Authors:
- Analyses the consensus and contestations of the politics of Chinese media
- Considers how the Chinese state manages political communication internally and externally in the post-socialist era.
- Examines the politics of entertainment media and the power of digital networks
Part of the book series: China in Transformation (CIT)
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Table of contents (6 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This book offers an analytical account of the consensus and contestations of the politics of Chinese media at both institutional and discursive levels. It considers the formal politics of how the Chinese state manages political communication internally and externally in the post-socialist era, and examines the politics of news media, focusing particularly on how journalists navigate the competing demands of the state, the capital and the urban middle class readership. The book also addresses the politics of entertainment media, in terms of how power operates upon and within media culture, and the politics of digital networks, highlighting how the Internet has become the battlefield of ideological contestation while also shaping how political negotiations are conducted. Bearing in mind the contemporary relevance of China’s socialist revolution, this text challenges both the liberal universalist view that presupposes ‘the end of history’ and various versions of China exceptionalism, which downplay the impact of China’s integration into global capitalism.
Reviews
“In The Politics of Chinese Media: Consensus and Contestation, Bingchun Meng explores how the media industry in China has shaped and been shaped by different agents, showing how consensus and contestation have emerged in different locations. In offering a subtle account that aims to unsettle the oversimplified academic discourse that applies Western theory to Chinese contexts, this book lays a solid foundation for future research on Chinese media” (Meng Hin Ng, LSE Review of Books, blogs.lse.ac.uk, February, 2019)
“This is a sophisticated and wide ranging study. It sheds new light on a host of issues, from the varied ways that the internet is transforming the way news and entertainment are disseminated and consumed in China to the dynamics and limitations of the drives to increase "soft power" that the Chinese government has launched. Particularly welcome is Bingchun Meng's insistence that, as much as the PRC has changed and as often as official texts and some foreign commentaries alike downplay the importance of the socialist era, many different kinds memories of and stories about the period before the Reform era need to be taken seriously. A work steeped in cultural theory and cultural studies, the author makes a convincing case for keeping historical issues front and center while grappling with China's contradiction-filled present.” (Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor’s Professor in History, University of California, USA and author of China in the 21st Century)
“With vivid examples and timely case studies, Bingchun Meng offers a historically informed, engaging, and insightful mapping of the rapidly changing, increasingly multifaceted, and ever-contentious landscape of communication and contemporary Chinese politics. Her sophisticated understanding of politics, ideology and mediated power relations allows her to move adeptly between institutional analysis and discursive critique, while addressing the expansive terrain of journalism, entertainment, and social media in a coherent analytical framework. The book makes a fascinating reading.” (Yuezhi Zhao, Professor of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Canada and author of Communication in China)
Authors and Affiliations
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London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom
Bingchun Meng
About the author
Bingchun Meng is an Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Politics of Chinese Media
Book Subtitle: Consensus and Contestation
Authors: Bingchun Meng
Series Title: China in Transformation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-46214-5
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan New York
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-46213-8Published: 10 January 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-46214-5Published: 09 January 2018
Series ISSN: 2634-5420
Series E-ISSN: 2634-5439
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 225
Number of Illustrations: 9 illustrations in colour
Topics: Media Studies, Cultural Policy and Politics, Political Science