Study On The Political Function Of Mass Media

Mass media refers to the action and process of continuous transmition of information to the indefinite many by professional communicative institutions through mechanical and electronic medium. Along with the rapid development of information transmission technologies, the improvement of people's cultural awareness and the acceleration of democratization, mass media have been involved on multiple levels of politics and have brought about profound influences on various political aspects. The dissertation focuses on the analysis of the political function of mass media, clarifies its political function, analyses the problems occur during the exertion of its political function and the institutional barriers and discusses the proper choices of how to exert its political function.The dissertation consists of six parts:The preface introduces the reasons, significance, and the existing literature, the expected contribution, as well as the framework of the study. Along with the rapid development of the society and economy, modern society has become more complicated. How to simplify the complexity faced by all humanbeings. As the major instrument for information communication, mass media have deep influence on various aspects of social and political life, such as political transformation, political socialization, political supervision, political development and the establishment and implementation of public policies. It has also claimed a central role on the political stage of modern society. A systematic and in-depth study on the political function of mass media is helpful for the understanding of the nature and meaning of mass media, the role of it in political life and making an accurate judgment on the relationship between the mass media and the political social transformation in China. Furthermore, the study of the political function of mass media will contribute to the construction of socialist democracy and harmonious society. It will also facilitate the founding of a brand-new administrative system. This part also makes a review of the existing studies on the political function of mass media by scholars from both home and abroad. As for the research framework, informed by theories of political communication, the paper employs the historical materialism methodology to analyze the developmental history of mass media in China, its political function, problems, institutional barriers and solutions. Based on specific cases, the paper also analyzes the problems that requires attention in the operation of the political function.Part one clarifies the basic concepts employed in the paper, such as the fundamental connotation of communication, public communication, media and the nature of mass media, the categorization of mass media and its economic and political attributes. Communication is a social behavior to transmit and exchange information. In other words, communication is one of the social behaviors of human beings and is included in other behaviors. It is a unity of the one-way transfer and two-way communication. Mass communication refers to the behavior of specialized communication institutions to transmit information through media and technological medium to form the expected opinions among the audience and therefore, influence their behaviors. One thing that needs to be pointed out is that during the process of mass communication, information should reach a certain amount and mass refers to a great number of people who don't know each other and are living in different areas. The medium refers to the agency or instrument that connects things. The communicative medium refers to the physical carrier of information. It is an objective existence that represents the characteristics of communication process with its own law of development. It has direct and powerful influence in the social development. Generally speaking, the meaning of mass media has two dimensions, namely the instrument institutions for information transmission . As an instrument, it includes magazine, radio, TV and the Internet; as an institution, it includes news agency, broadcasting center, TV station, movie production unit and websites. The paper focuses on the understanding from the technological angle. Mass media refers to the action and process of continuous transmition of information to the indefinite many by professional communicative institutions through mechanical and electronic medium.. The scale, volume and speed of information transmission in modern society are all of an unprecedented level. As a major carrier of information, mass media is claiming a more important role in addition to its basic founction of information transmission. Drawing on different perspectives, the classification of mass media vary. In terms of the features of transmission instrument, mass media can be divided into printi media, and electronic media; in terms of communication technology, mass media can be classified into traditional media and new media; in terms of the propaganda role assumed by the media, they can be categorized as mainstream and non-mainstream media; in terms of social responsibilities, they can be divided into public media and commercial media; in terms of the type of the organizations, they can fall into state-owned and non-state-owned media. Considering all the classification criteria, the paper divides mass media into traditional and new media in terms of communication technologies. Traditional media include radio, TV, print (newspaper, magazine and books) and others; new media mainly includes the Internet. The new media has brought about many great changes, such as the changes in the forms of publication (the reform of website media transmission), nonlinear asynchronic transmission, individual transmission and individual media. Compared with traditional media, the new media has the following features, such as the transformation of communication ideals (from communicator-centered to audience-centered); the influence on the traditional agenda setting; the segmentation of audience; and the more instant information feedback. Mass media have two attributes, economic and political. Its economic attribute refers to the fact that as the operator, mass media produce, processe and sell the communication content. The production is directed by demand of audience and the media has industrial characteristics. Its political attribute refers to the fact that since its birth it has been not only the tool for information transmission but it also has the functions of information publication and collection and has been used and manipulated by the ruling class or the vested interest group. Therefore, mass media become an important tool for some classes and social systems and gain its political attribute, which is an objective existence and could not be changed by people's mind.The second chapter introduces the historical development of mass media in China. The origins and development of communication activities before mass media occurred and the birth and development of mass media in modern times in China are introduced in details. Before the forming of characters, communication activities were necessary since there were great need of information communication among people. At that time, the most common way was oral transmission. During the time of Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, a unique information transmission agency---wooden bell appeared. It was an organic carrier that connected news transmission and politics and displayed the fact that the early news had to serve the feudalistic class in ancient China. The wooden bell served as the ancestor of newspaper until the end of the Opium War in Qing Dynasty. With the emergence of characters, paper-making method, earliest newspaper and non-official newspaper, transmission activities developed rapidly. The emergence of modern mass media in China and its development are introduced. The chapter also introduces the emergence and development of early journals in China, two upsurges of newspaper and the emergence and preliminary development of news publication of Chinese Communist Party before the establishment of the People's Republic of China such as those during May 4th Movements, the establishment of Chinese Communist Party and revolutionary war. The news publication during the social renovation period, the complete establishment of national mass media system, news publication during the construction of socialism and Cultural Revolution and the mass media from the commencement of the reform and opening up policy till today are also introduced. With the rapid development of new media, its influence ion the political function of mass media is becoming greater. This is represented by the following aspects: political transmission system is improving; communication has become an essential part for measuring government's ability; new media has both positive and negative influences on political supervision; citizen education becomes more important and will impose impact on the political function of future mass media.Chapter three introduces the political function of mass media. Through the selection, combination and transmission of information,, the social significance and core function of mass media show, which can promote the establishment of a healthy, orderly, harmonious and united communication and supervision system between the administrators and the people, so that a harmonious political and social order will be set up. The political function of mass media includes the political conformity function, political socialization function, political transmission function and political supervision function. The conformity function includes public opinion process, agenda-setting and gatekeeper; the socialization function includes the process of political training, the cultivation and perfection of political personality, and the transmission of political culture; the political transmission function includes political communication and political persuasion; the supervision function includes the openness of political administration and mass media and public opinion supervision.Chapter four analyzes the problems of and institutional barriers to mass media's political function in China. Since the reform and opening up policy was introduced over 30 years ago, mass media industry in China has been developing rapidly and has been playing an important role in political transmission and communication. However, due to problematic distribution of mass media, there are many problems in its political function and some profound undetectable institutional barriers. The problems mainly concern the obscure position of the independent market of mass media, and the hardness to achieve fair competition and the weakness of the construction of communication legislation. Administrative barriers refer to the bottle-neck caused by double development problems, which means the traditional ideology-oriented administration, the problems of traditional administration system and the traditional administration patterns.Chapter five analyzes proper choices in the political function of mass media. Firstly, new ideas---conversion from propaganda machine to transmission instrument---need to be introduced. The political attitude-oriented ideas should be transformed to demand-oriented. The organized transmission by political media should be converted to the public transmission by the news media. Propaganda value should be replaced by real news value in the evaluation of newsworthiness. Secondly, the mechanism should be renewed. A new administrative mechanism should be set up sensitive to the market and economic rules, such as a convenient mass media service system, a communication system and a public supervision system. Thirdly, methods should be renovated. The natural attribute of mass media should be focused on. The developmental rules of mass media should be respected, new methods should be studied and established and the supervision function of mass media should be exerted. Chapter six analyzes cases concerning how the mass media in China exerted itspolitical function. Two cases, namely the SARS and Wenchuan Earthquake, are reviewed and discussed in detail. Problems worth of attention are discussed, to create a spare where the mass medie is operated systematically,improve the professional service of the mass media and to establish a mechanism which helps the mass media to operate scientificly.