Complaints in things necessary, gossip in things unnecessary, and the most successful civic TV program by our local television station TVB, Scoop (東張西望), has it all!
TVB program Scoop is a daily infotainment TV show in Hong Kong, broadcasting since 2005. It focuses on hot community topics, social issues, livelihood issues, and most importantly, handling complaints lodged by the ordinary people in Hong Kong. It provides in-depth investigation reports. Such investigations sometimes take months to conduct. The hosts even venture into the tiger’s lair, like places where criminal activities take place, in order to reach exploratory findings.
“Bring someone to justice” is no longer a wishful thinking. Now, the trending term of a man in the street in Hong Kong when he sees something bad in the community is: “Let us complain to Scoop (大家報東張)!” The natures of such complaints are abundant. They can range from street garbage, water seepage from neighbours, romance scams, family disputes, wrong government measures, traffic accidents, wild boar nuisance and smuggling of goods etc. We are unable to know 100% what is happening around you. But, if we watch Scoop, we will be there for the greatest amusement, and dive into a world of information shocks. Many unbelievable things can occur in Hong Kong. The most mind-blowing news that became the talk of the town a few months ago was about an almost 80-year-old man Uncle Ho who was allegedly cheated by another old woman for millions of dollars! The farce lasted for nearly one year, and everyone in Hong Kong kept an eye on the updated developments of the scandal reported by Scoop!
This TVB program is considered as a speaking-up for the people in Hong Kong. A lot even regard the program as being more powerful than government departments. For example, there are ownership disputes of individuals over private lands. Government does not see her role as being fit to intervene. But, the hosts of Scoop contact the related parties and try to mediate among them, so that they may reach a happy settlement.
It is said by some that the popular success of such community complaints program in a way paradoxically reflects the weakness of a government in solving complaints from the common people. It is fair to say that in a system of large managements in the government that is characterized by a strict hierarchy, fixed procedures and clear dividing lines of departments, there will inevitably be “red tape”, loopholes and bottlenecks that even the government itself is occasionally unable to get rid of. To solve such a problem, TV complaints programs like Scoop will be a good replenishing force that will help make up for any deficiency of our government in handling such grievances.
Scoop has its own deficiency too. It may not be too interested in complaints which are not “juicy”, likely for protecting its high viewership. It may unlikely investigate complaints against enterprises which are the TV station’s important customers. Lastly, the program frequently, or at least regularly, reports the absurd behaviour of mental patients like collecting rubbish at home or exposing one’s body in the public place. While such reports may spark interest of the audience, we all know the criticism on the mental patients can be meaningless as they are not sane about what they are irrationally doing.
Scoop is certainly a treasurable TV program that acts as a counterbalancing aid to a helpless man in the street when he runs into trouble but has no one to turn to for assistance!
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