Kofi Ampeah Woode
The Geopolitical Context of China’s Media Rise
There is clear objective of the state to care for the media, and to attach it to the country’s economic rise at every point in China’s development. It is apparent, thus, that at every point when the nation rises economically, the media becomes more powerful and dynamic.
The Development of China’s Communication Capability
The PRC’s development of its communication capability has been in three phases – Phase I: “International News Reporting”, Phase II: “Presenting China’s development to the world through establishing its own voice in multiple foreign languages”, and Phase III: “Explain the world to the world”, traversing from a passive delivery of world news into an active news reporting process
It has developed three strategies for international communication of its mainstream media by i) Global distribution, ii) Cross-national Cooperation, and iii) Technology acquisition.
By taking a close look at the narrative patterns of Chinese international communication through its media, one would locate a trend where the narrative is very Chinese, in language, presentation and general optics. For instance, the media tends to focus more on happenings in China, or news items that have Chinese involvement, and communicates in Mandarin, mainly. In fact, it is so pronounced that, with even documentaries and films, there are hardly any sub-titles in other languages.
Another trend that is considered to be emerging, as one dialogues with media practitioners, is a storytelling pattern of a shift from ‘Impressions of China’ to ‘China’s story’. This tends to have wider and more appeal to patronage. There also is a sensitive mode of international communication through new patterns of media, which offers a dialogue mode.
NEW ERA MEDIA: THE BANE OF NEWSPAPER
The following is a presentation by a Professor at the seminar: “Five years ago, when I returned to my hometown in the countryside during the Spring Festival, I suddenly felt different. What surprised me the most was that my neighbor, Uncle Liu, wanted to add me as a WeChat friend. In my memory, he was always the one who held a newspaper all day.
Once upon a time, people who bowed their heads and read newspapers could always be seen on the subways and buses, just like a snapshot in a movie. Now, everyone is still holding their heads down, but they are holding their mobile phones and their thumbs are flying. Looking back suddenly, the era of paper media has passed”.
From the 1980s and 1990s to the first 10 years of the 21st century, newspapers and magazines, as important media for disseminating information in China, developed rapidly, which was jaw-dropping, and the circulation of one million was only entry-level. In 1980, the circulation of China Youth Daily reached 3 million copies.
At the end of 1994, West China Metropolis Daily, the first metropolis newspaper in China, was published in Chengdu. Times endowed paper media with a brilliant momentum of rapid development. After the publication of West China Metropolis Daily, metropolis newspapers ushered in a peak period. By 2005, there were 287 metropolis newspapers nationwide, with an average circulation of 48.523 million copies.
The Newspaper with the Longest Successive Publication Period in China
Dazhong Daily, launched on January 1, 1939, is the party newspaper with the longest successive publication period in the history of China’s newspaper industry. In the 10 years from its launching to the founding of the PRC, a total of 578 employees of Dazhong Daily died a glorious death, which is extremely rare in the history of journalism in the world.
Shandong Dazhong News Group is a large state-owned modern media group with strong communication influence, powerful economic strength and complete industrial functions. Its comprehensive strength ranks among the top newspaper publishing groups in the country.
Dazhong Daily is the official newspaper of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and it is the first authoritative, mainstream, high-end and powerful newspaper in Shandong. With a daily circulation of more than 600,000 copies, it densely covers urban and rural areas of the province, with strong penetration, wide coverage and great influence.
The group owns 9 newspapers including Dazhong Daily, Nongcun Dazhong, Qilu Evening News, Bandao Metropolis News, Qingdao West Coast News, 4 magazines including Young Reporter and All Media Explorations, and 8 websites including https://dzwww.com/, 8 news clients including Dazhong News Client, Qilu Yidian, Haibao News, and Bandao News, and more than 800 external new media platform accounts such as “Wechat and Microblog” and Douyin, forming an all-media communication matrix, with a total of 460 million users.
The mainstream readers are officials of party and government bodies, enterprise managers, scientific and technological, educational, cultural and health workers, laborers, retirees and people of other social classes in Shandong Province, accounting for 38.2%, 13%, 14.9%, 10.4%, and 23.5% respectively. There are nearly 3 million readers, and 72.4% of them have a college degree or above, which is the most socially influential group of people in Shandong.
Xinhua News Agency was formerly the Red China News Service founded on November 7, 1931 in Ruijin, Jiangxi province, on the same day as the Soviet Republic of China. The newspapers and periodicals with the largest circulation in China are all run by Xinhua News Agency.
Newspapers and periodicals run by Xinhua News Agency: – Xinhua Daily Telegraph, Reference News, Economic Information Daily, China Securities Journal, Shanghai Securities News, Modern Express, International Herald Tribune, Modern Golden News, China Comment, Oriental Outlook, Oriental Weekly, the Globe, Chinese Journalist, Data Card, Current Affairs Handbook, Photo World, China Top Brand, Chinese Media, World Military Affairs, etc.
Xinhua News Agency Headquarters is located in Beijing, with 33 branch offices in all provinces except Taiwan Province, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Macao Special Administrative Region. It has resident reporters in Taiwan Province, branch offices or correspondent stations in some key large and medium-sized cities, and affiliated agencies in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Armed Police Force.
Branch offices and affiliated agencies abroad of Xinhua News Agency: over 180 in total – Asia-Pacific General Branch Office in Hong Kong, China; Middle East General Branch Office in Cairo, Egypt; Latin America General Branch Office in Mexico City, Mexico; Africa General Branch Office in Nairobi, Kenya; European General Branch Office in Brussels, Belgium; North American General Branch Office in Washington, USA; Asia-Europe General Branch Office in Moscow, Russia.
Bandao Urban Daily was founded in 1999, and became a blockbuster. Its exquisite layout, brilliant reports, and outspoken character quickly occupied the market in Qingdao. It not only provides fresh news information, but also provides various topics, opinions and explanations. It has been favored by many readers, and its daily circulation has exceeded one million.
In the face of new changes brought about by the application of Internet technology, “Bandao” keeps pace with the times and plans ahead of schedule. There are more than 30 million users in Qingdao and Shandong Peninsula as the core, covering the whole country and even the world, with more than 11 million fans of official Weibo of Bandao and Bandao WeChat matrix.
With about 11.85 million fans on official Weibo of Bandao Urban Daily, it often communicates with Netizens on hot news and provides live information and services.
Mobile Internet Access Have Changed China’s Media Industry
Mobile Internet access has changed the way people obtain news and information, bringing about a wide-ranging and profound social change. Authorities admitted long ago that 1) the way people read has become electronic and mobile; 2) the traditional profit model of newspaper industry is no longer sustainable and needs to be innovated; 3) readers have put forward higher requirements for newspaper content; and 4) reader-groups have shifted from being popular to being audience-segmented.
Taking People’s Daily Newspaper as an example, its articles published in WeChat official account can basically reach 10 weeks plus (10 W+) pageview, Microblog official account has 150 million fans, Tik Tok official account has 160 million fans.
Paper Media Will Transform or Disappear
Per national records On December 29, 2017, there were more than a dozen media outlets that were closed and the pace of decline is still continuing. Western Economic Daily was closed and transformed, whiles newspaper kiosks all over the corners of cities are also facing transformation. The causes can be attributed to the deadly blow of news homogenization, widespread impact of New Media, and lack of Strategic Vision.
In China, 2014 was known as the “first year of convergence”, and “media convergence” was no longer a new vocabulary. However, new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Cloud Computing, have injected brand-new technical force into media convergence. Whether it is the organizational model, the content production method, or the insight into users, it has given more feasible paths and directions.
Lessons learnt are that, it is necessary to build a mainstream model in the era of media convergence of a) content, b) technology and c) users. The foundation of transformation and media convergence in paper media is that ‘Content is King’. The essence of journalism is the content industry. New media can change channels, expand platforms, and innovate forms, but the law that ‘content is king’ remains unchanged, and that accuracy and authority are always the core competitiveness of the media. It is necessary to use new technologies and new platforms to exert influence.
The Dazhong Daily after convergence undertakes the task of publicizing the major decisions of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and the Provincial Government. It also speaks out in a timely manner at major events, important nodes and other times to ensure the timeliness of news communication.
It also sets up special columns and sections, regularly conducts publicity and report for special topics, and offers the creativity and planning in the delivery of content. Relying on the Dazhong new media platform, it is an all-media matrix integrating WeChat, Microblog, Toutiao, and Douyin. The cumulative downloads of Dazhong News client, Qilu Yidian, and Haibao News, has exceeded 40 million, 71 million, and 110 million respectively, and the overall level remains at the forefront of the field.
The WeChat official account of Dazhong Daily has more than 17 million followers, and the products “more than 100,000” has become the norm, ranking first in both the WeChat account official of the provincial-level party newspaper and the list of media accounts in Shandong Province.
It develops intensively in Shandong, has in-depth cooperation with governments, media, enterprises, universities, and so on, focuses on important time nodes and major political, economic and social activities, and conducts convergence communication through high-end forums, annual events, themed summits, brand releases, public welfare promotions and other activities.
Dazhong Daily is based in Shandong and looks at the world, strengthens the convergence media column, expands the communication position, attracts the attention of young people, continues to output a large number of hot topics and popular products, amplifies the overseas publicity volume of “Shandong of Hospitality with Good Products”, and tells the Shandong chapter of China’s stories to the world with heart and emotion.
The daily also actively expands its overseas publicity positions, and has launched four overseas editions in North America, South America, Japan and Australia. It is engaged in the publication in cooperation with International Daily News, South America Chinese Journal, Sino-Japan News Daily News and Sino-Australia Commercial News that have become the important platform of Dazhong Daily for overseas publicity, promotion and display of Shandong.
Types of Network Media in China
National Media – It refers to the official media, which is directly under the jurisdiction of the government, directly serves the international and government, and can also be said to be the central media, such as People’s Daily Online, www.news.cn, Gmw.cn, China Economic Net, China Daily, cctv.com, etc.
Portal Media – It refers to an application system that provides some kind of comprehensive Internet information resources and related information services. Well-known portal media include Sina.com, Netease, Tencent, Sohu, PhoenixNet, etc.
It refers to an application system that provides some kind of comprehensive Internet information resources and related information services. Well-known portal media include Sina.com, Netease, Tencent, Sohu, PhoenixNet, etc.
Local Media – It refers to the local comprehensive website system that leads to local comprehensive Internet information resources and provides relevant Internet information services, mainly based on local information, such as Beijing Evening News in Beijing and The Paper in Shanghai.
Vertical Media – Vertical media focuses on certain specific fields or demands, and provides all in-depth information and related services about this field or demand, such as Huxiu.com, ikanchai.com, leiphone-sz, cyzone, etc.
We-Media – It refers to the media with mobile terminal or APP as its main communication field, which enterprises or individual users can apply for registration by themselves, such as Tencent News, Toutiao, kd.sina.cn, Particle News, Bai Jiahao, etc.
To be Continued!
