再探｢新聞室的社會控制｣ -以香港TVB為例

Abstract

2014年10月香港雨傘運動期間，當地無線電視台(TVB)新聞部28名記者及採訪主任，因為不滿當天｢七警毆人案｣獨家報導遭高層下令刪去關鍵旁白，聯名在Facebook發表公開信表達抗議；事後更傳出秋後算帳、涉事記者大規模離職，成為香港新聞業｢自我審查｣的指標事件。 本論文從｢新聞室社會控制｣之理論觀點，探討三個研究問題，分別是新聞室的社會控制在TVB新聞部中如何運作?以｢影響守門人行為5層次｣來看，公開信事件為何/如何發生?以及事件後的離職潮如何發生?對TVB帶來什麼影響?透過次級資料分析以及16名行動者與學者的深度訪談，進行探索。 研究結果發現，源自西方社會的｢新聞室的社會控制｣理論，無法完整描述受到北京政經壓力嚴重影響的香港新聞機構現況；香港群眾對其自我審查的指責、新聞室內世代差異、社交媒體近用與香港獨有的九七回歸等因素累加，更是最終導致社會控制瓦解的原因。一代新人換舊人之後，儘管表面上TVB新聞部仍能正常運作，但相對平庸的資淺記者，已經失去｢監督政府｣的新聞職能。

During Hong Kong’s October, 2014 Umbrella Movement, 28 journalists and their supervisor from the news department of the local TV station (TVB) was dissatisfied about the management’s order to remove the vital voice narrative of their exclusive reporting on the “assault of protesters by seven police officers”. The journalists issued a joint public statement to protest via Facebook. However there were reported reprisals and mass-resignation of journalists involved in this matter. This has become an landmark event for Hong Kong media’s “self censorship.” In order to clarify the incident’s causes and impact, this thesis formulated three research topics: how did “Social Control in the Newsroom” work within TVB’s news department? Based on the “Communication Gatekeeping Theory”, why and how did the public statement incident take place? How did the mass-resignation after the incident take place and what was the impact on TVB? I will seek answers through the secondary data analysis and the in depth interviews of 16 participants and scholars. Research indicated that the West-originated theory of “Social Control in the Newsroom” couldn’t fully describe current situations of Hong Kong’s media, which has been severely impacted by Beijing’s political and economic pressure. The combined factors of Hong Kong public’s criticism toward their self-censorship, generation gap inside the newsroom, the use of social medias, and Hong Kong’s unique situation of the 1997 handover, are the ultimate causes of the disintegration of social control. While the TVB news department is still able to operate normally after the generation turnover, the relatively less-experienced and mediocre journalists have lost their journalistic roles of watchdog over the government.