How the Hong Kong Government Promotes Social Inclusion Through Public Services Advertisements?

The Hong Kong SAR Government has been enjoying free airtime in the broadcast media to encourage Hong Kong people to be responsible citizens since colonial times. By law, all free-to-air radio and television channels are required to carry one minute of the government’s public service advertisements for each program hour. These advertisements carried various topics including health messages, consumer education, road safety, and crime alert.

Messages about social inclusion were featured under the topic of “civic education”. There are three public services advertisements with the titles “respect different values; embrace difference voices”, “respect different values; embrace different views”, and “acceptance of new arrivals” (Information Services Department, 2022).

A discourse analysis was conducted to examine how the social inclusion issue is discussed in these three television advertisements. Discourse analysis is a qualitative research method that examines textual and visual data. The three advertisements were analysed to examine their symbolic meanings, the communication contexts, and the assumption behind the expression.

The two authors watched the three advertisements a few times before the analysis. They paid attention to the demographic profiles of the characters occurring in the advertisements, their actions and the motivations behind, the scripts, the visual elements, as well as the use of metaphors. They then discussed the values and meanings behind, the underneath assumptions of what was desirable or not desirable in the society, and the ideology endorsed in the advertisements.

Results indicated that the scope of “social inclusion” adopted by the government was restrictive to the assimilation of new arrivals from Mainland China, ignoring other disadvantaged groups such as persons with physical or mental disabilities. The government encouraged social harmony and conflict avoidance by asking individuals to respect others’ voices. It does not encourage open debates on controversial issues in public forums. Collectivism values were endorsed asking individuals to place the interest of the society above their interests.

Social inclusion is an important issue in our society. Analysing the ideology and the storytelling process adopted by the government will contribute to the literature on the social construction of meaning. It can inform social marketers about the underlying assumptions about the societal values and the conflicts prevalent in Hong Kong society.