The Change Of Audience Value Of Chinese Newspaper During Three Times Of Journalistic Reforms

Audience value is defined as the media's conception about the role and position of the audience. Actually it is an issue about how the media look on and treat the audience; it reflects the relationship between the media and the audience. In the present age of Chinese journalistic history, audience value has been experiencing great change. As a whole, the process manifests the elevation of the position of audience, though there is some transitory retrogress during it. This change has been closely following the journalistic reforms of Chinese media, especially the media of newspaper. Since the reform and opening-up, the change of audience value has been extremely dramatic on the background of the transformation of society and economy.The change of audience value goes with the development and reform of media, and they interact on each other and affect with each other. Therefore, to some extent, it is can be said that each step of the journalistic transform rest with the development of the audience value; meanwhile, each step of the change of audience value affected the process of journalistic transform. This paper makes a retrospection of the relationship between the media and the audience from a study of the audience value during three times journalistic reforms. The author analyzed the different audience values manifested during the three times journalistic reforms, that is the first reform in 1942, the second reform in 1956 and the third reform since the reform and opening-up. Then the author discussed the distributaries of the audience value of newspaper under the control of the rules of propaganda, the rules of market and the rules of communication at the present deep-reforming times. The concept of"people first"was also discussed; and its advancement and the plight facing it was analyzed. At the end, the audience pointed out that only when the audience value would be changed with the journalistic transform and the process of journalistic reform would be propelled by the developing of the audience value, the concept of"people first"would be realized and the audience would really attain the principle position in the process of communication.