Professor Chien-san Feng at National Chenchi University notes that when he asked his journalism students to go and count the number of SNG vans (satellite news gathering vans used by television networks) in Taipei, they located around 60 or 70. "Ridiculous for a city of three million people," he told me. Now, I’ve not done a study of SNG vans per capita (maybe I should), but this seems high.

So you may think that there would be lots of interesting news stories in Taiwan with all those vans cruising the streets. Think again.

But Taiwan’s media environment is complex. Many 24-hour news channels. Hundreds of dailies. A population of just 23 million. You get the picture …competitive!

But the competition is in numbers. The pressure is simply to get a lot of stories, not the right stories. "Quality suffers as reporters and producers don’t have the time to stop, think and research a story," says Professor Feng. "Not much investigative journalism happens in Taiwan’s TV media." What happens is that TV covers what everyone else is covering with its six 24-hour news channels and many other news channels. It’s sheep mentality at its best.

So what does it mean for the average PR person? Certainly it may be easier for us to get coverage for our clients’ news in Taiwan than in some other markets (especially if they have nice advertising budgets). That’s the good news. On the flip side, watch out if your client gets on the wrong end of a story!

This is especially the case if they don’t want to talk —and with 24 hours of news to fill, there’s plenty of time for talk. And if you don’t talk, there are plenty of people who will talk for you: cab drivers, office workers, legislators, academics, small shop owners, etc. One of my former MNC clients refused to talk to the media when a "small" issue popped up two years ago. It might have been small for him, but not to the media. TV news started reporting non-stop about the issue, interviewing all manner of "experts" as the story spun out of control. The CEO finally said, "What is going on here? This would be a non-issue in other places!" Well, my friend, this is not other places. It’s an issue here and you need to deal with it. He finally agreed to talk. The issue ended not long after.

Some companies tell me they don’t want to talk to the Taiwan media; they don’t trust them, they say. But we’ve noticed that if you spend time building up an open relationship with the media, it certainly stands you in good stead later. And if you don’t talk, erroneous reporting will abound anyway. You may as well tell your story. It seems some things may be universal….

But back to the non-universal. It’s certainly fun to watch TV in Taiwan. On a recent Sunday the news channels ran the "story" of a foreigner who was drunk and yelling at police and other onlookers as they passed by. Is it news? Most people are puzzled and scratch their heads when asked. But Taiwan media lapped it up. It did not take any research or background … just a silly gwai lou to make a story.

It’s the Taiwan media game. Learn how to play.