Media Fusion And News Production From The Perspective Of Self - Organization Theory

This dissertation uses Kankanews website as study case with a review of its3years development and complicated news production practice, attempting to investigate, from an angle of Self-organization Theory, the theoretic relationship between news production and media convergence. Through this study, the author attempt to reveal the Self-organization phenomenon in the news production of media organizations. Moreover, the author intends to provide a vision of the media organizations’evolution in the transforming media ecosystem.Applying the research approach of the Self-organization Theory, the author mainly uses qualitative research methods such as archival research and participant observation, conducting the study in Kankanews website’s development and in its typical new report cases. The author also conducts comparative study about news production between Kankanews website and other media organizations from Shanghai Media Group.Chapter one presents the dissertation’s core issue, that is, to study the internal relationship between Media Convergence and news production. It also reviews the fruits of the past applying the sociology of the media production to the news production. The author gives the brief theoretic framework of Self-Organization Theory, and the demonstration that media organization has the characteristics of Self-Organization system. Then the author applies the Self-Organization Theory into this study.Chapter two demonstrates that the news production system has the external conditions of Self-Organization. The news production system is opening up to the outside. That leads to the differences between the web media and broadcasting media together with the TV media in ways of news production.Chapter three points out the internal conditions for the news production system’s self-organization:the nonlinear interactions within the news production system. The author provides several examples about news production to give a vision about the competition and coordination between broadcasting together with TV media and network media.Chapter four shows the huge difference in terms of spread effect between the traditional media of broadcasting together with TV media and the network media while the former is organized media and the latter is self-organized media. This chapter shows a vision of the media convergence between the radio and TV media and indicates the realistic path to build the omni-media news organization.Chapter five summarizes the double connotations of self-organization and points out that the news’ evolution is the unified process between self-organization news production and being organized news production. The author points out the practical significance of self-organization mechanism in news production. The author then puts forth several suggestions to help create conditions for self-organization development on media’s news production.