Uncertainty, Tabloidisation, and the Loss of Prestige: “New Media Innovations” and Journalism Cultures in Two Newspapers in Mainland China and Taiwan

Popularizing party journalism in China in the age of social media: The case of Xinhua News Agency

Global Media and China ◽

10.1177/2059436418768331 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 3-17

Author(s):

Xin Xin

Keyword(s):

New Media ◽

Mainland China ◽

Online Media ◽

Media Content ◽

Media Environment ◽

News Agency ◽

Xinhua News Agency ◽

The Status ◽

Anglo American ◽

Ruling Party

The phenomenon of the “popularization” of journalism has become widespread in the process of media marketization, globalization and digitalization. This phenomenon has been studied mostly in the Anglo-American context. This article instead draws attention to China, where the tendency toward popularizing (party) journalism is also occurring but taking a rather different form. It focuses on the case of Xinhua News Agency—the pioneer as well as the most representative case of traditional party journalism in the country. The article considers to what extent Xinhua’s online media content concerning the ruling party since 1949—the Communist Party of China—has been popularized both in terms of content and style. The changes to online media content made by Xinhua are indicative of the extent to which it is possible to combine the status of a state-owned central news organization with a new journalistic orientation that seeks to make the messages from and about the party more appealing to technology-savvy and entertainment-driven audiences in the new media environment in mainland China.

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Media access to court proceedings and documents in Mainland China: The changed and unchanged

Media International Australia ◽

10.1177/1329878x211048245 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1329878X2110482

Author(s):

Yanzhu Xu

Keyword(s):

New Media ◽

News Media ◽

Qualitative Interviews ◽

Mainland China ◽

Court Case ◽

Media Access ◽

Court Reporting ◽

The Status ◽

Court Proceedings

This study examined the status of media access to court proceedings and documents in mainland China. In-depth and qualitative interviews with Chinese journalists revealed that they continue to face significant difficulties in attending court hearings and accessing court documents and information; especially, those involving government officials. Owing to the lack of adequate media access to courts, Chinese journalists are not able to fulfil their role of informing the public about what happens in the judicial system; it also undermines the balance and quality of court reporting. The study also found that China's courts mostly used their own online platforms to release information and broadcast trial proceedings. Consequently, the role of news media and journalists in providing court case information and promoting judicial openness has declined in the age of new media.

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A Preliminary Exploration of the Gay Movement in Mainland China: Legacy, Transition, Opportunity, and the New Media

Signs ◽

10.1086/675538 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 39 (4) ◽

pp. 840-848 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Jin Cao ◽

Xinlei Lu

Keyword(s):

New Media ◽

Mainland China ◽

Gay Movement

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图示社会：中国大陆纸质媒介的新功能 : 以《新周刊》为例 [Mapping Society: The New Function of Print Media in Mainland China—the Case of New Weekly]

PORTAL Journal of Multidisciplinary International Studies ◽

10.5130/portal.v6i2.1031 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Xiaolu Wang

Keyword(s):

New Media ◽

Print Media ◽

Social Issues ◽

Mainland China ◽

Quality Level ◽

Printing Quality ◽

Cultural Functions ◽

China Today ◽

Chinese Public

Based on New Weekly, one of the most influential illustrated Chinese magazines focusing on social issues and phenomena, this paper deals with the new characteristics and functions of the Chinese print media today. By describing its development and cover story themes, I argue that the Chinese print media represented by New Weekly doesn’t simply demonstrate how such media attempts to attract readers by taking advantage of its own changing appearance and format, including its design, printing quality, level of advertisements, classification of themes, and so on. Rather, this media is manifesting a changing concpetualization of intellectuals in China today. The Chinese print media, then, has new characteristics. It no longer serves simply as an ideological ‘microphone’ or ‘mouthpiece,’ but rather observes and comments on social issues and phenomena in mainland China. In this way it reflects the changing conception and perception of intellectuals in its own approaches and perspectives. By tracing this historical development, I attempt to indicate that new media like New Weekly actively promotes consciousness of social issues, while reflecting how such consciousness has an impact on everyday life. Such new cultural functions indicate that the print media is able to play a major role in influencing, if not determining, Chinese public opinion.

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From Online Buddha Halls to Robot-Monks

Review of Religion and Chinese Society ◽

10.1163/22143955-00701006 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 120-148

Author(s):

Stefania Travagnin

Keyword(s):

New Media ◽

Digital Media ◽

Mainland China ◽

Religious Practice ◽

Public Image ◽

Current Debate ◽

Chinese Society ◽

The Media ◽

China Today ◽

The Relationship

The interaction between religion and the new media has affected the perception that society has of religion, changed cardinal structures in the relationship between religious practice and religious authorities, and also transformed features and functions of the media. If we look at mainland China today, religious individuals and groups have their own WeChat and Weibo accounts, and internet websites; some believers operate solely in cyberspace and perform rituals online; and commercials often adopt religious symbols to brand nonreligious products. In other words, we find religious people or organizations that use (and even own) different media platforms as channels of communication; we also see that religious imageries are more and more put to use in the secular domain for nonreligious purposes. This article will analyze how and why Buddhists have resorted to social and digital media and even robotics to preach the Dharma and attract potential new followers, but also to redefine their public image in the wider Chinese society. This study also will ask whether the state has directed or merely engaged with this new Dharma media-enterprise, and in what way. In addressing these questions, one section of this article will explore the creation of the robot-monk Xian’er (at the Longquan Monastery, Beijing). Xian’er’s creation will be considered in relation to similar androids, placed in dialogue with the current debate on the use of robotics in religion, and viewed from posthumanist perspectives.

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