The Listening Post

Controlling the coronavirus narrative: China’s propaganda push | The Listening Post (Full)


Listen Later

On The Listening Post this week: As COVID-19 goes global, China’s propaganda plan is to turn the tide of negative press in their favour. Plus, the B-scheme movie of apartheid South Africa.
Controlling the coronavirus narrative: China’s propaganda push
The coronavirus story took a turn last week when a government spokesman in Beijing told journalists to stop reporting that the COVID-19 virus originated in China.
Ever since last year when the first case was reported in the city of Wuhan, the origin of this outbreak has not been a point of contention, not even in China’s state media – until now.
Why the change of tack? It comes down to the numbers. More than a hundred countries are affected. The number of cases keeps climbing, so does the death toll.
The cost to the global economy is already in the billions of dollars and it could reach trillions. Those are the kinds of figures no government wants to be associated with.
Contributors:
Liu Xin - Host and journalist, CGTN
Yaqiu Wang – China researcher, Human Rights Watch
Shelley Zhang - Writer, China Uncensored
Professor Steve Tsang - Director, SOAS China Institute
On our radar:
Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Flo Phillips about the charges brought against the Slovak businessman on trial for the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak.
The propaganda films of apartheid-era South Africa
Like many governments, South Africa’s apartheid rulers offered subsidies to the film industry. The ‘B-scheme’ was one such subsidy.
In order to qualify, filmmakers – who were mostly white back then – had to produce films with black casts, for black audiences in a black South African language such as Zulu, Xhosa or Tswana.
From around 1973 to 1989, as many as 1500 of those films were produced. But in many cases there was a prevailing theme; one that would explain why the apartheid government would help bankroll movies that were made – ostensibly – for the entertainment of black South Africans.
The Listening Post’s Nic Muirhead reports on the B-scheme subsidy and the effect it had on film making in apartheid-era South Africa.
Contributors:
Charles Mokatsane – Cinema owner
Benjamin Cowley – CEO, Gravel Road Productions
Gairoonisa Paleker – Senior Lecturer, University of Pretoria
Tonie van der Merwe – Filmmaker
- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe
- Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/AJEnglish
- Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aljazeera
- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/
...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

The Listening PostBy The Listening Post

  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4
  • 4.4

4.4

34 ratings


More shows like The Listening Post

View all
Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,898 Listeners

Talk to Al Jazeera by Al Jazeera

Talk to Al Jazeera

9 Listeners

The Daily by The New York Times

The Daily

111,785 Listeners

Citations Needed by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson

Citations Needed

3,888 Listeners

Al Jazeera News Updates by Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera News Updates

254 Listeners

The Take by Al Jazeera

The Take

483 Listeners

AJ Longreads by Al Jazeera

AJ Longreads

12 Listeners

The Inside Story Podcast by Al Jazeera

The Inside Story Podcast

128 Listeners

The Rest Is Politics by Goalhanger

The Rest Is Politics

3,276 Listeners

The Global Story by BBC World Service

The Global Story

169 Listeners