Media Power

Media include television, newspapers, magazine, advertisement and so on, the society's penetrability by media are increasing unceasingly. Media have the power to influence our lives, and the media power become more and more profound. Moreover, outside the Executive power, Legislative power and Jurisdiction, media is being the Fourth Estate to take up the responsibilty to monitor the government.

Since the media have the significant influence, media must take up the social responsibility, provide the collect and true information for the public. Futhermore, media need to stand in front of the public, instead of the publicЎ¦s eyes and ears, being the publicЎ¦s mouthpiece and expresses the opinion of the populace.

In Hong Kong, besides the Star Ferry Pier Conservation, there are several social issues, which were firstly exposed by the media. In 1997, media was the first one to expose that there were numerous poultries died during the same period of time. This is the first time of Bird Flu appeared in Hong Kong. In 2002, media was the first one to expose that there were several people in China was infected the causeless pneumonia. It was the beginning of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak. In 2004, media raised up the publicЎ¦s awareness of the Article 23. It lead to the 50 thousands people went to the street in 1 July 2004. It was the biggest marching in Hong Kong since Hong Kong was handover to China in 1997.

Since the progress of technology was as same as the lightning speed. The technology changed with the each passing day. And the economic circumstance continued growth, it brings the huge impact to the media. The appearance of Internet provided the more effective way to send out the message. Ў§Bus UncleЎЁ was one of the most popular incidents, which can show us the power of the Internet. Bus uncle, a small potato, becomes a popular public figure. His attitude and behaviour become a city hot.

Furthermore, we must not disparage the power of blog. Nowadays, most of Hong Kong will write their own blog and surf other peopleЎ¦s blog. Donald Tsang Yan-kuen and Alan Leong Kah-kin, the candidate for the Hong Kong Chief Executive election in 2007, also use the blog to get in touch with Hong Kong citizen and convey their message to the public. Ms Cheng also used the internet to send out her message to the public. She just sent out one e-mail only to announce the media about the project in Sham Shui Po. Amazingly, it caught the media and the publicЎ¦s attention within a short time. She received a lot of support