“The Days When Ideals Shined”: Journalistic nostalgia and the myth of golden age in China

Abstract

This study explores Chinese journalists’ discursive practices of nostalgia in the context of transition and “crisis” of media and the journalism profession in order to understand how the journalistic community looks back and forward at such a historical juncture. I conduct a textual analysis of writings of nostalgia produced by journalists and media commentators in a wide range of settings: the commemoration of diseased journalists, resignation letters by former journalists, celebration of media organizations’ anniversaries, and reflections on scandals and crises in the media. The analysis reveals that golden ages emerging from such writings refer to the period of the press reform and the rise of market-oriented media in the mid-1990s and through the early 2000s. Within the interpretive community, the ideal of golden age is constructed to serve as a benchmark for critiquing the state of journalism, enhance the legitimacy of those journalists who embrace the new practices in the new media era, and chant a requiem for both the press reform and the decline of traditional media.