* Apologise for cross posting*

            Half-Day Seminar Organised by China Media Centre  

Title: Culture, Industry and Journalism of today’s Chinese Media

Time:  2pm – 6 pm, Saturday 5th November 2005
Venue: The Cayley Room (Room 152), University of Westminster, 
       309 Regent Street. 

         
                          
                          Speakers


                 
                         ************

Confucian Vision of the New World Order:
Culturalist Discourse in the Mass Media in Contemporary China

Dr. Cao Qing
Faculty of Business and Law
Liverpool John Moores University 


Dr Cao’s presentation explores three issues. First, it examines key
features of culturalist discourse of a Confucian vision of the new
world order that has been incorporated into China’s re-formulation of
foreign policies. Second, it analyses and assesses a new tendency of
the Chinese elite to turn to traditional values in search for solutions
to various socio-political tensions. Third, it
examines discrepancies of such discourse between broadsheet Party
papers and market-driven tabloids and assesses their implications. 

He argues that incorporating traditional values becomes an integral
part of China’s leadership’s efforts to reinvent the Party to meet
domestic and international imperatives, following the decline of
orthodox Marxist ideologies.However, declining Party papers and
thriving tabloids complicate the effects of the mainstream media and
therefore the elitist cultural discourse. The divide of
broadsheet moralist and tabloid realpolitik discourses presents serious
implications on the changing role of the mass media and how the
internationalworld is presented to, and understood by, the general
public. 

Dr Cao is Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader in Chinese Studies at
Liverpool John Moores University. Before joining LJMU in 2001, he
taught at the Department of East Asia, University of London. His main
research areas cover British/Western media representation of China and
the Chinese mass media. His research has been published in
international journals and with RoutledgeCurzon,
Palgrave and University of Hong Kong Press. Currently he is working on
a project on the role of the media in mediating political and cultural
changes in contemporary China supported by a British Academy research
grant. He serves on the editorial board of the journal China Media
Research, and is a council member of the British Association for
Chinese Studies (E-mail: [log in to unmask]). 



                          ************

Discourse, Journalistic Professionalism and Society in China
Tong Jingrong
Research scholar, China Media Centre, Communication and Media Research
Institute, University of Westminster 

Tong’s presentation discusses the Chinese journalistic professionalism
through a contextual examination of its interactive relations to media
discourse and social discourse. From 1949 onwards, the party journalism
dominated the Chinese journalism. In post-reformed China, however,
newly-emerged professional norms, especially the investigative
journalism, can be identified as an alternative
paradigm opposite to the party paradigm. The professionalism discourse
has been constructed for the Chinese journalism either in the Chinese
media discourse or in the official discourse. The presentation brings
in the concept of journalistic professionalism in the Western world
firstly. It turns to examine the history of the Chinese journalistic
professionalism. The status quo of Chinese journalistic professionalism
and its construction way will be discussed
next. Then it scrutinizes the social discourse of the Chinese society
as an explanation for the construction of professional discourse. A
pilot study will be mentioned here as an example for the relations
among media discourse, journalistic professionalism and social
discourse. Finally, it concludes with the discussion of latent reasons.

Ms. Tong graduated from Tianjin University of Technology with a degree
in English and gained her MA in Media and Communication at Goldsmiths
College, University of London. Before coming to UK, Tong worked as a
Journalist for Ningbo Daily Press from 1999 to 2003. She currently
conducts her PhD research on Journalistic professionalism in China at
University of Westminster. Ms. Tong’s research interests include media
sociology, journalist professionalism; Chinese media and society;
discourse studies and media representation.
 

                     ******************

A Billion People's Medium: Television in China
Professor Guo Zhenzhi, 
School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University, Beijing.

Professor Guo’s presentation traces the technological and institutional
origins of television as an elite medium in the pre-reform era and its
subsequent transformation into a popular medium during the reform era
in China. It highlights the role of television both as an agent of
political and social control and as a site for struggle over
representation by different social groups in a rapidly evolving and
stratifying Chinese society. It identifies a number of key issues that
are shaping the future evolution of Chinese television: the ongoing
process of state-engineered market consolidation and conglomeration,
increasing pressures for the liberalization of the industry through the
entry of non-media and private capital; the political and social
implications of audience fragmentation and increased middle class
orientation,
intensified international competition in a post-WTO world, and the
challenges of the forthcoming digital transition.

As one of leading media scholars in China, Professor Guo got her PhD
from Renmin University of China in 1989. Before joining Tsinghau
University, she worked for Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and
Beijing Broadcasting Institute. Professor Guo has been invitied as
senior visiting scholar to conduct research at universities in Canada,
U.S.A and Republic of Korea and Germany. Her main research interests
include journalism history, communication theory and mass media
studies.



                        *************

The seminar is admission free. Each presentation is about 45 minutes
followed by 15-25 minutes Q&A time. A tea reception will be available
in the middle of the seminar. If you have any enquiry, plesae feel free
to contact me.

Best wishes,
Yik Chan Chin


-- 
Yik-chan Chin
Research Fellow
China Media Centre
Communication and Media Research Institute 
University of Westminster
Harrow Campus, Northwick Park, Middlesex, HA1 3TP UK
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
mobile: +44-(0)20-79115000 ext.4882





 



	
	
		
___________________________________________________________ 
Yahoo! Messenger - NEW crystal clear PC to PC calling worldwide with voicemail http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com