Chinese Media Recasts Shoe Throwing Incident

Chinese media surprised many when it reported that Premier Wen Jiabao had a shoe hurled at him while giving a lecture at Cambridge University. Doubly strange was that the toss had initially been suppressed for almost a week in the state-controlled news.

So what gives? Why did Chinese authorities do an about-face and decide to cover the event?

The answer lies in the Standard Table of Influence Strategies. We can deduce that party officials aptly realized they could Recast the incident for perceptual public advantage. But to make the Recast play work, authorities had to first acknowledge that the event happened via the Lantern play--in effect admitting that Wen had been insulted while traveling abroad.

Now that the plan was devised, here's how it played out...

According to reports, Chinese authorities gave the story four-minutes on the 7 pm evening news (the Lantern play) watched by an estimated 500 million people. The state media's report focused on Wen's unruffled and dignified response (the Recast) when the shoe was hurled at him.

In analyzing the event, studied followers of the playmaker's system may ask the following: Was there a greater purpose for running the two-part play? What was the overarching strategy, or "alpha play?"

Media scholar Yu Guaming of People's University in Beijing believes that the communist party's alpha play was its decision to air the tape. According to the professor, Beijing's move suggests a "self-confident Beijing, one that has learned a basic rule of public relations, that bad news can be used to good avantage." To give it a name, Professor Guaming's observed play was a Preempt .

Let us know what you think. Throw a shoe (in the form of a comment) our way.

Posted by: John Koval

Photo Credit: chinadigitaltimes.net