The Study To The Organization Structure Of The Municipal Broadcast Media In China

The municipal broadcast media are an important part of Chinese Radio and Television industry. This paper studies the reform process in the municipal broadcast media from their organization structures and investigates their experiences trying to raise the efficiency under the legitimacy mechanism.The municipal broadcast media are at the low end of China's radio and television industry. Facing many difficulties on survive and development, they are sensitive to the reform of the Chinese broadcast system, so they have innovation power and explore courage. Some municipal broadcast media, such as Zibo's, Wuxi's and Mudanjiang's, are on the forehead in the broadcast industry while the others also make expensive experiment. They supply the cases for this study.This paper points out that to structure or restructure the organization depends on the interaction of legitimacy mechanism and efficiency mechanism. It analyses the elements of each mechanism and suggests that the legitimacy mechanism elements are:the legitimacy to achieve the ideological functions (including publicity legitimacy, public service legitimacy and culture construction legitimacy), the legitimacy in the chain of the State administration and the legitimacy of industry management, so the municipal broadcast media has gone through the period of single legitimacy, the period of bi-legitimacy and the period to enlarge the legitimacy. While the efficient mechanism of elements have three, which are the efficiency to run publicity, the efficiency to transmission signal and the efficiency to operate industry.This paper studies the represents of the municipal broadcast media, which are Wuxi's, Foshan's, Zibo's, Mudanjiang's, Nanyang's, Honghe's, Baise's and the Southern Media Corporation in eastern, central and western China,respectively. It cards their form change and analyses their performance by field observation, deep interview, literature investigation and materials collection.Based on the cases investigation, this paper emphasis that the core to achieve the legitimacy mechanism of the ideological functions and the efficiency mechanism of publicity running are policy propaganda, civic news and external (outside the region or city level) advocacy. The management efficiency of the municipal broadcast media is closely related with its social status of the local market and economic environment. Regional guarding is the primary prerequisite for the survival of the municipal broadcast media, while boundary breaking is the priority for development of the municipal media. To improve the ability of the legitimacy and efficiency mechanisms, the broadcast media should strengthen reforms and firmly grasp the opportunity to reshape the organization timely.Based on the investigation in the case, the paper discusses the institution pattern and proposes that it is necessary to properly handle the relationship between the broadcast media and the cable network, the broadcast media and media producers, and even the enterprise part and industry part in the broadcast media. It also describes a variety of game caused by diversity contradiction.The paper points out that Chinese municipal broadcast media do their best to seek the breakthrough of institution change to promote media organizations reform. The external pressure is the reason for the change of the legitimacy mechanism, and the primary driving force to promote the organization change. To rescue crisis, which can stimulate the efficiency mechanism, is the important factor to promote institutional change. It is uncertain for administrative power to promote institution change. Learning effect can reduce the cost of institution change, so that the outcome of institution change can be curved.The paper summarizes the path of the institution change for Chinese municipal broadcast media organization, firstly, it must have a program design, secondly a certain experience. It often comes through design, testing, transition, and even repeating. The paper analyses Chinese municipal broadcast media organizations by institution economics, especially on their property rights and transaction costs.As to the future of institution change of Chinese municipal broadcast media, This Paper predicts that with the expansion of legitimacy mechanism cored in property rights, it is possible to integrate several cross-region broadcast corporation and the new cluster of the municipal broadcast media will uphold the future situation of Chinese broadcast.