A Study Of Hu Zhengzhi's Professional Views And Practice On Journalism

In the period of the Republic of China, Journalism experienced the professional development course just as such professions as doctor, lawyer and auditor, etc. Hu Zhengzhi's journalistic career was present throughout the history of the Republic of China. Moreover, journals and news agencies that he presided represented the highest level at his time in terms of the professional level or social influence. Therefore, studying Hu's values on Journalism will contribute to an elementary grasp of the Journalism development in the period of the Republic of China. However, if we want to make a thorough study on Hu's journalism values, we should focus on Hu's views on such aspects as the nature and function of the journalism, media operation, cultivation of journalistic talents, and Journalism ethics, etc by combining the basic theory of occupational sociology with the special properties on journalism。The development and evolution of Hu's values on Journalism went largely through four stages:the first stage (1911～1916), the second stage (1916～1926), the third stage (1926～1937) and the fourth stage (1937～1949). During the first stage, Hu finally chose to become a journalist after experiencing a variety of professions such as lawyer, teacher, judge, journalist, government official and so on and hesitating among them; during the second stage, he put forward the idea that news should be reported right and fair and news is responsible for building up the steady and practical consensus, thus his values on Journalism took shape; during the third stage, his values on Journalism developed on Tianjin's and shanghai's Ta Kung Pao; during the fourth stage, his values on Journalism was becoming mature in the period of anti-Japanese war and the liberation war.Hu held the view that the nature of journalism was "speaking on behalf of the public", which required journalists not only to maintain a certain distance from the government, but to oppose unreasonable censorship as well. He also insisted that journalistic function was mainly in the real report and restoring reality, guiding the public and improving the quality of the public, issuing objective review and monitoring surroundings, recording history and passing on traditional culture, guiding the community for mutual development.In the history of Chinese journalism, Hu was well known for his outstanding media management. The fundamental purpose of his management was not for profit, but to protect journalistic independence. Some management measures, such as institution-oriented management, human-oriented manipulation and honor shares incentives, might not originate with him in the history of Journalism. However, his consideration was given to both managing business operation and highlighting the regularity of Journalism, as far as the two aspects are concerned, he undoubtedly represented the highest level of Journalism at that time.On news coverage of Hu's journalism ethics, he insisted on the public reports and the true and accurate reports. In particular, he objected to the false reports and the protection of the newsgathering sources. As for the news comments, he insisted on not ingratiating with the bigwigs or common customs. He believed that a qualified journalist should have such basic qualifications as strong personal capacity, good journalistic ethics and love of journalism. However, on the aspect of developing professional qualified personnel for the journalism, he advocated the self-cultivation-based way, and built up the self-training system of strictly checking on the enrollment, emphasizing professional training and retaining talents with the help of career development, treatment and humanistic care. These were also the basic reason that so many newspaper talented people were fostered by Ta kung Pao.Studying Hu Zhengzhi from the perspective of history, we can see that he was not only a promoter changing the function of Journalism from a political tool to news media, but an advocator and active practitioner on self-awareness of Journalism, and a practitioner and explorer to win the journalism's prestige from external accordance to internal grant.