ABSTRACT
Chinese media has undergone a dramatic growth both in size and turnover in the reform era, particularly the commercialized outlets and their websites. The media in particular is playing an increasingly important role, not only as a platform for information, but also as a considerable part of the national economy. This multibillion dollar industry had 1,937 newspapers, 251 radio stations and 272 television stations by the end of 2009 (Cui 2009: 41). The number of combined radio and television stations increased from 1,304 in 1998 to 2,087 in 2009 (Zhao 2011: 123). 1 Media's overall turnover reached 637.88 billion yuan in 2011 (He et al. 2012: 22). 2 The growth rate of the media industry has been on a double-digit rise and outpaced that of the GDP since 2006.
