Political Economy of News in China

Jesse Owen Hearns-Branaman is lecturer of media and communication at the Graduate School of Language and Communication, National Institute of Development Administration, Thailand.

Hearns-Branaman examines the structure, role, and culture of China’s news media by applying the propaganda model developed by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. The first three chapters are devoted to explicating the filtering process that contextualizes what is considered newsworthy and how this news will be presented to the public. Chapter 4 delves deeper into the workings of China’s news media by examining the filtering process in terms of ownership, size, and profit motive. Here the author notes the more paternalistic nature and ruling party–focused legitimizing role of the Chinese media compared to the media in the US. The next two chapters enrich the analysis by examining the internal filters of sourcing and the external filters of flak and advertisers. The more limited impact on the Chinese news media of external actors compared to the US is noted here. Chapter 7 examines the influence of the dominant ideology in the filtering process. The growth of nationalism in China is seen as narrowing the differences in the ideological filtering process in China and the US. The concluding chapter recaps the entire filtering process and comparisons between the Chinese and American news media. Highly recommended for Asian collections. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students and researchers/Asian studies.

• Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: Why the People’s Republic of China?Chapter 3: Why the Propaganda Model?Chapter 4: Ownership, Size, and Profit Motive FilterChapter 5: Sourcing FilterChapter 6: External Influences: Flak and AdvertisersChapter 7: Dominant Ideology FilterChapter 8: Conclusion