Media Monitoring 4

4 Newspaper
There isn’t much space in a newspaper. There’s no room for too many words. Thus the article Hong Kong today published in Financial Times on June 30, 2007, the day prior to 10th anniversary of HK’s return to China, contains only eight short paragraphs, four hundred sixty-five words.

4.1 Feature
4.1.1 The Focus
This article focuses on “HK faces too many challenges”.

In the beginning of the writing, the writer points out that seemingly life in HK under Chinese sovereignty is almost the same as it was under British colonial rule. But then it turns to a point of view by deeper observation on the superficial appearance, which is “little risk reassurance”.

4.1.2 The Lead
In the second paragraph, the author associates two significant facts coming along with the return – Asian financial crisis and SARS – with the Five-Starred Red Flag in the handover ceremony, as they were all emerging at that moment.

This descriptive lead gives readers a clear, simple, and lively picture of a scene from which the story will then flow.

4.1.3 The Body
There are five paragraphs in the body of the story which can be considered as three parts according to the content.

Some facts of the advantages as well as what have little changed in HK ten years on are enumerated in the first part of three, the third paragraph. The writer simply gives out several details, such as the soaring tycoons’ property and fortunes, the prosperous stock market, the remaining independent judiciary as well as free media.

In the second part which contains the fourth and fifth paragraphs, HK people’s main disappointment – undemocratic HK – is described. The author demonstrates what the citizen shows – the protest march in 2003, what the disappointment is – the failure of HK’s becoming a full democracy society, and also why it is – Beijing’s interference, local administration’s timidity, business leaders’ connivance, and the increasingly growing economy.

In the last part, a question is raised in paragraph six and is answered in paragraph seven. The author begins to think about what exactly makes HK “special” rather than another coastal city in China by giving several pieces of proof that HK is losing its status as the financial centre in Asia in reality. But in logical, it still is, that is the answer.