Telling stories about Bay Area ‘will make it tick’

Journalists and other professionals engaged in communications in the Guangdong-Zhuhai-Macao Greater Bay Area must be good storytellers to help raise the region’s global impact, experts told a twoday regional forum in Zhuhai on Nov 23-24.

“Effective storytelling by the media and broadcasting sector is needed today for the image and branding of the Greater Bay Area,” said Agnes Lam Iok-fong, director of the Centre for Macau Studies (CMS) at the University of Macau, adding there should be greater emphasis on emotional bonds to connect people from 11 cities involved in the Bay Area’s development.

Aimed at building up a worldclass city cluster, the Bay Area comprises the special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macao and nine cities in Guangdong, a southern Chinese province.

Lam was speaking on Nov 23 at the opening of the first Asia-Pacific Communication Postgraduate Forum: Greater Bay Area Macao 2019.

Themed “Stories of Greater Bay Area: New Trends, New Development and New Challenge”, the forum kicked off in the Hengqin Free Trade Zone in Zhuhai, Guangdong, before moving to the University of Macau on Nov 24.

The forum was organized by the Asia-Pacific Communication Exchange Association, with China Daily as media partner.

“Talking about regional cooperation, a lot of research has been conducted on how various cities (in the Bay Area) should cooperate with and complement each other with their own strengths. But today, we need a new angle to connect these cities by finding their similarities,” Lam said in a keynote speech.

People in the Bay Area are not just connected because of economic benefits or political strategy, Lam said, noting that, for ordinary people, what link them together are shared Cantonese culture, collective memory, language and customs.

“(The media and broadcasting sector) needs to highlight the emotional bonds in the Bay Area, and these stories need to be delivered based on images, shared life experience, and perception,” said Lam.

“How to tell good stories about the Bay Area, overcome communication barriers caused by political systems, economic development, and social and cultural traditions is a pressing and significant issue for media and communication researchers to ponder and explore,” Huang Yawen, executive director of the Asia-Pacific Communication Exchange Association, told the forum.

He said the region’s media and broadcasting sector is now facing unprecedented opportunities for development and cooperation, with the construction of the Bay Area in full swing amid celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the 20th anniversary of Macao’s return to the motherland.

Wu Mei, professor of the University of Macau and president of APCEA, said they initiated and organized the two-day forum to provide a platform for regional scholars and media professionals to share their views on how news reporting can contribute to the Bay Area’s prosperity and global image.

In opening remarks, Huang Jiantuan, a representative of the Hengqin New Area Macao Affairs Office, said Hengqin had taken various measures to promote the free flow of resources in the Bay Area. “I believe Hengqin’s unique strategic advantage, attractive natural and cultural environment, and various cultural and sports events can provide rich materials and topics for broadcasting and news reports,” he said.

Researchers focusing on local studies may also find new angles and ideas by looking from a macro view with policy frameworks like the Bay Area taken into consideration, said Lam.

Taking CMS as an example, when the center was first established in the 1980s, its main focus was on the future development of Macao itself after the city returned to the motherland in 1999. Today, with the construction of the Bay Area and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the center has switched its focus to regional studies and exploring the new research angles of Macao in a much larger context.

The knowledge of network science can also be applied to telling good and insightful stories about the Bay Area since a network-driven perspective can provide many good angles, said Jonathan Zhu, chair professor of computational social science and director of the Centre for Communication Research at the City University of Hong Kong.

Noting that China is promoting a digital Silk Road under the Belt and Road Initiative, Daya Thussu, professor of international communication at Hong Kong Baptist University, said the Bay Area has the potential to create a new global digital communication order, which is now largely shaped by major developed countries like the United States.

“China has a huge advantage (in digital communication),” said Thussu, as China has the world’s biggest number of internet users and is leading in 5G technology. The advancement of digital technology in China also has an impact on other countries, he added.

On Nov 24, the forum moved to the University of Macau for its Macao session. Angus Cheong, chair of the Asia Pacific Internet Research Alliance and the Macau Internet Research Association, delivered a speech on how artificial intelligence can facilitate communication research and offered an insight on big-data-tech-assisted methodology in online content mining and analysis. He presented one of their studies on comparison of respective “city personality” of 11 cities in the Greater Bay Area.

Yang Liu, representative of the School of Journalism and Communication at Chongqing University, said she was thankful for the opportunity provided by the forum as it’s important for students to participate in international forums to learn new ideas.

The rise of short video clips on the internet and the surge of platforms such as TikTok refresh the world of communication in many ways, said Professor He Haixiang, dean of the School of Network Communication at Zhejiang Yuexiu University of Foreign Languages.

Professor Chao Naipeng, dean of the College of Mass Communication at Shenzhen University, discussed mobile usage by autistic children and their families in detail.

More than 20 students from Chongqing University attended the forum. They were among many others from higher education institutions in the Bay Area and beyond. Students shared their research on various topics, ranging from the communication strategy of universities in the Bay Area to analysis on news reporting on the region by Hong Kong media and how Southeast Asian media report on the BRI.

Dai Xiaoya, a doctoral student from the Communication University of China in Beijing, said the Chinese cultural identity of the region is heavily influenced by Cantonese traditions. “With the development (of the Bay Area), a new cultural identity may also emerge,” she said.

Wen Zongduo, deputy editor-inchief of China Daily Asia Pacific, said during a panel discussion that the current generation in the media and broadcasting sector are provided with huge opportunities as the world wants to know more about China today.

“China has just become prosperous after 70 years of development, and is now getting stronger,” said Wen. “On the other hand, (developed countries) have built their power in the media and this makes it easier for them to affect (the opinions) of the rest of the world. This is why China needs a strong team for media communication.

“The change in this position will require the struggle and endeavors of generations of media communications talent,” he said.