China's Anti-Terrorism Act and its Implication on Chinese Media And Freedom of Expression (original) (raw)
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The conditional autonomy of the critical press in China
2008
In the same period, the internet has revolutionized information access, and has contributed to the fierce competition within the Chinese media market. Combined with a decentralized control structure, this has made more problem-oriented, critical journalism possible within Chinese media. When in the 1980s the party-state reduced subsidies and allowed the media to retain its own profits, this raised observers' expectations of a potential transition. Political liber-RESEARCH QUESTIONS The dissertation is structured around two research questions. The first addresses how critical journalism adds new dimensions to the political roles of the media, and the second addresses the relationship between party-state authorities and critical journalists. To explore the political implications of critical journalism in China, the first question asks: What are the political roles of the Chinese media? The understanding of the term political that is applied in this dissertation goes beyond practices that are limited to formal, political institutions. Within discourse theory, politics are connected to the way people organize and control meaning. They are means of producing identities and antagonisms. Through mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion they make some social acts and strategies more likely than others (Howarth, Norval and Stavrakakis 2000, Laclau and Mouffe 2001). In a discursive understanding, the political denotes conflicts of interests, and the strategies of power, domination and resistance that are inherent aspects of every social system. Politics, on the other hand, are strategies designed to reduce or deny conflict (Mouffe 2005). Hence, the political role of the Chinese media is not limited to what it is assigned by the party-state authorities, How is the media's conditional autonomy being restricted, and how do critical journalists attempt to increase their autonomy? The conditional autonomy of the media is a concept that is designed to capture the combination of increased freedom and the continuation of con-By asking what critical journalists do to increase their autonomy, I address how the social and discursive strategies of journalists are conducted within a particular context. Critical journalists' social strategies involve choices about issues, locations and investigative methods. Their strategies are designed to avoid crossing boundaries while retaining their ability to communicate about social problems and critical issues in the media. Discursive strategies are important in achieving this end because conscious and careful choices of narrative techniques, framing and vocabulary make it possible to discuss issues that would otherwise be judged to be too critical and not suitable for publication. ORGANIZATION OF THE DISSERTATION Chapter two, Media, power and spaces of representation, is divided in two parts. Part one addresses theoretical perspectives on the conditional autonomy of the media. Media scholars are among the main contributors to this debate, and a central question under discussion is whether or not state-independent ownership is a precondition for the media's ability to serve as a democratizing force in society. This argument is criticized by critical media scholars who argue that in many cases state-owned media have served the public interest precisely because they are not subjected to the same economic interests as privately owned media. The ownership and organization of media institutions are not sufficient to determine what role the media plays in state-society relations. To answer this, it is necessary to take the media's social and discursive practices into account. In particular, the media has a central role to play in shaping public discourse, and this is a crucial aspect of the political agency of critical journalists in an authoritarian context. Chapter two-part two is entitled Containing resistance: hegemony and domination. The perspectives under discussion here all relate to the concept of power. Power is a nodal point for social science, it is contested and is inscribed with different meaning depending on its theoretical context. In the scholarly debate in the 1950s, power denoted the ability of a social actor to decide the outcome of a conflict. Subsequent Foucauldian perspectives have suggested that power is about the structuring of meaning, and have described it as a capillary and productive force. To analyse Nevertheless, critical journalism in China has developed because journalists have found ways to work within and around the limits and boundaries imposed by the party-state. They apply investigative methods, are skilful in utilizing their own networks and seek to approach issues and problems in the ways that are least likely to invoke negative sanctions. The result has been the emergence of new spaces of representation within the Chinese media that allow voices other than those of the authorities to be heard in the public sphere. at "Workshop on media politics and investigative journalism in China".
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This paper examines how the interplay between political, economic and technological factors in China has resulted in the taming of critical journalism since the rule of Xi Jinping in 2012. While trying to reduce ideological ambiguity and revive Maoist ideology, the authorities operate overt and covert mechanisms of media control that dramatically limit reporting space. Market and digital communication technologies are currently contributing to tightening media control by worsening the context for critical journalism. The threat of the market to critical journalism that began in the early twenty-first century has deepened. The capitalisation of digital platforms, outperforming the empowering potential of digital communication technologies, has led to the pursuit of entertainment and capital in the media environment where critical journalism is practised. A hostile political climate and the pursuit of profit have radically diminished the necessary conditions for sustaining critical journalism. With this institutional crisis, critical journalism has little capacity and foundation to struggle with the party-state over reporting space. In this case, therefore, with neither the market nor digital media technologies being a liberalising force, they have helped the state to wield political power and to consolidate media control.
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Communication among human beings is essential is promoting peaceful co-existence. The access to information plays a crucial role in empowering peoples as the saying goes ‘information is power.' The media has been at the forefront in collecting and disseminating information. However, the media outlets in different countries function differently in different societies depending on the social, political, and religious set ups. This paper analyzes the media operations in China. It encompasses the historical background, the current state, the statistics, and the political influence of media in China
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The simple opposition between free and restricted media is insufficient for understanding the dynamics within the Chinese media field. The media has diversified greatly during the last two decades, and social problems have become part of public discourse. Critical journalists in China have formulated a new professional identity. The hegemonic role of the Chinese media holds that journalists are propaganda workers, and that their main assignment is to forward the party line. Critical journalists oppose this definition of their role and seek to articulate a position that enables them to report more freely about social problems. Critical journalists are contributing to carving out a new political role for the Chinese media. The paper discusses how this role is a product of journalists’ attempts to increase their autonomy. On the other hand, the increase in critical journalism also reflects the party-state’s wish to utilize new media discourses, since limited exposure of local problems ...
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