http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7120856.stm
The construction of Dam used to be regarded as the symbol of progress in 1970s. However, conflicts in the building over large dams in Yangtze River, India’s Narmada Valley, in Southeast Anatolia, and in the Mekong Basin had paralyzed governments and financial institutions throughout the 1990s. Dam itself is not right or wrong, but whether the building of dam has live up to their promise is controversial. The article being analysis is based on several concerns about the environmental problems caused by the building of Three Gorges Dam--the world’s largest hydro-electricity project in China.
The headline of the news seems to maintain an unbiased position of the author as he used the word “concern”, however, “Deep concern” usually is used together to indicate bad or negative discovery. And the techniques of using risk and threat appeal in reporting environmental news could also found in this article. As following by the lead paragraph, “There are fears that China’s Three Gorges Dam is causing serious environmental problems, despite official claims to the contrary.” It seems that the key word in the lead paragraph is “fear” and “despite official claims to the contrary”, which seems to set down the voice of officials and confirm the serious environment catastrophe was causing by the building of Three Gorges Dam.
The body of the news could be mainly divided into three parts: The first part is the introductory about there are continuous debates on environmental issues accused by Three Gorges Dam among different groups of people, which include: local farmer, local officials and Chinese central government. And the second part is description about landslide and relocation. And in the third part the reporter pointed out conflict points which announced by the official, and environmental activist who against the building of the dam.
The news sources of this news seem to lack of “experts” opinions while comparing with other environmental news. Its new sources including local official, Chinese central government, speaker at a government organized conference, state media, vice-mayor of Chongqing, the official and a Chinese writer. Some local official’s name could not be found while in reporting the ecological damage. Like the quotation in the second paragraph that just reported as “according to one local official.”
The reporter is trying to maintain its “objectivity” by simply listing the claims made by three different groups of people: government official, the state media and environmental activist. Firstly, most part of this news was focus in describing the contrasts of views by Wang Xiaofeng, the deputy director of the government’s Three Gorges Project Construction Committee. Mr. Wang’s views are occurred for two times in the article, the first time is in supporting environment protection instead of profit from the economic boom. And the second time is in rebutting the accusation to the Three Gorges Dams Project in causing environmental damage and denied the relocation of extra four million people. The reporter reinforced the contradition of the official claim by inserting the events like landslide and relocation .
In the end, the author is trying to leave the audience to make the judgment about whether the government was concealing the serious environmental problem by asking “who to believe” in the beginning of conclusion. The reporter ended his story by using the words of one Chinese writer, “They’re not truthfully reflecting a serious situation. The government is not being responsible to business of to China”. By this tone, this story is more like representing the voice of anti-dam building.
Overall, this article is a good example in supervising the official “words”, however, it did not present enough link between the events and claims, the concerns over the Three Gorges Dam is not “deep” enough. The reporter just used few words to mention the landslide accident and the relocation which reported by the state media. And the word by a Chinese writer seems not strong enough to rebut the words from the officials.
In addition, the reporter selected four photos in its report, he tried to appeal the audience by the factual image that, the bank s of the Yangtze is being reinforced to prevent landslides and the farmer needs to be relocated. And warming the audience that the environmental catastrophe is happening. And the other two photos seem to have no direct link to this news and used frequently in other BBC news about Three Gorges Dam.
It is interesting to notice that more news about Three Gorges Dam could be found in around 2006 and 2007, while less report after 2007. Maybe it is because 2006 is the year when China has completed construction of the main wall of the Three Gorges Dam. And it is a common failing of environmental news reporting that the coverage decreased as the time pass by.
It seems that the debate over Three Gorges Dam is a continuing process. “Deep concern over Three Gorges Dam” is a good example is good at tracking the controversial views offered by the official, while there are more following research could be added to make more informative news. This news is happened in China and reported by a foreign reporter. Environmental news is also social and cultural constructed, state media in China tend to be more debatable when reporting the news about Three Gorges Dam. The proponent praise Three Gorges Dam as it help to reduce the dependence on coal to produce energy to raise 1.3billion population and help to prevent the flood. Even though the author perceived Three Gorges Dam is controversial, it seems that more facts about another side needed to be found in his reporting.
Note:
The news article about Three Gorges Dam in the BBC News website were most written by Michael in Beijing. This article is one of the news by Michael Bristow published on December, 2007. One of the news written by Michael on 2009 titled “Three Gorges water plan postponed” has reported more detailed on landslide fear. And he used Peter Brossard’s word to end his news that "There are smarter ways of generating energy and managing floods than by building outdated mega-projects." But I can’t find further report on “how other smarter ways of generating energy and managing flood” in news.
Following links are:
1) “Three Gorges water plan postponed” :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8343726.stm
2) : “China Dams the World”: written by Peter Brossard, who is the policy director of International Rivers, a global environmental organization based in Barkley, California. ( This journal could be found in the World Policy Journal: Volume XXVI, No4, Winter 2009/10 in Bush Memorial Library) Link to a scanned edition as followed:
http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B6nl0a2RVWbgNDZmOWQzZDQtYTI4YS00M2E4LTgzZjctNDFkMjJjM2ExNTQz&hl=zh_CN
Video Link:
Three Gorges Dam is now in Full Operation (CCTV)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSsKSNcA-uM
Patrick McCully in China's Three Gorges Dam Documentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqVG_lT-5g
China's Three Gorges dam in trouble - 20 Nov 09:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWoDrEqTmgI
Chinese three gorges dam project - 9 December 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HetgsONTvSM
