Media In China

Thirty years ago, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) made a fateful decision: to allow newspapers, magazines, television, and radio stations to compete in the marketplace instead of being financed exclusively by the government. The political and social implications of that decision are still unfolding as the Chinese government, media, and public adapt to the new information environment. Edited by Susan Shirk, one of America's leading experts on contemporary China, this collection of essays brings together a who's who of experts--Chinese and American--writing about all aspects of the changing media landscape in China. In detailed case studies, the authors describe how the media is reshaping itself from a propaganda mouthpiece into an agent of watchdog journalism, how politicians are reacting to increased scrutiny from the media, and how television, newspapers, magazines, and Web-based news sites navigate the cross-currents between the open marketplace and the CCP censors. China has over 360 million Internet users, more than any other country, and an astounding 162 million bloggers. The growth of Internet access has dramatically increased the information available, the variety and timeliness of the news, and its national and international reach. But China is still far from having a free press. As of 2008, the international NGO Freedom House ranked China 181 worst out of 195 countries in terms of press restrictions, and Chinese journalists have been aptly described as "dancing in shackles." The recent controversy over China's censorship of Google highlights the CCP's deep ambivalence toward information freedom. Covering everything from the rise of business media and online public opinion polling to environmental journalism and the effect of media on foreign policy, Changing Media, Changing China reveals how the most populous nation on the planet is reacting to demands for real news.

Maria Repnikova offers an innovative analysis of the media oversight role in China by examining how a volatile partnership is sustained between critical journalists and the state.

Introducing the concept of state-sponsored platformization, this volume shows the complexity behind the central role the party-state plays in shaping social media platforms. The party-state increasingly penetrates commercial social media while aspiring to turn its own media agencies into platforms. Yet state-sponsored platformization does not necessarily produce the Chinese Communist Party’s desired outcomes. Citizens continue to appropriate social media for creative public engagement at the same time that more people are managing their online settings to reduce or refuse connection, inducing new forms of crafted resistance to hyper-social media connectivity. The wide-ranging essays presented here explore the mobile radio service Ximalaya.FM, Alibaba’s evolution into a multi-platform ecosystem, livestreaming platforms in the United States and China, the role of Twitter in Trump’s North Korea diplomacy, user-generated content in the news media, the emergence of new social agents mediating between state and society, social media art projects, Chinese and US scientists’ use of social media, and reluctance to engage with WeChat. Ultimately, readers will find that the ten chapters in this volume contribute significant new research and insights to the fast-growing scholarship on social media in China at a time when online communication is increasingly constrained by international struggles over political control and privacy issues.

Stockmann argues that the consequences of introducing market forces to the media depend on the institutional design of the state.

Life outside the mobile phone is unbearable.’ Lily, 19, factory worker. Described as the biggest migration in human history, an estimated 250 million Chinese people have left their villages in recent decades to live and work in urban areas. Xinyuan Wang spent 15 months living among a community of these migrants in a small factory town in southeast China to track their use of social media. It was here she witnessed a second migration taking place: a movement from offline to online. As Wang argues, this is not simply a convenient analogy but represents the convergence of two phenomena as profound and consequential as each other, where the online world now provides a home for the migrant workers who feel otherwise ‘homeless’. Wang’s fascinating study explores the full range of preconceptions commonly held about Chinese people – their relationship with education, with family, with politics, with ‘home’ – and argues why, for this vast population, it is time to reassess what we think we know about contemporary China and the evolving role of social media.

Multinational media companies increasingly look to China as a highly important market for the future, but with what degree of confidence should they do so? Media in China is about a new kind of revolution in China - a revolution in which rapidly commercializing media industries confront slow-changing power relations between political, social and economic spheres. This interdisciplinary collection draws on the expertise of industry professionals, academic experts and cultural critics. It offers a variety of perspectives on audio-visual industries in the world's largest media market. In particular, the contributors examine television, film, music, commercial and political advertising, and new media such as the internet and multimedia. These essays explore evolving audience demographies, new patterns of media reception in regional centres, and the gradual internationalization of media content and foreign investment in China's broadcasting industries. This book will of use to students and professionals involved in media and communication, as well as anyone interested in contemporary China.

As part of its ‘going out’ strategy, China is using the media to promote its views and vision to the wider world and to counter negative images in the US-dominated international media. China’s Media Go Global, the first edited collection on this subject, evaluates how the unprecedented expansion of Chinese media and communications is changing the global media landscape and the role of China within it. Each chapter examines a different dimension of Chinese media’s globalization, from newspapers, radio, film and television, to social media and journalism. Topics include the rise of Chinese news networks, China Daily as an instrument of China’s public diplomacy and the discussion around the growth of China’s state media in Africa. Other chapters discuss entertainment television, financial media and the advertising market in China. Together, this collection of essays offers a comprehensive evaluation of complex debates concerning the impact of China on the international media landscape, and makes a distinctive addition to Chinese media studies, as well as to broader global media discourses. Beyond its primary readership among academics and students, China’s Media Go Global is aimed at the growing constituency of general readers, for whom the role of the media in globalization is of wider interest.

Mapping Media in China is the first book-length study that goes below the 'national' scale to focus on the rich diversity of media in China from local, provincial and regional angles. This book explores the media as both a reflection of the diversity within China and as an active agent behind these growing differences. It will be invaluable to both students and scholars of Chinese and Asian studies, media and communication studies, geography, anthropology and cultural studies.