 December 2002).

Graffiti with meanings – or is it really graffiti? Some journalists and commentators reported and discussed a wide range of topics of graffiti: ‘street-art’, ‘creativity and voices of the young’, ‘graffiti as commercial art’, ‘history of graffiti in Hong Kong’, and so on. These topics explored possible alternative meanings of the graffiti in the HKCC beyond mere vandalism. For instance, the story headlined ‘Discriminated American blacks create street culture/Graffiti vent frustrations with society’ (Sun 27 December 2002) invited readers to consider the graffiti in the HKCC as a way Hong Kong youngsters gave vent to their frustrations with society. The most ironic comment was from a government official – he pointed out that most of the so-called graffiti was not spray-paint but coloured snow spray (Sun 29 December 2002).

Crazier in foreign places: ‘Crazier in foreign places’ was the headline of a Ming Pao story (2 January 2002), which reported that the NYE celebrations in Paris had turned into a riot in which 130 cars were burnt and 120 people hurt. Other columnists also suggested that massive littering was evident at football matches in Europe or the NYE celebrations in London and New York (Sun 3 January 2003; Ming Pao 31 December 2002).

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