Chinese Newspapers Research Articles

State Representations of the Other: The Case of China's Matriarchy

Previous tourism representation research has primarily adopted an essentialist's approach in interpreting the construction of the self in contrast to the Other and treated both Other and self as holistic entities. Contrary to previous research, the current study takes a postmodern epistemology to uncover the complex and fluid nature of the construction of a Chinese identity through official tourism representations of the matriarchal Mosuo. Forty-six articles published between 1990 and 2010 in major Chinese newspapers were collected and analyzed with Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Three major themes (i.e., feminized Other, economic growth, and authenticity) are identified and the analysis of the themes exposes the differentiating and dynamic nature in the construction of self identity in the state representations of the Mosuo people. Such results demonstrate the necessity of taking a more critical and nuanced approach in the examination of how states use tourism representations to construct national identities.

A case study of the Foxconn suicides

This study used an international perspective to analyze how newspapers in the United States and China framed a specific global sweatshop issue: a continuous spate of suicides at the Foxconn Technology Group, a major supplier to Apple, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard. Through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 92 newspaper articles appearing in US and Chinese newspapers, this study found Chinese newspapers framed the suicides mainly as the psychological problems of a young generation rather than a sweatshop issue. Newspapers in the US used a traditional human rights abuser frame to portray the suicides. Foxconn was the main social actor cited in most news coverage. Both the US and Chinese newspapers framed the case as a China-specific problem, ignoring global social justice and world economy aspects. This study contributes more broadly to framing research by developing an approach that is distinctly used for cross-cultural framing studies about a global issue.

Chinese newspaper coverage of genetically modified organisms

BackgroundDebates persist around the world over the development and use of genetically modified organisms (GMO). News media has been shown to both reflect and influence public perceptions of health and science related debates, as well as policy development. To better understand the news coverage of GMOs in China, we analyzed the content of articles in two Chinese newspapers that relate to the development and promotion of genetically modified technologies and GMOs.MethodsSearching in the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Core Newspaper Database (CNKI-CND), we collected 77 articles, including news reports, comments and notes, published between January 2002 and August 2011 in two of the major Chinese newspapers: People’s Daily and Guangming Daily. We examined articles for perspectives that were discussed and/or mentioned regarding GMOs, the risks and benefits of GMOs, and the tone of news articles.ResultsThe newspaper articles reported on 29 different kinds of GMOs. Compared with the possible risks, the benefits of GMOs were much more frequently discussed in the articles. 48.1% of articles were largely supportive of the GM technology research and development programs and the adoption of GM cottons, while 51.9% of articles were neutral on the subject of GMOs. Risks associated with GMOs were mentioned in the newspaper articles, but none of the articles expressed negative tones in regards to GMOs.ConclusionThis study demonstrates that the Chinese print media is largely supportive of GMOs. It also indicates that the print media describes the Chinese government as actively pursuing national GMO research and development programs and the promotion of GM cotton usage. So far, discussion of the risks associated with GMOs is minimal in the news reports. The media, scientists, and the government should work together to ensure that science communication is accurate and balanced.

How public relations functions as news sources in China

This study re-conceptualizes the interaction between public relations (PR) practitioners and journalists in news construction. Proposing a new conceptual framework of “news-source involvement,” this study applies two dimensions – “involvement width” and “involvement density” – when examining how information and/or stories generated by PR people affect news coverage. Empirically, this study identifies seven types of news sources derived from a systematic content analysis of 1600 stories in four selected Chinese newspapers from 2001 to 2010 – 10-year period. The major findings include: (1) information subsidy has become a popular phenomenon in China; (2) over the past decade, the Chinese government has been slowly but surely becoming more tolerant of public's expression of their opinions relating to social and political issues. Though the government remains as the dominating “news source” for newspapers, other non-mainstream news sources (e.g. grass-root civilian) have emerged. Growing from the used-to-be “silent mass,” they have become the “subordinate majority” nowadays, having strong influence in certain coverage; and (3) PR people as one of the major news sources, interact with media in a selective manner; and such interaction takes places largely on tactical level.

How to make students culturally aware: the case of advertisement translation

It has been observed that, given the theoretical explanation that cultural diversity is an important parameter for consideration in the translation of advertisements, students are often lacking directions as to how to proceed when asked to do the practical work of translation. This article will address their concern from a pedagogical point of view by proposing that the enhancement of students’ cross-cultural awareness is essential to teaching advertising translation. Drawing on authentic samples of bilingual versions of advertisements collected from various English and Chinese newspapers and magazines from Hong Kong, we will scrutinize how the same ad promoting a certain product, service or event is encoded in different terms in English and Chinese, and then discuss how the different use of the English and Chinese language in fact reflects the cultural values or characteristics of the Western and Chinese cultures noted and examined in various cross-cultural studies. This can, in turn, demonstrate to students that a good knowledge of cross-cultural value differences and similarities will constitute a source of inspiration which could enlighten them in the formulation of the appropriate strategies for translating advertisements.

SELECTING DAILY NEWSPAPERS FOR CONTENT ANALYSIS IN CHINA

This study compares different sampling methods and sample sizes in the selection of daily newspapers in China for content analysis of the news. Results show that the method of constructed week sampling is more efficient than simple random sampling or consecutive day sampling, and a single constructed week allows reliable estimates of news content in a population of six months of newspaper editions even for highly volatile variables. The weekday-plus-Saturday constructed week sampling, an often-used sampling stratification approach in content analyses of Chinese daily newspapers, however, requires a larger sample size, depending on the types of variables being analyzed.

Media discourse of corporate social responsibility in China: a content analysis of newspapers

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in China is an issue of global concern. China's business sector has been facing criticisms both at home and abroad for its unsatisfactory records on environmental conservation, business transparency, labor conditions, and product safety. Even some multinational corporations are said to have lowered their ethical standards when they operate in China. Media are a major stakeholder in defining and promoting CSR, and media coverage of CSR sets the agendas for the public and, to some extent, for corporations, by raising awareness about CSR issues and selectively emphasizing certain aspects of CSR. Guided by theories of agenda setting, framing, and agenda building, this paper reports a content analysis of the CSR coverage in five leading Chinese newspapers in 2009 and shows that China's newspapers predominately define CSR as companies' responsibilities towards the community, employees, and customers. Furthermore, the country's leading newspapers have yet to play an active role in facilitating a social dialogue about CSR, as they often adopt an uncritical attitude and a celebratory tone in their CSR reporting and allow corporations and the government to dominate the journalistic discourse of CSR.

U.S., Chinese Newspapers Differ on Reports of Tainted Milk Scandal

In September 2008, the Sanlu Group, which operates one of China's largest dairy firms, recalled 10,000 tons of infant feeding formula after hospitals in Gansu province in the northwest part of the country reported 59 cases of kidney stones in infants.1 The milk powder was found tainted with melamine, a low-toxic industrial chemical used in plastics, fertilizers and cleaning products, to make the milk appear higher in protein content.2 Over a three-month period, the Ministry of Health reported that about 51,900 babies were hospitalized, 294,000 developed urinary tract stones, more than 1,000 were confirmed to have formed kidney stones and six died.3According to the media dependency theory, crisis situations like this tend to trigger greater public dependence on the mass media because people come to rely upon the media's structural connectedness with the best available sources of information to help them cope with the threat.4 How the media perform during crisis times, however, may be affected by journalistic processes and routines, the constraints faced by news organizations, the culture of news groups, and the ideological leanings of journalists, among others.5 This study compares how the Chinese and American financial newspapers performed in covering the Sanlu milk scandal.Literature ReviewRisk reporting during crisis situations is particularly challenging considering that hazards interact with psychological, social, institutional and cultural processes in ways that may amplify or attenuate public responses, according to the social amplification of risk framework.6 Thus, journalists strive to improve their methods of presenting risk information.7 Fischoffsuggests a number of protocols reporters may use to explain and clarify risk issues.8 One of these, titled Questions to Ask of Risk Analysis, outlines nine items to consider whenever risk analysis is applied in news reports. Pertinent to the current study are items that ask:* Does the story discuss the probability of harm as well as the amount of harm expected?* Does the risk analysis estimate the number of people likely to suffer damage?* Are considerations of individual sensitivities, exposure to multiple hazards and cumulative effects included?* Does the story disclose forthrightly the points at which risk analysis is based on assumptions and guesswork?* Are all data and processes of risk analysis open to public scrutiny?* Are questions of involuntary exposure, who bears the risk and who reaps the benefits considered?* If the answer to any of these questions is no, then the utility of these news reports should be questioned.Technical risk assessment is but one of several news frames reporters apply to depict risk events. News frames result when journalists organize stories in ways that provide meaning to related events.9 Through complex processes of interpretation, readers form impressions of the stories' central theme and attitudes toward the incident, and the solutions offered by actors.News frames about an event that happened in one place vary from country to country because reporting is influenced by politics, economic systems, the media infrastructure and the political system that supports it, and journalistic norms and values, among others. Of these, perhaps the most potent is the context under which reporters operate.10 Many contend that the Chinese press system falls in between Siebert et al.'s authoritarian and Soviet communist models. To date, the Party guard dog principle is still being reinforced as the government struggles to maintain control of the media. Although stories about corruption and inequality sometimes see print, the press is not allowed to criticize the Party leadership and the prevailing ideology. The libertarian press model to which the United States subscribes, on the other hand, holds that the press should serve as the government's watchdog, and should thus be free from outside interference and restrictions. …

Orthographic Constraints on the Integration of English Loanwords in Mandarin Chinese

Chinese loan words of English origin can be roughly divided into three groups: phonemic loan, semantic loan and combination of the above two. This paper gives a brief sketch of the three different kinds of loanwords and goes a step further to point out that semantic loan tends to be the eventual form of adaptation for words borrowed from English, for the reasons that Chinese is monosyllabic, Chinese writing system is morphemic, and has little to do with its sound system, etc. Therefore, direct replication of the pronunciations of English words (phonemic loan or transliteration in this sense) is not compatible with the coding structure of Chinese. It tends to be replaced by loan translation or semantic loans. To support this hypothesis, this paper presents a data-based analysis of 55 borrowed lexical items as found in 80 articles from a Chinese newspaper and a magazine. The findings show that transliterated loanwords are not as well-accepted as semantic loans in Chinese and usually are replaced by the latter.

Newspaper coverage of runaway in China

Abstract This exploratory, descriptive study examines the coverage of Chinese-medium newspapers on runaway youth in China from 2000 to 2008. We found 209 newspaper articles reporting runaway cases from a sample of 27 Chinese newspapers. Consistent with what has been reported in the Western literature, family- and school-related problems account for the main reasons for many runaway cases. We also learned of other triggers to runaway that are unique in China. These unique factors include Internet addiction, falling in virtual love, escape from poverty, and searching for parents. Drawing from the data, we made several recommendations on the provisions for the runaways in China.

The growth in newspaper coverage of tobacco control in China, 2000-2010

BackgroundMedia coverage of tobacco-related issues can potentially shape individual beliefs, attitudes and behaviors about tobacco use. This study aims to describe news coverage of tobacco control related issues in Chinese newspapers from 2000 to 2010.MethodsAll 1149 articles related to tobacco control were extracted from the Database of Chinese Important Newspapers and content analyzed for the period Jan 1, 2000 to Dec 31, 2010. The changing pattern of tobacco control topic, article type, viewpoint, and article origin, and their relationship were analysed.ResultsNews coverage of tobacco control related issues increased significantly (p < 0.01) from 2000 to 2010, with news coverage being relatively intensive in May and June (p < 0.01), around World No Tobacco Day. 24.9% (n = 286) of all articles focused on secondhand smoke, 25.3% (n = 291) warned about the dangers of active smoking, and 10.0% (n = 115) focused on prevention and cessation programs and campaigns. Tobacco control topics varied significantly between national vs city/regional newspapers (χ2 = 24.09, p = 0.002) and article types (χ2 = 193.35, p < 0.001). Articles in national newspapers had more coverage of the dangers of tobacco and on enforcing bans on tobacco-advertising. News stories centered around monitoring tobacco use and smoke free activity, while editorials focused on enforcing bans on tobacco-advertising, youth access and programs and campaigns. Letters to editors focused on the dangers of smoking, raising tax, and smoking cessation. More articles (50.4%) took an anti-tobacco position (compared with 10.5% which were pro-smoking), with the amount of negative coverage growing significantly across the decade. National articles tended to lean toward anti-tobacco, however, local articles tended mix of pro-tobacco and neutral/balance positions. Editorials seemed to be more anti-tobacco oriented, but letters to the editor tended to show a mix of anti-tobacco and pro-tobacco positions.ConclusionChinese newspapers are giving increasing attention to tobacco control, but coverage remains lower than in the USA and Australia. Health workers need to give higher priority to efforts to increase news coverage beyond the present concentration around World No Tobacco Day and to develop strategies for making tobacco control issues more newsworthy to both national and local news outlets.

The image of people with intellectual disability in Taiwan newspapers

Background There is limited research on the development of newspaper analysis about the images of people with ID in Chinese newspapers. The purpose of this study was: (a) to understand the general image of persons with ID presented in printed newspapers in Taiwan, and (b) to classify the various images of persons with ID and to measure the relative proportions among these classifications.Method Articles from 2008 from the media databank UDNDATA were analysed by content analysis.Results Three main images were portrayed. The greatest number of articles revolved around the “dispirited” image (44.5%), followed by “needy” (32.7%), and “affirmative” (22.8%). Articles focused on families with a member with ID made up 20.8% of the total articles, and 81% of these stories had a negative theme.Conclusion The pessimistic portrayal of people with ID is popular and newspapers may create stigma for people with ID in Taiwan.

Newspaper coverage of emergency response and government responsibility in domestic natural disasters: China-US and within-China comparisons

Based on a comparative approach, this article reports content analyses of news articles about a devastating earthquake that occurred in Sichuan province, China, from six Chinese newspapers, indicating that the Chinese media, in reporting the government’s emergency responses, had many similarities with the American media's coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Further comparisons, however, suggest that the claim of a ‘watchdog’ media culture during disasters, as measured by the frequency of media accounts of the government’s responsibilities, is still relatively premature in China. Moreover, party-controlled and market-oriented media in China had different focuses in their coverage of natural disasters. The market-oriented media played an important role in making the Sichuan earthquake more transparent and the authorities more responsible. Provincial media in China may be less regulated by the central government and are in a good position to cover sensitive stories outside their own province. But they will not have a long-term impact without an overall government policy of open information and media deregulation. By contrast, fewer variations in story focus were observed in the American media, and the overall difference is relatively limited.

Refashioning Print Literature:

In addressing the issue of modern China and world literature in the age of globalization, we should not neglect this fact: in contemporary Chinese society as well as elsewhere, the elite literary market has been increasingly shrinking, with more and more readers reading online rather than in the libraries, for there have appeared numerous netizens who write and publish online. I think it's hard to say whether or not the Internet will ruin or contrib- ute to the popularization of serious literature: a lot of print literature, chiefly serious literature, is likely to be published on the Internet, but although that means fewer books will be printed on paper, it also means that it will pos- sible for more and more readers to get access to serious literature, including translated world literature online. Since translated literature comprises a large part of the literary market, Internet writing might well contribute a bit to the popularization of world literature in China as well. But my concern in this article is the extent to which the Internet will help to popularize literature. Obviously, the emergence of the Internet in our daily lives provides us with a new way to communicate and express our feelings and opinions. As a global system of interconnected computer networks, the Internet con- nects billions of users (or their computers) worldwide by using the standard Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). Thus, for most users, it is the first time that they have not been limited by space and time in communicating with others, and they now have the opportunity to know other people's (public or private) stories and share their experiences in just a matter of seconds. Speed changes everything and makes things go more smoothly in our lives. Not only do the younger generations like to communicate online, but even the older scholars are gradually taking interest in communicating through the Internet.

White Cargo: Australian Residents, Trade and Colonialism in Shanghai Between the Wars

This article follows Australians who went to treaty ports in China in the 1920s and 1930s to find work. By 1932 there were so many Australians in Shanghai that the British government asked Prime Minister Joseph Lyons to issue an official warning dissuading Australians from travelling there for employment. One result of this migration was the generation of files on Australians in the Special Branch surveillance files of the Shanghai Municipal Police (SMP) archives. Using these files, as well as Chinese language newspapers circulating in Shanghai at the time, this article examines links between Australians in Depression-era Shanghai and the development of Chinese anti-colonialism. It also suggests that reports on Australian behaviour in treaty port China in Australian newspapers recast the ways in which some Australians understood inter-colonial exchanges. Much is known about Australian attitudes to Asia in the first half of the twentieth century. Little, however, has been written about how Asian populations viewed Australians. The Shanghai Municipal Police files provide one register through which these viewpoints can be excavated.This article has been peer-reviewed.

Same events, two stories

A content analysis of photos from four major US newspapers and four major Chinese newspapers depicting the 2008 anti-China/Olympics protests revealed significantly different denoted themes. On one hand, the most prominent dominant visual theme in US newspapers was suppression followed by pro-Tibet demonstrations. On the other hand, in Chinese newspapers the most dominant visual theme was the Olympic torch relay followed by riots and restoring order. Overall, the US dailies visually portrayed a more pro-Tibetan independence slant and the Chinese dailies visually portrayed a more pro-Chinese government slant. Further, the US newspapers portrayed the anti-China demonstrators as non-violent while the Chinese newspapers portrayed them as violent. To give their readers a sense of harmony, Chinese dailies limited the number of images showing anti-China protests, while the US dailies highlighted them, communicating to their readers the suppressive nature of the Chinese government and downplaying the voices of people who supported it.

The representation of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the Chinese media

In the early 2000s the threat of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza captured the attention of the world's media. While China is often considered the epicentre of the panzootic, few studies have explored coverage of this variant of avian flu in China. To address this issue, the authors examined the portrayal of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza across four Chinese newspapers at the local and national level. A textual analysis was performed on 160 articles across an eight-year period from 2001–2008. The study approach drew from Critical Discourse Analysis and Social Representation Theory. The headline analysis showed the extent that risk of the disease was subverted by the depiction of a strong and efficient ‘China’ that was a global leader in the fight against the disease. Ideological referents were called upon to stress teamwork in confronting the crisis. The diachronic analysis illustrated how the relationship between commercial interests, science and public health risks played out within the Chinese media.

The compiling textbooks and the teaching method about Chinese Newspaper Reading Lesson

The compiling textbooks and the teaching method about Chinese Newspaper Reading Lesson

Underlying ideologies and shifting strategies

In 1993, the Chinese press did not promote Beijing's bid to host the 2000 Olympic Games effectively, while Australian newspapers tried to weaken Beijing's chance of success by criticising China. Beijing bid for the Games again in 2001. Having learned the lessons from the 1993 bid, the Chinese press adapted strategies to promote Beijing's second bid. This study employs the method of critical analysis of media discourse to focus on the selected Australian and Chinese newspapers’ (the Sydney Morning Herald and the People's Daily) coverage of Beijing's two bids to examine the differences and the changes in the two newspapers’ reporting tactics. This comparative study in International Journalism explores the ideological underpinning of media discourse by looking at lexical and propositional choices in the newspapers’ representations of a complex set of events.

Ownership Changes of Chinese Newspapers Listed? The Case of Beijing Media Corporation

The ownership structure is important and marks the development of a market. For media companies, the change of their corporate structure is an important achievement in the cultural systematic reform and deepens the reform in the publishing and distribution industry, which is necessary for the development of a modern cultural industry system.Chinese media opened first time to market forces in 1978 when they turned from non-profit institutions (shiye danwei) to profit-oriented organizations. Advertising revenues became and still today are the first and most important financial source for Chinese media organizations. The commercialization of the media industry was further consolidated in January 1996 when the first newspaper conglomerate, the Guangzhou Daily Press Group, was established. Since then a number of newspaper groups, including the Nanfang Daily Press Group, Yangcheng Evening News Press Group and Wenhui Xinmin Press Group have been established. While the conglomeration of press industry took place, quite a few enterprises associated with media organizations went public, marking the beginning of Chinese media corporatization. As restructuring the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) has been considered a fundamental factor for Chinese economic success in the last decade, the recent restructuring of Chinese media enterprises is at the top of agenda of reforms of the Chinese cultural industry. The ownership change, towards a private ownership, has been considered a necessary condition for enterprise’s efficiency. In this paper we provide an explorative analysis of the corporate governance of Chinese newspapers which are listed on stock markets. In particular we focus on Beijing Media Corporation (BMC), which is the only Chinese press enterprise listed in Hong Kong Stock Exchange, therefore offering H shares to foreign investors. We examine the changes of its ownership structure and its possible implications by adopting an exclusive economic-financial approach. This paper is organized as follows: in section 1 we provide the theoretical background for the analysis of corporate governance in general; section 2 focuses on the Chinese background, especially addressing the structure of press enterprises. The BMC case study is discussed in section 3. Conclusions are drawn in section 4.