Ideal VS Reality: The Feasibility Analysis Of "Public Journalism" Practice In China

Since its appearance around the 1990s, "public journalism" has deeply affected the American journalism and always been controversial among people. With its spreading to the world, the theory of American "public journalism" has also been translated into Chinese and introduced into China, which eventually led to the practice of it in our Chinese media field.The present thesis attempts to shed light on the theory of American "public journalism". Based on this, it focuses on analyzing the practical feasibility of the theory in China.Therefore, firstly, the thesis illustrates the social and theoretical background of the rising of American "public journalism". Meanwhile, it illuminates the connotation and characteristics of the theory. Actually, American "public journalism" results from the decline of American public life and the trust crisis of the media. By reflecting the quality of traditional journalism, "public journalism" advocates a return to the social responsibility and a reaffirmation of journalist's function and the relationships among the public, journalists and the public life.Secondly, it sums up the problems that American "public journalism" faces, and points out that those problems result from not only the theory itself for it is still an unperfect one, but also the prejudiced attitudes of traditional journalism towards new events.At last, compared with American "public journalism", this thesis focuses on analyzing the practical feasibility of the "public journalism" theory in China, from which it arrives at the conclusion that it is helpful and beneficial to practice "public journalism" in China. To be more specific, this conclusion is embodied in the following three aspects: first, "public journalism" is helpful to meet the demand of social reform and harmonious Society; second, it is helpful to promote the development of Chinese media; third, it is helpful to cultivate public spirit. Nevertheless, "public journalism" in China is also confronted with many problems, such as the lack of the real public, the restraints of traditional media system, the limited participation of the public and the realistic choice of the cost. In order to solve these problems,the thesis gives some advice on practice "Public Journalism" in china.