2021
China Global Television Network, or CGTN, Fenghuo Datanews Technology Ltd.
Country/area: China
Organisation: China Global Television Network, or CGTN, Fenghuo Datanews Technology Ltd.
Organisation size: Big
Cover letter:
China Global Television Network, or CGTN, is an international media organization launched on December 31, 2016. It aims to provide global audiences with accurate and timely news coverage as well as rich audiovisual services, promoting communication and understanding between China and the world, and enhancing cultural exchanges and mutual trust between China and other countries.
Headquartered in Beijing, CGTN has three production centers, located in Nairobi, Washington D.C. and London, all staffed with international professionals from around the world.
Adhering to the principles of objectivity, rationality and balance in reporting, CGTN endeavors to present information from diverse perspectives.
CGTN’s TV channels are available in more than 160 countries and regions worldwide. It also incorporates the video news agency Global Video News Agency.
CGTN, a pioneer of media convergence in China, delivers digital content through CGTN Digital, which is accessible via CGTN.com, CGTN mobile applications, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Weibo and other social media platforms, with over 150 million followers across the globe.
Description of portfolio:
This series focuses on the Black and brown community in the U.S., a marginalized group that has been combating inequality and racism for years. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, people witnessed so many tragedies that even those who had previously turned a blind eye to racial issues paid attention.
Therefore we, as a data-driven news media agency, decided to produce an entire series incorporating accurate statistics with stories that are driven by human emotion. We also visualized each story with animation and sound effects to most effectively communicate with the audience.
We constructed four episodes on the basis of these human rights: The right to live, to access social justice, to receive education, and to attain basic living standards.
The first episode shed light on the disproportionate number of deaths caused by COVID-19 among Black and brown communities. It covered underlying reasons such as pre-existing disease and jobs that led to a higher death rate among minority groups.
We wanted to remember the hundreds of Black lives lost to police brutality this year and so produced the second episode – “Systemic racism among police may put more Black lives in danger.” Through multiple sets of data, we discovered that the death of Black victims under police violence cannot be simply concluded as an “accident” or “one in a million.” It was a chain of racial profiling practices that are deeply embedded in the police department across the U.S., which eventually resulted in blood, tears and indignation.
The third episode showed how inequality played out in the online classes that are the new normal for American students. From technical issues to education quality, minority students had to grapple with more difficulties that put them at disadvantage in virtual classrooms.
We closed the series with the story of low-income people of color who are still stuck in an economic tornado during the global health crisis. We compared data from the beginning of the pandemic with that from the end of 2020 and connected it with timely events.
Overall, it was challenging to find some of the data as all the topics were new, and nationwide statistics require time to be collected and categorized. We did our best with limited sources and put together a series of refined work under a tight timeline. It demonstrated fabulous teamwork and in total, we reached 1.17 million views on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter. The second episode regarding police violence alone reached 620k views.
Knowing that our work would inform and enlighten more people around the world, we are also grateful for people who sent out surveys and gathered data. We are beyond thrilled to show you what we have learned and accomplished throughout the project, and hopefully you will walk away with new information and insights that you would not have learned elsewhere.
