Media and the Chinese public; The spirit of the Chinese media
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6045720 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Brantly Womack (0000-0002-4874-5875, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1986 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 3-4 |
| Pages | 6-53 |
| Publication date | 1986-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Chinese Sociology & Anthropology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0009-4625 • E-ISSN: 1558-1004 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.2753/csa0009-46251803046 |
| OpenAlex | W2089510499 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
In China, media has a very important political role, but it is primarily an instrumental one. Media is not considered a politically independent or neutral enterprise, nor is journalism considered an autonomous profession. The purpose of the media and of journalism, as Party Chairman Hu Yaobang puts it in appendix 3, is to serve as "mouthpiece of the party." It is also true, as Lu Dingyi makes clear in appendix 2, that the media has the duty to be in constant and close contact with the people, serving not only their informational needs but also facilitating their political articulation. Since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976 the public informational role of the media has been taken much more seriously. In theory, these top-down and bottom-up functions are in harmony because the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) serves the interests of the masses. In practice, the ambiguity translates into direct party control of media and considerable journalistic vulnerability to changes in political wind. Journalism in China, as elsewhere, attracts some adventurous souls who constantly test the limits of the allowable and who thereby define the current and shifting limits of journalistic elbowroom, and current party policy encourages experimentation and treats false steps fairly leniently. However, vulnerability in general produces caution, and caution expresses itself in many of the traits criticized by the media audience: questionable reporting, stereotyping, monotonous repetition of the same front-page material and so forth
Ambiguity · China · Communism · Duty · Freedom of the press · Harmony (color) · Journalism · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Computer Science · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,17 |
| Citation span | 1996 - 2024 (29) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |