Popular Journalism in Contemporary China : Politics, Market, Culture and Technology

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. Foreword Preface Contents List of Tables Chapter 1: Conceptualizing Popular Journalism 1.1 What Is Popular Journalism? 1.2 Debate on Popular Journalism: A Critical Review of Literature 1.2.1 Tabloid Journalism as Seen Through the Lens of Serious Journalism 1.2.2 The Value and Importance of Tabloid Journalism in Its Own Right 1.2.3 Toward a ‘Popular Journalism’: Beyond the ‘Tabloid vs Serious’ Binary 1.3 Research on Popular Journalism in Non-Western Contexts 1.4 The Situation of Popular Journalism Studies in China 1.4.1 The Conceptual Matter 1.4.2 The Matter of Theorizing 1.5 Research Contributions and Methods References Chapter 2: Mao’s War on ‘Yellow’ Journalism 2.1 Popular Journalism in Late Qing Dynasty and the ROC 2.2 The Banning of Popular Journalism Under Mao 2.3 The Ideological Root of Mao’s Problem with (Popular) Journalism 2.4 The Death of Popular Citizenship Under Radical Maoism References Chapter 3: Popular Journalism in China’s Early Reform Era 3.1 The Debate on News and Propaganda 3.2 The ‘Evening Newspaper Effect’ and Its Limitations 3.3 The Short-Lived Liberal-Minded Press Approach 3.4 Popular Journalism in the Broader Context of Popular Culture References Chapter 4: Popular Journalism Comes to the Center Stage 4.1 Media Commercialization Under ‘Socialist Market Economy’ 4.1.1 Toward a Market-Oriented New Media Economics 4.1.2 Manifestations of Media Commercialization 4.2 The Rise of a Tabloid Journalism with Chinese Characteristics 4.2.1 Commercialization as Popularization 4.2.2 The ‘Metro Paper Phenomenon’: Tabloids with Chinese Characteristics 4.3 Impact and Implications of Popular Journalistic Practices 4.4 Limitations of the Metro Paper Model References Chapter 5: The Fall of Tabloids and Party Organs’ Dubious Resurgence 5.1 How the Metro Paper Sector Ran Into a Rock Wall 5.1.1 The Decade of Stagnation 5.1.2 Tabloids Became History (Again) After Making History 5.2 The Myth of Party Organs’ ‘Resurgence’ and ‘(Re-)Popularization’ 5.2.1 ‘Popular Official Media’ as a New Press Category? 5.2.2 Has the Market Failed the Popular Press Sector (This Time)? 5.2.3 Is ‘Cute’ Propaganda Winning the Digital Popular Journalism War? 5.3 Tabloids Down and Party Organs Up: Implications and Lessons References Chapter 6: China’s Popular Journalism in the Digital Media Era 6.1 Popular Journalism in Xi’s Paradox ‘New Era’ 6.2 Structural Features of China’s Digital Popular Journalism 6.3 The Art of Politics and Business of Playing the Fun Game 6.4 Commentary Critical Citizen Popular Journalism References Chapter 7: Conclusion: The Ongoing Business of Making Fun and Trouble References Index