An Outsider Inside----Inspired by 12.4 democracy march

They were passionate; they were patient. They came out for the democracy in this most powerful communism country.

As an outsider living in Hong Kong—one of the most prosperous cities in the world and most free place in China, I was excited for the democracy march and desire to walk in the crowds with the respect of Hong Kong people’s courage and devotion of democracy. It must be the memorable experience and lively lesson in my lifetime. And it was proven to be right.

2:30pm, half hour before the march began, organizers standing in the stage constructed in the central of soccer field in Victoria Park, shouted with all their enthusiasm in Cantonese, English and Mandarin—“Trust Hong Kongers, Return the rights to people”(相信港人, 还政于民). Unlike the heated situation around the stage, people sitting on the six plots peacefully, waiting for the time to come out. If there were no banners with words like “democracy”, “universal suffrage”; if there were no flags representing different groups from the community, even like Kong Ming Tang and Fa Lun Gong (法轮功); if there were no those people who were busy with contacting friends and families about the march issue, I might be confused if I just enter the park, where there is a grand social gathering being hold.

Walking around all the six plots, I was surprise that the demands from people varying, under the basic theme of the march—ask for timetable and universal suffrage in Hong Kong. “We stand here to question the Chinese government: ‘When? When we can have the universal suffrage?’ We don’t worry; we are patient. The timetable matters the most. We want a time!” said a foreign citizen, with his attractive banner read, “Beijing: Why worry with 2.5 million PLA troops in reserve?”


“I just come to see the situation here, not for march actually,” a second year university student said “I don’t think it is necessary to march. Even we can have the universal suffrage at 2007 or 2008; there might be not too much people to vote. I think it is better to give the choice to central government.” I noticed she wore a white cloth, which is not the required dress code of black color. “But I think there must be universal suffrage one day.” She added.


Moreover, people quite understand exactly what they deserve—not only the word democracy, but also the meaning behind it. “Where there is crackdown, there is resistant”, “Don’t be afraid of those with vested interest, people will win, will have the universal suffrage”, “For the next generation, we teachers ask for democracy”, “We want universal suffrage, not unprincipled suffrage”, “Anti collusion between officials and businessmen”, so and so forth. I remember the property tycoon Gordon Wu said before; reform through your rallies is mob rule. However, what I saw was a group of so civilized mod.


Cheers came out as the time came. Is it proper for me to say that was my first step for democracy? If so, I blushed because kids in Hong Kong have the lesson quite ahead of me. “She was 2-year-old. I am so proud that the first step she learned is for democracy. She does contribute for Hong Kong!” Mother said, while leading her little girl walking in the crowds.

Kids are safety. Believe me. Just like the usual scene in Hong Kong, the march was ordered, not crowded and without chaos. Families walked with smiles, as if in the family gathering. Lovers wended their way hand in hand. Without the labels sticking on their bodies with word “democracy”, I cannot tell whether they were in the date or a march.

I was impressed by what people’s answers to my stupid question “why you are here?”—We show up here to tell the Chinese government and the world how much we care about our right and our freedom. Two days after the march, I read from newspaper that the numbers of people turnout were estimated to be 250 thousands by pan-democracy party, but 60-70 thousands by universities’ survey. One day before the march, Democrat Yeung Sum said, it is inconceivable that Beijing would refuse to give us a timetable if 100,000 marched. How much does the number matter? People’s story is simple—to do their endeavors for democracy of Hong Kong, just showing up in the street.

Like every coin has its two sides, I also found some cold eyes behind the troops. “I want universal suffrage, too. But I think they are too naïve. How comes the central government can approve our reform just by the demonstration?” A lady I got in the back street from the march said. That is sort of killjoy. But they have the same desire for democracy, only different view for government. My fellow student explained to me, who said her family have no interest in this kind of activities, but do pay attention to the news.

Back to the troop, somebody was calling, “Hi brother, I am in the march now! Soooo many people here, you cannot imagine! Listen, they are cheering!” Then I saw the phone was lift up high on the air, delivering the excitement to the other side, where her brother had to work instead of presenting here. I cannot help myself smiling. I may have no stand to shout out the slogan with them, but at least, I was smiling with them.

It is a long way from Victoria Park to Central. It will be a longer way to the universal suffrage they want. As an outsider standing in the crowds, I am glad to sharing the joys and determinations from those people, who are on their way to democracy they deserved.




( It should be my journalism assignment. but also my sentiment about this event. )

happy birthday to Yoshiki

Happy birthday, though one day later.

Hope you be beautiful forever and be alive for hide as well as yourself.

Take care.

Find a woman to marry.

You are X forever......

My newsroom reopen again~!!!!!

It was nearly abandoned by amy for such long time. But I determine to work harder here.
Eventually, I have been minor in Journalism and took two course this semester--News writing and reporting workshop by Doreen and Introduction of Television News by Jim Laurie. I love these two courses reli~! though I have to suffer the heavy work load.
I wanna post many things this time---to see my progress in news writing for this semester, well, nearly the whole semester. I experienced both frustration and exitement from it. Now I am enjoying being a happy and busy journalist on Wednesday. (i only hv journalism classes on that day)
So here it goes~~~~~
first one....in 21.09.2005
Before my last year in high school, I always felt lost when thinking what my future career is. In the last crazy year, like all other students in Mainland China, the only things I could do are just study and enter a top university to prove something we couldn’t understand at that moment.
During those boring times, one thing that I enjoyed most is writing (of course, in Chinese). And I found that I cannot be a person, who just do research or fight for a position in company after university. I long for going outside to experience the world. I am looking forwards to have a career, which can bring me to meet different people in society and know what are their daily lives and their thinking. Since that, I start to recognize how powerful the news media is. The idea of being a journalist makes me exciting. I am so itch to enter this area.
University of Hong Kong is my first step to touch the world. Though I am major in Economics and Finance since I still maintain the interest in science, I take journalism as my minor degree without hesitation. When getting closer to my dream, frankly, I am a little contradicted. On one hand, I realize the weaknesses I have---language problem, feeling shy when talking with strangers and daring not speak out in public. But on the other hand, I still want it when I have to face these obstacles. Because every time it stimulates my interest, I can feel it is where my passion is.
That is me and I take this course because it is the challenge I have to meet.
Second one...in 28.09.2005
My first clip is from South China Morning Post, A19 on 23rd Sep, titled “Passengers cheer as plane lands on crippled nose gear in LA”. At first glance, it may not that attractive for a local newspaper. But it did attract me, and I admire it as a good piece.
Simply, it reported a breathtaking emergency landing in LA with no casualties. First of all it fulfill the “conflict” of news elements. It is a like drama about how the plane landed safely with its front landing gear stuck at 90-degree angle, how people scary during the whole adventure, what did they do, what official’s saying and how excellent the pilots are. People always enjoy reading it besides its timeliness and unusualness.
Because it is not a sad story, I even imaged it as a fiction movie and the story does contain every elements of it. There is concise description of the efforts pilots did to land plane safely, says, “the pilots brought the plane down on the rear wheels and slowly lowered the nose gear, with its wheels stuck at a 90-degree angle to the fuselage of the plane…” There are stories of passengers in their “out-of-body experience”, which may made reader be personally on the scene. Most prominent, there are heroes like in all other science fiction movies—captain and his crew. That is a most important part reader interested in and of course occupied half of the story. So in other word, the report includes nearly every aspect of human interests in it.

The second clip is “Companies Brace for Bird-Flu Threat, Asian Companies Prepare for a Possible Pandemic” from Asian Wall Street Journal, A1 and A2 on 23rd Sep. Since late 2004, bird flu became more and more serious across Asia. It is now such a big threat for poultry farms, relative industries and our daily lives. So it quite satisfies the element of “timeliness”. In the article, reporter enumerated many emergency plans of Asian companies to keep operations going. That fresh information makes the article very valuable to read, not only for professionals but also for average people.
Why the report is so close to us is that the content is highly related to our daily life. Though it is in business newspaper and mainly focus on the operation policies, the disease itself does affect both business and people’s health. Some corporations highlighted in the report such as Deutsche Bank, KFC, PT Astra International (car assembler) etc, are all part of our lives. Like the analysis in report, “pandemic would disrupt supply chain, cause mass staff-level reductions and drive corporate medical costs sharply higher…” So I think it is the proximity of elements here.
In addition, one important feature of the article is its in-depth analyses. I sort it as the element of importance. First, the report analyzes how avian flu affect businesses across Asia, even across the world. And then it summarizes the corporate plans into three kinds---developing alternative supply and distribution chain, making bird flu continuity plan and stockpiling influenza antiviral medications. In interpretation, it also put some obstacles forward and the solutions. In that way, it delivers awareness to businessmen as well as people who concern them selves related to it.
In a word, I think news is our lives.
Third one...in 04.10.2005, the first full story I did.
The claim that noise pollution could be more susceptible to illnesses has been made yesterday at a transport-planning conference sponsored by the Civic Exchange.
A Canadian transport consultant, Richard Gilbert alleged previous medical findings shows that regular exposure to harmful noise levels increases people’s chances of getting sick such as colds and flus. Despite of Hong Kong’s air and water pollution people complain about, he said, high noise level should also be worried about as a serious health effect.
Gilbert said the major source of noise pollution is transport. ‘Traffic noise in Hong Kong is regularly above 70 decibels”, which is much higher than the maximum 55 decibels level the World Health Organization regulates. He warned that population pattern and the amount of traffic noise alone means that more than half of Hong Kong’s population is regularly exposed to harmful levels. In addition, Gilbert said that the second greatest cause is construction.
Another researcher at the conference, Tam Pui-ying, also said noise pollution will get worse, especially in the new Territories, because of several planned highway projects. Gilbert stated, “If Hong Kong continues to build more highways instead of railways, noise will become a greater health threat.”
Gilbert is the author of an academic study on noise pollution, entitled “Electrifying Hong Kong—Making Transport Sustainable”.
Forth one...in 06.10.2005, jsut a lead done in lab
Two pedestrians suffered minor injuries yesterday afternoon by an explosion of underground gas leak, which occurred at the intersection of Pokfulam Road and Pokfield Road in Western and caused about two hours traffic jam.
Fifth one...06.11.2005, I did with my own interview, it was painful, my first interview experience....
College Students Don’t Worry Much about the Landing of Bird Flu
As the epidemics coming closer, young people in Hong Kong seems maintain calmly because of their confidence to government.
When more and more bird flu cases were revealed, Hong Kong made up many rules on the poultry and wet market. It seems that the whole society tense up for this coming threat like in SARS period.
Talking around the campus of HKU, which is one of the most historical and famous university in Hong Kong, every one is still busy for their university life. When asking if they are afraid of bird flu coming close, mostly the answers are very certain—No.
A girl named Connie majored in History said, she never worry about bird flu and she thought they are save in Hong Kong. “Though it was really become a big issue these days”, she said, “it won’t affect my life”. By explaining why she was so certain of that, she said that she is confident to the government. “I believe Hong Kong government has efficient measures”, that is her words.


One student from Mainland China but study in HKU said, he never think bird flu has too much impact on his daily life and never worry, either. Only his parents who live in mainland were more dangerous than he. Indeed he does worry about them. Refers to the reason, he also thought Hong Kong government has more effective work than mainland.
But are these general cases of what they said? Writer went to visit the most popular canteen in campus. The manager of the canteen revealed that there wasn’t too much changes for their customers after more and more bird flu cases reported even in Mainland China. Many of their food contain chicken but students just order them as usual.
“Well, we do come up with some strategies in case of people’s worry about chicken and eggs, like we now ask customers whether to have full ripe eggs instead of half ripe one in advance. But customers don’t pay much attention on these changes.” She said.
Manager also said she still have confidence for future. Because government certificates all their chickens and she is sure there must be no problem for chicken food sales. “I think government can do a good job for this epidemics.”—She said confidently.
On the door of the only clinic in campus, there are some introduction of bird flu and symptoms in details with pictures. Patients wait for calling quietly and in order. In the shelf, there are booklets available named “What you should know about avian flu”.
Are these young people just optimistic blindly or do they really keep clear eye on what government does, especially comparing to the era of SARS? At least we know that it is better to have good preparation before disaster and be sure to avoid chaos in society.
Sixth one...09.11.2005, done in lab after that funny news conference
Cyclist Dies by Minibus Hit During Race

A cyclist dies in the minibus collision when he was taking a cycling race hold By Hong Kong Cycling Association in Sai Kung yesterday.

The accident occurred at around 9:30am and at 10:51am he was certified died in Tseung Kwan O Hospital. Several passengers in that minibus got slightly injured. No other cyclists hurt.

When the accident happened, the minibus was traveling uphill toward Sai Kung town area while that cyclist was racing down in the opposite lane. It took nearly 25 minutes for ambulance to arrive, one witness in the bus said.

Spokeswoman from police said that though Hong Kong Cycling Association did consider closing road, none of road was blocked to traffic during race. While source form government explained if the roads are all blocked for race, it is not convenient for citizen.

The minibus driver, surnamed Shek 39-years-old, was arrested for dangerous driving cause death and released on $5000. Further investigations are still undertaken.

“It is terrible!” an old lady named Sara in the minibus when accident happened said the bus was at very fast speed at that time and “suddenly a shake, everybody was forced to be forwards. Screaming and crying everywhere.”

The race was a qualifying round, sponsored by the Leisure and Culture Services Department. Winners were to qualify for Asian Cycling Championship.
Seventh one...15.11.2005. My worst job since I had too many assignment that time.....forgive my Doreen.
Example 1: Inquest is ordered into death of model (Attribution of controversial)
In the article, it quoted Coroner’s Court that “the issue of public interest is not involved” in explanation of reopening inquiries by the court.

Example 2: Foreign firms may be affected by TV row (Attribution of fault)
The article quoted station’s argument that TVBS’s stand for this issue and pointed out what the “unacceptable” for them, which is different from what they were described. So the conflict in this story began from this saying.




In sum, I found that I lost some of my works. But it doesn't matter. I believe I will always do better as time passing by.

neaten myself

As my experimence in my history, when the time comes that i want to redefine myself, that means a landmark in my life.
And now here it comes!
No extrodinary things happened. No. It comes up to me by itself.
So I change here into my newsroom in legend.
This post is a new start. And I hope it predicts a bright future for me.
Coz it's just the beginning, I set the rule of "one day one piece".
Maybe one day, I am capable to read more and write more.
best wishes to myself.

My journalism' final project ( 得意ING~)

Journalism Final Project
Topic #6: General analysis of post election results


1. Element One: Journalism’s First Obligation is to the truth


We used the tool ‘language’ to help us compare element one. We felt that none of them did well in sticking to the truth, and that much of their language was subjective, colloquial, or suggestive.


Apple Daily: F
It seems Apple was writing a script rather than news: it wrote about the election with dramatic phrases, like “機關算盡卻輸在策略 (thinking deeply and considering everything but lose due to bad strategy)”. It also subjectively wrote that there was allocation of ballots to Chan-kam lam and claimed that he “神奇地 (amazingly)” got 55,000 ballots, in turn implying that he didn’t deserve it.

Ming Pao (MP): D
The tone and language used were informal and full of slang (which contains connotations): “一鋪清袋 (a complete failure)”, “入局 (got into)” and “綁手綁腳 (obstacle).” Furthermore, the reporter stereotyped some candidates, such as “街頭戰士「長毛」(Street fighter Long Hair)” and “以狠批政府聞名的鄭經翰 (aggressive government critic Albert Cheng)” and described them as “激進力量 (the radical power)”. He led readers to believe that they would adversely affect policy-making in the future, while implicitly showing sympathy to the pro-democratic parties with words like “損兵折將 (suffering extreme loss)” and “大輸家 (a big loser).”

Hong Kong Standard: D
The reporters framed the article to say that the democrats were ambitious to “seize” power from the legislative council, while there is no evidence to support this. The reporters even imply that the majority of Hong Kong voters are pro-Beijing by saying that the pro-democracy camp’s dream was “dashed” when there was a record turnout of voters. ‘Long Hair’ and Albert Cheng were termed “political eccentrics”, and that they will “spell fresh headaches” to the Chief Executive – even “badgering” them. Language like this imply that the pro-democratic candidates were pretty much pests in the Legco election, therefore clearly showing that the reporters are siding with the pro-Beijing party (DAB). Nonetheless, the basic facts and figures stuck to the truth, and were not distorted.



South China Morning Post: C
Mostly, SCMP wrote relatively well based on the statistics and figures; however, article “Words of thanks …” used stereotypes to describe Martin Lee’s and Yeung Sum’s tour. It wrote that the pedestrians’ smiles were “more in embarrassment then welcome”, and “it was also not clear whether they were smiling at the people in the car or for the benefit of a television reporter who was recording the scene.” These are clearly all reporters’ assumptions and not fact.

New York Times: C-
Writer Bradsher uses “acerbic” to describe Long Hair in his Sep. 13th article, which was unnecessary. Also, although he did well in the Sep. 13th article with the Chinese government’s tactics to raise votes in Hong Kong by presenting the plain facts, he ruins it completely in his Sep. 14th article by using phrases like “voter incentives and intimidation.” He also uses the terms “hard to defy Beijing,” as if we should defy Beijing. These phrases show that he’s taking the pro-democracy side, and this, in turn, could influence readers to take this side too.



2. Element Three: Journalism’s Essence is a Discipline of Verification


We used the tool ‘sources’ and ‘three levels of reporting’ to compare element two, and felt that only the Standard received a fair mark. The rest seemed unable to pass Level 1 reporting.

Apple Daily: C-
Apple’s report was only based on the strategy of allocating the ballot – although this is important, it inevitably narrowed the scope. While it provided many facts and supporting data (like the number of ballots each candidate got), it failed to verify and analyze the issue. E.g., it commented that “新界西的投票結果最能體現比例代表制的設計原意 (the result in Western New Territories well exemplifies the original aim of the Proportional Representation System)” but the report fails to clarify what the original aim is. The reporter did not interview any candidates or seek other views, only reporting his own comments.



Ming Pao: D
The reporter attempted Level 2 reporting, but failed. He mentioned he “綜合多方面的公開資料 (combined various public material)” to analyze the event, however, he didn’t tell the readers where the material came from and thus could not show reliability of sources.

Hong Kong Standard: B
Figures and statistics were from reliable sources: Provisional turnout figures and HKU. Some background information about the voting conditions in 1998 was also provided for readers to compare. Moreover, it attempted to seek reactions from various groups such as the international election observers; all these indicate the Standard has done level two reporting. It however has not received an A grade because opinions of the voters were not asked.

South China Morning Post: D+
Most reports stated three factors behind the pro-Democracy camp’s failure – their strategy of allocating votes, proportional representation system, and Martin Lee’s event, but these are just being constantly repeated and not analyzed. Thus, the reporters have only reached level one reporting. It presented the records and data, but fails to reach level two by not seeking reaction from other sources. There is no voice from democrats’ rivals or constituencies while article “Words of thanks” only included the reporter’s reactions.

New York Times: D+
Bradsher failed to reach Level 3 reporting, and even only barely made it to Level 2. Since he had to condense a lot of information into only two articles, there were many basic facts and records included. However, getting past Level 1 was not obvious – the reader cannot tell if Bradsher verified the facts or not: he could’ve just gotten all the material translated from local Hong Kong newspapers without any double-checking (therefore potentially violating the rule to “rely on your own original reporting”). He did, however, include reactions and comments from various sources, and also gave the reason in one part as to why he could not reveal the source’s name (Sep. 14th), thus he has at least gotten to the beginning steps of Level 2.







3. Element Six: Journalism must provide a forum for public criticism and comment

We looked at ‘sources’ for this element: Apple Daily and Ming Pao deserve F’s because they did not seek other views but only wrote down their own, sometimes making them sound like opinion pieces.

South China Morning Post: D+
Most articles only delivered what the democrats said about their failure and the few victories. On the whole, they are one-sided news with bias towards democratic views, and there is hardly any public voice.

New York Times: A
Bradsher did quite well in this as the articles included comments and quotes from a variety of people, such as pro-Beijing officials, Hong Kong public, to experts (professors) from universities.

4. Element Seven: Journalists must strive to make the significant interesting and relevant

We used ‘text’ to compare element four, and felt that none of the newspapers failed.

Apple Daily: A
The subtitles of the articles precisely pointed out the main theme of the paragraphs while the dramatic wordings were attractive, e.g. “假反面真撐 (pretending hostility, but really supporting)” which made the reader interested in reading it. Also, the content of the article was relevant to the issue – e.g. the strategy of allocating ballots is important to the topic.

Ming Pao: A-
It has taken care of the public’s concern for the election result: the reporter tried to show the possible impacts of the unexpected election result and what it might mean for the future. This is both relevant and interesting because it shows whether the successful candidates could represent the public opinions well in the future Legco.




Hong Kong Standard: C
It has aroused readers’ interests by mentioning the “biggest surprise” of the election (i.e. Long Hair’s triumph); however this article should focus on talking about the failure of the pro-democracy camp, as suggested by its headline ‘Setback for Democrats’. On the contrary, only the first paragraph and the quotation of Martin Lee’s speech are relevant to the title. The remaining article focused on the ‘unexpected’ victory of Albert Cheng and Long Hair, without examining causes behind the democrats’ “setback”.

New York Times: C-
The description of the ballot center in the Sep. 13th article was unnecessary and irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. What matters to the people is real analysis of the elections, not details about where the ballot center was (unless that, i.e. the location, was the topic of concern). The explanation of the Peak was unnecessary, and including “waist-length hair” when discussing Leung Kwok Hung emits the message that perhaps the public shouldn’t take him seriously. However, the writer has not completely failed, as he has tried to cover the issue at all, which is significant and relevant to the world today.

5. Element Eight: Journalists must keep the news in proportion and make it comprehensive

We used ‘text’ and ‘framing’ to compare element five.

Hong Kong Standard: C
It is not comprehensive as it only generally mentions the possible seats the two major parties can get, but nothing about the detailed situation in each district. The article quoted from two democrats, but the reaction of the pro-Beijing camp was omitted. Readers consequently don’t get adequate information about both sides of the story. This article gets a fair mark though since it made references to the 1998 and 2000 elections for comparison to the 2004 election, giving readers a broader understanding.

New York Times: D-
Bradsher failed to clarify on several points, e.g., he didn’t specify how many seats exactly, as he just wrote “several seats.” He didn’t explain “geographical and functional constituencies” either. He quoted from Civic Exchange without explaining what the organization was, and quoted a “Mr. Lee”, whose identity is ambiguous. However, it doesn’t get F, because a story of such importance was not in the end pages of the newspaper – Sep. 13th and Sep. 14th articles were on A3 and A9 respectively in the NY Times, and A1 in the IHT.

SuperPass!!!

So happy to find the superpass paper in my mail hole when I came back hall at 2am. Though I didn't know who wrote it for me, I would like to thank her so much. That really really cheer me up~~
It is the tradition in HKU that when the final exam coming, everyone wrtie down their best wishes about the exams for themselves or others on red small papers. Like " final exam superpass"," competition superpass", " *** superpass"...... anything you like.
It is really amazing for me to recieve the paper. Maybe tomorrow I will write some for my friends, too. A good way to support each other!
Yes! Superpass my exams! just think about, after Dec.20 I can do whatever I like!
Superpass amyfox!!!!!!!!!!

paste a project which make me excited

(For ages i didn't update here. Just paste my journalism project of my part. maybe I will put all the here later. haha, so lazy I am....)

General analysis of post election results

(SCMP, Sep. 14,15)

1. First obligation is to the truth---B
Most articles are basically to the truth. First, the data and statistics are the open recourses. It is feasible and reliable to use them to analyze. Second, speaking generally, the analysis are objective. Not only did they state the reasons of Democratic Party’s failure based on the facts and quotations from some key figures, but also they point out some positive effects of the results related to Democracy camp for overall situation in HK. Like “It ( the result for Democratic Party) supports the view that the majority of people want universal suffrage.”(“ Big step”)
The reason I just give B instead of A is that there is a report, named “ Words of thanks fail to move the people—the Democrats”, used implicit stereotype to describe the situation about Martin Lee and Yeung Sum’ s “thank you” tour. It is said that the pedestrians’ smile were “ more in embarrassment then welcome”, and “ It was also not clear whether they were smiling at the people in the car or for the benefit of a television reporter who was recording the scene.” (“ Words”) These are the assumptions from reporter rather then the fact.
2. Essence is a discipline of verification—C
Most reports stated mainly three reasons for pro-Democracy camp’s failure---the strategy of allocating votes, proportional representation system, and Martin Lee’s event. But all of these news seems just keep repeating themselves. And most of them in A2, A3 are saying on Democrat’s behave. That made readers feel that they are the victims of proportional representation system, though they made some mistake in allocating votes.
Even more, I cannot find any voice from their rivals or constituencies. I perceive that just be offered one side source. Especially the article “ Words of thanks” I mentioned. Though it did try to seek reaction from people, the reporter only express their reactions in HIS eyes, even didn’t interview them.
3. Journalism must provide a forum for public criticism and comment—C
There are only a few articles, which are the general analysis and relatively objective comments. Most just deliver what Democrats said about their failure and some victory. On the whole, they are on side news. They didn’t analyze what the Democrats’ failure mean for HK people, government, central government and democracy in HK (two articles mentioned that: “Big step”, “Democrats’ disappointment”.), only for themselves.

Reference:
1. Big step towards full democracy. (2004, Sep. 14) South China Morning Post, p A16.
2. Democrats’ disappointment. (2004, Sep. 15) South China Morning Post, p A15.
3. Words of thanks fail to move the people. (2004, Sep.15) South China Morning Post, p A2.

Say something more about US

Actually, it is my first time hearing that American are manipulated, foolish or something like that. I just want to say something objectively.( I already received much effect from my journalism lessons, didn't i?)
First, how can people in a country get knowledge of their country and the world? In childhood, they got it from textbook, and adults. After grown up, they got it mainly from the native media. No matter the textbook or the media are both controlled by the country, more or less. All the purposes aim to help the people form a kind of ideology--love the country and adore the country. Under such environment, seldom people can survive. In other word, people cannot survive from being foolish patriotic. An old Chinese saying is "only the people outside the situation can see the truth clearly"(当局者迷,旁观者清). That is the point. We, Chinese or Russian, see some bad deeds the American did, and thought that they are ridiculous to believe the govenment did it correctly. Conversely, some people who we call foreigner may laugh at us being foolish.
Sencondly, viewing the US election, media put a huge effect on people's decision. Basically, their reports about Bush and Kerry are almost parallel. That means when they reveal some negative news to Bush and meanwhile they would report also a negative news to Kerry. Checking the two candidates' "lists", it seems that they nearly did the same " good things" and "bad things". May be the fact is Bush did more "bad things" or Kerry did. But can people know that? Absolutely impossible. So we can say that the president is created by the media rahter than american selected him.