NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF ADVANCED EDUCATION PROGRAMS

GROUP REPORT
TOPIC: CASE STUDY OF VTV

Class: Business Analytics 61

Group: 12
Students: Nguyen Thao Hau
Nguyen Dieu Linh
Dinh Thi Huong Trang

HANOI - 2022
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Abstract......................................................................................................................1

2. Introduction of the company.......................................................................................1

2.1. Overview of VTV................................................................................................1

2.2. Main characteristics of the company...................................................................1

3. Situation 01: Misleading information between publisher and audience.....................2

3.1. Overview.............................................................................................................2

3.2. Reasons for choosing this situation......................................................................3

3.3. Analyze the situation...........................................................................................3

3.4. Reactions from VTV company and Recommendations.......................................4

3.4.1. Reactions from VTV company........................................................................4

3.4.2. Recommendations............................................................................................5

4. Second Situation: Gender bias...................................................................................6

4.1. Description of the situation..................................................................................6

4.2. Reasons for choosing the situation......................................................................7

4.3. Explanations for this situation.............................................................................7

5. Reactions from VTV company and Recommendations................................................9

5.1. Reactions from VTV company............................................................................9

5.2. Recommendations...............................................................................................9

6. Conclusion................................................................................................................ 10

7. Bibliography.............................................................................................................11

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1. Abstract

Business communication is one of the very most important factors in every company
nowadays. To achieve success and growth, members of an organization must effectively
interact and share information to achieve common goals. Effective use of business
communication will help businesses reduce errors in the operation process and develop
more quickly. ( nên đổi thành câu phức )

In this report, we choose chose VTV as the object of analysis. VTV is a television station
under the Vietnamese government, covering 100% of the territory and covering most of
the world with satellites. Although it is a large and professional media organization, VTV
also made serious mistakes in business communication during its operation. This report
will analyze in detail two of the most typical and controversial cases in public opinion.
First, we will analyze the situation of editor Quang Anh when comparing street vendors
to parasites. Second, we will analyze the case of the character Bac Dau of the Year-End
Meeting program, a controversial character on the issue of gender bias. We all use clear
arguments to analyze the two topics logically and then draw lessons about business
communication. The concepts learned in the business communication course will be the
primary tool for this report.

2. Introduction of the company

2.1. Overview of VTV

Established in 1970, Vietnam Television, or VTV, is the national television broadcaster

of Vietnam. VTV covers 100% of Vietnam's territory and most of the world with
satellites. VTV is a government agency, a state broadcaster which whose main duties
are: informing and disseminating the Communist Party’s orientations and guidelines, and
the state policies and legislation; contributing to educate educating the people and raising
their intellectual level, enriching the people’s spiritual life live with television programs
and other journalistic mediums and multimedia communication platforms.

2.2. Main characteristics of the company

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 ● Vision: VTV is determined to build the image of a dynamic VTV, fully integrated
with the region and the world, and has a solid position in the international area.

● Mission: propagating the views of the Party, policies, laws of the government,
contributing to education, raising people's knowledge, serving the people's
spiritual life.

● Core value: reporting with verifiable information, fighting against disinformation,

fake news, and malicious information; making the international community
understand deeply about Vietnam as a peace-loving people and a responsible
country in regional and global issues.

● List of VTV channels:

o VTV1: News and current affairs channel.

o VTV2: Science and education channel.

o VTV3: Entertainment channel.

o VTV4: International channel.

o VTV5: Ethnic language channel.

o VTV6: Youth and sports channel.

o VTV7: National education television channel.

o VTV8: Specialized channel for viewers in the Central and Central

Highlands region of Vietnam.

o VTV9: Specialized channel for viewers in the Southern region of Vietnam.

3. Situation 01: Misleading information between publisher and audience

3.1. Overview

In the Financial – Business news lived on August 17,2020 on VTV1, forecaster Quang
Anh said that:  "...những gánh hàng rong, vốn được xem là sống ký sinh trùng trên

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những con phố này...". The primary purpose of reportage is a sharing and sympathetic
perspective with street vendors who have been struggling to make a living during the
Covid -19 epidemic. After publishing this news, the noun phrase “Ky sinh trung” made
the audience misunderstand and especially, a group of labor force felt offended.

3.2. Reasons for choosing this situation

With the core value of VTV reporting with verifiable information and fighting against
disinformation, misleading information is an unacceptable problem. This type of problem
concurs that the diffusion of misinformation through social media is a potential threat to
democracy and broader society.

- Negative effects on the audience from the decrease in accuracy of information and
details of the occurrence: Nowadays, media companies focus more on
emphasizing the speed to compete with other companies rather than checking the
accuracy of the news. As a result, when eavesdropping on conversations, one can
gather facts that may not always be true, or the receiver may hear the message
incorrectly and spread the information to others. On the Internet, one can read
content that is stated to be factual but that may not have been checked or may be
erroneous.

- The Complication of the public’s understanding of issues: Misinformation could

create the impression that no consensus exists on a topic or that official sources of
information are not credible, which could generate feelings of apathy, confusion,
and mistrust. This could then lead individuals to trigger a reaction (emotional
response) and to gain an action (share content).

3.3. Analyze the situation

The situation mentioned above is due to the wrong choice of words to deliver a
sympathetic message for to the audience, which is called misleading information in
verbal communication. In our report, we consider some faults related to this situation:

- Negative expressions
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The word “Parasite” is often understood with a negative connotation, criticizing the
people who live as organisms entirely dependent on their host, without giving anything
useful in return. When they have used the word "parasitic", it means that they are having
a negative perception of a "career" for the living of many poor people today. Besides,
“Parasite living”, as Quang Anh said, was wrong in using a word that is completely
inappropriate to call a class of people in society. Ho Chi Minh is the rendezvous of
people from other places flocking to make a living. With all sectors and social classes,
the gap between rich and poor is inevitable. However, street vendors are still fair with
customers, and do not negotiate any more anymore. They only exchange their efforts and
capital to work to support themselves, they do not steal from anyone but suffer a the
negative reputation as a possessive creature.

- Slangs

Another reason we imply from this wrong word of choice is the effect from a famous
Korean film “Parasite”, which illustrates the life of the poor at the bottom of society and
the differences between the rich and the poor. Maybe because of inconsiderate speech or
other problems related to the mindset that editors of VTV used to compare Vietnamese
street vendors as “living parasites” on the street during the Covid season. It is not clear
whether the editors of VTV are fans of “Parasite”, but it cannot be denied that this hit
movie really made a big impact on the way people talk nowadays.

Besides, unprofessional procedures in the proofreading process also resulted in

misleading information. There is no grammar checker for the content before it goes on
air. “Sống ký sinh trùng" is grammatically incorrect in Vietnamese. If someone is
dependent on another person, then grammatically it can be said "to live like a parasite -
Sống như ký sinh trùng" or “to parasite - sống ký sinh". It is not the first time for the
issues related to this phrase published in VTV program, The truth is that on VTV1’s
Weekend Economic Newsletter, in the Góc vỉa hè section, broadcast at 8.30 am on
August 15, the phrase “parasitic” (ăn bám) was once used by MC Huy Hoang to call the
street vendor.
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 3.4. Reactions from VTV company and Recommendations
3.4.1. Reactions from VTV company

In the Financial and Business Newsletter on August 19, VTV officially apologized for
calling street vendors as “living parasites”. Editor Thu Hương also represent represented
the whole Editorial Board sincerely apologizes apologized to the street vendors and the
audience for this serious mistake: “Due to negligence during the editing and live
broadcast, our editors used inappropriate and unintended words, causing the audience to
misunderstand the content they wanted to convey, while the entire reportage was a point
of sharing and sympathy view with street vendors who are struggling to make a living
during Covid”.

Besides, immediately after receiving feedback from the audience, editor Nguyen Anh
Quang apologized on his Facebook named " Wang Phố Cổ".

Figure 1: VTV's reaction

3.4.2. Recommendations

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 - Advanced preparation

Preparation is the single most important part of making a successful presentation. It is a

crucial foundation, and everyone should dedicate as much time to it as possible, avoiding
short-cuts. Good preparation will ensure that people have thought carefully about the
messages that they want (or need) to convey in your presentation, and it will also help
boost your confidence and fluency.

Mistakes can happen to even the most experienced speakers. People might falter, forget
the lines or use the wrong words, etc. One of the best ways to minimize misleading
information between publisher and audience like Anh Quang’s mistake is that the
publisher’s reader must practice and prepare well before they are due to present the
information in front of many audiences

- Suitable choice of word

When presenting information, it is very important to use language that fits your audience
and matches purpose. Especially when being a publisher’s reader who is due to present
the information in front of a thousand audience, choosing appropriate vocabulary is an
important aspect of any presentation. It is nonsense to impress the audience by using
complicated words.

- Editing and proofreading

Every successful broadcast uses a writing script process. This process consists of
revising, editing and proofreading to create content that is clear, organized, and effective.
Editing and proofreading are essential parts of the writing process. They help with the
effectiveness of the script style and clarity of the ideas. Editing requires you to reread
your draft to check for more significant issues, including organization, paragraph
structure, and content. However, when you proofread, you are focusing on finding and
correcting errors in writing, grammar and language.

4. Second Situation: Gender bias

4.1. Description of the situation
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The iSEE Institute and the ICS Center have just sent an open letter to the Vietnam
Television Station and the Editorial Board of the Year-End Meeting program on VTV. In
the letter, they said: "Trong nhiều năm liền, cộng đồng người đồng tính, song tính và
chuyển giới (LGBT) luôn là đối tượng bị chương trình Gặp nhau cuối năm mang ra
làm trò cười, đưa thông tin sai lệch, thậm chí xúc phạm với ngôn từ tệ hại. Nhân vật
Bắc Đẩu luôn được đem ra gây cười về vấn đề giới tính". However, VTV still decided
to keep the script of this program.

4.2. Reasons for choosing the situation

VTV – as the largest communication agency in Vietnam with the core value of being
responsible for regional and international issues – should be the pioneer in wide-
spreading LGBT acceptance and objecting to gender discrimination. In fact, VTV did
take action to support this movement by constructing the character Bac Dau as a part of
the LGBT community in the “Year-End Meeting” program. Nevertheless, sometimes
VTV has accidentally put the entertaining purpose beyond educating one by bringing
inappropriate and sensitive dialogues about this character, which delivers improper
messages about LGBT to audiences nationwide. VTV in this situation failed to highlight
the meaningful messages about the LGBT community to customers.

Besides, with the significant development of the Internet nowadays, any event can be
shared with the public easily and quickly, so organizations need to be careful about
publishing any messages to protect their reputation.

4.3. Explanations for this situation

Gender-biased language in verbal communication is illustrated by dialogue of the

characters in the “Year-End Meeting” program in 2018 was even said "con chi sống trên
trời không phải nữ cũng chẳng phải nam" and "bọn phụ nữ một nửa”. Not only
mocking the gender, the beauty of this character also became a joke: “Nhất ngu, nhì
đần, nếu cần thì thật kinh tởm. Ba cái đấy Đẩu đều rất sẵn. Đẩu cứ chụp bình thường
đã rất kinh tởm rồi”. These dialogues appear many times in Tao Quan program to

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describe a transgender character, which is hard to avoid the real-life LGBT community’s
reaction. Some statements that implied lesbians, gay men or bisexual persons are too
vague or poorly defined about the third gender. These dialogues have not only mentioned
a group of people negatively, but they have also been associated with deviance or
uncomplemented concepts of the LGBT community. As a result, dialogues using biased
language may perpetuate some negative stereotypes about that community for the
audience, especially for youngsters. Furthermore, it will support gender discrimination
and influence the LGBT community negatively, which go goes against the meaningful
message VTV originally wanted to bring to readers.

Besides, using the pronouns “Con” and “Bọn” to mention the LGBT community is
considered a gender attack because of their disrespectfulness, which can psychologically
hurt a part of the LGBT group.

LGBT people also experience discrimination directed toward their gender identity
throughout the their appearance. In this case, gender-bias language is considered in
nonverbal communication throughout the shaping of the character Bac Dau.

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 Figure 2: Bac Dau's appearances
Especially Specially, Bac Dau always appears with colorful clothes and makeup and
unappropriated gestures towards toward men. Moreover, Miss Dau presents herself as a
sour woman with curt words. The matter would not lead to controversy if, in fact, the
LGBT community was similar in nature to what Bac Dau showed. But the truth is not so.
Therefore, people of the 3rd gender cannot avoid injustice when they are automatically
brought up with false and negative images as the way VTV’s editor constructs this
character with entertainment purpose in “End-Year Meeting” program. More than anyone
else, they are indeed the ones who were hurt in this incident.

Moreover, the Editorial Board of VTV also failed to anticipate and profile the audience.
Sometimes, we all say things that we never thought might be hurtful. The real problem is
that we don’t think about these words that stereotype groups of people. In the case of
VTV, they might make this mistake or consider other purposes such as entertainment
rather than education. Therefore, they did not predict the reaction of the secondary
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audience (LGBT community) and therefore, created inappropriate messages about this
community.

5. Reactions from VTV company and Recommendations

5.1. Reactions from VTV company

There are no reactions of VTV publicly or privately when receiving the claim letter from
the iSEE Institute and the ICS Center. VTV also still kept the transcripts of the character
Bac Dau in the “End-year Meeting” program in 2018.

5.2. Recommendations

- Advanced preparation

From the above-mentioned circumstance, it is obvious that VTV should be more cautious
with their choice of words in order to avoid delivering any gender-bias messages.
Although humorous dialogues are sometimes necessary to attract audiences’ attention,
overexploiting gender issues with inappropriate words will be counter-productive and
should not be recommended in any situations. Therefore, preparation in advance to
guarantee using gender-neutral language is crucial, and content must be censored &
reviewed strictly, especially with the current increasing concern for gender equality.

- Anticipation and profile of the audience

Anticipating and profiling your audiences are pivotal steps in the writing process. In this
case, we apply these rules for content creation which prevent negative responses or
conflicts from VTV’s customers and improve the content quality before publishing
nationally. Spending more time to prepare preparing the content of a big program on of
VTV which can be suitable for all genders for not only the Vietnamese, but also the
foreigners. Especially, the editor team needs to think about the people in your audience so
that they can tailor your words to primary and secondary customers correctly and
effectively. Always remember that your receivers will be thinking about “What’s in it for
me?” (WIIFM) - customer’s benefits.

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 - Sincere apologies and explanations after negative situations

Apologizing sincerely helps repair relationships by getting people to stand closer, and
makes them feel comfortable with each other again. A sincere apology allows you to let
people know you are not proud of what you did, and won’t be repeating the behavior. In
this case, a sincere apology and public explanations will help to solve the conflicts among
in the construction of Bac Dau character, and reduce the unworthy-receiving hurts of the
LGBT community.

6. Conclusion

After analyzing 2 above situations, we highlight some important keywords here:

- Careful preparation for a choice of words and proofreading will deliver messages
effectively and consistently.

Good preparation will ensure that people have thought carefully about the messages that
they want (or need) to convey in your content, and it will also help deliver meaningful
and sympathetic messages for to customers nationally and internationally.

- Gender equality should be promoted through positive messages.

Gender equality is always a hot issue in society, men, women and the LGBT community
aim for an equal society. Gender equality reduces the gender discrimination and violence
and makes the society become safer and healthier. Therefore, with the responsibility for
regional and global issues, VTV should and continues to support gender equality.

7. Bibliography

1. Ngọc, D. (2020, August 17). MC của VTV nói gánh hàng rong là 'sống ký sinh
trùng' trên đường phố. Retrieved from Tuổi trẻ online: https://tuoitre.vn/mc-cua-
vtv-noi-ganh-hang-rong-la-song-ky-sinh-trung-tren-duong-pho-
20200817195204964.htm?
fbclid=IwAR0tiboXJ4n_xNAtZ9cQ9_jwyNmMJnU6kuI8MOEFfPc5HHsdCZByh
g_QpVg
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 2. V., V. T., & Ngọc, D. (2018, February 22). Chính thức gửi văn bản phản đối Táo
quân miệt thị cộng đồng LGBT. Retrieved from Tuổi trẻ online:
https://tuoitre.vn/chinh-thuc-gui-van-ban-phan-doi-tao-quan-miet-thi-cong-dong-
lgbt-20180222151055095.htm?fbclid=IwAR1GFkIHa_WwvSSCu4Rui-
uklVyRjei3Bq9IpDGq9P5_smMmuHhGF79kxMc

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