Bodies buried under mounds of rubble, bloodied survivors pulled from debris, weeping family members begging for information _ the stark images have blanketed Chinese newspapers and television broadcasts for days.
In the aftermath of the worst quake in decades, the country's media have mounted an unusually aggressive effort to cover the disaster, marking a major break with China's past tendency of concealing its crises.
Scenes of destruction and mayhem dominated the airwaves as state broadcaster China Central Television switched to 24-hour coverage after the 7.9-magnitude quake hit Monday in central Sichuan province. Fresh reports of the massive ongoing rescue effort came in regularly from journalists dispatched across the stricken area.
The official English-language China Daily devoted its entire front-page to pictures of orange-suited rescue workers pulling out survivors and stories displayed against a black background in a sign of mourning. Other newspapers had special sections taking up half to three-quarters of their pages on the rescue and relief efforts.
The government has not fully unshackled its often tightly controlled media. Reports emphasize the government's rapid, full-scale response over grieving and sometimes angry survivors. And allowing more aggressive coverage is made easier by the fact that the earthquake was a natural _ rather than manmade _ disaster.
But the non-stop, candid coverage is remarkable given China's usual response to disasters, and points to a maturing government that understands that openness can help marshal public support.
"The old traditions in reporting bad news were to cover up and to block, but it's very different now," said Shao Peiren, a mass media professor at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou. "It shows the Chinese government is more confident than ever. It has realized that by sharing the news candidly, it can win the support of the public and the understanding of its people."
Three decades ago, Chinese leaders downplayed the impact of a devastating earthquake that hit the city of Tangshan and refused international aid, concealing a death toll of at least 240,000 _ the worst in modern history. More recently, China's denials during the SARS epidemic in 2004 led to international criticism and two months ago, China's heavy-handed crackdown against protesters in Tibet drew worldwide condemnation.
With the Olympic Games this August already drawing attention to China, Beijing's initial response came quickly. President Hu Jintao called for an "all-out" relief effort, as Premier Wen Jiabao flew to Sichuan province within a couple hours of the quake to oversee the relief efforts.
The relative openness in reporting provides a sharp contrast to coverage of the Tibetan anti-government riots in Lhasa two months ago, said Shi Anbin, professor of media studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Largely peaceful protests took place in Tibet as early as March 10, but there was no coverage whatsoever by Chinese media then, Shi said. Foreign reporters were banned from reporting in Tibet and western China but have so far been given free rein in covering the quake's aftermath.
"The government and the media have learned a lesson from the Tibet incident," Shi said. "Chinese media have been much more proactive in the earthquake coverage, instead of being forced to react as they were during the Tibet incident."
Often hesitant to report negative news, state media this time took the lead in providing casualty figures of the dead and missing and broadcasting footage of toppled buildings and blocked roads within the first few hours.
The official Xinhua News Agency and CCTV have prominently played up the massive rescue effort under way and the commanding role of Wen as he comforted orphans and rallied soldiers with a megaphone in hand. But reporters for regional newspapers have also filed pieces describing scenes of destruction from an eyewitness viewpoint, said David Bandurski, a researcher at the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong.
"Overall, we have seen moderately open coverage of the earthquake, not just from Xinhua and CCTV, but from the commercial media," he said. "It seems there is a tolerance for reporting from the ground and there's an interest in giving reporters leeway in reporting on the story."
The country's normally tightly controlled state media were apparently given a tacit green light to fully report on the extent of the disaster, said Xiao Qiang, a journalism professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
Xiao, who is also founder of the influential China Digital Times Web site, said he believes the government decision to be responsive allowed the media to take the lead.
"This time, the fact that the government from the top, starting with (Premier) Wen Jiabao, responded to the situation, really made a big difference," he said. "The agenda is being led by the media, which is different than many cases before."
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Associated Press correspondent Cara Anna contributed to this report.
