Noah Aniser
New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/06/world/asia/covid-coronavirus-china-wuhan.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage
As China’s Propaganda Push Continues, Wuhan Emerges as a Star
The article is about Wuhan, a small city in China where the Corona virus had its origins. Recently released Tv shows have paid tribute to the city where the virus emerged. The shows focus on the heroism of residents and medical stuff, but completely ignore the mistakes of the government in the early stages of the virus.
The author mentions the show “warriors in white coats” which is a 20-part post-pandemic drama. It’s filled with stars and fictionalizes Wuhan’s delivery drivers, construction workers and doctors.
“warriors in white coats” is just one of many examples for a really emotional pandemic show that tributes the city and the residents but completely overplays the mistakes made by the government. Wuhan become a subject of glowing interest across Chinese media. Wuhan is getting such positive attention in the media because they really had a significant recovery from the virus. While other countries are still struggling with increasing numbers of infected people, Wuhan’s rate hovers near zero.
After mentioning the shows and the truly impressive infection rate, the author talks more in depth about the actual reason behind Wuhan’s new positioning. By putting Wuhan’s recovery and its heroes in the spotlight, the government tries to linger the public anger about the mistakes of the government in the early stages of the pandemic.
One show for example shows scenes and interviews from January and skips right ahead to April where the virus was already somehow under control again. All the shows have a happy ending and only depicture the success of China’s leaders while in reality, they were largely absent in the first weeks of the outbreak.
I think that the article is well written and really interesting. To see, how the Chinese government tries to cover up their early mistakes is impressive. The structure of the article is good because the main information can be found in the beginning and the background information more towards the end.
I think it is newsworthy because it’s about the city where the corona virus emerged and how they reacted to the virus. In my eyes, that article can also be seen as a feature story. Overall, it’s an good article.