City’s Place | “Family members contact reporters”: The reporter’s withdrawal is thought-provoking

I was still very surprised to see this report in the Suzhou Daily.

This is the biggest news in the country in the past two days, and it happened in Suzhou. It stands to reason that, under normal circumstances, reporters from all over the country would feel Suzhou, and Suzhou media, due to its advantageous location and people, would issue timely and detailed reports.

In other words, the reporter should have contacted the family members long ago.

Of course, I am not a foreign guest, and I roughly understand the media’s process. I will not naively think that the Suzhou Daily is a “news media”; they are mainly responsible for propaganda. Moreover, I also know that the actual situation must be that the reporter or relevant departments have contacted the family members long ago.

In this case, “the family members contacted the reporter” is not a simple fact, but a rather special expression. It indicates two meanings: first, what is said below is entirely a retelling of the family members’ opinions, without any of the media’s own attitude; if everyone has opinions, that is also the family members’ business; second, as an institutional media, it has not taken the initiative to do anything.

This may be a special note in the history of journalism: the media actively declares that it keeps its distance from the news and does not get involved in any news dust.

In fact, this is not a style unique to the Suzhou Daily. Whenever influential events occur, “out-of-town media” may report some (for example, The Paper made a little report this time), while the “local media” that occupies the advantageous location and people will definitely be absent.

This creates a situation: institutional media that have matured in the process of urbanization are losing contact with the city they are in. They may report on distant events, but turn a blind eye to the reality around them.

Not only are institutional media like this, but so are the employees who work in the media. They are highly secretive and strictly disciplined. We cannot obtain on-site information from Suzhou. Yesterday, a citizen spoke out on Weibo, saying that he was stopped by staff when he went to deliver flowers – ordinary citizens have to act as proxies for the media’s responsibilities.

The media losing contact with the city actually creates a vacuum: large cities accumulate a large number of people in a short period of time, such as Chengdu, which has added more than 10 million people in the past 15 years, with a population of over 20 million. However, so many things happen every day, and there is no “credible institution” to present them.

Filling this gap should be various dynamic events, interesting ideas and lifestyles, and public issues that urban people are concerned about – every city should have its own real media. In fact, since the 1990s, big cities have had their own metropolitan newspapers and TV stations, but they have lost them now.

The lack of these public aspects will lead to disturbing consequences. We know almost nothing about the assailant, which is truly symbolic.

Ms. Hu’s death has attracted the attention of the people all over the country, and many people are “making their voices heard.” In Tianjin, a light show commemorating her appeared on a TV tower. These “voices” are all external. Rather than being a silent gaze and rebound on Suzhou, it is better to say that they are the perception and expression of their own situation.

In a certain version of the report, Ms. Hu was called a “Chinese injured person.” In fact, aren’t we all “Chinese injured persons”? You must make your voice heard before you can transform from a “Chinese injured person” to having a name and personality, and then you are a “person”.

“The family members contacted the reporter” means the reporter’s withdrawal and disappearance. This is the “new grammar” in the city, this is waiting, and this is true silence. Those who shout and kill, their voices are so loud and terrifying, this is because too many people are accustomed to this silence.

I have expressed the same meaning in my Moments these two days: facing such a situation, either choose to immigrate, or you have to do something, this is being responsible for yourself. If you don’t have the courage to speak out, you are not commemorating, but consuming Ms. Hu’s bravery.