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Going back to their roots

By Zhao Yihai: 0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, October 26, 2011

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On September 29, 2011, CCTV president Jiao Li, a ministerial-level official, appeared on CCTV News. Accompanied by two reporters, the 56-year-old CCTV president appeared in Hongkou Township, Dujiangyan City.

Jiao's appearance is part of the government's new "Go Grassroots" national news campaign. During the past two months, high-level media officials have visited many remote villages throughout China to interview people from all walks of life.

Hongkou Township was Jiao's second appearance as a correspondent within one month. The first was at Anjia Town in Wuchang City, Heilongjiang Province.

According to the Southern Weekly, One of the Wuchang City local officials accompanying Jiao said that after Jiao arrived in Harbin City, he drove 130 km to town of Anjia, where he visited the home of a local farmer. While interviewing the farmer about this year's harvest, "he never mentioned to the farmer that he was the CCTV President," sources said.

"Since the research is being carried out by the leaders in charge of the central media, their considerations are apparently inseparable from the context of national macro-strategy," a scholar specialized in media research told the Southern Weekly.

For example, Zhang Yannong, president of People's Daily, chose Shanxi Datong Coal Mine Group as his first interview stop.

Zhang Yannong, president of People's Daily, chose Shanxi Datong Coal Mine Group as his first interview stop. [photo: Shanxi Datong Coal Mine Group]

Li Congjun, president of China's Xinhua News Agency, is also a ministerial level official. He chose to do research in Linzhou City, Henan Province, the birthplace of the "Red Flag Canal Spirit." From half way up the Taihang Mountain, local people built a water diversion project on Zhuozhang River near Linzhou City in the 1960s. The project was known as "man-made Milky Way."