Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Chinese state media'

This dissertation, examining Chinese media, has been pursued in a British institution. The potential in this arrangement is that research and analysis of the Chinese case, including the development of a theory to examine the relationship between the Chinese media, State, Communist Party, and public, can be informed by an examination of 'Western' theory. I begin my analysis with a survey of Western media theories. Then I offer an overview of the history, theories and practices of the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese journalism, describing the general structure and characteristics of the media under Party domination. I discuss the suppression of emerging media democratisation in 1989 and the subsequent turn to the market, both in media theory and practice, focusing on the Chinese media after China's entry into WTO and the growth of media organizations into business conglomerations. Through detailed case studies of media reform and commercialisation in newspapers and televisions, I try to investigate the tensions and some of the resolutions of these, resulting from Party control and market forces in the emerging commercialised media sector. Case studies, such as Sars (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) in China in 2002, will be examined to evaluate how journalism worked in the supposed 'new era' of state/party and media.

Documentary filmmakers have been considered artists, authors, or intellectuals, but rarely as labor. This study investigates how the nature of work as well as life is changing for those who work in the expanding area of TV documentary in China, in the midst of China’s shift towards a market-based economy. How do documentary makers reconcile their passion for documentary making with the increasingly precarious conditions of work? And, how do they cope with and resist the pressures of neoliberalism to survive in increasingly competitive local and global markets? Based on data gathered through the interviews with 40 practitioners from January 2014 to August 2017 and my own experience as a director and worker in the Chinese documentary for a decade, I outline the particularity and complexity of the creative work in China. My research indicates that short-time contracts, moonlighting, low payments and long working hours, freelancing, internship, and obligatory networking have become normal working conditions for cultural workers. Without copyright over their intellectual creations, cultural workers are constrained to make a living as waged labor, compelled to sell their physical and mental labor in hours or in pieces. Self-responsibility and entrepreneurism have become the symbols of the neoliberal individual. Following the career trajectories of my interviewees, I elaborate on the mechanisms by which cultural workers are selected, socialized and eliminated. When they decide to escape from the production line, they use four types of strategies: going international, surviving in the market, switching to new media career, and sticking to journalistic ideals. This dissertation also reveals that global production has intensified exploitation by increasing working hours through a 24/7 production line that works across national borders and time zones, amplifies competition by introducing global talent, and alienates local workers by imposing the so-called “universal” aesthetics of global production. The crisis of cultural work is the outcome of the incapacity of the neoliberal imagination to imagine plausible and feasible futures for sustained creative work. It is through my research into the history of documentary production in China and conversations with cultural workers that I found explanations for the increasing precarity of work and possible forms of resistance to it in post-socialist China.

Thesis (M.A.)--Ohio University, August, 2009.
Title from PDF t.p. Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until September 1, 2014. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-125)

Besides, it finds that China's social structure indeed transformed as the unintended consequence of the agents' hegemonic struggles. Though both China's mass media and the burgeoning Internet society have not yet developed as a civil society, and the rational-critical discourse has not acquired consensus among the society, this study adopts an optimistic attitude towards them, yet, of course, the final answers indeed lie in the agents' own hands.
By examining Chinese nationalistic discourse from discursive relations and the structural perspective, this study tries to combine "structure-agency", stressing both the deeper structural reasons in shaping nationalistic discourse and power relations amongst the four agents, as well as the active role of agents in promoting the transformation of social structures through such hegemonic struggles. Besides, considering China's social structure as a dynamic transitional process, and examining in which respect the four agents' hegemonic struggles contribute to the transformation of social structure, this study also goes beyond the dominant paradigm that regards the "state-society" as a static structure, especially in the field of communication study. Moreover, putting mass media into a broader social context, this thesis hopes to make a contribution to the study of the "publicness" of China's mass media and the role of the mass media and the Internet society in promoting democratic discourse and the formation of a civil society. This study finds that in the past thirty years, Chinese nationalistic discourse experienced significant change from intellectual-led to the CCP-led, and then, to netizen-led. Such change reflected the fierce hegemonic. struggles among the four agents and the transitional power relations amongst them. Yet, fundamentally, it is the changing economic-political-cultural (media) structure in China's thirty years that shaped the power relations amongst the four agents and the features of hegemonic nationalistic discourse. Especially, it finds that market economy, combined with the authoritarian political structure, tends to promote radical nationalistic discourse, rather than a democratic and rational discourse as the consensus among the society. Then, China's media commercialization, operating under the dual logic of the state and market, further radicalized such radical anti-western discourse. The Internet society that emerged in the 2000s sharply decentralized China's authoritarian political structure. Yet, under the marketized authoritarian structure, the rational-critical discourse still cannot acquire the hegemonic status.
Considering nationalism as an important political issue, China's Party-state has always paid considerable attention towards acquiring the leading status for its official patriotic discourse. Yet, the mass media, intellectuals and the ordinary citizens all strived to influence the nationalistic discourse, and as a result, the fierce power struggles unfolded amongst the four agents. Such power struggles were dynamic with the rise of the Chinese nationalistic sentiment during the past thirty years. Accordingly, Chinese nationalism becomes an ideal approach to study contemporary China's power relations and its transitions.
The main aim of this thesis is to examine power relations among the Party-state, intellectuals, mass media and the ordinary citizens, the four agents that are involved in the hegemonic struggle for the leading position of nationalistic discourse in the thirty years' "reform and opening" era, and explain the features and transitions of China's nationalistic discourse and the power relations behind it from the political-economic-cultural (media) structure perspectives.
Three nationalistic cases - TV-documentary Heshang ( River Elegy) in 1988, the anti-NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999, and the anti-Tibet Independence movement in 2008 - will be analyzed in detail in this thesis. They were selected because these are unique cases that could clearly illustrate the relationships of the four agents and the political context during that historical period. Then, the critical realism-based hegemony approach will be suggested as a new theoretical framework in this study. From this approach, on the one hand, Chinese nationalism will be considered as a hegemonic field in which all four agents struggled in for the hegemonic status of nationalistic discourse. Accordingly, we can examine the nationalistic discourses/projects promoted by the four agents, their discursive struggles and the dynamic process of how one's nationalistic discourse acquires hegemonic status in each case. In this process, the power relations among the four agents can also be explored clearly. On the other hand, since the critical realism perspective pays attention to the dialectical relations between structure and agency, this approach can help us explore how China's transitional structures in the past thirty years - from totalitarian state to authoritarian state, from planned commodity economy to socialist market economy, and from a media market to the Internet society - shaped the power relations amongst the four agents and the hegemonic nationalistic discourse, as well as how their hegemonic power struggles contribute to the transformation of China's social structure. Moreover, the critical discourse analysis can help us clarify such issues from three levels: text/discourse, power relationships/ discursive struggles, and social structure.
Zhao, Jing.
Adviser: Anthony Yin Him Fung.
Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-04, Section: A, page: .
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 255-270).
Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web.
Abstract also in Chinese.

How is the media agenda of Chinese television set by the three institutional powers, the state, market and civil society? How do formal and informal institutions of the state, market and civil society in contemporary China set the media agenda with specific rules and organizations? And what are the power relations among the three institutions that shape the structure and functionaries of mass media in general? Based on a new theoretical framework of media agenda-setting for the analysis of media politics in contemporary China, these questions are explored in three sections. First, policies and regulations had been established by formal and informal institutions of the state to safeguard the state agenda as the primary media agenda. The second, market set audience rating and commercial income as major rules for Chinese television to survive in a competitive economy. The third, emerging civil society set moral standards for television broadcasters to produce programs to check the failure of the state and market on one hand, and to serve the needs and rights of audience as-citizens on the other. The constant changing power relations between the state and market, or between the state and civil society are also explored in sections that market and civil society interact respectively with the state to set the media agenda. The first finding of this thesis relates to the nature of contemporary Chinese television. As one servant for three masters, Chinese television is a mixed entity, which can be motivated to be a state agent, a market entity, and sometimes, a civil society player as well. In long term, Chinese television can be expected to be differentiated and reorganized as affiliates to the three institutions respectively along with the gradual establishment of a checks-and-balances system within and between the state, market, and civil society. The second finding concerns power relations among the three institutions. While both market and civil society emerged to be more and more dynamic in motivating the media to accommodate new social agendas, the state remains as the primary power in setting the media agenda of Chinese television.

English translations of Chinese state media allow those with a professional or casual interest in Chinese policy and politics to gain direct insight into Chinese political narratives. For the translator, however, there is a great temptation to alter the language of the text so as to better suit the conventions of English. This thesis employs a “semantic” translation strategy which emphasizes close adherence to the source text in order to reflect the distinctive features of Chinese state media, exploring the benefits and conflicts of such a strategy. It includes original English translations of 15 Chinese language editorials sourced from the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party. These editorials authoritatively articulate the Party’s stance regarding the Belt and Road Initiative, a major Chinese economic strategy. It is hoped this thesis demonstrates the value of a semantic translation strategy in providing direct access to primary source material on Chinese political narratives, and in particular on a central subject of Chinese foreign policy in the first half of the 21st Century.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
本文运用新闻自由相关理论，系统研究1978 年以来中国媒体界对新闻自由的理论探索与具体实践。它以新闻自由与专制的博弈为主要切入角度，通过文献研究和案例解剖，分阶段对中国媒体人争取新闻自由的脉络进行发掘和分析，并对历史传统、正反经验、观念变迁、市场影响、网络发展等因素与新闻自由程度的关系进行梳理，展现中国媒体人争取新闻自由高潮与低谷变换，成功与失败交织的复杂轨迹。文章的结论是：中国媒体虽然处在共产党高度控制下，但中国媒体人中一直存在着一条试图脱离党的控制、对新闻自由进行不懈追求的线。这条线代代相传，从未间断，取得了有限但珍贵的成果，为中国新闻自由的最后实现积累了宝贵的经验。 本文的研究成果同时体现在理论和实践两个层面。新闻自由理论可以理解为现代新闻事业的基本原则，它是指导新闻业务的基本思想，媒体履行正常功能的基本前提，受众享有知情权的基本要求。当代中国新闻自由的实践主要体现在两个方面，一方面是制约新闻事业的政治法律框架的演化，另一方面是媒体人在共产党高度新闻控制的条件下争取新闻自由的努力过程。从理论上说，这项研究丰富了中国新闻自由状况等方面的理论研究成果。特别是，本文对新闻自由与媒体控制这两种理念的历史纠结进行辨析，对近代新闻事业传入中国以后两种理念对中国新闻实践的影响进行了深入探讨。从实证方面说，这项研究挖掘和提供中国媒体界争取新闻自由方面的实证材料。以中国媒体人从1978 年前后到现在的时间段里争取新闻自由的主要事件、主要媒体、部分代表人物为线索，把中国媒体人争取新闻自由的努力的绵延不绝的图像清晰地呈现给世人。此外，这项研究对于中国当代新闻史、中国新闻立法、舆论监督，以及新闻媒体内部改革等方面也有一定的现实意义。 This thesis is a systematic study on the practice and theoretical exploration of the freedom of press in China since 1978. It sets out to uncover the struggles of China’s media professionals at different stages in the reform era of China and evaluate these struggles in the theoretical perspective of the freedom of press. To this end, the thesis provides a critical examination of the theory and practice of the freedom of press in China since 1978, with a focus on the conflicts between the quest for the freedom of press and the reality of China’s totalitarian and post-totalitarian regime. It also carries out analysis of other factors shaping the degree of the freedom of press in China, such as the pre-PRC experiences with the free press, value change in the era of reform and opening to the outside world, the influence of market forces and the spread of the internet. The findings of the thesis demonstrate that, although the Chinese media is still heavily censored by the communist regime, many professionals working in the Chinese media industry have always been determined to break free from the control of the Party and to achieve the freedom of press. This determination and incessant efforts made by generations of journalists have yielded limited but valuable results that have laid down the foundation for the eventual realisation of the freedom of press in China. This study makes an important contribution to the field at both theoretical and empirical levels. At the theoretical level, the thesis enriches the theory of the freedom of press particularly in assessing the impact of the concepts of free press and press control in the development of modern media in China. Empirically, the thesis is an elaborate account of the trajectory of the heroic quest for the freedom of press by Chinese media professionals under the communist rule.

Que ce soit dans le contexte occidental ou chinois, l’utilisation des médias sociaux est devenue vraiment courante dans les pratiques journalistiques. L’identité des journalistes sur les médias sociaux est largement étudiée par des chercheurs. Cependant, ce genre de recherches dans un contexte chinois, en particulier les recherches sur l’identité des journalistes des médias étatiques en Chine, n’est pas approfondi et complet. Par conséquent, cette recherche vise à explorer l’identité construite par des journalistes des médias étatiques chinois sur les médias sociaux. À travers les entrevues semi-dirigées avec neuf journalistes, je conclus qu’ils utilisent trois façons pour s’exprimer sur les médias sociaux : certains journalistes ne construisent qu’une identité professionnelle sur les médias sociaux et retransmettent des contenus sans publier leurs opinions subjectives ; certains journalistes ne construisent qu’une identité personnelle sur les médias sociaux et ne publient que les contenus liés à leur vie personnelle ou leurs propres points de vus ; certains journalistes construisent des identités différentes sur différents médias sociaux. La construction de l’identité de ces journalistes est affectée par les valeurs et les normes journalistiques, leur institution médiatique ainsi que les relations avec leurs collègues. Pour équilibrer leur identité personnelle et identité professionnelle en ligne, tous les participants essaient de séparer les deux identités et contrôler leur identité construite sur les médias sociaux. Mais cette séparation ou ce contrôle ne fonctionne pas toujours bien, surtout pour ceux qui ne construisent que leur identité personnelle sur les médias sociaux.
Whether in the Western or Chinese context, the use of social media has become more and more common in journalistic practices. The identity of journalists on social media has been widely studied by lots of researchers. However, this kind of research is not thorough and comprehensive when it goes to a Chinese context, especially research on the identity of journalists working in state-run media in China. Therefore, this research aims at exploring the identity constructed on social media by Chinese journalists working in state-run media. By taking semi-structured interviews with nine journalists, it is concluded that three different ways are adopted to express themselves on social media: some journalists only build a professional identity on social media and publish contents without expressing their subjective opinions; some journalists only build a personal identity on social media and only publish contents related to their personal life or their own points of view; and some journalists build different identities on different social media. The construction of their identities on social media is affected by journalistic values and standards, their media institution as well as their relationships with their colleagues. To balance their personal identity and professional identity online, all participants try to distinguish and control their different identities built on social media. But this kind of effort does not work well all the time, especially for those who build only their personal identity on social media.

This thesis argues, based upon a comparison of the 2000 Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, that there is a very close relationship between nationalism, media and Olympics. For the purposes of cross-cultural analysis, the thesis undertakes a comparison of relevant media models ... will be argued that elements of propaganda infuse the Olympic coverage of both papers and events, albeit from within distinctly different social and ideological contexts. In the lead-up to the Sydney and Beijing events of 2000 and 2008, both the Australian and the People's Daily emphasised national unity over difference, even if the People's Daily appears to do so more systematically than the Australian"--Abstract.

This qualitative study uses narrative inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988, 1990, 2001) and self-study to investigate ways to further understand and facilitate the integration of holistic philosophies of education with media literacy pedagogies. As founder and director of the Youth Media Literacy Project and a self-titled Imagitator (one who agitates imagination), I have spent over 10 years teaching media literacy in various high schools, universities, and community centres across North America. This study will focus on my own personal practical knowledge (Connelly & Clandinin, 1982) as a culture jammer, educator and cancer survivor to illustrate my original vision of a ‘holistic media literacy pedagogy’. This research reflects on the emergence and impact of holistic media literacy in my personal and professional life and also draws from relevant interdisciplinary literature to challenge and synthesize current insights and theories of media literacy, holistic education and culture jamming.