Editorial: From Control to Negotiation: Chinese Media in the 2000s (original) (raw)

Media system in China: a Chinese perspective

The media system in China is not totally different from the systems in all other countries in the world. This paper will explain the nature of the media system in China and its internal mechanics from a Chinese perspective. The media system in China is a combination of different media philosophies and the result of the long history of Chinese civilisation. In this system, the Chinese Communist Party, government, private enterprises, media professionals, public individuals and Chinese culture play different roles and provide different forces from different directions and in different fashions. By analysing each force and their interaction inside the media system in China, this paper elucidates the mechanics of the media system in China and attempts to explore the possibility of using these mechanics as a new model to explain media phenomena in China.

Controlling the Chinese Media: An Uncertain Business

Increasing economic liberalization of the Chinese media has not resulted in proportional political liberalization, and previous explanations for the state’s puzzlingly firm grip are inadequate. This article argues that a “regime of uncertainty” is critical toward keeping the Chinese media in line.

MEDIA IN CHINA

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

Book Review on China and the Global Media Landscape: Remapping and Remapped

Journal of Transcultural Communication

In the past decades, there has been a considerable academic debate in global communication and cognate disciplines on China's role in power shifts in both economic and political terms. This multi-faced book edited by Gabriele Balbi, Fei Jiang, and Giuseppe Richeri presents a series of chapters on China and the Global Media Landscape: Remapping and Remapped. These chapters are written by great minds in the field of communication who are connoisseurs of the Chinese media. While the editors and contributors do refer to America, Europe, and Africa's media landscape and communication practice, the focus of this book is mainly on Chinese and its "going-out" strategies. These scholars have broadly argued on how Chinese media has transformed the global communication landscape. It is equally significant to highlight this issue, the editors elucidated, because most Western scholars have focused solely on the censorship and conservativeness of China and they have overlooked how China's media has transformed the international media scene. The book's fundamental premise is twofold. To begin with, the editors explained, the book aimed to analyse the ways in which the Chinese media's "going-out" strategies are remapping the global media landscape and, correspondingly, the book illustrated how Chinese media is remapped by American, European, and Asian media and politics (p. 1). Equally, the editors clearly distinguished the two main concepts, the core aspects of this book, namely, remapping and remapped. Initially, they elaborated that remapping, in the context of this book, is the ability of Chinese main actors to impose themselves on the international scene so as to become a point of reference on both economic, political, social, and cultural fronts. On the other hand, remapped referred to how the Chinese media industry continues to be inspired and shaped by transnational media companies. China and the Global Media Landscape: Remapping and Remapped, as a book, is both readable and intellectually engaging. The editors invite readers to have an open mind about the critical analysis of Chinese media and how it is remapping the

Rethinking Political Economy: Implications for media and democracy in Greater China

Javnost-the Public, , 2001

Based on the evidence from Greater China, this essay proposes two theoretical propositions regarding the media’s democratic potential. First, the liberalpluralist approach to political economy, with its focus on the critique of the state, may be useful in analysing the authoritarian media in Third World countries and former Communist countries; in contrast, the radical- Marxist approach, with its focus on the critique of the capital, may be used to analyse the liberal-capitalist media. Specifically, the liberal approach goes a long way toward explaining the increased degree of “negative freedom” for the marketised authoritarian media in China, the martial-law media in Taiwan, the Hong Kong media in the shadow of an authoritarian sovereign. Secondly, in all of the three transitional systems, in fact, both of these approaches may intertwine and coexist uneasily and paradoxically. In the PRC, the state still maintains tight reins on news media, but it must negotiate with the market forces. The relative triumph of representative democracy in Taiwan has made the liberal perspective less (albeit still enormously) relevant, while ushering in the radical approach to account for the impact of media conglomeration on limiting the range of expression. On the other hand, as Hong Kong’s liberal media order and mature capitalism are being threatened, concern for media professionalism and freedom has come to the fore. Four more unresolved theoretical issues are also briefly outlined.