课程内容

Chinese media and communication industries have been undergoing profound changes in the last few decades. On the one hand, the Chinese government prioritizes the communication industry as a key sector driving the economic growth, taking multiple roles as media industry facilitator, regulator, and collaborator. It also has launched various ‘soft power’ campaigns to “tell good China stories” on the international stage. On the other hand, transnational media companies have wasted no time in not only entering the Chinese market but also incorporating Chinese investment. At the industry level, marketization, globalization and media convergence have significantly reconfigured the landscape of content production and distribution in China. For users, the proliferation of media content coupled with the fast development of communication technologies has been a process fraught with exhilaration, confusion and contestation.

This course provides critical analysis of the key aspects of the aforementioned transformation, focusing on the political economy of media and communication industries as well as the mediated politics underpinning stories and texts. It will unpack the operation of media and communication industries at the intersection of politics, commerce, and culture. It will also explore the tensions and conflicts around meanings and narratives at the conjuncture of China’s economic growth, social stratification and geopolitical repositioning.

课程安排

Ten Session Topics

• The political economy of media and communication industries

• Media convergence and digital networks

• Creative labour and user-generated content

• From the institutional to the textual: Why stories matter?

• The transformation of Chinese communication industries

• Media and Global China

• Regulated carnivals: Entertainment media in China

• Beyond censorship: News production and journalism

• From Little Pinko to popular feminism: Mediated politics in the online space

• Summary and reflection

预期目标

By the end of the course, students shall be able to demonstrate understanding of the key issues below, as well as developing the analytical perspectives and building in-depth empirical knowledge to formulate independent and coherent views on the relevant debate around these issues.

• What are the contemporary features of the organization and operation of media production and distribution?

• How do the institutional relations and political economic contexts shape the production of media content?

• What is the changing nature of creative work in a networked digital environment?

• What are the key tensions around the political, the commercial and the cultural aspects of media and communication products?

• What is the structural transformation that media and communication industries in China have been going through and how that is related to the broader political economy and social transformation?

• What are some of the competing narratives offered by international media about China, by Chinese media to their international and domestic audiences, and by Chinese people of different social class recounting their lived experiences? What are the key themes of mediated politics emerging from these competing narratives?