The History Of Letters From Readers In People's Daily Since 1949

Readers' letter is a special component of newspaper. Compared with capitalistic journalism systems, readers' letters have got much more concern and more complex functions in socialistic journalism systems. People's Daily is the central organ of the Communist Party of China, and also the most representative party organ in China. The history of readers' letter in People's Daily can demonstrates the development of society and journalism theories, and reflects the circumstances of public opinion in mass media under socialistic system.This paper is to portray the history of readers' letters in People's Daily, and discuss the influence of polity and journalism system on public opinion in mass media. There are four parts.Part 1: from Oct. 1^st, 1949 to 1956, the exploring and advancing period of readers' letters in People's Daily.Part 2: from 1957 to 1976, the declining and recessionary period.Part 3: from 1977 to this day, the resuming and reforming period.(In each part, the general situation of readers' letters in People's Daily is described, and political, economic, and cultural causations are analyzed.)Part 4: the analyzing and concluding part of this paper. To make theoretic explain on readers' letter basing on the data and information of the former parts, especially to analyze the living circumstances of readers' letters in China, and relationships between readers' letters, public opinion, and public sphere.