Comparison of YouTube and China Daily

. This passage introduces the two major medium from both the North America and China by comparing their features, audiences and flexibility. Recently the spread of Covid-19 has drawn a lot of attention and attracted various reports from Media. However, different media, such as YouTube, which is a dominant social media in America and China Daily, the most popular and official media in China, tell the stories from very unique perspectives. By comparing the same events reported within those media, it is easy to reflect on the cultural and historical backgrounds of various nations.


Introduction
Founded in 2005, YouTube nowadays has almost 3 billion active users and can leave major implications on international society. As the most successful, powerful and influential online video service in the industry, and its system processes thousands of videos every day, providing level video upload, distribution, display, viewing services for thousands of users worldwide.
At the same time, as the mainstream media of China, China Daily also reports major social events daily. According to the official website, "Launched in 1997, the China Daily Hong Kong Edition offers a unique local perspective that has become essential reading for decision-makers, including HKSAR government officials, CEOs and senior executives, scholars and academics in Hong Kong." In other words, China Daily not only coved multiple areas but was also received by many audiences.
In general, YouTube and China Daily are different from each other in their points of view and standards, the way they express contexts and how their audients are different. This paper perceives how YouTube cover nowadays events by analyzing its traditional and modern techniques, then turn to how China Daily did the same things. Eventually, there would be a comparison of both media. Previously, many people compare those two media in various ways, but this paper may take a new perspective.

YouTube
First, YouTube illustrates political news with strong personal opinions, which are either subjective or prejudiced. The setting up of this media allows users to upload videos with strong personal opinions. At the same time, to attract public attention, many vloggers even pick rare views and bold statements which may even be against the law or put them into a moral dilemma.
Take Covid-19 as an example, during the period of its spread, many vloggers on YouTube took videos and expressed their views. For example, on May 22nd, 2020, the account "Harvard Business Review" published an analysis article "understanding the Economic Shock of the Covid-19 Crisis" and proved both advantages and disadvantages of what Covid-19 brought to the world in economic aspects. It is common for celebrities or just internet celebrities to communicate through the Internet. At the same time, some unregulated words and behaviors may get out of control since the magnificent scale of information online. On top of that, all videos can be uploaded with simple supervision but cannot be verified through an official account. This is not true with most streaming media in the world nowadays.
Another example is when Kim Kardashian, who is famous for her family reality show "Keeping up with the Kardashian" but become one of the most controversial celebrities in America, talked about how business women can get success in their own channel on YouTube, which she mentioned is that "No toxic work environment and show up and do the work". Although this is intriguing evidence, she said such words without thinking about how hard it is for the common people to succeed.
In India, YouTube has nearly as many monthly active users -325 million -as the US has people. And this statistic is from 2020; it's surely larger now. Therefore, this kind of expression would generate influence worldwide. While presenting the news, YouTube owns multiple channels and ways of expression to convey all kinds of information vividly. For example, Felix Kjellberg, a Swedish YouTuber known for his Let's Play videos and comedic formatted videos and shows, got 28.4 billion views last year, which is unattainable in traditional paper media.
In addition, with the help of modern technologies, YouTube provides multiple ways for its users. For example, "In November 2008, YouTube struck deals with MGM, Lions Gate Entertainment and CBS to allow full-length movies and TV series to be shown on its American site. Then In March 2010, YouTube began offering free videos or TV series of certain content, such as broadcasts of the Indian Premier League cricket games. According to YouTube, this is the world's first major sports event to be broadcast online for free." In other words, YouTube made pioneer investigations and provides them in multiple ways. Moreover, many talented people show their gifts online and people can even make a profit based on their streams. Carrying modern technology, YouTube is friendly and acceptable to streaming media; the multiple cultural backgrounds can be seen through the multilanguage usage as well.
Facing the international market, the subtitle of YouTube supports at least 15 languages worldwide. With multi-language translation, the daily active users can come from any place around the world. It is common to see both singers from Denmark and painters from German showing their works on YouTube at the same time. The context of YouTube, therefore, turns into an international perspective and people can find news and anecdotes from all over the world.

China Daily
As for China Daily, it provides information from a more objective point of view. All knowledge and data are presented logically with actual and realistic reflection. According to its website, "… offers a ringside view of the dynamic economic and social development underway on the Chinese mainland, both in print and in digital form". In other words, it provides first-hand insights into the country's dynamic economic and social developments. For example, on August 16, 2022, Xinhua News Agency reported "Mainland reports 530 new local confirmed Covid-19 cases and this data has to be accurate and real. To be more specific, it reported that "BEIJING -The Chinese mainland on Monday reported 530 locally-transmitted confirmed Covid-19 cases, of which 426 were in Hainan province, the National Health Commission said Tuesday" -all information above is provided in a logical order.
Secondly, China Daily pays more attention to pictures and words since its platform is limited. In Augutst 16, 2022, for instance, it reported the accidence of Covid-19 in Sanya city, Hannan province. And according to the newspaper, "More than 80,000 tourists have been left stranded in a popular resort in China after a coronavirus outbreak sparked a lockdown." In other words, tourism in Sanya was affected by the spread of Covid-19. And while presenting the information above, there was a single picture on the website with only a few visitors shopping in the duty-free stores. There are either videos or personal opinions related to this event, which bore the audience.
The last area of comparison is the context and audiences of news. According to J-communication, "A number of different theoretical approaches -sociological, economic, critical, and psychological (Shoemaker & Reese, 1996) -have been applied to this effort, focusing on a variety of steps in news production." For example, research on YouTube posts information through pictures or short videos. As a local newspaper, China Daily face mainland China and provide a relatively narrow perspective with a single language (mainly Chinese and English); The main audience of this paper is also located in both mainland of China and the Hong Kong district of China. It is hardly accessible to political news worldwide through this newspaper. Both contexts and audiences of China Daily are simple.

Discussion
Therefore, there are three areas of comparison between YouTube and China daily. Firstly, both media cover timely and modern news from different perspectives. As major media of their counties, both media perform their duties and cover stories and news, which follow the basic principle of traditional media. But YouTube is uploaded by most private users, therefore, is full of subjective expressions. In contrast, China Daily work as an official media and run on an objective principle, which provides accurate and realistic data.
Secondly, both media offer information but the news on YouTube can in various multi-media functions. To be more specific, as a streaming media, YouTube provides more vivid and live information since it provides a more tolerant platform and its users are from all over the world. Besides, people on YouTube can express themselves more freely in multiple languages.
Thirdly, as a local newspaper, China Daily focus on a narrower perspective with a single language while YouTube has been popular in at least 15 languages. This turned YouTube into a media displaying diversity. The relatively easy regulation in the context of YouTube also contributes to the blooming information on it.

Conclusion
In conclusion, under the background of Covid-19, many media have reported this incident, such as YouTube and China Daily. However, it is this event that these media reflect the cultural and historical backgrounds of different countries and nationalities. These differences are reflected in their points of view and standards, the way they express contexts and their audiences.