| The most distinguishable characteristic of the Chinese media since the 1990s can be characterized as the tension between rapid commercialization and continued ideological control. While maintaining its firm control on the political orientation of the media, the Chinese government now espouses the economic policy of managing media outlets as business units, keeping financial support and subsidy for media operations to a minimum.; This paper concludes that to break into China's tightly controlled television sector, a Western media corporation not only needs to be "friendly" to China, but also needs to be capable of helping with China's overseas promotion. Through overseas promotion, the government aims to create a favorable international public opinion for China's economic development. Besides "friendly" and active government PR, localized contents and operations, it's worth re-emphasis that a foreign media company needs to be innovative in its market approaches.; Although China obtained its WTO membership in 2001, China is unlikely to further open the audiovisual sector in the current and future rounds of WTO/GATS negotiations. The prospect is not optimistic for two reasons. The GATS agreements provide the flexibility for individual countries to decide whether or not to open a specific sector; and the Chinese leadership shows no willingness to open the media sector to foreign investment.; The current macro-level media architecture has become the barrier for the further and sustainable development of China's media industry. Minor alterations or patches are no longer enough; what China really needs is a fundamental, functional, and structural transformation and reform. As discussed in the dissertation, China's media system is closely linked to the political system, before the political system is radically changed, it is unlikely for the foreign investors to have an equal foot in the playing field. Despite all the uncertainties and ambiguities, however, two general predictions can still be made about China's media reform, that is, the government will continue to hold a tight grip on the media; and the media market will continue to open up. |
