Focusing on the practice of journalism in modern China, this book studies the history of modern Chinese journalism and gives insights on its culture and value. Comprised of four chapters, the book revisits the development of the journalism industry after being introduced to China from the West, analysing the development of the profession in comparative perspective. The first three chapters explore the collision and integration of journalism as an imported product against the backcloth of the social culture of modern China and analyzes the modernization of Chinese journalism - in terms of news concept, public opinion and dissemination of newspapers. The final chapter discusses the constraints of modern Chinese journalism that can hinder true independence and freedom, including religious news publications, subsidies, pricing and the interaction of technology, systems and concepts. Discussions of characteristics of modern Chinese journalism also shed light on the development of contemporary Chinese journalism. The book will be a valuable reference for scholars and students of Chinese studies, journalism and communication studies, especially those interested in Chinese journalism and its history in the modern time.

From a modern perspective, journalism is highly relevant to modern society, along with the emergence of mass printing system and professionalisation. This book, however, expands the meaning of journalism and views it as a social process. It will not only explore the roots and development of Chinese journalism and communication, but also demonstrate how Chinese journalism and communication interact and struggle with social culture and politics. Arranged in chronological order mainly, this book examines the initial development of Chinese journalism in ancient times in chapter 1, which from then manifested strong political attributes. After the Opium War in 1840, missionaries and businessmen from the West started to set up newspapers and periodicals in China, which brought about the birth of China’s modern journalism industry. Then China’s private newspapers and political party’s press are studied, which are closely linked with political revolutions and have a far-reaching impact on modern Chinese society. What happened to Chinese journalism and communication after the founding of People’s Republic of China in 1949? This book reviews the newspaper reforms, and studies the great negative impacts brought by "Cultural Revolution". Noteworthy news phenomena after the reform and opening-up are also covered. This book will appeal to scholars and students in journalism, communication and Chinese studies. Readers interested in Chinese society and modern Chinese history will also be attracted by it.

Focusing on the practice of journalism in modern China, this book studies the history of modern Chinese journalism and gives insights on its culture and value. Comprised of four chapters, the book revisits the development of the journalism industry after being introduced to China from the West, analysing the development of the profession in comparative perspective. The first three chapters explore the collision and integration of journalism as an imported product against the backcloth of the social culture of modern China and analyzes the modernization of Chinese journalism - in terms of news concept, public opinion and dissemination of newspapers. The final chapter discusses the constraints of modern Chinese journalism that can hinder true independence and freedom, including religious news publications, subsidies, pricing and the interaction of technology, systems and concepts. Discussions of characteristics of modern Chinese journalism also shed light on the development of contemporary Chinese journalism. The book will be a valuable reference for scholars and students of Chinese studies, journalism and communication studies, especially those interested in Chinese journalism and its history in the modern time.

This book explores the significant changes in Chinese journalism education in response to the rapid development of digital and new media technologies. It emphasizes the need for journalism education reform to keep pace with changing times and cultivate talents with an international outlook, innovative capabilities, and professional skills. It begins by exploring the concept of media convergence and its historical development, as well as the challenges and opportunities it presents for journalism and communication education. In particular, it explains how media convergence affects the demand for journalistic talent and changes the concept of journalism education in China. The author then presents practical examples of journalism education reform in China, including innovations in talent development models, curriculum reforms, and textbook improvements. A case study of reform practices in a top journalism school in China adds depth to the discussion of educational reform and core curriculum development. The author also discusses unresolved issues in journalism education reform, such as the scale of education, the positioning of talent cultivation, and the construction of faculty teams, and proposes solutions. The book will appeal to scholars and students of journalism education, journalism and new media, Chinese journalism, and Chinese studies.

This book traces the emergence of the modern Chinese press from its origins in the western Christian missionary press in the late nineteenth century. It shows how the western missionaries and their evangelical/educational newspapers changed the long-standing traditional practices, styles, content, print culture and printing technology of Chinese newspapers and, in the process, introduced some of the key ideas of western modernity which were to have a profound effect on Chinese society. Xiantao Zhang demonstrates how missionary publications reshaped print journalism, rather indirectly, from a centuries-long monopoly by the state - the Imperial press - into a pluralized, modernizing and frequently radical public journalism. She focuses in particular on the relationship between the missionaries and the class of ‘gentry scholars’ - literati and civil servants, educated via the traditional state examination system in the Confucian classics, who were the prime target readers of the missionary publications. This key group and the independent press they established at the end of the nineteenth century played a crucial role in shaping the ongoing struggle for a modern democratic media culture in China.

An intriguing introduction to Chinese journalists and their roles within society, offering a background history of journalists and the media in Communist China and examining the origins and development of Chinese journalism.

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.

This study examines the process of democratization in China, taking as a focal point the recent crisis of 1989 in Tiananmen Square, but providing broader historical perspectives from both Chinese and American scholars. The authors evaluate China's political heritage, from theories of despotism in Chinese civilization to evidence for China's own democratic traditions. They also analyze the more recent political and social crises of the 1980s leading to the massive urban demonstrations in the spring of 1989, with the conflicts that have divided the rural masses, the state, the army, the cultural elite, and the media in China; and they discuss what these events tell us about China's cultural and political future.

This book, the first of its kind, investigates the historical trajectory and current situation of popular journalism in the People's Republic of China. Taking a popular cultural perspective, the book redefines “popular journalism” as a particular journalistic genre and media form and applies it to conceptualize popular journalism in the Chinese context. In particular, it examines how the dynamic and complex interplay of politics, the market, culture, and communication technology in shifting contexts has shaped the changing landscape of popular journalism in contemporary China. Meanwhile, regardless of how these factors might have changed over time, the fundamental nature of popular journalism as a source of fun and a troublemaker against elite powers in China, as in other places, has remained. The book further argues that the historical development of popular journalism in China forms an important and integral part of the country's social-cultural fabric and ultimately illustrates the mediated ideological and cultural struggle between popular/public and elite/state discourses in the country’s everyday social life in its challenging and discursive transition to modernity.