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QUESTIONS
1.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MR. HOWARD H. W. YOUNG asked the following question (in English):- What measures does the Urban Council take to inform the public of Urban Council Cultural presentations through the media?
THE HONOURABLE F. K. HU, CHAIRMAN OF THE CULTURE AND ENTERTAINMENT SELECT COMMITTEE, replied as follows (in English):-This question concerns the methods used to publicize Urban Council cultural presentations through the media.
Urban Council cultural presentations are publicized in a variety of ways and not only through the media, since it is recognized that no single channel is sufficient to reach all sections of the community. I propose therefore to deal with the question in a wider context and in two parts, namely publicity and advertising, as the two are related.
As regards the first part of my answer, publicity, the practice is that all cultural presentations are announced in the first instance by means of a press release. These releases are issued by way of a teleprinter system to all newspapers and radio and television stations, and also to news agencies. Depending on the event, sometimes more than one press release is issued, especially if the initial announcement is made early. And where it is considered appropriate or necessary, or if the artist is available, special arrangements are made for further publicity on radio and television by means of separate interviews, sometimes with brief demonstrations by the artist concerned.
This applies to those events which are considered to be of a routine nature. Where, for instance, the cultural presentation involves a more popular or prestigious group such as a symphony orchestra, a choir or a performing company, or where the event is to be in the nature of a 'festival' such as the Festival of Asian Arts and the Hong Kong International Film Festival, then a wider publicity campaign is organized starting with a press conference to announce details. Individual press releases are then issued either on a daily basis or as and when necessary in addition to which special 'meet the press' sessions during rehearsals and interviews of artists are organized.
All copies of press releases are also sent individually to special writers, music or theatre critics, and to other people connected with, or writing for, specialist magazines in order that they can add further to whatever publicity is given in the newspapers and on radio and television. The Urban Council's Public Information Unit issued over 1,100 press releases about cultural presentations during the past year.
Forthcoming cultural events are promoted on television through various programmes produced by TVB and RTV and shown at different times of the day, and also through RTHK's Chinese channel programme, 'What's On', which is screened every Saturday on the Chinese channel of TVB and RTV.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
During the year, some 342 different Urban Council cultural presentations were publicized through 'What's On' alone. Radio announcements are also made regularly about Council presentations.
As for the second part of my reply, advertising, it is basically the printed media that are used, that is, not only newspapers, but also specialist and other magazines.
For the purpose of newspaper advertising, it is usually in the first week of the month that a general advertisement is used to give advance notice of forthcoming cultural presentations two months ahead. This is then followed in the second week of the same month by another advertisement about those cultural events for which postal bookings are being accepted. In addition to these advertisements, which give details of several events at a time, a separate combined advertisement is also placed in newspapers and magazines each week notifying the public about events for which counter bookings have started. These advertisements are supplemented by ones on individual presentations as and when the need arises.
The Urban Council itself also publishes a monthly newspaper, City News, and in this publication all forthcoming events are publicized and details given two months ahead of time. Apart from being available at the City Hall and the Council's public libraries, City News is distributed to schools, hotels and individuals by direct mail.
Yet another advertising medium which the Urban Council uses to provide information on forthcoming cultural presentations is posters and pamphlets. Posters are produced for all cultural events and are distributed to various outlets throughout the urban area, including the Council's parks and playgrounds for display. Special postal booking pamphlets are also produced for some events and these are available at the City Hall foyer and box office.
Special large size posters are put up in the MTR stations and in the Star Ferry subway, giving the highlights of the month's cultural presentations. The Council has some 80 such poster panels in stations throughout the whole MTR system and several others outside.
To sum up, Urban Council cultural presentations are publicized through all available channels and not just the news media, and consideration will certainly be given to any new possibilities that may present themselves in future in order that the Council's efforts to keep the public informed are expanded.
MR. YOUNG (in English): Mr. Chairman, in addition to the newspaper advertising mentioned earlier on which I believe is bi-monthly and giving more details of presentations, has consideration been given to publicizing a daily schedule, in a simple tabular form, in either the classified sections or cinema sections of the media which lists out the name of the show and the venue.
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