Press Reform Research Articles

Debates on CCP Newspaper Policy in Hong Kong Circa 1949 and the Elimination of Private Newspapers in the Early 1950s in the PRC

Drawing upon secret correspondence between the British colonial government in Hong Kong and the Foreign Office in London, Hong Kong newspapers and individual memoirs, this paper examines how the British colonial government enabled CCP propaganda that shaped the formation of the early news policies of the newly founded PRC. Challenging the conclusions of previous scholarship, this study argues that while Hong Kong was the centre of political debates regarding whether privately-owned newspapers could exist in the PRC, Communist Party leaders in Hong Kong reached an internal consensus regarding press reform well before the New Democracy Revolution was aborted. Furthermore, the democrats and private newspapers runners, who were the intended objects of transformation, contributed to the process of the demise of private newspapers without requiring recourse to violent-means on the part of the Communists.

모든 기업은 미디어 기업이다 : 브랜드 저널리즘이 강요하는 언론개혁의 전망

“모든 기업은 미디어 기업이다”는 슬로건으로 대변되는 ‘브랜드 저널리즘(brand journalism)’은 마케팅에 대한 대중의 불신과 혐오가 극에 달하고 미디어 환경의 변화로 기존 마케팅 효과가 의문시되는 상황에서 탄생한 기업의 자구책이다. 기업이 언론 의존도를 줄여나가면서 자체 미디어를 통해 광고와 홍보를 하겠다는 것은 언론의 생존 자체를 위협할 수 있다. 모든 기업이 미디어 기업이 되는 세상에서 언론은 어떻게 해야 살아남아 공적 기능을 수행할 수 있을 것인가? 이 질문은 사회적으로 큰 의미를 갖는 것임에도 거의 제기되지 않고 있다. 본 연구는 그런 문제의식을 갖고 언론의 관점에서 브랜드 저널리즘을 탐구하면서 브랜드 저널리즘이 강요하는 언론개혁의 전망에 대해 논한다. 제안은 네가지다. 첫째, 언론은 ‘협박식 영업’을 하지 않는 최소한의 ‘시장 논리’가 작동하게끔 해야 한다. 둘째, 언론은 대중의 불신과 혐오를 넘어서기 위해 신뢰를 회복하는 데에 모든 노력을 경주해야 한다. 셋째, 언론은 이상과 현실의 괴리를 줄여나가기 위한 솔직함을 보여야 한다. 넷째, 언론은 현재 추종하는 흥미성의 개념을 재정의해 언론 본연의 경쟁력을 찾아야 한다. 이런 요구의 수용 여부가 언론개혁은 물론 언론생존의 성패를 좌우할 것이다.

Реформа комунальної преси як чинник диференціації механізму взаємодії з місцевими органами виконавчої влади та органами місцевого самоврядування

Реформа комунальної преси як чинник диференціації механізму взаємодії з місцевими органами виконавчої влади та органами місцевого самоврядування

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

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.

Independent and effective? The post-Leveson framework for press regulation

This paper aims to show how the legal framework for independent self-regulation of the press in the United Kingdom has developed in the three years since the publication of the Leveson Report in November 2012. The paper begins by providing a brief summary of the negotiations between major newspaper publishers, politicians and civil society organisations which led to the development of a legal framework that is similar to but distinct from the framework recommended by Lord Justice Leveson. This framework is referred to here as the ‘post-Leveson framework’. The paper goes on to show how the post-Leveson framework has been implemented in the relevant provisions of the Royal Charter on Self-Regulation of the Press, the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 and the Crime and Courts Act 2013. It then provides a first-hand account of the development of a new self-regulatory body, IMPRESS: The Independent Monitor for the Press CIC, which is designed to inhabit this framework. The paper concludes by arguing that the Leveson recommendations, despite legal and political challenges, may yet have a significant and beneficial impact on the future of media regulation in the United Kingdom.

Taming the 'Feral Beast': Cautionary Lessons from British Press Reform

As technology undermines the economic model supporting traditional newspapers, power shifts from the watchdog press to those it watches. Worldwide calls for increased press “responsibility” are one result. Pending British press reform provides a troubling example with far-ranging implications for freedom of the press. Under the guise of modest press self-regulation, the U.K. is currently poised to upend 300 years of press freedom via the recently-approved Royal Charter for Self-Regulation of the Press. The Royal Charter was adopted in response to the moral panic engendered by Britain’s tabloid phone-hacking scandal. An example of 20th Century regulation poorly fitted for the 21st Century’s evolving news ecosystem, the Royal Charter regime is little more than licensing by proxy. Half-hearted attempts to insulate it from political pressure fail to negate its predictable chilling effects. Indeed, those effects present a particularly grave threat today, when states obsessed with surveillance and security achieve aggressive information control and censorship through collusion with private parties. A bird’s eye view of British press regulation reveals a trifecta of meta-regulation, direct government censorship, and constraints on information access. The effects of Royal Charter regime, far from being limited to the UK, will be felt around the world.

Laying Low the Shibboleth of a Free Press

As American newspapers came under various forms of financial strain in the 1940s, arguably the most significant threat facing the industry during this period was an onslaught of media criticism in conjunction with a series of attempted state interventions. This paper fleshes out recurring themes of 1940s media criticism and shows how they coincided with moves toward regulating the press, which had begun in the late 1930s. Using historical methods, including close readings of newspaper, trade press, and activist literature and other materials that shed light on debates around press reform, this critical revisionist history brings into focus a formative period in the American press system's development. The history that emerges from this archival evidence does not simply bring previously under-researched areas into focus; it also questions the presumed natural laissez-faire arrangement between the American government and the press—an assumption that largely remains intact to this day.

In Defense of Autonomy: A Critique of the Public Journalism Critique

This article argues that public journalism as a reform movement has failed to appreciate the complexity of professional autonomy arid the occupational benefits it affords to practitioners. The article describes how the dynamics of professional. socialization predispose journalists to guardedly protect their independence. What might appear to be a defensive orientation is, in fact, quite understandable, given numerous threats to autonomy originating from inside and outside the neu'-sroom. Would-be reformers should articulate how autonomy could be protected-but recast- as professional expertise directed at political activation. The author discusses the implications of this argument for theory of press reform and for college instruction.

In Defense of Autonomy: A Critique of the Public Journalism Critique

This article argues that public journalism as a reform movement has failed to appreciate the complexity of professional autonomy and the occupational benefits it affords to practitioners. The article describes how the dynamics of professional socialization predispose journalists to guardedly protect their independence. What might appear to be a defensive orientation is, in fact, quite understandable, given numerous threats to autonomy originating from inside and outside the newsroom. Would-be reformers should articulate how autonomy could be protected—but recast—as professional expertise directed at political activation. The author discusses the implications of this argument for theory of press reform and for college instruction.

An orchestra of voices: making the argument for greater speech and press freedom in the People's Republic of China

Foreword Preface Introduction On Socialist Press Freedom The Proletariat's Struggle for Press Freedom What Should Socialist Press Freedom Look Like? Press Freedom is a Process Personal Opinions on Macro-Issues in Press Reform Renewing Our Concept of Journalism Effective Press Reform within a Socialist Market Economy China's legal System Concerning Press Law The Difficulty of Writing Press Legislation in China Protecting Both the Individual's Rights to Reputation and the Press's Right to Report The Viability of Limited Public Ownership and Interregional Development

The Road to Media Unification: Press and Broadcasting Law Reform in the GDR

Germany's reunification has had enormous repercussions on GDR media. Initial efforts to establish autonomous structures with emphasis on the media's social responsibility were soon abandoned. The distribution of West German newspapers began at an early stage as did the acquisition of virtually all publishing and printing companies by West German companies. The governmentally established Treuhandanstalt acted in essence as a quasi-licensing authority, setting structural policy for the press through the sale of regional newspapers belonging to the former state party, the SED. In television and radio, the former State Broadcasting Institution will be dissolved by the end of 1991. West Germany's first and second stations, ARD and ZDF, have extended their operations into the East to fill the vacuum left by its demise. The first laws concerning the licensing of private broadcasting have been designed to achieve the greatest possible deregulation. Noticeably absent are approaches for paying particular regard to the cultural identity of East Germans or for ensuring that the `parents of the Revolution' can take part in broadcasting.

The journalist in Plato's cave

A provocative study of the complex relations between philosophy and journalism. The discussion addresses such subjects as the essential nature of journalism, news value, the relation of journalism to education, the ideal of a free press, and practical strategies for press reform and the improvement of journalism.

Society, Politics, and the Press: An Interpretation of the Peruvian Press Reform of 1974

In the early morning hours of July 27, 1974, the military government of Peru employed riot police to seize control of the country's principal daily newspapers. The government announced that the newspapers were being transferred to independent organizations representative of broad sectors of Peruvian society. Peru's “Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces,” which came to power in 1968, had already surprised students of the Latin American military with a series of radical measures which included an extensive land reform, the expropriation of a number of foreign companies, reorganization of the financial sector, and the creation of a system of worker control for industry. Now President Juan Velasco Alvarado presented the press takeover as an integral part of a fundamental reordering of the existing society along progressive nationalist lines.

Death of Press Reform in France

W hat has happened to the movement to reform the French press? Only a short time ago, backed by public sentiment which had at long last become aroused over evils in the existing system, reform seemed imminent. But the reform movement is now apparently dead. Instead of being confronted with Blum's reform proposals, the French press is faced with Daladier's censorship decrees. Press regulation is of course a grave matter in any democracy, but in France, for reasons peculiar to that country, the question has particularly serious implications. The causes for the reform effort, the successful attempt to defeat it, and the issues involved in the struggle are worthy of examination. On November 26, i936, the Popular Front Ministry, of which Leon Blum was President of the Council, submitted to the Chamber of Deputies a series of proposed laws which would have completely changed the regulations regarding the press. With only slight modifications the Chamber accepted the proposals, but Senate amendments removed the bill's teeth, and a deadlock ensued between the two houses of the French parliament. This deadlock remained unbroken until establishment of government by decree. Subsequently several attempts were made to secure passage of bills which embodied certain features of the Blum proposals, or which in some other manner suggested changes in the existing press regulations, but they too were either rejected or postponed. A majority of the French journals-not only the organs of the Right and Center but some of the more important Left journals