Functions Of Journalists' Blog In Public Journalism Practice In China

Public journalism (PJ) is a form of interactive journalism, focusing on reporting public affairs and interaction between news media and audience. Blog is considered the most suitable new medium for PJ. And journalist blogs (J-blog) can be the best new platform for PJ practice as it combines journalistic, public and professional characteristics.This thesis chooses the blog of "Xiao Ya Reporting NPC and CPPC Conference"(Xiao Ya Pao Liang Hui) as the case and analyzes the functions of J-blog in PJ practice. By resorting to the case study and field observation, the thesis focuses on four phrases: coherence of news agenda and public agenda, relations of attribution and blog comments, blog articles and its relationship with comments, and how public discussions are carried out and public opinion comes into being in blog sphere.The thesis comes to the conclusion: J-blogs have played as a major channel through which journalists can get agenda, opinions and suggestions from the public. As a result, media agenda gets close to public agenda, and the public could participate in news production and interact with the media. Besides, the thesis finds that J-blog could be public sphere in which the public can take part in public discussions, express their different demands, and bring out consciousness of democracy. This is helpful to improve relationships among the public, media and government, which is the goal of PJ. To wind up, the thesis concludes the useful practical points from Xiao Ya blog, in order to make suggestions to professional journalists when using J-blogs to practice PJ: Journalists should project their good public image in, communicate with audience in an open and sincere manner, and tell them trustworthy news information in a timely way.