My Understanding Of How To Do Well In The Current Media Work

The current media is like a double-edged sword. If held in the wrong hands, it becomes an obstacle to our work of clarifying the facts about Dafa. But if used for the Fa, then it becomes a very good means for us to clarify the truth. Presently, we have two main ways of approaching the media work [Work refers to voluntarily undertaking various practical tasks]. One is through media set up by us Dafa practitioners. But in Europe, we are still in the beginning stages in some of our work in this area and need a lot of effort to catch up. The second way is through the daily media groups, like newspapers, radio etc. We make use of the present media to initiate more and more positive reports on Dafa in the lives of people. Everything comes for the Fa, as long as we do not have thoughts of relying on people, using the righteous thoughts and actions that we have cultivated, if our righteous thoughts are strong enough, we will be able to change the notions created by the media, thereby influencing their actions.

In this Dharma ending period, it is quite difficult to induce the compassionate thoughts of people involved in media work especially when the old forces try to control their thoughts at all costs and these are also strongly influenced by notions. In the past three years, we have held appeals through parades, hunger strikes, SOS walks, press releases and through the European Falun Gong Information Centre, we have persisted in disseminating cases of persecution in China. Even though these have brought on some enthusiastic feedback, on the whole, the results have not reached our expectations, therefore, what shall we do?

Master Li taught us to go along with people's attachments when clarifying the truth to them. Therefore, I think we should use the same approach in our media work. We have to stand from their viewpoint and the level of their understanding and think of them. For example, many media have lost their interest in reporting on this prolonged persecution from the perspective of human rights. So how should we go along with their and clarify the truth to them? Master Li also told us to use ways that people are receptive to in clarifying the truth. What are everyday people concerned about? What is being reported in everyday media? Nowadays, the media mainly reports on current affairs and stories with entertainment and education content. Therefore, how can we improve on the news worthiness of Dafa activities and make it more appealing and watchable?

A very good example of a successful method is the cultural performance we staged the last time. A lot of people got to know about Falun Gong through this event. Incorporating the present global activity “Rescue our family members”, some practitioners are planning to stage a Dafa musical play and at the same time launch this activity on “Rescue our family members” to the whole world. We hope to use this social evening affair to attract the attention of everyday media. Hosting this social evening is not our purpose. Our aim is to use this as a means to implement our work on the media and through them, spur on people who will in turn push the government for action.

The social affairs will merge the news aspect, entertainment and education themes in one. Every program will be in Chinese and English. Through the art forms of music, dance and play, we want to present the serious theme of human rights persecution and heighten the intense emotions of longing for one’s family members in the human world. The media will be interested in reporting on this. Accumulating the experiences of the recent events held in Cambridge, we will be able to do better this time. Before hand, we will send beautiful photos of the performance and report by various media to related media. With our righteous thoughts, they will surely come and report on our unique social affair.

Some practitioners worry that we put too much efforts into promoting Dafa to the Western people and thus affected our clarifying the truth to the Chinese people. My personal understanding on this is, not only are we Dafa practitioners one body, the evil is also one body. The “Rescue our family members” activity is the same as our law case against the demon head. These are single battles in our Fa rectification as one body. Every breakthrough we make has a very important effect of encouraging those in China and disintegrating the evil’s camp as a whole. Rescuing our family members is like a front-line battle that we overseas practitioners are directly participating in. Thus from this viewpoint, it is a means of directly clarifying the facts about Dafa to people in China. We send signatures collected overseas to those in China and send reports on the support given to Dafa by citizens and governments overseas to those in detention camps, re-education camps, family members of fellow practitioners in China as well as various party departments, aren’t we using an even more powerful means to clarify the facts to people?

Some practitioners think that holding a social evening affair is not as effective as sending letters and VCDs to China. I think everyone should share out the work, implement different ideas together. Then the power of the Fa as one body can be brought into full play just as Master Li said. Especially we should not underestimate the magnifying effect of the media. Our purpose for hosting this social event is to coordinate and do better in the areas of the media and the government. Thus from this perspective, seriously making preparations for a social evening of high quality is a very good way to clarify the facts.

The above are just my personal understandings. Please correct me if there is anything inappropriate.

Chinese version available at http://www.yuanming.net/articles/200302/17553.html