4 ms·

i mean in this case it's an influence campaign to educate people on some of the tools bbc uses to push propaganda. It's no secret that color grading is used to

i mean in this case it's an influence campaign to educate people on some of the tools bbc uses to push propaganda. It's no secret that color grading is used to invoke mood from the viewer and bbc takes it into overdrive whenever it reports stuff on china. also it's bbc.. pretty much one state media against another...

estaseuropano 5y ago
I'm not a fan of the bbc, but this is a pretty weird interpretation. This is clearly a campaign to discredit the BBC as a news source both internally in and externally to China, by latching onto some bad editing. BBC is a known and generally trusted source, the aim here is to make people question any negative news on China, e.g. the ongoing Uyghur genocide or the takeover of HK.
- shapefrog 5y ago
  > e.g. the ongoing Uyghur genocide or the takeover of HK Both of which are major issues relating to the policies of the sitting UK governement. Like many outlets, the BBC only recently discovered the plight of of the Uyghur people when it became politically interesting. When the UK government policy was the transition of power in Hong Kong to the Chinese was a good thing, the BBC faithfully reported that this was a good thing, without challenge. When the case for weapons of mass distruction was being made, the BBC faithfully reported those without any skepticism, in accordence with UK governemnt policy at the time. Obviously this is not proof or even a suggestion that they are not to be trusted, but it is pretty clear that editorially at least, the position of the UK governement, who effectively appoints the BBC Board, Chairman and Director General is of great importance to the stories that are reported.
  - evgen 5y ago
    > Like many outlets, the BBC only recently discovered the plight of of the Uyghur people when it became politically interesting. I guess your google-fu is weak. It took me seconds to find BBC reports from 2015-2017 documenting the tension between China and its Uyghur population in Xinjiang and by the fall of 2018 the BBC was regularly reporting on the roundups of Uyghurs and the reports of concentration camps. At what point does this reporting become 'only recently' when placed in comparison to what was publicly known?
    - shapefrog 5y ago
      Yes 2018 is recent. Are you really suggesting that the 2015-2017 reporting is the origin of tensions between China and the Uyghurs? How about 2008 and the Olympics - google-fu away and see if in the midst of enhanced coverage of the country due to the presence of a major sporting event such 'issues' were uncovered.
      - evgen 5y ago
        Anyone who knows the area is aware of the centuries of tension there, but the current crackdown and ongoing genecide is a recent event. It is not hard to find random articles discussing this tension for decades (originally spun as a crackdown on 'terrorists' starting in the early 2000s and well before the Olympics) but Xi Jinping significantly ramped things up. What you need to do in order to support your claims is show that there were other news organizations that were doing better at reporting the problem or that there were third parties and NGOs that were making claims supported by evidence.
evgen 5y ago
Seeing as how your account only seems to exist to come to the defense of the CCP when anyone says anything bad about it on HN I am always amused to see what I assume is this month's 'party line' displayed in your comments. Obviously you have been told to push the 'gloom filter' idea, so well done to skip any pretense and just drop the color grading suggestion as your middle sentence. Yes, BBC is technically 'state media', but to claim that the BBC is under the same degree of control as public media in China is to suffer from a rather strange delusion.
- dang 5y ago
  You can't attack other users like this, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are. It's against the site guidelines. Please read them and follow them: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Years' worth of past explanation at these links: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=true&page=0&query=by:dang%20astroturf https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20-recycling%20chin&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
jollybean 5y ago
This is definitely not true. If the BBC's bias was so ridiculous that they literally changed colour filters to remove green trees from China images, then it would be obvious. You'd be able to find dozens of such images, it would be trivial to spot. A commenter above posted something about 'critical thinking' and yes, this is an example of that. Which stories are 'errors' or 'oddities of some kind' or 'individual doing something wrong' vs. consistent propaganda. The BBC is a state actor and dose filter information in some ways, but 'painting Chinese tree grey' is definitely not it.
- dirtyid 5y ago
  BBC foreign policy reporting is every bit as influenced in establishment propaganda as RT or Xinhua. It's a running joke among diasphora from global south that BBC framing on issues in their countries, align with with UK's foreign policy and consistently cross into territory of manufactured fake news. > dozens of such images, it would be trivial to spot. ... > 'painting Chinese tree grey' is definitely not it. If you actually follow the subject matter, color grading trees is just one bite-size talking point about the BBC's reporting on XJ. It's being highlighted for counter-propaganda because it makes for easy visual comparison. Many of BBC's segments have been broken down by domestic PRC audiences and amount of consistent manipulation and misrepresentation can only be interpreted as malicious propaganda. It is indeed trivial to spot. China isn't the first party to call out BBC for what it is - state media that operates no different than any other. Many countries have critically assessed BBC agenda setting before, it's naive to dismiss it as errors / individual wrong doing. Again this is with specific reference to their foreign reporting.

estaseuropano 5y ago

I'm not a fan of the bbc, but this is a pretty weird interpretation. This is clearly a campaign to discredit the BBC as a news source both internally in and externally to China, by latching onto some bad editing. BBC is a known and generally trusted source, the aim here is to make people question any negative news on China, e.g. the ongoing Uyghur genocide or the takeover of HK.

shapefrog 5y ago
> e.g. the ongoing Uyghur genocide or the takeover of HK Both of which are major issues relating to the policies of the sitting UK governement. Like many outlets, the BBC only recently discovered the plight of of the Uyghur people when it became politically interesting. When the UK government policy was the transition of power in Hong Kong to the Chinese was a good thing, the BBC faithfully reported that this was a good thing, without challenge. When the case for weapons of mass distruction was being made, the BBC faithfully reported those without any skepticism, in accordence with UK governemnt policy at the time. Obviously this is not proof or even a suggestion that they are not to be trusted, but it is pretty clear that editorially at least, the position of the UK governement, who effectively appoints the BBC Board, Chairman and Director General is of great importance to the stories that are reported.
- evgen 5y ago
  > Like many outlets, the BBC only recently discovered the plight of of the Uyghur people when it became politically interesting. I guess your google-fu is weak. It took me seconds to find BBC reports from 2015-2017 documenting the tension between China and its Uyghur population in Xinjiang and by the fall of 2018 the BBC was regularly reporting on the roundups of Uyghurs and the reports of concentration camps. At what point does this reporting become 'only recently' when placed in comparison to what was publicly known?
  - shapefrog 5y ago
    Yes 2018 is recent. Are you really suggesting that the 2015-2017 reporting is the origin of tensions between China and the Uyghurs? How about 2008 and the Olympics - google-fu away and see if in the midst of enhanced coverage of the country due to the presence of a major sporting event such 'issues' were uncovered.
    - evgen 5y ago
      Anyone who knows the area is aware of the centuries of tension there, but the current crackdown and ongoing genecide is a recent event. It is not hard to find random articles discussing this tension for decades (originally spun as a crackdown on 'terrorists' starting in the early 2000s and well before the Olympics) but Xi Jinping significantly ramped things up. What you need to do in order to support your claims is show that there were other news organizations that were doing better at reporting the problem or that there were third parties and NGOs that were making claims supported by evidence.

evgen 5y ago

Seeing as how your account only seems to exist to come to the defense of the CCP when anyone says anything bad about it on HN I am always amused to see what I assume is this month's 'party line' displayed in your comments. Obviously you have been told to push the 'gloom filter' idea, so well done to skip any pretense and just drop the color grading suggestion as your middle sentence. Yes, BBC is technically 'state media', but to claim that the BBC is under the same degree of control as public media in China is to suffer from a rather strange delusion.

dang 5y ago
You can't attack other users like this, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are. It's against the site guidelines. Please read them and follow them: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Years' worth of past explanation at these links: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=true&page=0&query=by:dang%20astroturf https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20-recycling%20chin&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

jollybean 5y ago

This is definitely not true. If the BBC's bias was so ridiculous that they literally changed colour filters to remove green trees from China images, then it would be obvious. You'd be able to find dozens of such images, it would be trivial to spot. A commenter above posted something about 'critical thinking' and yes, this is an example of that. Which stories are 'errors' or 'oddities of some kind' or 'individual doing something wrong' vs. consistent propaganda. The BBC is a state actor and dose filter information in some ways, but 'painting Chinese tree grey' is definitely not it.

dirtyid 5y ago
BBC foreign policy reporting is every bit as influenced in establishment propaganda as RT or Xinhua. It's a running joke among diasphora from global south that BBC framing on issues in their countries, align with with UK's foreign policy and consistently cross into territory of manufactured fake news. > dozens of such images, it would be trivial to spot. ... > 'painting Chinese tree grey' is definitely not it. If you actually follow the subject matter, color grading trees is just one bite-size talking point about the BBC's reporting on XJ. It's being highlighted for counter-propaganda because it makes for easy visual comparison. Many of BBC's segments have been broken down by domestic PRC audiences and amount of consistent manipulation and misrepresentation can only be interpreted as malicious propaganda. It is indeed trivial to spot. China isn't the first party to call out BBC for what it is - state media that operates no different than any other. Many countries have critically assessed BBC agenda setting before, it's naive to dismiss it as errors / individual wrong doing. Again this is with specific reference to their foreign reporting.