How the Market Is Changing China's News: The Case of Xinhua News Agency

This book provides a critical account of the transformations, both structural and in terms of journalism practice, undergone by Xinhua, the top Party organ of the Communist regime in China, since the start of the reform age in the late 1970s. It sets out to answer a number of key questions: How far has the most influential news organization in China been marketized? How far has the marketization process changed the way in which Xinhua practices journalism? What has the impact of marketization been on Xinhua’s relationship with central, local and global actors? What does the case of Xinhua tell us about the transformation of Chinese media more generally? The book draws on a wealth of empirical data derived from a combination of documentary research at Xinhua and Reuters together with more than100 semi-structured interviews with news executives, journalists, officials and academics in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Macau, Hong Kong and London. This book also offers: A critical review of theories of globalization, as they relate to media and communication studies, as well as Chinese studies;A discussion of the historical roots of Party journalism in China;An authoritative guide to China’s contemporary media and political environment. The book will be an invaluable reference for students and academics in communication and media studies, Chinese studies, Asian studies, international studies and development studies.

Table of Contents:
Abstract Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Globalization and its Interpretation in the Chinese Context Chapter 3: A Historical Account of Xinhua Chapter 4: Structural Change at National Level Chapter 5: Structural Change at Local Level Chapter 6: Structural Change at International Level Chapter 7: Conclusion: Structural Change and its Implications for Chinese Journalism

About the Author :
Dr Xin Xin is Senior Research Fellow of the China Media Center, the Communication and Media Research Institute at the University of Westminster, London. She also teaches graduates and undergraduates in the University’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. Her work has appeared in Media, Culture & Society, Global Media and Communication, Javnost – The Public; Journalism Practice, Sport in Society; Journal of African Media Studies and a number of edited volumes. Before embarking on an academic career, she worked as a journalist for several years in Xinhua News Agency’s Beijing headquarters.

Review :
Dr. Xin is the world's foremost scholarly expert on the history and contemporary operations of the Chinese national and international news agency, Xinhua. Her comprehensive and critical analysis will be an enduring source of information about an institution that now ranks among the most powerful of the world's media. This major intellectual accomplishment draws not only on Dr. Xin's keen scholarship but also on her direct, personal knowledge of the agency. Using China's national news agency, Xinhua, as a case study, this dissertation-cum-book provides a microanalysis of the impact of marketization and globalization on China's media system over three decades. Xin (Univ. of Manchester, London, UK) details Xinhua's history and its interactions with national, local, and international structures, looking at changes not just to Xinhua but also to journalistic practices relative to investigative reporting, news values (e.g., timeliness), and paid journalism. Though repetitive at times, the study does a credible job pulling together much information in a well-organized format. The author interviewed about a hundred editors, reporters, and academics in three cities on the mainland and in Hong Kong, Macau, and London, and used Xinhua News Agency yearbooks as her primary sources. Though she worked for Xinhua for two years, Xin does not seem to draw on those experiences in her analysis. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty.