中國因素在臺馬媒體的展現：以香港反送中運動報導為例

Abstract

香港反送中運動爆發後，其中臺馬兩地不約而同地觀察到一個現象：即便有為數不少的閱聽者站在親民主陣營，但特定媒體卻罔顧讀者市場，報導立場明顯傾向中共官方。以此現象作為研究動機，本研究旨在探討這個現象與中國大外宣的關聯為何，雖是同樣面對中文讀者臺灣與馬來西亞在新聞敘事上有何異同。 本研究挑選了臺馬兩地代表性的親中媒體—《中國時報》與《星洲日報》，並分別以《自由時報》和《光華日報》作為對照組，預期透過內容分析的四個指標：「消息來源」、「反送中評價」、「暴力歸責」與「新聞切點」，來測量媒體的親中程度。研究假設親中程度越高的媒體會更多使用「親中消息來源」；對反送中運動持「負面」評價；將暴力歸責於「示威者」；更多以「親中切點」敘述事件。此外，將臺馬親中媒體與服務大外宣政策的中共官方媒體進行比較，探討親中媒體敘事策略上是否受到大外宣影響。 量化結果發現，馬來西亞媒體的《星》與《光》在「消息來源」不符假設，而「反送中評價」、「暴力歸責」與「新聞切點」指標上也只有部分符合假設。若搭配文本分析才得以更清晰觀察到《星》的親中傾向。臺灣媒體方面，《中》與《自》的立場差異在「消息來源」、「暴力歸責」與「新聞切點」指標上都得出了符合假設的結果，惟在「反送中運動評價」一項指標上，《中》雖然對反送中運動持「負面」看法，但是相同的現象也出現在《自》的報導上。交叉比較臺馬媒體，單論本研究所選取的四家媒體，從各項指標上足以顯示臺灣「親中」媒體與「非親中」媒體間立場差異大於馬來西亞的案例。 「中國因素」在臺馬獨特的政經結構上對媒體的影響有所差異，臺灣受經濟利誘的影響大於政治施壓；相對地，馬來西亞則是政治背景對媒體立場的影響更為深遠。

The danger of biased news has become especially severe recently. During the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests, certain media in Malaysia wrote news to defame protestors’ demands for democracy and at the same time to justify Hong Kong police’s excessive use of force, which led them to pivot away from journalistic independence. What these media companies did violate the ethical principle of objectivity, and polarized public opinion. This phenomenon of the media intentionally choosing a certain side on China-related news not only occurs in Malaysia, but also in Taiwan. Many Taiwanese researchers have pointed out that biased news is eroding the trust between people. When several Taiwanese and Malaysian media reported on incidents relevant to China, they naturally divided into pro-China and anti-China camps. In a democratic country, the media are free to choose their perspectives to interpret incidents; however, biased news becomes a social problem when they deliberately present an incomplete picture of fact and try to frame the incident on behalf of special interests. Most news from pro-China media companies was partial to Chinese official viewpoints and had failed to address findings of bias and disinformation since the close relationship with the Chinese government. I chose four media from Malaysia and Taiwan as examples. The pro-China media were “Sin Chew Daily” and “China Times”, as for anti-China media were “Kwong Wah Yit Poh” and “Liberty Times”. The goal of this research was to compare the news content of Malaysian and Taiwanese pro-China media with Chinese official media respectively, and the researcher used four indicators, which were “resource of citation”, “attitude toward the protests”, “violence blame” and “news perspective” to measure these media’s pro-China degree. According to the research questions, I proposed assumptions that pro-China media would use more “pro-China resource of citation”; pro-China media tend to hold a “negative” attitude toward the Hong Kong protests; pro-China media blame “the protestors” for using violence, and finally, pro-China media use more “pro-China perspective” to interpret the protests. The research result showed that in Malaysia case, “Sin Chew Daily” actually used more “anti-China resource of citation”. On the contrary, the result of “Kwong Wah Yit Poh” also did not correspond with the assumptions. It used more “pro-China resource of citation”; most news held a “negative” attitude toward the protests; blame “the protestors” for using violence, and finally use more “pro-China perspective” to interpret the protests. As for the Taiwan case, the results were better. The “resource of citation”, “violence blame” and “news perspective” indicators were all correspond with the assumptions, which showed that the “China Times” inclined to Chinese official point of view toward the Hong Kong protests. However, the “attitude toward the protests” indicator only partially corresponded to the assumptions. The “Liberty Times” also tend to hold a “negative” attitude toward the protests. To sum, if comparing the result of Malaysia and Taiwan, we can conclude that the political standpoint of Malaysia media was less the Taiwanese counterpart. On the second part of the research indicated that even the pro-China media has bias in their news, but still they did not reach the degree of Chinese official media, “Global Times” did. The “Global Times” had the highest proportion of using “pro-China resource of citation”; holding “negative” attitude toward the protests; blaming “the protestors” and using “pro-China perspective” to interpret the protests. These results illustrated that the pro-China media did not totally synchronize with Chinese propaganda. Biased news jeopardizes democratic development by shrinking the public discussion from open debate to ideological confrontation. My research helps examine whether biased news from pro-China media conforms to traits of Chinese information manipulation. This will give the Chinese-speaking audience in Malaysia and Taiwan an overall understanding of how Chinese propaganda infects news content so that people can keep a vigilant lookout for information manipulation.