ABSTRACT

This edited collection brings together journalism scholars from mainland China, Hong Kong, the UK and Australia to address a variety of pressing issues and challenges facing digital journalism in China today.

While China shares certain affinities with the digital disruption of media in other settings, its experience and articulation of change is ultimately unique. This volume explores the implications of digital media technologies for journalists’ professional practice, news users’ consumption and engagement with news, as well as the shifting institutional, organizational and financial structures of news media. Drawing on case studies and quantitative and qualitative approaches, contributors address questions concerning: whether China is witnessing ‘disruptive’ or ‘sustainable’ journalism; if, and in what ways, digital technologies may disrupt journalism; and whether Chinese digital journalism converges with or diverges from Western experiences of digital journalism.

Digital Journalism in China is an important addition to the literature on digital journalism, comparative media analysis, the Chinese Communist Party’s social media strategies, tabloidization trends, and the conflict between newsroom and classroom in journalism education, and will be of interest to advanced students, scholars, and practitioners alike.

chapter 1|7 pages

Introduction

Chinese Digital Journalism: Disruptive or Sustainable?

chapter 2|15 pages

Theories of Journalism in the Digital Era

Knowledge, Value, and Conceptual Framework

chapter 3|13 pages

Academic Discourses of Digital Journalism in China

A Literature Review, 1961-2021

chapter 4|12 pages

(Re-)Popularizing Party Journalism in China

A Qualitative Study of Xinhua News Agency's Online Media Content

chapter 5|13 pages

The Tabloidization of Party Media

How the People's Daily and CCTV Adapt to Social Media

chapter 7|12 pages

The Platformization of Chinese Official Media

The Case of Newspaper X

chapter 8|13 pages

'Giving Up' vs. 'Holding On'

A Comparative Case Study of Chinese and Australian Newspaper Publishers' Approaches to Their Print Editions in Their Digital Transition

chapter 9|14 pages

Classroom vs. Newsroom

Journalism Education and Practice in the Digital Age

chapter 10|5 pages

Conclusion

Retrospect and Prospect