ABSTRACT
This chapter considers a success in China’s commercial television and failures in Chinese newspapers as a means of assessing China’s transformation from a hierarchical Leninist or socialist society towards a more open society with a marketbased economy. Media is a particularly important sphere in this transition, as in modern society the media have an enormous impact on what people know and in particular on their perceptions of the state. In Leninist China, the communication media were a critical means by which the Party and state mobilized power, were integrated into state hierarchies, and disseminated information and perspectives, more or less as state leaders found appropriate. In contemporary China, these media are now expected to succeed in competitive markets. This has created new incentives for media entrepreneurs, which has led to importing global culture and disseminating critical news. This challenges China’s still-authoritarian leaders. Is it possible to craft a decentralized system of media regulation that will result in a public sphere that sustains the political status quo? Is it possible to blend hierarchical control over media content with modern media technologies and global media markets? Is control over the public sphere fraying in ways that portend a general unravelling of the state’s political power?
