According to a report released by an advertising association, Taiwan's media have given too much coverage to tabloid news -- particularly sex-scandals and lottery-related issues -- in January and February this year.
The report said that some media were even suspected of advertising for the former chief of Hsinchu's Cultural Affairs Bureau, Chu Mei-feng (璩美鳳), who was secretly taped allegedly having sex with her married lover last year.
And since TaipeiBank began to issue lottery tickets early this year, the national media have also contracted "lottery fever."
The report shows that subjects about Chu and the lottery occupied about 70 percent of discussion on last month's TV call-in programs.
The report, which was released by the Taiwan Advertisement Association, is based on several studies conducted by the Association of Taiwan Journalists (
According to the Association of Taiwan Journalists' study, the lottery accounted for 56 of the 266 subjects discussed during call-in programs.
The same study also revealed that Chu became a major topic of discussion when she revealed her plans to publish a book on her relations with her lovers.
Among the 50 non-political subjects of call-in programs last month, Chu's topics accounted for 14 and the lottery 20.
As for coverage and discussion of the lottery, the Association of Taiwan Journalists and the Taiwan Media Watch Educational Foundation's reports both suggested that a cable TV station led the way.
But the Taiwan Media Watch Educational Foundation (
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
RSS