Article,
From commercialization to conglomeration: the transformation of the Chinese press within the orbit of the party state
The Journal of Communication, 50 (2): 3--26 (2000)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.2000.tb02839.x
Abstract
This paper examines the trajectory of Chinese Communist party-controlled
press commercialization in China and discusses the active role of
the Chinese state in incorporating market-based press forms and practices
into the existing press structure. Although market-oriented press
developments in the past 2 decades have created a dynamic mass appeal
sector catering to the urban middle class, it has also inadvertently
led to a fragmented and decentralized press structure that undermined
core party organs and their capital accumulation. Consequently, the
party engineered a market rationalization campaign and pushed for
press conglomeration. Both are aimed at enhancing political control
on the one hand and facilitating press capitalization on the other.
These developments are not only counter-intuitive to laissez-faire
notions of free markets versus state control, but also have profound
implications for emerging class and power relations in China.
