Media Transparency in China

Rethinking Rhetoric and Reality

By (author) Baohui Xie Foreword by Mobo Gao

Publication date:

24 March 2017

Length of book:

218 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498502139

This book argues that the gap between the official transparency rhetoric and the censorship reality has demonstrated the discrepancy between what the Party is and what it claims to be. Such a discrepancy is manifested by the reality that the reformed news industry, a hybrid of market-oriented commercialization and party-state control, has largely failed to deliver either the voice of the disenfranchised groups or the value of journalism. To observe the discrepancy, this book investigates the role of transparency in the Chinese news media. Media transparency, which goes beyond the issue of censorship and press freedom, has been undermined by the consensus reached between the party-state and the media on political and market control. It is this mutually accommodating and benefiting scheme between power and profits that has been hollowing out the substance of the transparency rhetoric and distorting the Marxist idea of press freedom as freedom for all. This book argues that the cause of such a gap between rhetoric and reality is rooted in the disjuncture of political representation of both the party-state and the profit-seeking media.

Chapter 1: Press Freedom and Transparency in China
Chapter 2: Media Transparency
Chapter 3: Meta-Censorship
Chapter 4: Pandemic Media Corruption
Chapter 5: Marketisation and Conglomeration of State-owned Media
Chapter 6: “Opening a Skylight”
Chapter 7: Transparency Illusion and Disjuncture of Representation

This book is more than a study of contemporary Chinese media and should be of interest to anyone who cares about the general social and political developments of the country. The author goes beyond the usual discussion of censorship and authoritarianism. With revealing evidence and a careful examination of the working structure of the Chinese media, he argues convincingly that a discrepancy between reality and the Party/state's claim and a consequential 'disjuncture of political representation,' rather than 'media transparency,' should be the issue.