Keywords: the media's role; sovereignty over the sea and islands.

1. Influence of the press on people’s awareness about the Vietnamese sovereignty over the sea and islands

The survey findings show that the channels people use to receive the most information about our sovereignty over the sea and islands are “via newspapers and the mass media” (88.6%); followed by “self-study” (42.2%); “via friends” and “via work” have the same rate of 34.7%; The remaining channels have negligible proportions. Thus, the media is still the most important communication channel to play the role of information and communication on Vietnam’s sovereignty over the sea and islands to all people. On the other hand, the survey results also show that social strata much appreciate the role of the press in the provision of information and communication on our sovereignty over the sea and islands, 71% of respondents say that the press plays a very important role; 27% of respondents say that the media plays a slightly important role in providing information and communication on our sovereignty over the sea and islands

Press products in Vietnam are now very diverse. People have the ability to access information on national sovereignty over the sea and islands by different means and from different channels and sources, depending on the needs and specific conditions of each social group. People of all strata can receive information related to national sovereignty over the sea and islands from many different media channels. Thus, it is necessary to clarify which types of press products are the best qualified, and most chosen by people. The survey results show the levels of access to this information are as follows:

Data in Table 1 shows that the most popular types of newspapers selected by the majority of people (in the survey) are: electronic newspapers, internet websites (76.3%); central television channels (69.9%); and provincial radio and television stations have a relatively high rate (55.1%); other types of newspapers have low access rates, in which provincial newspapers are only 23.9% (if not including government officials, the rate of people reading provincial newspapers is only 8.3 %).

Thus, from the survey results, it is obvious that there are 3 types of newspapers, which play the role of provider of information on our sovereignty over the sea and islands selected by officials, employees and people of all strata: (1) electronic newspapers, internet sites; (2) central television channels; and (3) provincial radio and television stations.

Regarding e-newspapers and internet websites, 94% of respondents say they use this type, only 6% do not use. And the level of use of Internet sites is presented in Table 2. The survey results in Table 2 show that the “regular” and “very often” levels of access to websites are as follows: if, considered together, the highest rate of access to Facebook is 51.5%, the highest to Bao Moi is 43.7%, to Youtube is 41.4%, Tin Express / VnExpress is 39.7%; and access to other websites shows low rates. However, the results of this survey also show that people are interested mostly in the 4 websites mentioned above. This makes sense in the management of electronic websites that should focus on the design, content control and aesthetic quality for websites with much public interest.

In fact, it is possible that information on our sovereignty over the sea and islands is issued and transmitted regularly and with high-frequency on the media (dailies, weeklies), but not all people can or need access to all that information.

Table 3 shows that, concerning the Vietnam sea and islands information, 17.5% of the respondents say that their awareness is at “a rather full” level and 57% at “a relatively adequate” level; a relatively high rate of respondents (21.4%) say they “know a little bit” and 2.9% are “ignorant”.

Over the past 5 years, with the requirement to raise awareness of our sovereignty over the sea and islands for officials and people in the face of the complicated situation in the East Sea, all the media and newspaper channels have specially focused on the dissemination of information on Vietnamese sovereignty over the sea and islands. However, there is still a part of people (24.3%) who have vague knowledge of this aspect.

Analyzing the specific contents related to our sovereignty over the sea and islands, Table 3 also shows that the level of awareness of social strata is quite high; only in the question of how to deal with dangers at sea the respondents’ perceptions such as “Rather full” and “Relatively adequate” has the lowest rate (34.3%), and as for the contents that “fishermen’s vessels have to turn on positioning when approaching other territorial seas”, the rate is 49.7% (for fishermen group alone, this rate is 85.2%). Other contents show a high rate, above 50% (the highest rate belongs to the information on Vietnam’s sovereignty over its islands and archipelagoes (68.6%). “Know a little bit” and “Don’t know anything” have a high rate concerning the question “How to deal with dangers at sea” makes 49.9% and 13.1% respectively, “Knowing the rights and obligations when catching seafood on the sea and on the islands of the country” shows 34.1% and 12.3% respectively, for specific actions to protect our territorial sovereignty: 43.9% and 8.7% respectively.

The ultimate purpose of communication is to make every citizen aware of something and act properly. In order to evaluate the final effectiveness of information and communication on our sovereignty over the sea and islands over the past time, we ask the question on the following subjects: “What measures should be taken to protect our sovereignty over the sea and islands?” With 10 proposed answers to select and arrange in random order, the survey results are as follows:

(1) Increasing awareness of our sovereignty over the sea and islands: 84.4%

(2) Making all social strata agree with, trust, and support the guidelines and views of the Communist Party and State on resolving disputes in the East Sea: 61.3%

(3) The State needs to develop a clear-cut maritime strategy: 69.9%

(4) Being vigilant, resolutely struggling with political opportunists, the effort to break national solidarity or incite people: 67.4%

(5) Strengthening people’s role: 64.0%

(6) Building a strong naval force: 61.5%

(7) Avoid provoking ethnic hatred; expressing our support for peace and justice 56.5%

(8) Enhancing our diplomacy and international relations: 56.3%

(9) Provide sufficient documents on Vietnam’s sovereignty: 54.9%

(10) The military must open fire timely on foreign invasion of Vietnamese waters: 8.1%

Thus, the choice of measures to protect our sovereignty over the sea and islands as shown by the people in the survey is quite reasonable. The measures that show a high percentage of choices are in accordance with the views and policies of the Communist Party and State of Vietnam, the country’s current conditions and situation, the general regional context in the East Sea, and the world’s trend towards peace and stability.

The measures to immediately use military forces when there is a dispute show the lowest rate of selection (8.1%). This is entirely consistent with the policy of the Communist Party and State of Vietnam, which perseveres with struggling by peaceful means. On April 9, 2017, to reporters’ questions on information related to the Philippines’s intention to consolidate and expand their presence in Trường Sa archipelago of Vietnam, Vietnam Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang stated: “Vietnam’s consistent position on the East Sea issue is that all disputes must be resolved by peaceful means and on the basis of international law. While waiting to find a fundamental and long-term solution to the dispute, the concerned parties need to refrain from any actions that may make the situation more complicated or expand the dispute, in accordance with the spirit and statement about the behavior of parties in the East Sea (DOC) in 2002”.

The results of the survey mentioned above show that the effectiveness of the communication of the press on our sovereignty over the sea and islands in the past time were very noteworthy.

 2. Proposed issues

The survey data shows that only 34.1% of respondents say that people have many opportunities to read newspapers; It means that the majority of people have few opportunities or have no chance to have access to newspaper products.

In terms of standpoint, the country’s media is a means or a tool for the Communist Party and the State to aim at satisfying the information and entertainment needs for all social strata. However, as the country has moved to a market economy, Vietnamese journalism is no longer purely service-oriented but many types of press that operate according to the market mechanism have emerged.

The survey results also show that the type of journalism is mostly used everyday by people of all classes is TV. Therefore, on the TV channels, which are subsidized by the State and most commonly used by the majority of people such as VTV1, VTV2, VTV3 and provincial Radio and Television Stations, they must be given priority to produce important and quality programs including much information and communication about Vietnam’s sovereignty over the sea and islands.

Regarding the press agencies, the information and communication on Vietnam’s sovereignty over the sea and islands also shows many issues to be pondered. From the survey results of the people’s opinions, only 44.9% say that the information content is rich and full; 30.1% say that the information is still general and unconvincing; 11.2% of respondents say that the information is still incomplete; and especially 4.4% of respondents say that the information does not reflect the truth and 9.3% confirm that the information is not associated with the object to be communicated, which means there is only one kind of information provided for all walks of life.

Thus, the press is still the most essential type chosen by the people of all strata to satisfy their needs and entertainment and to gather information in order to enrich their knowledge. In particular, TV is the type used daily by people from all strata with the highest rate (93.5%). In the media, the channels of the Central Television, the internet and the local radio and television stations play the most important role. With the fishermen’s community, radio is still very useful; the percentage of users is over 30%. Provincial newspapers are less accessible to people (8.3%). Awareness of the social strata of our sea and island sovereignty is quite good. However, in order for the information and communication to achieve higher results, press works must have content that is rich, adequate and moderately close to the object; we must base ourselves on the psychological, economic, cultural and social characteristics of readers’ groups to build reasonable content and programs for communication to bring about the strongest impact on the audience.

Dr. Tran Van Thach

Political Academy Region III