A Study On The Role Of News Media In Public Crisis In China

This is the time in which is full of crisis and the condition in crisis has become the basic style of our life. Now Chinese people have to face the public crisis frequently when our country is under the circumstances of social transformation and global risk society.At the same time, this is the age in which doing everything must follow news media logic because news media is shaping the conception especially in the public crisis. And so the public crisis communication is becoming the critical factor, which determines if the public crisis management would be successful.As the key factor of the public crisis communication, the media belongs to the material category and is independent. But in case of the influence of government and market, the independence of the media is destroyed. From this aspect, using the "media role" but not "media function" admits the richness and complexity of the media just like man.This paper introduces the role analysis methods and use the notion of conception and expectation integrates the logic of power, interest and function. The mass media, government and public are the primary factors in the public crisis communication. This thesis particularly focuses on the role of the media in the public crisis communication and the purpose of this research is to answer the following three questions:First, what is the role of news media should be? Second, what is the virtual role of news media and where are the problems come from? Third, how can we reconstruct the role of news media in public crisis. Role theory is the main study frame for this study.For answering the three questions, this thesis reveals the value of news media role and function, analyses the current conflicts, and discusses the different ways and methods of public role reconstruction on the basis of systematic overview and critical analysis. And public safety and public benefit is the logical beginning and end-result, in the social transformation.The whole article includes five chapters.In the first chapter, it explains the purpose and the importance of the research, clarifies the methodology and the format used, and interprets the definition of basic concepts.In the second chapter, it introduces the role theory in the sociology and constructs the role of news media that should be in the public crisis communication according to the logic of the role theory.In the third chapter, it reviews the development of the role of news media in the public crisis communication since2000from historical perspective and concludes that the character of this development is the quantitative change under the control of the government.In the forth chapter,it differentiates the virtual role of news media in public crisis communication to three types which are the mouthpiece of the party,market player and public instrument and analyses the roles conflicts between them.In the fifth chapter, it discusses the different ways of public role reconstruction from the methods of the government,the news media and the public.The conclusion sums up the main ideas of this thesis and points out the limitations of this research.