When is something newsworthy? РWu Fei (吴非)

Chinese educator and columnist Wu Fei (Âê¥Èùû) has a doctoral degree in news and communication from the National University of Moscow in Russia and currently teaches at the department of journalism and communication at Xiamen University. He wrote the following sarcastic but revealing essay on his blog. Last week’s Southern Weekly republished it in the op-ed section, minus the first paragraph, which perhaps seemed a bit too much in light of the Lan Chengzhang killing. The essay is translated by Danwei blog:

Because I had written an article titled “Future Popular Professions,” young people mistakenly thought that I was a career guidance person, and they asked me for direction. I talked about how a news reporters was great thing to be: don’t listen to everyone’s BS and think that being a journalist is dangerous as hell, that after you’ve written a report on something, there’ll be people waiting in an alley to cap you when you get off work at night, or when you’re going out with your wife, you get in the car and it blows up with a bang….nothing like that; being a reporter is safe.

Some things aren’t news. Kid, see across the road where they’re demolishing that buildings? Seven stories, not 20 years old, still strong as anything. I’d have thought they’d use controlled demolition; never imagined they’d take it apart by hand, hire a bunch of laborers, swinging at it with sledgehammers. It’s cheaper that way, apparently. Yes, if it was controlled demolition, then the demolition company makes money and the foreman’s take drops. And what will all those workers do for food? They’ve got babies at home waiting for school tuition. [Full Text]

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