Journalists' New Task: Shooting Dozers during Meetings
2006-03-16 14:15:33
CRIENGLISH.com
(Attendees "catching some zzz's" at a conference. Photo: People's Daily/file)
Journalists covering municipal conferences are used to being assigned to take pictures of key people on the chairperson's platform, but they may now have to deal with a novel extra task: taking photos of attendees who fall asleep.
The Meishan city in southwest China's Sichuan Province has issued a notice threatening to punish those who doze through meetings via both an internally circulated criticism and exposure in the media, the Huaxi City Daily reports.
Meishan is taking the action because the problem of attendees either sleeping or making phone calls is becoming a serious problem at conferences. However journalists dispute the merits of the move.
Journalists who have taken on the new task fear the measure will not have the desired effect. They say it is quite easy for dozers to avoid detection, attendees can wear sunglasses or send a subordinate to meetings in their place.
Xinhua Net comments that the problem may not even be down to the inattention of attendees, but rather due to the fact that meetings are dull and repetitious.
They say the traditional form of meetings is to blame. Speeches from local leaders usually top the agenda, and these speeches tend to repeat the same points over and over again, extending a meeting that should last for an hour up to three or four hours.
The report suggests a better way of dealing with the problem of people falling asleep at meetings is organizers ensuring that meetings are conducted as expeditiously as possible. They also suggest that traditional meetings, where only a few people talk and the others listen be replaced with roundtable discussions where everyone¡¯s participation and attention can be engaged.
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Producer: Li Yongjing