On The Differences Of Journalism Freedom Between China And The West In Socio-cultural Background

My paper explores what is the reality of differences between western countries, especially America,and China in journalism freedom in the background of global age in the frames of The Clash of Civilizations by Samuel P.Huntington and Comparative Sociological Theories by Max Weber.The another closely related question focused by my paper is what is the possible stand of China in the near future?Journalism freedom is embedded in western universal virtues of freedom/liberty, democracy and human rights;it is product of western universal virtues in the industry of journalism today.It is closely related to freedom of press and freedom of speech.Journalism freedom is social,historical and cultural product of western countries,a main part of civilization of Christianity.It is deeply rooted in this conviction that everyone is equal in front of God,and benefits greatly from movements of enlightenment and religion reform. And thus,it came from religion and elite discourse into society,especially civil society, becoming the main support of ethics in the west countries.It is in conflict with Confucianism and Taoism,world views of Chinese,because its root is Christian faith which holds people's universal sin(s) and salvation of soul only through confession and good acts.Besides,China is a developing country,so its main mission is to protect its national culture and interests.Consequently,the journalism freedom of the west could not come into social system and national virtues of China in the short run.Westernization is different from modernization,but most people often see them as the same one.The road of China's development is still the one which was put forth by May Fourth Movement by slogan "Chinese culture is the vessel,and western culture is the water". It is the road to reject westernization but accept modernization.However,many social problems of today mainly come from this expedient road of development whose characteristics is to accept instrumental rationality but close the door to virtue rationality of the west.Its outcome is irrational social development in many ways and some degrees.Its modernization is quite superficial and it is not consistent with rational capitalism ethos, which demonstrates itself in that astound primitive desire for money but failure of establishing rational systems of market economy,in the process of reforming since 1978.As for journalism freedom,the choice by China is not only confined in the journalism industry, further more,but also determined by how to deal with the internal stress and conflict between Chinese culture and western culture.To put it simply,the different stands in journalism mirror the clash of civilizations.