China's online media control: A content analysis ofnews.sohu.com

This dissertation used one of the top news sites in China, news.sohu.com, as the analyzing case and content analysis and critical analysis as the methods to find out what kinds of news in the Chinese Internet media are more emphasized and what kinds are less as well as why this is so. The author studied the roles of hegemony and laws and regulations in the control of news titles of news.sohu.com. The author explored the following hypotheses and research questions: Hypothesis 1. The numbers of China's political news topics are the lowest compared with any other single category of news on the web pages of news.sohu.com. Hypothesis 2. Among China's political news, positive or neutral topics are the majority. Negative topics will rarely be found in the news.sohu.com news titles. Hypothesis 3. Among the highlighted news, entertainment and social news are the two most frequently occurring topics. Research question 1. Has China's political news been reported more or less on news.sohu.com in the three years from 2003 to 2005? Has China's positive or neutral political news been reported more or less on news.sohu.com in the same period? How about China's negative political news? What has been the relationship between China's positive or neutral political news and China's negative political news? Research question 2. Have social news and entertainment news been reported more or less in the above three years? Research question 3. What types of news have been highlighted more in the above three years?; Some important findings: the numbers of China's political news topics are not the lowest; China's negative political news topics are not rare; economy, culture and education, and entertainment are the three most frequently occurring topics; game and animation, automobiles, and real estate have been reported more. The online media control strategies of hegemony and laws and regulations are discussed by critiquing China's political and cultural media environment. Since news.sohu.com is the top news site in China, this dissertation probed the typical status of China's online media control and the corresponding strategies the news sites use in their news arrangement.