Governing China with the news television & national development in China since 1958

Abstract

This thesis is an historical study of the interplay between television news and politics in China since 1958. It examines the evolution of television news and political development in China, as well as the continuing innovations to theca’s ideological system. Television in China has become the major source of social and political information and knowledge to facilitate development, at a time when China is experiencing its fastest development in the national economy. The Chinese television institutions now are far from a monolithic and unified propaganda machine, and have begun to play the role of a multifaceted creature undergoing a process of rapid transformation, with different parts of the body straining in different directions. Meanwhile, however, CCTV (China Central Television), which serves as the central hub of official information and social and political knowledge provision in the process of Chinese national development, is still mainly running according to the aims and agenda of the Chinese Communist Party and central government. Among China’s journalists, the debate on the democratisation of journalism arises once again at a time when the social market economic system has been well established throughout the country. This thesis has involved the examination of a diverse range of sources, dispersed in several archives and libraries in the UK, US and China. Bibliographical research has been combined with fieldwork carried out among Chinese television journalists and senior managers in television stations. This work aims to contribute to a better understanding of the media and politics of modern China, adding a new perspective to the study of televised democracy and mediated politics in China.