A Study On The Journalistic Thoughts Of Koo Kung-Chen

Koo Kung-chen was one of the most influential journalists in1920s-1930s inChina. He was also the theorist of journalism, the founder of the history of journalismand patriot. Although his life was relatively short, except the news reports, KooKung-chen, in his career, wrote lots of articles which conveyed his own understandingon China’s journalism. Author of this essay try to have a review on Koo’scontributions to the development of the press and to the research of news theories inorder to restore his unique opinions on media development of Republic of China,which may provide examples for media progress of present day.His News Ideology was reflected by his practical work. Koo’s workingexperience in both Shibao and Shun Pao, including his investigations abroad, hadgreat impact on forming his own ideas about press industry. Overall, there are mainlyfive parts of his journalistic thoughts as follows. The first one is journalistic thoughtsitself, including definition, characteristics and the social functionalities of newspaper.The second is journalistic ontology. He assailed the government authorities aboutcensorship and claimed for the loose media environment and the freedom of speech.The third is administrative and managerial ideas of media. He suggested that thenewspaper industry should absorb elitists, go commercial road and attractadvertisement in order to make itself economic independence. The forth is journalismeducation. He hoped that journalism education could proceed from China’s actualconditions. He also organized many objective activities to promote theoreticalresearch and media literacy education among citizens. The fifth is his dreams of newsindustry. As the essential supplement of journalism, he hoped to smash up themonopoly of western powers about presses. He also advised to establish Chinese ownnews agency and transfer newspaper industry to public ownership by borrowingexperience from Soviet Union.However, Koo Kung-chen’s theory was influenced by both western freedom andtraditional Chinese thoughts. The development of his theory was also closely boundedup with the background of Chinese journalism which was transforming fromobservation-based era to news-based era. All of them made Koo’s journalisticthoughts epochal and clear cut. His idea also had some limitations. E.g. he hadinsufficient understanding of the origin of news.