The Discourse Constructing Of Journalistic Professionalisma Strategic Ritual Through The Perspective Of Tradition And Modernity

Since the early last century,“journalistic professionalism” has been regarded as thenormal criterion of the western journalism. Including the exact and specific reportingnorms, such as “objectivity”, journalistic professionalism still serves as a professionalideology defining the legitimacy of the whole journalism. Being a theoretical and practicaldiscourse, it has become a main researching dimension, though undergoing the discursiveprocess of constructing and deconstructing. Along with China’s journalistic reform,journalistic professionalism as an “imported goods” was integrated to the transition ofdomestic journalism in the early time. However, due to the different contexts, it leads apopular paradigm on the change and evolution of journalistic professionalism in China.Collecting the reporting materials and corresponding staff’s open opinions anddiscourses from the four professionalism-oriented media in China, this study conductscontent analysis and discourse analysis, showing how “journalistic professionalism” ispracticed in domestic media through the perspective of discourse constructing. Accordingto the research, media exemplars have selective acceptations toward the original discourseof journalistic professionalism, with a strong practical and strategic tendency. Thedomestic discourse constructing, although with professional appeals, is mainly a balancedstrategy to avoid the impacts of the political and economic powers. As a tool or ritual toavoid the political risk and catch a larger market share, the discourse of journalisticprofessionalism in China is integrated with many other causes, such as “elite discourse”,“populist discourse” etc.Focusing on the context behind, the second part of this study continues the furtherdiscursive analysis through the angle of social history, with “tradition” and “modernity”dimensions. The study mainly analyzes the tradition of domestic journalism and modernimpacts such as political and commercial factors in a transition society. It believes that thediscourse constructing of journalistic professionalism in China has an interactiverelationship with the social history of western journalism, together with its own uniquelocal path dependence.