===FOSS0001: Media in Contemporary China (Spring 2004)
Wikipedia Assignment Grades===
Dear FOSS0001 Students:
Below are your wiki assignment grades. All group members on each topic are assigned the same group grade.
Assessment:
20 Points total
A = 20-17 points; B = 16-13 pts; C = 12-10 pts; D = 9-7 pts
==China Youth Daily
Group Grade: 13 points==
Comments:
- This is inaccurate information -- “The China Youth Daily (中國青年報)…is the first independently operated central government news media portal in the People's Republic of China.” What you meant is, “China Youth Online (CYOL, www.CYOL.net), the first independently operated central government news media portal in China.” (from PR Newswire)
- Regarding the sentence --- “Although China youth Daily is run by the CYL, it is also the first marketized official paper in China.” Whenever you claim something is “first”, you need to cite where you got the information from, for example, “According to xxx…” An alternative would be to say that CYD is “one of the first”.
- You have a good quote on China’s control mechnism here – “But like all other papers with a CPC background, China Youth Daily is ultimately directed by the Propaganda Department of the CPC. Although it does not mean that the Propaganda Department often affects the direction and the content of the paper, it is authorized and has the right to do so.”
- Should set up links as soon as introduce a new media outlet in the Website Section.
- One of the link (Elite Reference) did not work.
- Did good in citing where you got readership statistics
- Other Related Issues section is a good idea, but need to develop it further with links to websites, readings and bibliography.
- The overall content is dry. Need to write in inverted pyramid style rather than research paper (which usually starts with extensive background information). Inverted pyramid, or journalistic writing style requires you to put the most important information first. After giving some context to your readers that China Youth Daily is a party paper, controlled by the party, you should move quickly to what people most want to know – what kind of interesting stories do they write, who reads them, why do they enjoy a good reputation in China, their style, their content, their circulation, censorship, etc. You can leave the detail description of the China Youth League etc lower in the wiki.
- The section on subsidiary newspapers is very good but incomplete. Did not describe Elite Reference.
- Grammar needed brushing up. For example, “During approximately 3 years of establishment” and “Both China Youth Daily and CYOL are now besides having the hardcore political, social and economic news…”
==Caijing
Group Grade: 18 points==
Comments:
- Good intro.
- Good – set up links to SEEC and started another wiki on it.
- Under Financial Structure section, unclear whether Caijing also participates in “checkbook journalism”? The writing under that section is good, but would be better if can be balanced with information on what kinds of financial pressures Caijing DOES receive… perhaps by its own investors?
- When citing Chinese articles such as "Yinguangxia Trap", the original Chinese article name should be added.§ I understand there was a fierce debate between the people involved regarding putting in images. As I mentioned, this same debate exists in the larger wikipedia community. Though I know you have removed all sample magazine cover images to be on the conservative side, I have taken into account your efforts to resolve the issue.
- Since you cited “Periodical China” so many times, it would be good to link them into the article early on (you waited til the very end, and it doesn’t work at the moment) and to give an one liner description of who they are.
- Would have been better to cite linked article by name instead of just numbers [1] [2] [3], that way, if the link does not work, people can still find the article by name.
- The editing work was very good.
==News Probe
Group Grade: 14 points==
Comments:
- “The programme itself is a report of the truth.” This is a BIG CLAIM. Who is saying this? Need to cite your sources.
- In general your content ideas are good. The parts going into detail on News Probe’s reporting style and what investigative reporting is like in China are good. But it needs to be written in a neutral point of view (NPOV). It reads more like a badly translated version of News Probe’s official website.
- Very good link to episode samples. Should link the award winning stories so people can access the original story.
- Need more editing for better reading. Example of writing that badly needs editing -- “four methods of choosing a topic have been developed, known as the investigation on the theme, consensus, event and the inside skinny. “ Programme titles are also inconsistent.
- A lot of the material reads too much like a bad translation of the official News Probe website. It is important to not just translate but also to synthesize and analyze the information and to write for an English speaking audience.
- Really need to fix grammar.
==Sina.com
Group Grade: 16.5 points==
Comments:
- The content in general is good. Good on referencing your materials.
- We agreed in class that although a couple of photos of the key officers makes the wiki more personable, the layout of it is sloppyly done. Also if the point is to talk about how dynamic and young the management officers are, should just spell it out in writing.
- Local content heading should have been changed to Censorship and Control. Need to think about what would draw the readers to the different sections of the wiki.
- Need more editing.
- We talked about not cutting and pasting large amounts of pictures from the web without permission.