About William Moss
Trans-Pacific spin doctor. Head of Global Media Relations at TSMC. Occasional writer of humor and PR analysis. This is a personal blog and opinions are my own. More information at “About Imagethief“.
Also on Substack (where full posts live now), Bluesky, the usual places.
Archives
- August 2025
- July 2025
- June 2025
- May 2025
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- June 2024
- April 2023
- March 2021
- February 2021
- August 2019
- May 2018
- June 2015
- November 2014
- May 2014
- November 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- November 2009
- October 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- May 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- January 2005
- October 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
Tags
- Aging
- America
- Apartments
- Audio
- Aviation
- Beijing
- Books
- Bureaucracy
- Business
- Cats
- CCTV
- Censorship
- China
- China Daily
- China in the News
- Chinese
- Corruption
- Crisis Management
- Driving
- Economy
- Environment
- Ethics
- Food
- Generational Angst
- Global Times
- Humor
- Internet
- Journalism
- Korea
- Mandarin
- Marketing
- Media
- Memoir
- Motorola
- Music
- Nationalism
- Notices
- Olympics
- Palo Alto
- Parenthood
- Pets
- Politics
- Pop Culture
- Propaganda
- Public Relations
- Radio
- Rants
- Rectified.name
- Remebrances
- Renegades
- Reputation
- Resident Alien
- Role Playing Games
- San Francisco
- Science
- Scuba Diving
- Shanghai
- Silicon Valley
- Singapore
- Soft Power
- Substack
- Taiwan
- Technology
- The '80s
- Travel
- TSMC
- USA
- Video
- Weird
- Whatever
- Xinhua
Feed
Meta
Tag Archives: Propaganda
Did the “Genocide Olympics” influence China?
Propaganda and censorship are two sides of the same coin. Both share the same goal: to enable an individual or organization to shape consensus in a group. They often work together. Censorship eliminates competing ideas, creating a void in which … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged China, China in the News, Crisis Management, Olympics, Politics, Propaganda, Public Relations, Reputation, Soft Power
Comments Off on Did the “Genocide Olympics” influence China?
Asian media vows to make western media cry
Imagethief was tickled to read today in Xinhua an article from the Boao Forum for Asia, an annual Chinese talking shop, on how Asian media will rise up to challenge western media juggernauts. It seems that Asians take umbrage that … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged China, Journalism, Media, Politics, Propaganda, Singapore, Soft Power, Xinhua
Comments Off on Asian media vows to make western media cry
A funny thing happened on the way to political re-education
Imagethief was morbidly fascinated to find a Reuters article over the weekend that explains how the Chinese Propaganda Ministry has launched a point-based “demerit” system to try to encourage proper behavior from the print media: CHINA’S Communist Party propaganda department … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged China, Media, Politics, Propaganda
Comments Off on A funny thing happened on the way to political re-education
I’m sorry, the government has killed your story
Colleagues from American and European offices often ask Imagethief how PR in China is different from PR in the west. Usually I give a two-part answer. First I tell them that were they to step into our offices in China … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Censorship, China, Media, Propaganda
Comments Off on I’m sorry, the government has killed your story
Olympics mean a softer touch for foreign correspondents, maybe
Ed Cody of the Washington Post’s Beijing bureau has written an interesting story on a new decree from the Chinese government that will grant foreign correspondents in China significantly more freedom in the months before and after the games. The … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged China, China in the News, Journalism, Olympics, Propaganda, Public Relations, Soft Power
Comments Off on Olympics mean a softer touch for foreign correspondents, maybe
The elephant in the newsroom
Imagethief was interested to read in yesterday’s People’s Daily Online a brief articlereporting on a conference to address the problems that China’s international news organizations face in reaching foreign audiences. The discussion focused on how China is portrayed by services … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Censorship, China, China in the News, Journalism, Media, Politics, Propaganda, Soft Power
Comments Off on The elephant in the newsroom
Official: Lei Feng was “hip with his times”
It’s always a tragedy when your propaganda icons lose relevance to the younger generation. A couple of years past the fortieth anniversary of the original “Study Lei Feng” campaign, China’s propaganda moles are clearly hard-up for a way to make … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged China, Propaganda, Weird, Xinhua
Comments Off on Official: Lei Feng was “hip with his times”
Harbin aftermath: Government vows to thoroughly scape all goats
Catastrophes are fun to watch, but not nearly so much fun as the aftermath of kicking, screaming and recriminations as blame is liberally heaped and fingers pointed. Katrina lasted only a day, after all, but the operatic fallout has reverberated … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged China, China in the News, Crisis Management, Environment, Politics, Propaganda, Public Relations
Comments Off on Harbin aftermath: Government vows to thoroughly scape all goats
Van Nguyen died for your sins: Executions as public communication
The Australians were doomed from the start, literally and metaphorically. They were doomed because they misapprehended the nature of capital punishment for drug offenses in Singapore. They thought of it as retribution, or punishment. This is wrong. Drug-offense executions in … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Politics, Propaganda, Public Relations
Comments Off on Van Nguyen died for your sins: Executions as public communication
The abstraction of diplomacy and the reality of rocks through windows
From my blog reading, some of the widespread conclusions about the ongoing stream of anti-Japanese protests in China are: The nominal grievances, Japan’s textbooks that gloss over culpability for wartime atrocities and generally insufficient post-war contrition, are, in reality, minor. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged China, Media, Nationalism, Politics, Propaganda
Comments Off on The abstraction of diplomacy and the reality of rocks through windows
Imagethief 