Look At The Power And The Media

“The news not only tells us what to think; it also tells us how to think about it.”①McCombs, one of the founders of agenda setting, put it when discussing the newdirection in the research. This assertion implies the latest findings in effects study, andmeanwhile reveals an indisputable fact: in the midst of ever-changing society andcutting edged media, we are obliged to admit our knowledge of the outer world ismostly shaped by the media, and we furthermore get accustomed to following themedia on how to understand the news. There lies the fertile ground for news review oropinion. In terms of the sociology of knowledge, the review, as a kind of knowledge,is “produced” by the professional organization (news agency) and the membersthereof. And in the course of it, they are inevitably influenced by political power.The material of this research comes from two years’ content of People’s Commentand Ark Review, from2011to2012. After systematically sorting them out, wecompare the two review columns on three fields, viz politics、economy and judiciary,in twelve subjects. By context analysis we firstly “construct” their edifices in thesefields via inner logic from myriad discrete comments, acquiring the review columns’core opinions. Then from the perspective of sociology of knowledge, the thesisaddresses the similarities and differences of the two review columns, especially thedifferences in the light of the relation between political power and media. We attemptto discover the effects of power on the construction of dialogue in news review, andsimultaneously display the theorizing process of practice based on their differentialresponses to power. This dissimilarity originates from different self-cognition ofmedia. One adheres to the leadership of communist party, while the other asserts thejournalism professionalism.The research uncovers the following findings. Firstly, in the field of politics, ArkReview emphasizes the legal conflict between state power and individual rights, andthe restoration of the latter should be the end of political reform. The political system,which People’s Comment advocates, however combines the relationship between thecommunist party and people in revolution times with the one between state andcitizens. Secondly, in the economy field, against the backdrop of market-oriented reform, Ark Review tends to keep more alert on administrative power’s profitingillicitly than People’s Comment so as to protect the economical rights of ordinarypeople. Lastly, in the field of judiciary, their cognition of law somewhat diverges.People’s Comment stresses its function to mediate the interest between the public andthe private, whereas Ark Review focuses on its spirit to defend individual rights. Andthey are also at variance on how to restrict state power and keep judicial justice.