Media Observation | Observation on the overseas social media communication effects of China’s mainstream media in the first half of 2024
2024-08-14
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As globalization deepens, more and more countries and international people want to understand and perceive China. The omni-media communication pattern of China's mainstream media at the international communication level continues to improve, and its cultural soft power and international influence continue to expand and deepen.
According to incomplete statistics, more than 10 local radio and television stations have successively established international communication centers between 2023 and the first half of 2024. In the first half of 2024, the fan "circle of friends" of the mainstream media's overseas social communication matrix continued to grow, multi-language precision communication improved quality and efficiency, various audio-visual literary and artistic works attracted international attention, and Chinese stories and voices are spreading around the world in a variety of forms.
Mainstream media in the first half of 2024
Overseas social media communication effectiveness evaluation results
In the first half of 2024, domestic mainstream media organizations continued to exert their strength in international communication through social media platforms. According to the monitoring and evaluation of CTR's overseas social media communication data, these media organizations operate nearly 1,000 social media accounts on the three major overseas social media platforms, of which more than 170 head and shoulders accounts have a subscription volume of one million or more. China Media Group, Xinhua News Agency and People's Daily have all performed well on overseas social media platforms, ranking in the top three in overseas communication power.
Figure: Top 10 domestic mainstream media organizations in terms of overseas social media communication effectiveness in the first half of 2024
Data source: CTR-Weijian short video business decision system (overseas version), the ranking platforms include Facebook, YouTube and X platform
Through overseas social media platforms,Chinese media actively participates in the dissemination and interpretation of global hot events.
From the data in the first half of the year, we can see that among the works on the X platform, there are more than 220 works with over one million views. The contents of the works are mainly global hot spots and emergencies, such as the Reddit product launch at the CES electronics show in the United States and the host of an Ecuadorian TV station being hijacked during a live broadcast.
On Facebook, Chinese media mostly publish soft information content such as China's daily life, China's economic and social development, etc., which continuously deepens the spread of goodwill.For example, the aerial footage of Inner Mongolia tourists enjoying the flowers released by CGTN has been viewed over 10 million times, the "World's largest 4,000-ton all-terrain crane has been delivered to Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China" released by China Daily, and the kindergarten children's cooking video going viral on social networks released by Sixth Tone (The Paper) have all been viewed over 3 million times.
On the YouTube platform, the number of views of film, television and various content released by Chinese media remains high, and more and more YouTube users are returning to the big screen.CTR monitoring data shows that the official accounts opened by domestic media organizations on the YouTube platform released a total of 87,000 video works in the first half of the year, and more than 560 works had more than 100,000 views, with the content mainly focusing on film, television, variety shows and news.
From the perspective of platform development trends, more and more users choose to watch YouTube content through connected TVs. According to public data from YouTube's official website, users around the world watch YouTube content through connected TVs for 1 billion hours a day. The quality options for YouTube works also support multiple options from 144P to 1080P (HD). This is good news for broadcasting and television organizations that mainly produce large-screen content.
First half of 2024Highlights of overseas social media communications by mainstream media
1. The number of followers of flagship accounts and some minority language accounts is comparable to that of top international media
As of the end of June 2024, major domestic media organizations have more than 170 head-and-shoulders accounts with more than one million followers on the three major overseas social media platforms.The number of fans of CGTN and China Daily Facebook accounts has reached hundreds of millionsThe number of fans of China Media Group CGTN on the three major overseas platforms continues to expand, maintaining its leading position. The number of fans of CGTN (main account) on the three major platforms (not deduplicated) has reached 139 million, which is higher than the number of fans of the top accounts of BBC news and CNN.
Figure: Comparison of the number of fans of flagship news accounts of mainstream media organizations
Note: The total number of followers of the account with the best number of followers (the organization with the largest number of followers) is not deduplicated. The update time is June 30, 2024
Globally, Chinese media organizations implement multilingual precision communication strategies.The number of followers of several minority language accounts exceeds or is comparable to similar accounts of international media, successfully expanding its international influence.
March 2024,China Media Group (CGTN) has added 12 new international languages to its original 68 overseas communication languages, becoming one of the international media organizations with the most languages.Xinhua News Agency has established a multilingual, multimedia, multi-channel, multi-level and multi-functional news dissemination system through its global news information collection network, providing all-media products in 15 languages to more than 8,000 news organizations around the world 24 hours a day. The People's Daily has pushed more than 3,000 high-quality news products in 13 languages to foreign mainstream media through 39 overseas branches.
According to CTR's overseas monitoring data, among minority language accounts, the number of followers of Urdu, Tamil, Turkish and Sinhala accounts exceeds that of BBC accounts in the same languages. The highest number of subscribers of Chinese media accounts in Arabic, Spanish, Hindi and Bengali has reached tens of millions, and the highest number of followers of Portuguese, Russian, Bengali, Pashto, Hausa, Nepali, Swahili, Thai and Vietnamese accounts has reached millions, which is comparable to BBC CNN and other organizations. Chinese media are gradually building a multilingual global communication network, allowing Chinese stories and Chinese voices to spread to every corner of the world, further strengthening the dissemination of Chinese voices around the world.
2. Actively participate in setting topics and continue to build a world-class media
The first half of 2024 was filled with turbulent international events. Putin won the presidential election, Russia suffered a terrorist attack, Chang'e 6 successfully completed its mission, US and Russian nuclear submarines appeared in Cuba at the same time, and the Paris Olympics was about to open...The Central Media is committed to becoming a global source of major news and building a world-class media。
Content is released in a full matrix and in multiple forms around major domestic events. "CGTN" simultaneously broadcasts a special report on the 2024 Two Sessions on YouTube/Facebook, showing China's political landscape, with over one million views. "Chang'e-6 probe unfurls Chinese flag on moon's far side" released by Facebook account "CGTN" has been viewed over 6.7 million times.
Taking a stand on international events from a third-party perspective. The Facebook account "CGTN Arabic" published "The US presence is a nightmare for Iraq", which expressed China's opposition to war and peace-loving stance through the views of retired Lieutenant General Abdul Karim Khalaf, with 3.49 million views. The Facebook account "Global Times" published a work "US and UK 'must be held accountable': South African attorney", interviewing Wikus van Rensburg and other lawyers who filed class action lawsuits against the United States and the United Kingdom, expressing the view that the United States and Britain "must be held accountable for their actions and what is happening in Gaza", with over 2 million views.
Fighting back against Western media’s slanderous rumors. China Daily’s documentary series “The Old World and the New Road” interprets the complexity and wide-ranging impact of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative. In the first episode, it visits the China-Laos railway project and fights back against Western media’s slander of “debt trap” and geopolitical manipulation with real images and opinionated views. “The Trap” released by the YouTube account “China Daily” was taken from the first episode of the documentary. It actively mentioned Western slanderous views and used this as a starting point to show the effectiveness of the “Belt and Road” project. It has been played over 500,000 times.
3. The overseas distribution of literary and audio-visual works deepens the dissemination of Chinese aesthetics and culture
In recent years, rich audio-visual literary and artistic works have increasingly become an important medium of communication between different ethnic groups and countries. Mainstream media promote high-impact cultural programs and activities internationally through overseas official agency accounts, promote Chinese aesthetics and Chinese culture to the world, and bring the export of literary and artistic audio-visual content to a new stage.
The unique aesthetic style and ancient Chinese culture in TV dramas and original variety shows enhance the world's understanding of China. Among the TV dramas that have successfully been exported, "Blossoms", jointly produced by China Central Television and Shanghai Film Group, has allowed international audiences to appreciate the "Shanghai style" culture and Chinese classical aesthetics, triggering new expectations for domestic dramas in the international market. "Blossoms" was rated 8.2 on IMDB, an international professional TV drama rating website. It has also received numerous praises from audiences in South Korea, Japan, the United States, Turkey, Italy, France, Spain and other countries. In "Blossoms Shanghai" Shanghai, released by the Facebook account "CGTN", reporters explored the iconic landmarks of Shanghai that appeared in the drama in an immersive city walk, and the work has been played more than 1,500 times.
"My Altay", produced by China Central Radio and Television in the first half of 2024, has sparked heated discussions overseas. Not only does it provide content support in nearly 200 countries and regions around the world, but it has also attracted great interest and inquiries from overseas distributors such as France, Russia, and Kazakhstan with its beautiful Xinjiang and unique ethnic culture, and has been successfully shortlisted for the Best Long Series Competition Unit at the 7th Cannes International TV Drama Festival. On the YouTube platform, searching with "My Altay" as the keyword, the work with the highest number of views is the full drama commentary, with over 450,000 views. On the TikTok platform, searching with "Visit XinJiang" as the keyword, "My Altay" related content is also prominently listed, with over 140,000 views.
The process of domestic variety shows going overseas has been steadily advancing, showing characteristics such as diversified types, integration of Chinese and foreign cultures, and a younger perspective, becoming an important force in spreading Chinese culture and promoting mutual learning among civilizations. For example, iQiyi's work documentary reality show "Let's Farm Season 2" continues the model of the first episode, producing variety shows in line with the viewing habits of young people, and innovatively adopts the "long video + vlog short video + immersive live broadcast + live broadcast with goods" model, which greatly enhances the audience's interactivity and sense of participation. The second season has received nearly 300,000 views on the YouTube platform and will be remade by South Korea, becoming an effective output of the niche variety show model.
Hunan Radio and Television's program "Singer 2024" has a high international influence. According to public data, the program has a total overseas coverage of more than 21.77 million and a playback volume of nearly 3 million. The program has not only been jointly recommended by overseas mainstream media, but also reported and praised by more than 200 foreign media websites such as the Associated Press and the Washington Daily News. It has also been promoted on overseas social media platforms by the official accounts of the Chinese Embassy in the United States, the Chinese Embassy in the Republic of Estonia, and the Latin American and Caribbean Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The content ranges from focusing on the singers' performances themselves to focusing on foreign singers' experience of traditional culture in China, and highly praises the program for bringing international cultural exchanges through music exchanges. The official account has outstanding program playback volume on the YouTube platform. Taking Adam's participation as an example, the work has been played more than 420,000 times.
The international light variety show "Friends from Afar Season 2" produced by Guizhou TV focuses on the "Generation Z" group, with "cultural exchange" as the core. Local ethnic minority youth lead foreign friends to appreciate the beauty of Guizhou's nature, ethnicity, technology, and ecology. The program is broadcast on Dubai China-Arab TV, covering 500 million people in the Middle East and North Africa. "Guizhou TV Official Channel" releases related content on the YouTube platform.
4. Mainstream media leverages the popularity of “China Travel” to enhance international communication capabilities
After my country implemented the 72/144-hour transit visa-free policy, statistics from the National Immigration Administration showed that in the first quarter of 2024, the number of foreign nationals entering and leaving the country reached 13.074 million, up 305.2% year-on-year; 1.988 million foreigners entered the country without a visa, up 266.1% year-on-year. Many overseas tourists filmed and posted content about their trips in China on social media platforms at home and abroad, sparking a "Chinatravel" craze. The number of views of the term "#Chinatravel" on the TikTok platform reached 700 million.
Mainstream media seized this wave of traffic dividends and used various forms of "expression" to improve the effectiveness of overseas communication.First, the official media cleverly quotes the oral accounts of foreign KOLs or ordinary people and the real pictures they have taken.For example, China Central Television (CGTN) released an interview with foreign KOLs who visited China on YouTube, with real footage of the bloggers' trips interspersed between the videos. The bloggers said "everything is incredible" and "it's a great place." The video was viewed more than 15,000 times within one day of its release.
The second is to pay attention to the high-performing works of foreign KOLs and the response of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and to report on them accordingly.For example, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to the popular meme "City or not City?", which was reported by central media such as China Media Group and People's Daily and provincial radio and television agencies. The response of the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to foreign tourists learning square dancing, posted by the China News Service TikTok account "chinanewsservice", has been played more than 5,000 times.
The third is to plan and initiate relevant integrated media activities.For example, the official account of the Chinese Embassy in the United States on the TikTok platform, "chineseembassyinus", posted a street interview with foreigners traveling to China under the "144" policy. When asked about their views on China, foreign tourists expressed their love for China, and the number of views was nearly 200,000.
CCTV International Online invites Internet celebrities from all over the world to launch the offline event "Check-in China 2024". At present, the Jiangsu section has ended. Within 7 days, 10 foreign Internet celebrities from France, Russia, the United Kingdom and other countries and 4 multilingual anchors from CCTV checked in Nanjing, Yangzhou, Xuzhou and Lianyungang to experience and record the charm of Jiangsu's ancient charm. On the YouTube platform, the related activity video released by "Discover NanJing" has been played 15,000 times. On the Facebook platform, "Amazing China" released related pictures and texts, which received 32,000 likes.
(V) Major overseas communication centers enrich the diversified structure of the international communication system
In recent years, domestic mainstream media have established overseas communication centers one after another. According to incomplete statistics, from 2023 to the first half of 2024, more than 10 overseas communication centers were established, including the Zhejiang International Communication Center and the Western International Communication Center. By building an account matrix on multiple platforms, they created overseas communication brands and further told the Chinese story well.
According to CTR monitoring data, each communication center has opened accounts on the three major overseas social media platforms, Facebook, X platform and YouTube, around its core brands. Among them, the number of fans of Facebook accounts such as "Zhejiang China", "Shanghai Eye", "iChongqing" and "HolaFujian" has reached millions, while the number of fans of X platform and YouTube platform is mostly in the hundreds of thousands due to differences in operation time, platform characteristics and audiences.
By reviewing the overseas communication center accounts with better communication effects, we found that the major overseas communication centers are good at keeping close to overseas users' media habits and needs, taking advantage of local or geographical advantages, and seizing network hot spots to create international communication brands with their own characteristics and strengths, thus promoting a new pattern of more open and interactive international communication.
Adapt to the media contact habits and needs of overseas users, and focus on both form and content. For example, in an overseas communication environment where websites and email subscriptions are still the first choice for most users, some overseas communication centers pay attention to the construction of official websites while operating social media accounts, and set up website links and email addresses on the homepages of most accounts to meet users' needs for various contact channels, thereby improving user experience and communication influence.
Figure: Henan, Western China, Fujian International Communication Center Facebook account homepage
Compared with grand narratives, overseas users are more concerned with the presentation of humanistic details.In response to this user preference, major overseas communication centers pay more attention to detailed communication in content production, integrating urban culture promotion into personal life narratives in order to resonate with overseas users.
For example, the "iChongqing" account continuously publishes photographs of Chongqing people's daily life; the "IHenan" account focuses on local livelihood and entertainment-related news in Henan. Both of them show the unique style and humanistic feelings of Chinese cities to the world in a more delicate and vivid way, silently narrowing the distance with overseas users, realizing the transmission of cultural information, and getting closer to the focus of overseas users, thereby increasing content attention.
Strengthen differentiated advantages and ensure basic traffic based on own characteristics.Major overseas communication centers make full use of local characteristics and regional advantages to create unique labels and shape a distinctive city image.
For example, the "iChongqing" account successfully created the label of "8D Magic City" by publishing works featuring Chongqing's three-dimensional transportation, staggered buildings and other geographical features, leaving a deep impression of Chongqing's city image on overseas users.
Relying on Henan's profound historical and cultural heritage, the "IHenan" account has transformed third- and fourth-tier cities such as Xuchang and Luoyang into cultural and tourist destinations. By telling the ancient legends and historical stories of these cities, it has attracted overseas users to explore and show interest in Chinese civilization.
Heilongjiang International Communication Center takes advantage of its unique geographical location and rich ice and snow resources to focus on cultural exchanges with neighboring countries such as Russia and South Korea. Through online and offline joint promotion, it makes local characteristics such as the "Heihe Morning Market" a highlight of international exchanges. This type of communication strategy provides a worthy idea for the sustainable development of international communication basic traffic.
Grasp peak traffic and seize hot opportunities.While achieving sustainable development of basic traffic, each communication center also pays close attention to hot topics, grasps peak traffic, and realizes rapid enhancement of brand influence and widespread dissemination of cultural communication.
For example, during the recent "144" visa-free tourism boom, each communication center released relevant content with the "China Travel" tag to promote local cultural and tourism resources, attracting widespread attention from overseas users. Through cooperation with overseas KOLs and media organizations, the communication center further expanded its audience coverage and increased the breadth of communication. During the Harbin ice and snow tourism boom, the Harbin Municipal Government's official account seized the hot spots, increased content investment, and interacted with the Guangxi Culture and Tourism Department's official Facebook account to achieve a dream linkage.
Conclusion
Looking ahead, in the context of deepening globalization, Chinese media will shoulder greater responsibilities and promote exchanges and mutual learning among different civilizations through more open and friendly communication methods. We firmly believe that with the continuous improvement and optimization of the international communication network, Chinese media will play a more active role in the global public opinion arena and contribute unique Chinese wisdom and strength to promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
Source: Pao Ding Jie news WeChat public account
Edited by Jing Shiyao
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