How China was portrayed in the lead up to the Olympics by Western News Programmes. It's an English language paper so it's not really opinion based it's more delving into the... well words xD Just wondering though what was your opinion about the Western media in the lead up to the Olympics? All I heard about was Tibet, Dog being taken off menus, Smog, Human rights ect. It seemed to be a super negative portrayal of China. And as someone who doesn't really care about sport all I heard about was... (other than Michael Phelps) ... The scandals like the fireworks and the Chinese gymnastic team being "underage". Do you think the western media was being unfair or just doing it's job? Hmm this could go under debates but meh... people will find it xD Ooh and do any of you remember what the Olympic coverage was like when Korea held the Olympics?
Much of the mainstream media in my country was talking about the smog. But besides from that they just focussed on the games and how pretty China was. But if you watched non-commercial media then you saw about the poverty line there and the extreme lengths that China went to cover up the 'poor' part of China.
There were a lot of scenes from the opening ceremony that was cut out from the showing in the US. They were kind of confusing though if you weren't Chinese, such as a puppet act they did.
Well, one of the main issues that Western reporters were concerned about was the smog, whether it would affect their athletes abilities. Another thing was the temperature, right? They sent their athletes to more humid and hotter countries to condition themselves. Other than that I think they just concentrated on the games itself. After the Olympics however, the newspapers seemed to pick up a lot of scandals, like how the young girl who was singing in the opening was only lip-singing and the suspicion that China discovered the melamine incident b4 the Olympics but concealed it until after for fear of fewer people going to China to support the athletes.
So far I have found some good news reports on youtube that go with my theory that China was portrayed very badly in the Western Media I need more though =[ I remember seeing loads on TV that I thought were awful but I need transcripts of them and youtube has given me all it can. Can anyone think of any other good video hosting sites that may have some news reports on them?
Ah. Beijing Olympics. And the Michael Phelps hype. I don't quite remember much. The stabbing of the relative of one of the American (?) competitors really spiked up the Western News on how "dangerous" Beijing was.
That and the recent milk scandal just go to show that there is a distinct line drawn between the super-rich and the people living in poverty. China basically does things half-heartedly, impression is always more important than sincerity and honesty. While it is true the nation is a developing one and it is too big for work to be done thoroughly, it could at least forsake its pride and support international efforts for human rights due to the very nature and spirit of the Olympics itself.