The Academic History Of Journalism & Communication In China From 1978 Through 2007

Since 1978, the last 30 years have been a period in which the acedemic of Journalism and Communication (J&C for short) in China has developed the most rapidly and has achieved the greatest successes. A thorough and systematic review of previous research in this field, with a view toward"learning from history", is conducive to increasing the clarity of our understanding of the history of this field and thereby to finding new perspectives for further study.This thesis examines academic research as a communication activity and, using the"5W"(Who, says What, through Which channel, to Whom, with What effect) communication model as a framework for analysis, aims to describe the structure and history of academic research and the relationship between these two aspects, as well the interaction between academic research and other social systems, and to describe the history of China's academic research in J&C in terms of two matrices, structure and change, during the new period (from 1978 to the present).Adopting the structure of"general–particular-general", through the analysis and categorization of historical documents and materials, this thesis explores the changes of the whole and various components of Chinese J&C academic. First, it summarizes the history of academic research in J&C during the new period, and then disaggregates the material by four aspects of change in researchers, research content, method and result. Finally, it concludes the main successes and remaining problems of the J&C research in China.Based on the characteristics of the development of J&C after 1978, this thesis divides the history into 5 periods: first"the gradual reemergence of academic research,"from 1978 to 1982;"academic debates spurred by journalism reform,"1983 to 1988;"uneven development of academic research,"1989 to 1991, and"academic research for the sake of academic research"1992-1996;"development from new stimulus toward diversity", from 1997-present.The group of researchers is the most important factor of academic activities. With the sociology of knowledge and based on the groups and typical researches, this thesis describes the changes of researcher groups and also analyses the reasons of the change, then reveals how the change impacts research of J&C in China.In order to display the system and changes of academic research in J&C from 1978 to the present specifically, by the method of content analysis, the thesis analyses three main academic journals to categorize topics and problems in each branch of research fields and then evaluates them.In the chapter of"research method", the thesis categorizes typical opinions of research method in J&C. Meanwhile, it also describes present China's academic research method in J&C with examples of some doctoral thesis in J&C. Based on the categorization and description of the present research; it reveals the development of research method in J&C and particular usages of that by combining typical research methods and results.The author believes that establishing the subject system and promoting journalism reforms embody research impact in J&C from 1978 to the present. Establishing the subject system is the important foundation. Not only supported journalism reforms, the discussion on the journalism, new research methods, and new theories also promoted the development of academic research in J&C.In the latest 30 years, research in China in J&C has developed the most rapidly and has achieved the greatest successes. Chinese J&C established subject system of academic research gradually and research groups in different generations. In the field of humanities academic researches in China, J&C contributed a variety of great achievements. However, on the other hand, studies in this field are not deep enough. Knowledge, theories, and system need to be improved as well. In the author's opinion, academic research should be for the sake of academic research to some extent, which means academic research should obey its own logic and standards to get rid of those simple, direct, and practical researches.