Stability Maintenance and Chinese Media: Beyond Political Communication?
Introduction to Journal of Current Chinese Affairs 2/2015: Stability Maintenance and Chinese Media
Chinese media [Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies series]
From an area of specialist research a decade ago China’s media has become now an important element of research and teaching worldwide, not only in specific Chinese cultural studies courses at the university level but increasingly in post-graduate research and in the domain of business consultancy. Edited by Michael Keane and Wanning Sun, leading experts in the field, this new title is a ‘mini library’ of the foundational and the very best cutting-edge scholarship on Chinese media
The Popular Press and its Public in China
Abstract The result of media reform in China has led to the profit-driven popular press, instead of the Party press, developing rapidly and heavily influencing the public life in the country. How do the people negotiate with the political power and form their own “public” in daily life through reading the popular press? On the one hand, as the ordinary Chinese people keep their distance from public affairs, they fail to respond to the coverage that is always controlled by the power of the state; this leads to people’s dissent from or indifference to the headlines or important news in the popular press. On the other hand, compared with the stuffy and always-positive news of propaganda that is far from their daily lives, trivial news happens under circumstances that are more sensible and meaningful for them. People refer to their reason and sense in daily life to criticise what the truth is. In the meantime, the “public” is aroused through controversy and disagreement.