A Study On The Social Role Of Metropolitan Newspapers

As a product of Chinese newspaper's developing into a new stage in the social transformation, Metropolitan Newspaper is playing a unique role under the three pulling forces:the state, the market and society. On the basis of systematic overview and critical analysis, this article reveals the value of Metropolitan Newspaper's role and function, analyses the current conflicts and role confusion, then provides new thoughts for future development. The whole article includes introduction, main thesis (six chapters) and the conclusion.The introduction explains the purpose and the importance of the research, clarify the methodology and the format used.Chapterl reviews the development of Metropolitan Newspaper in social transformation and its basic characteristics.Chapter 2 elaborates the basic format for analysis of Chinese media and the social role for Metropolitan Newspaper in detail.Chapter 3 analyses the social roles of Metropolitan Newspaper and the main reasons for the absence of these roles, then emphasizes the current confusion of the balance among all the different roles:the mouthpiece of the party and government, market player and public instrument.Based on the questionnaire of public evaluation and expectation for Metropolitan Newspaper, together with further analysis of the questionnaires, Chapter 4 concludes the importance of Metropolitan Newspaper's enriching its social roles.Chapter 5 starts with the publicness of newspaper, further discusses the different ways and methods of public role construction. Southern Metropolis Daily is used as an example for analysis.Chapter 6 continues the discussion of basic characteristics and social role playing from theoretical aspect and draws the following conclusion:Metropolitan Newspaper should balance the different roles, reinforce its social responsibility and satisfy the social and economic benefit simultaneously.The conclusion emphasizes the importance of accurate role location and rapid self improvement of Metropolitan Newspaper, ends with expectations for future innovative development.