China S Unruly Journalists

Despite operating in one of the most tightly controlled media environments in the world, Chinese journalists sometimes take extraordinary risks, braving the perils of job loss or imprisonment to report sensitive stories. As a result, a group of journalists stands at the forefront of some of China’s most dramatic social and political changes. This book is the first to systematically explore why some Chinese journalists decide to challenge Communist Party power holders and the censorship system. Based on 18 months of fieldwork, interviews with over 70 Chinese journalists and academics and analysis of nearly 20,000 Chinese newspaper articles, it investigates the motivation behind news workers who often brave the perils of challenging an authoritarian system. Rather than being driven by commercial pressures or financial inducements, the book suggests that many aggressive journalists push the limits of acceptable coverage because of their sense of public spirit and their professional role orientation. It argues that ultimately, these advocate journalists matter because they challenge specific policies and are changing China, one article at a time. By investigating these path-breaking journalists, the book engages with literature across the social sciences on contentious politics and social movements, political communication, media theory and the sociology of professions. Therefore, it will be of great interest to students and scholars of Chinese Studies, Politics and Media Studies.

Despite operating in one of the most tightly controlled media environments in the world, Chinese journalists sometimes take extraordinary risks, braving the perils of job loss or imprisonment. This book addresses why this group of journalists choose to challenge their bosses and at times even the immense power of the Chinese Communist Party. It argues that news workers often brave the perils of challenging an authoritarian system not because of market concerns but because they are driven by a particular professional orientation the author calls "advocacy professionalism." Ultimately these journalists matter because they challenge specific policies and are changing China.

Despite persistent pressure from state censors and other tools of political control, investigative journalism has flourished in China over the last decade. This volume offers a comprehensive, first-hand look at investigative journalism in China, including insider accounts from reporters behind some of China's top stories in recent years. While many outsiders hold on to the stereotype of Chinese journalists as docile, subservient Party hacks, a number of brave Chinese reporters have exposed corruption and official misconduct with striking ingenuity and often at considerable personal sacrifice. Subjects have included officials pilfering state funds, directors of public charities pocketing private donations, businesses fleecing unsuspecting consumers - even the misdeeds of journalists themselves. These case studies address critical issues of commercialization of the media, the development of ethical journalism practices, the rising specter of "news blackmail," negotiating China's mystifying bureaucracy, the dangers of libel suits, and how political pressures impact different stories. During fellowships at the Journalism & Media Studies Centre of the University of Hong Kong, these narratives and other background materials were fact-checked and edited by JMSC staff to address critical issues related to the media transitions currently under way in the PRC. This engaging narrative gives readers a vivid sense of how journalism is practiced in China. --David Bandurski is a scholar at the University of Hong Kong's China Media Project, a research and fellowship initiative of the Journalism & Media Studies Centre. Martin Hala has taught journalism at the Universities in Prague and Bratislava. -

In the framework of democratic societies, investigative journalism is deemed as serving the public interest, helping maintain a healthy public sphere and helping to hold power into account. The ideals of a democratic society justify the idea and practice of investigative journalism. Alternately, modern China runs an authoritarian system of the one-party rule, so where does the idea of investigative journalism fit in? Why can investigative journalism appear in such an authoritarian society and with what characteristics? Investigative Journalism in China examines the four aspects of Chinese investigative journalism (the Idea of investigative journalism and its comparison against Western contexts; the Development/Influence; Reporters and their work; and the Impacts on society), by using empirical data from Dr. Jingrong Tong's fieldwork at two newsrooms (the Southern Metropolitan Daily and the Dahe Daily) in 2006, 73 in-depth-interviews conducted from 2004-2008, and the analysis of internal and public documents and media cases in order to accurately survey the field and put it in context.

This edited volume brings together scholars positioned in and outside of China, including former Chinese journalists, in a comprehensive and in-depth study of Chinese investigative journalists’ dreams, work practices, and strategies. It is the first book that systematically addresses the roles and values of Chinese investigative journalists in different types of media, in the process addressing topics such as journalism education, different generations and sub-groups among investigative journalists, and gendered roles within investigative journalism. The book discusses journalists’ relations with the state and issues of political control and censorship but seeks to unpack the state by looking at different administrative levels, institutions and geographical locations. Furthermore, the authors acknowledge and analyze how investigative journalism today is shaped, constrained and negotiated through contacts with other actors than the state, including companies, civil society, and the audience. The book sheds light on the possibilities and restrictions for more critical journalism in an authoritarian regime.

Both the Chinese government and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) touted these Games as an historic catalyst for wider openness for the one-party state. The Chinese government's 2001 bid to host the 2008 Olympics was successful in part because China pledged to improve media freedom and the IOC believed that international attention to China would help improve the human rights situation. Indeed, in January 2007, the Chinese government adopted new temporary regulations designed to allow foreign journalists to travel freely across China and speak with any consenting interviewee. As this report shows, the gap between government rhetoric and reality for foreign journalists remains considerable. Their working conditions today, while improved in some respects, have deteriorated in other areas, dramatically in the case of Tibet. The result is that during a period when reporting freedoms for foreign journalists in China should be at an all-time high, correspondents face severe difficulties in accessing "forbidden zones"--Geographical areas and topics which the Chinese government considers "sensitive" and thus off-limits to foreign media. An important consequence of the continuing barriers is that there are key events and trends in China that cannot be covered in detail or at all, to the detriment of Chinese citizens and all who are concerned in the often-dislocating social and economic changes underway in the country. While this report focuses on foreign journalists, it must be noted that Chinese journalists, who already operate under far greater constraints, are being subject to further controls in the countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games. In late 2007, the Central Publicity Department issued a notice which instructed Chinese journalists ahead of the Olympics to avoid topics which generate "unfavorable" publicity in the foreign media, and to be extremely careful in reporting about subjects including air quality, food safety, the Olympic torch relay, and the Paralympics; which occur in Beijing in September 2008. In June, President Hu Jintao urged China's domestic media to "maintain strict propaganda discipline ... and properly guard the gate and manage the extent [of reporting] on major, sensitive and hot topics."--Summary.

Investigative journalism emerged in China in the 1980s following Deng Xiaoping’s media reforms. Over the past few decades, Chinese investigative journalists have produced an increasing number of reports in print or on air and covered a surprisingly wide range of topics which had been thought impossible by the standards of the Communist era. In the 2010s, however, investigative journalism has been replaced by activist journalism. This book examines how, with the aid of new media technologies and in response to new calls for social responsibility, these new-era journalists vigorously seek to expand the scope of their journalism and their capacity as journalists. They tend to perceive themselves as more than professional journalists, and their activities are not limited to the physical boundaries of newsrooms. They are not only detached observers of society but also engaged organizers of social movements—they are social activists as well as responsible journalists who challenge state power and the party line and point to the limitations of the more traditional conceptions of journalism in China. This book analyzes how journalism in China has been gradually transformed from a tool of the state to a means of broadening calls for democratic reform.