Social Transformation And Social Control Of The Media

For the present day Chinese mass media, the social transformation is an unavoidable background; for the researchers on China's mass media reform, the social transformation is a premise that cannot be neglected. Media control system is a concept that comes into people's mind with the controlling subject s' diversification in the social transformation. The accomplishments achieved in mass media and the puzzles encountered in the past decades are essentially related to the various strengthening and weakening controlling factors that are underlying the media. In other words, the proportion of controlling forces has been changed which enhances the media reform in a complexion of contradictions and co-operations, making the decisive standardized forces that promote the media system innovation into being.The thesis thinks that the China's social transformation is a procedure going through from integration to separation between the country and the society under the promotion of economic marketing, in which the fields of power become disintegrated, which is the background of the evolution of the media controlling system. The disintegration and reshuffle of the power structure bring about the direct change of media controlling system while the interactions between the subjects in social fields of powers construct the trace and logic during the evolution of the media controlling system. With the development of mass media, the media controlling system itself is undergoing a period of adjustments and transformation: from a single subject's unified controlling structure gradually to multi-subjects' multi-layer unified system. During this period, the mass media, as a part of political system, separates from the pure political power fields, at the same time emerging with the nature of industry itself, returning to the mass media as a thing-in-itself, thus gradually coating with the nature and function of publish sphere.The thesis adopts the combining research method of chronic and case studies, holding that the evolution of mass media controlling system of China has gone through three phases. The first phase is before the carryout of the open-door policy. Inthe total society of China, the media's political mouthpiece and the power structure's unification adapted substantially to each other. Media became an important link and part in the chain of political powers in the highly administrative system, being rigidly controlled by the uni-direction unification. Social power construction, the arrangements of media system, and the controlling system altogether established the relatively balanced and stable system. The second phase is after the reform. The mass media reform began with the form of partly releasing the power, the unclear subjects of interest being activated due to the fuzziness of edge of power structure, thereafter creating the limited pushing powers of institutional innovation, the media controlling system was adjusted accordingly. The choice of the way to the mass media reforms decided the core position of the existent controlling subject, i.e. the political power system, which prescribed that the arrangements of the system is an adjusted revision in the existent frame. The friction of the two policies and systems resulted in the crisis of media in the mid of 80's. The last phase is after the 90's. The government plays the part of the subject of institutional innovation, helps the transformation toward the multi-layer unification of the controlling system in the course of the alliance with market. The leading role of the government in the mass media reform and the choice of modes feature the present time media controlling system mostly as imbalance.In the concluding part of the thesis, the author proposes her own assumption of establishing the multi-layer unification controlling system of mass media in the new media environment.