Chris Sparks
Biographic Data
| ID | 324225 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Chris Sparks |
| GIVEN NAMES | Chris |
| FAMILY NAME | Sparks |
| SIGNATURE | SPARKS C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Hong Kong Baptist University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4575-8408 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 52 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 391 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 52 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Investigating the Gap between Newspaper Journalists’ Role Conceptions and Role Performance in Nine European, Asian, and Latin American Countries
Based on a standardized operationalization of the watchdog, civic, interventionist, loyal-facilitator, infotainment, and service roles, this study combines survey ( N = 643) and content analysis data ( N = 19,908) to explain gaps between newspaper journalists’ role conceptions and the performance of their press organizations in nine countries from Latin America, Western Europe, and Asia. Taking an institutional approach by focusing on institution…
Popular nationalism: Global Times and the US–China trade war
This article analyses the coverage of the current US–China trade war in the Global Times. Some scholars argue that official nationalism, which stress the unity of the Chinese people, is challenged by popular nationalism, which privileges the dominant Han ethnicity, and that official nationalism is forced to make concessions to popular nationalism. If this is true, then one would expect to find evidence in the coverage of international issues in a…
Smartphones, Wechat and Paid Content: Journalists and Sources in a Chinese Newspaper
This article reports on research into the relations between reporters and sources in a Chinese newspaper in a transitional period brought about by the diffusion of smartphones and instant messaging. The article adopts the theoretical framework of political economy, supplemented by elements of the classic sociology of journalism that emphasize the routinized nature of journalist-source relationships. It argues that in the newspaper studied here th…
Detached or Interventionist? Comparing the Performance of Watchdog Journalism in Transitional, Advanced and Non-democratic Countries
This study proposes the interventionist and the detached orientations to watchdog journalism through the conceptual lens of journalistic role performance. Based on a content analysis of 33,640 news stories from sixty-four media outlets in eighteen countries, we measure and compare both orientations across different countries using three performative aspects of monitoring: intensity of scrutiny, voice of the scrutiny, and source of the event. Our …
The popular press and political democracy
There is considerable contemporary concern in Britain about the state of the newspaper press. The most common charge is that a great part of the press has effectively severed its links with political life. The populist position argues that the readers are not passive dupes: they have the opportunity to purchase quality titles but make an active choice to buy the popular press. The content of the popular press can only be explained by the dual act…
Measuring differences in the Chinese press: A study of People’s Daily and Southern Metropolitan Daily
The development of the market has produced a differentiation inside the Chinese press between an ‘official’ press with traditional propaganda functions on behalf of the Communist Party and a ‘commercial’ press whose objective is to maximise revenue. Scholarly opinion has differed over whether marketization undermines Party control and whether new forms of journalism have arisen that lead to conflicts. These discussions have rested on little evide…
China’s soft power from the BRICS to the BRI
This article considers the opportunities and difficulties in extending China’s cultural influence, usually termed ‘soft power’, among those of its close neighbours through which it is envisaged the construction of the ‘New Silk Road’ will pass. The article considers three variables that can be argued to have an effect on the degree of cultural influence a nation can wield: the degree of media independence from the state, the overall size of the e…
Chinese Newspaper Groups in the Digital Era: The Resurgence of the Party Press
This article reviews the impact of digital technologies on Chinese newspapers. The diffusion of the smartphone has precipitated severe economic problems for the printed press. There have been falls in both readership and advertising revenues, which have had an effect on the structure of provincial-level press groups. The decline in economic viability has been felt most acutely by the commercially-oriented titles, while the more politically-orient…
Production and politics in Chinese television
Political pressure and censorship are unavoidable conditions for producing an entertainment show in Chinese TV. The relationships between a production team and the government are, however, extremely complex. Based on participant observation in a TV channel and in-depth interviews with related television professionals, this article analyses the tensions between production and politics in Chinese television. The article argues that a centralized an…
Marketing Credibility: Chinese newspapers’ responses to revenue losses from falling circulation and advertising decline
New communication technologies have had a major impact on the newspaper press in China. They have lost readers and advertisers and have experienced economic difficulties. These have been more severe for the commercially-oriented newspapers than the official party papers. In response to the loss of advertising they have adopted three strategies. The first is internal reorganization. Editorial and business departments have been merged into sections…
Changing Concepts for a Changing World
This article argues that some of the core concepts that are used in the study of media and communication are obsolete. This obsolescence is the product of three major factors: the continued dominance of the field by the Global North; the impact of digital technologies upon the existing media; and the continued view that everywhere in the world is evolving towards capitalist democracy. In each of these cases, experiences specific to particular tim…
Political elites and journalistic practices in India: A case of institutionalized heteronomy
The national elections in India in 2014 that swept the controversial leader Narendra Modi to power have generated a great deal of scholarship on their transformative impact with regard to the Indian polity. This article argues that, in fact, the elections demonstrate a continuity in the media’s relationship with dominant members of the political elite. Favourable, partisan reporting of dominant figures or families has a long history in India sinc…
Localization as negotiation: Producing a Korean format in contemporary China
This article analyses the localization, as Hurry Up, Brother, of the Korean celebrity reality game show format Running Man by the Chinese broadcaster Zhejiang Satellite TV. Based upon field work involving participant observation and interviews with Chinese and Korean production personnel, the article explores the complex forces involved in realizing the final, highly successful, project. It is argued that localization involves the interplay of co…
Extending and Refining the Propaganda Model
The ‘propaganda model’ of news production in capitalist democracies elaborated by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky in 1988 was met with initial hostile criticism and then more or less complete neglect. In the last five years, there has been a renewal of interest, although opinion remains seriously divided. This article adopts a sympathetic stance towards the main ideas of the model, but suggests that there are a number of ways in which in its cl…
The Hybridization of Journalistic Cultures: A Comparative Study of Journalistic Role Performance
Influential research on comparative media systems identifies distinctive models according to which certain countries—particularly advanced democracies—share key features in their journalistic cultures. Revisionist literature has not only emphasized the limitations of such models, but also highlighted the hybridization of journalistic cultures elsewhere. This article tests the hybridization thesis, analyzing the presence of six journalistic roles …
Popular journalism in China: A study of China Youth Daily
It is commonly stated that the press in China can be divided into two main categories, the party-oriented official press and the market-oriented commercial press. This article examines an official paper, China Youth Daily, which is a central organ of the Communist Youth League of China. The findings of a content analysis demonstrate that this title differs significantly from other central official titles, like People’s Daily, but also from commer…
The impact of digital media on newspapers: Comparing responses in China and the United States
Chinese newspapers are beginning to feel the effects of digital media both on their circulations and advertising revenues. In contrast to the west, where newspaper circulation has been problematic for some years, this represents a new situation since they have enjoyed 25 years during which both circulation and advertising grew very rapidly. The response of Chinese newspapers has some similarities with that experienced in the West, and notably the…
Global Integration, State Policy and the Media
There is no doubting that important aspects of both the global economy and society are becoming more integrated. The epoch of autarchic national development, most clearly embodied in the former USSR and Mao’s China, but present to a greater or lesser extent in many other societies, is certainly over. The successors of those two states are today deeply engaged with the global market and their citizens enjoy much greater freedom of international mo…
Differences within the mainland Chinese press: A Quantitative Analysis
This paper reports the results of a content analysis of five newspapers selected from the Chinese daily press. The research was conducted as part of an international project designed to explore the relationship between journalistic self-conceptions and journalistic practice. This paper reports only upon journalistic practice, in particular the extent to which different models of journalism are present. The results of the analysis demonstrate, fir…
Chinese Newspapers and Investigative Reporting in the New Media Age
Drawing on fieldwork at the Beijing News, this paper examines how emerging economic pressures facing newspapers, the increasingly draconian political climate under the new leadership, and the development of new media challenge Chinese investigative journalists. In order to remain competitive, the investigative reporting unit of the Beijing News has reshuffled its organization and readjusted its reporting strategy. The paper concentrates on the in…
Power asymmetries in North–South dialogues
Additional informationNotes on contributorsColin Sparks Colin Sparks is Chair Professor in the Department of Journalism and Director of the Centre for Media and Communication Research at Hong Kong Baptist University. Previously he taught at the University of Westminster, where he directed the Communication and Media Research Institute
Business as usual: The UK national daily press and the Occupy Central movement
This essay reviews the coverage of the Occupy Central movement in the UK national daily press from the first notice of the growing movement in July 2013 to the time of writing in January 2015. This is a relatively small subset of the total mentions of Hong Kong in the UK press, which cover a wide range of cultural, leisure, sport, and business stories. Hong Kong is very far from invisible to the UK press in “normal” times but, given that the UK i…
Global media studies: Its Development and Dilemmas
South African media in comparative perspective
This article analyses the media emerging from the fall of the apartheid state, with reference to other transitions that took place during the same time period. Theoretically, the article questions the 'transitological' paradigm for studying change that has been developed in the political sciences. It is demonstrated that the key claims of this paradigm cannot be sustained empirically. In the place of this failed account, a model of change is prop…
South African media in transition
The development of the South African media since 1990 is one instance of a more general process of democratization observable in many parts of the world during the same period. The theory of elite continuity in such political changes is presented and tested against the evidence. While the mass movement in the final years of the Apartheid regime influenced early debates about broadcasting, subsequent developments have made SABC more and more a pri…
The Hybridization of Journalistic Cultures: A Comparative Study of Journalistic Role Performance
Influential research on comparative media systems identifies distinctive models according to which certain countries—particularly advanced democracies—share key features in their journalistic cultures. Revisionist literature has not only emphasized the limitations of such models, but also highlighted the hybridization of journalistic cultures elsewhere. This article tests the hybridization thesis, analyzing the presence of six journalistic roles …
Detached or Interventionist? Comparing the Performance of Watchdog Journalism in Transitional, Advanced and Non-democratic Countries
This study proposes the interventionist and the detached orientations to watchdog journalism through the conceptual lens of journalistic role performance. Based on a content analysis of 33,640 news stories from sixty-four media outlets in eighteen countries, we measure and compare both orientations across different countries using three performative aspects of monitoring: intensity of scrutiny, voice of the scrutiny, and source of the event. Our …
Investigative Journalism in China Today
The situation of investigative journalism in China is precarious. There are serious pressures from both the party-state and advertisers that have reduced the opportunities for this kind of journalism. On the other hand, investigative journalism has proved a very important tool in the economic development of some newspapers, and has been integrated into their organizational structure as well as providing what might be termed a professional ideolog…
Chinese Newspaper Groups in the Digital Era: The Resurgence of the Party Press
This article reviews the impact of digital technologies on Chinese newspapers. The diffusion of the smartphone has precipitated severe economic problems for the printed press. There have been falls in both readership and advertising revenues, which have had an effect on the structure of provincial-level press groups. The decline in economic viability has been felt most acutely by the commercially-oriented titles, while the more politically-orient…
Extending and Refining the Propaganda Model
The ‘propaganda model’ of news production in capitalist democracies elaborated by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky in 1988 was met with initial hostile criticism and then more or less complete neglect. In the last five years, there has been a renewal of interest, although opinion remains seriously divided. This article adopts a sympathetic stance towards the main ideas of the model, but suggests that there are a number of ways in which in its cl…
Chinese Newspapers and Investigative Reporting in the New Media Age
Drawing on fieldwork at the Beijing News, this paper examines how emerging economic pressures facing newspapers, the increasingly draconian political climate under the new leadership, and the development of new media challenge Chinese investigative journalists. In order to remain competitive, the investigative reporting unit of the Beijing News has reshuffled its organization and readjusted its reporting strategy. The paper concentrates on the in…
Marketing Credibility: Chinese newspapers’ responses to revenue losses from falling circulation and advertising decline
New communication technologies have had a major impact on the newspaper press in China. They have lost readers and advertisers and have experienced economic difficulties. These have been more severe for the commercially-oriented newspapers than the official party papers. In response to the loss of advertising they have adopted three strategies. The first is internal reorganization. Editorial and business departments have been merged into sections…
Differences within the mainland Chinese press: A Quantitative Analysis
This paper reports the results of a content analysis of five newspapers selected from the Chinese daily press. The research was conducted as part of an international project designed to explore the relationship between journalistic self-conceptions and journalistic practice. This paper reports only upon journalistic practice, in particular the extent to which different models of journalism are present. The results of the analysis demonstrate, fir…
South African media in comparative perspective
This article analyses the media emerging from the fall of the apartheid state, with reference to other transitions that took place during the same time period. Theoretically, the article questions the 'transitological' paradigm for studying change that has been developed in the political sciences. It is demonstrated that the key claims of this paradigm cannot be sustained empirically. In the place of this failed account, a model of change is prop…
Investigating the Gap between Newspaper Journalists’ Role Conceptions and Role Performance in Nine European, Asian, and Latin American Countries
Based on a standardized operationalization of the watchdog, civic, interventionist, loyal-facilitator, infotainment, and service roles, this study combines survey ( N = 643) and content analysis data ( N = 19,908) to explain gaps between newspaper journalists’ role conceptions and the performance of their press organizations in nine countries from Latin America, Western Europe, and Asia. Taking an institutional approach by focusing on institution…
Popular nationalism: Global Times and the US–China trade war
This article analyses the coverage of the current US–China trade war in the Global Times. Some scholars argue that official nationalism, which stress the unity of the Chinese people, is challenged by popular nationalism, which privileges the dominant Han ethnicity, and that official nationalism is forced to make concessions to popular nationalism. If this is true, then one would expect to find evidence in the coverage of international issues in a…
Production and politics in Chinese television
Political pressure and censorship are unavoidable conditions for producing an entertainment show in Chinese TV. The relationships between a production team and the government are, however, extremely complex. Based on participant observation in a TV channel and in-depth interviews with related television professionals, this article analyses the tensions between production and politics in Chinese television. The article argues that a centralized an…
Press and popular culture
Popular journalism in China: A study of China Youth Daily
It is commonly stated that the press in China can be divided into two main categories, the party-oriented official press and the market-oriented commercial press. This article examines an official paper, China Youth Daily, which is a central organ of the Communist Youth League of China. The findings of a content analysis demonstrate that this title differs significantly from other central official titles, like People’s Daily, but also from commer…
Culture and Power: A Media, Culture and Society Reader
Introduction PART ONE: CULTURE AND POWER Culture and Power - N[ac]estor Garc[ac]ia Canclini The State of Research Popular Culture and Social Control in Late Capitalism - David Tetzlaff Post-Marxism - Kuan-Hsing Chen Critical Postmodernism and Cultural Studies Feminism and Cultural Studies - Sarah Franklin, Celia Lury and Jackie Stacey Media, Ethnicity and Identity - Thomas K Fitzgerald PART TWO: THE AUDIENCE AND EVERYDAY LIFE Text, Readers and Co…
Political elites and journalistic practices in India: A case of institutionalized heteronomy
The national elections in India in 2014 that swept the controversial leader Narendra Modi to power have generated a great deal of scholarship on their transformative impact with regard to the Indian polity. This article argues that, in fact, the elections demonstrate a continuity in the media’s relationship with dominant members of the political elite. Favourable, partisan reporting of dominant figures or families has a long history in India sinc…
Global media studies: Its Development and Dilemmas
What's wrong with globalization
This article reviews the range of views that are grouped together under the heading `theories of globalization'. Rather than advocating one from the range of conflicting theories, the article attempts to establish the basic ideas that they have in common. These, mostly very abstract, ideas are then developed in order to arrive at propositions that may be examined in relation to evidence about the contemporary world. It is found that none of the f…
Liberalism, Terrorism and the Politics of Fear
This article considers the impact of terror and fear on the political health of liberal democratic societies. It examines the strategic use of terror to produce a politics of fear through an exploration of current Western reactions to terrorism. The argument is developed through a presentation of a three-part map of the politics of fear constituted by the instigation of fear, the (attempted) eradication of fear and the management of fear. Central…
Smartphones, Wechat and Paid Content: Journalists and Sources in a Chinese Newspaper
This article reports on research into the relations between reporters and sources in a Chinese newspaper in a transitional period brought about by the diffusion of smartphones and instant messaging. The article adopts the theoretical framework of political economy, supplemented by elements of the classic sociology of journalism that emphasize the routinized nature of journalist-source relationships. It argues that in the newspaper studied here th…
The Impact of Technological and Political Change on the Labour Force in British Television
Journal Article The Impact of Technological and Political Change on the Labour Force in British Television Get access Colin Sparks Colin Sparks Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Screen, Volume 30, Issue 1-2, Winter-Spring 1989, Pages 24–39, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/30.1-2.24 Published: 01 January 1989
The Contribution of Online Newspapers to the Public Sphere: A United Kingdom Case Study
This article examines the online presence of the U.K. national daily newspaper press. The differences between the offline and online markets for the content of newspapers are examined and the performance of the 10 daily titles is compared in the 2 spheres. It is shown that the success in attracting audiences of the online editions does not reproduce the patterns of offline editions. In particular, the online sites of "quality" newspapers are much…
Newspapers, the Internet and Democracy
Additional informationNotes on contributorsColin SparksColin Sparks is Lecturer at the Centre for Communication and Information Studies, University of Westminster, Watford Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3TP
Business as usual: The UK national daily press and the Occupy Central movement
This essay reviews the coverage of the Occupy Central movement in the UK national daily press from the first notice of the growing movement in July 2013 to the time of writing in January 2015. This is a relatively small subset of the total mentions of Hong Kong in the UK press, which cover a wide range of cultural, leisure, sport, and business stories. Hong Kong is very far from invisible to the UK press in “normal” times but, given that the UK i…
Are The Western Media Really That Interested In China
This article considers the evidence about the strategic orientation of major western media companies on the Chinese market. It begins by proposing a typology of influence drawn from the analysis of post communist media change in Central and Eastern Europe. The evidence from there does not support the view that major media companies directly took over the media systems. It then reviews the evidence of the intentions of major media corporations tow…
Western Marxism: A critical review
The working-class press: Radical and revolutionary alternatives
The `Inscribed Reader' of the British Quality Press
This article examines the four daily newspapers which made up the British `quality press' in 1985. Beginning from the fact that the readers of these newspapers are made up largely of people who use some sorts of intellectual skills in their daily lives, the article considers whether these newspapers may have some form of `servicing function' with respect to what Bourdieu calls `cultural capital'. The content of the papers is analysed in detail to…
Striking results
The readership of the British quality press
The popular press and political democracy
Experience, Ideology, and Articulation: Stuart Hall and the Development of Culture
The Impact of Technological and Political Change on the Labour Force in British Television
Journal Article The Impact of Technological and Political Change on the Labour Force in British Television Get access Colin Sparks Colin Sparks Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Screen, Volume 30, Issue 1-2, Winter-Spring 1989, Pages 24–39, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/30.1-2.24 Published: 01 January 1989
Journalistic education and professional socialisation: Summary of a survey study in 22 countries
Press and popular culture
Culture and Power: A Media, Culture and Society Reader
Introduction PART ONE: CULTURE AND POWER Culture and Power - N[ac]estor Garc[ac]ia Canclini The State of Research Popular Culture and Social Control in Late Capitalism - David Tetzlaff Post-Marxism - Kuan-Hsing Chen Critical Postmodernism and Cultural Studies Feminism and Cultural Studies - Sarah Franklin, Celia Lury and Jackie Stacey Media, Ethnicity and Identity - Thomas K Fitzgerald PART TWO: THE AUDIENCE AND EVERYDAY LIFE Text, Readers and Co…
Understanding Media Change in East Central Europe
Avec la chute du communisme, l'etude des anciens etats satellites se centre sur leur evolution sociale, mais aussi sur la nature de leur systeme mediatique. A travers l'etude de la television des quatre pays du groupe Visegrad (Pologne, Hongrie, Republique tcheque et Slovaquie), le but de l'A. est de comprendre les changements effectues depuis 1989. Les pays etudies sont avant tout des exemples de transition relativement pacifique et complete. Le…
The Sources of Social Power. Volume 2: The Rise of Classes and Nation States, 1760-1914. Michael Mann
The future of public service broadcasting in Britain
This paper reviews recent developments in British television. It argues that, up until recently, the whole of British television—including stations both publicly and privately owned—was a public service system. The impact of the 1990 Broadcasting Act has been to introduce greater competitive pressures into that part of the system financed by advertising. These pressures have been intensified by satellite channels. The direction of the 1994 White …
Concentration and Market Entry in the UK National Daily Press
This article reviews the evidence about ownership of the UK national daily press, and the possibility of new entrants succeeding, in the light of concern about media concentration in European fora. It demonstrates that this market is concentrated and effectively closed and explores why this is so. The article shows that this market is stratified in ways which also display closure and concentration and demonstrates that the existing law is ineffec…
The Survival of the State in British Broadcasting
Journal Article The Survival of the State in British Broadcasting Get access Colin Sparks Colin Sparks 1Colin Sparks is on the faculty of the Centre for Communication and Information Studies of the School of Communication, University of Westminster, London. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Communication, Volume 45, Issue 4, December 1995, Pages 140–159, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1995.tb…
Newspapers, the Internet and Democracy
Additional informationNotes on contributorsColin SparksColin Sparks is Lecturer at the Centre for Communication and Information Studies, University of Westminster, Watford Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3TP
Communism, Capitalism and the Mass Media
Preface Introduction A Crisis of the Critical Project Totalitarianism and the Media Media Theory and the Decline of the Communist System Negotiated Revolutions The Fate of Civil Society The Struggle over Broadcasting Law The Emerging Media Systems Conclusions Understanding the Transition
The Contribution of Online Newspapers to the Public Sphere: A United Kingdom Case Study
This article examines the online presence of the U.K. national daily newspaper press. The differences between the offline and online markets for the content of newspapers are examined and the performance of the 10 daily titles is compared in the 2 spheres. It is shown that the success in attracting audiences of the online editions does not reproduce the patterns of offline editions. In particular, the online sites of "quality" newspapers are much…
Are The Western Media Really That Interested In China
This article considers the evidence about the strategic orientation of major western media companies on the Chinese market. It begins by proposing a typology of influence drawn from the analysis of post communist media change in Central and Eastern Europe. The evidence from there does not support the view that major media companies directly took over the media systems. It then reviews the evidence of the intentions of major media corporations tow…
Liberalism, Terrorism and the Politics of Fear
This article considers the impact of terror and fear on the political health of liberal democratic societies. It examines the strategic use of terror to produce a politics of fear through an exploration of current Western reactions to terrorism. The argument is developed through a presentation of a three-part map of the politics of fear constituted by the instigation of fear, the (attempted) eradication of fear and the management of fear. Central…
Political Theorists in Context
Focusing on the historical context in which political theorists have developed their thinking, this textbook provides an invaluable introduction to students of political thought. The authors address a series of canonical major thinkers in the context of three world-changing epochs: the English, French and Industrial revolutions. The theorists' ideas are assessed with reference to the politics of their time and show how they responded to, or inter…
Communication and Citizenship: Journalism and the Public Sphere
The problem of globalization
There is a general consensus that the contemporary world is best under-stood through the prism of globalization. This view is shared by most social scientists, politicians, journalists, businesses, and indeed broad sectors of the general population. Opinions differ as to whether global-ization is a positive or a negative development, but there is general agreement that whatever is going on is either a symptom or a consequence of globalization. Th…
Globalization, Development and the Mass Media
This book reviews the development of theories of international communication from the 1950s to the present and presents a critical alternative
Political science (46 works) · Sociology (41 works) · Law (26 works) · Media studies (26 works) · Media Studies and Communication (25 works) · Politics (24 works) · Law (23 works) · Business (14 works) · China (14 works) · Newspaper (14 works)