The airways we know today broadcast 24/7 breaking news and analysis as if we are bearing witness to continuous upheaval and crisis.  Sorting through this extraordinary amount of information, often speculative, has raised urgent questions about the role of media in our society and the degree to which we are a better-informed community. And with that inquiry comes the concern about how we are advancing our democracy that engages citizens with a better understanding of what is shaping events in the world as opposed to what will be the arguments to sustain a particular point of view regarding those events.

 

In 1989, Tiananmen uprising and subsequent massacre dominated the world news for more than 6 weeks.  For most of that dramatic confrontation, Dan Rather and his CBS colleagues prominently informed an anxious television public in America about the unfolding demonstrations, emerging leaders, and bloody confrontations, revealing a new chapter in China’s emergence as an international power absorbed in communist ideology.

 

Our project Tiananmen Tonight focuses on that reporting to reengage a public about a moment in history that was both significant in the story of China and the story of how we tell that story in the US.  What took place leading up to the slaughter early June 4,1989 has been intentionally erased from Chinese history. It is also a story not particularly familiar to today’s younger generations in the US; the significant image of “Tank Man” challenging the oncoming Chinese tanks stands out as an icon of that demonstration.  But the government has successfully obscured the tragic consequences and the huge death toll at Tiananmen Square and surroundings, moving the society towards its economic goals and strategic territorial plans.

It took a television ‘army’ of journalists and technicians to report that story then. Today, even though technology has enabled faster access, the networks are not able or willing to provide the in-depth coverage that was so important at Tiananmen.  Our project examines the reporting at Tiananmen as a pinnacle of broadcast journalism, offering insight about what we knew then as a way to assess what we think we know today.  It is a story of journalistic commitment and courage that helped keep the world informed about what a government chose to suppress: this is TIANANMEN TONIGHT.