Between Political Discipline And Financial Pressure: Field Research On A Local Party Daily

In the era of new media, facing fade-away newspapers all around the world, some scholars believe that newspapers have entered the menopause and will disappear sooner or later. However, on the contrary, party newspapers have not only survived but also thrived in China, a country with characteristic socialism. It has been an impactful political culture phenomenon in modern China and played a significant role in agenda setting, hot topics participation, mainstream value shaping and big issues propagation (Yan,2014).The dissertation is divided into four sections. The introduction presents the background of the research and its research question and methods, as well as the literature review, and it also points out the difficulties and innovations. Lots of studies have focused on Chinese party newspapers, but few on local ones by the method of field investigation. Therefore, this research is of great reality.The first chapter introduces the news production process of A Daily, the relationship among different parties in the process, and its performance under political disciplines and the financial pressure; the second chapter discusses about the view of journalists on their occupation. All evidence and examples throughout the chapters are taken from the research log of daily observation and in-depth interview by the author.Conclusion section summarizes the research findings from the local party newspaper, journalists and advertisements, describes the features of A Daily, explains the mutual relations among the source, journalist, editor and advertisement, and emphasizes the importance of advertisements to journalists and the development of the newspaper organization.The dissertation aims to display the process of the news production of a common Chinese local party newspaper and the social relations between the newspaper and journalists in the process, in an attempt to discuss a local newspaper ecosystem.More specifically, it tries to go deep into the traditional grass-roots political media, "watching the Chinese society under the guidance of 'bureaucratic words' and 'translated words'in the view of the social life itself (Cao,2003). In order to well tell a story of a newspaper, it should begin with an individual from a micro perspective "through an in-depth and detailed description" (Lu,2002), including not only interviewing, writing and editing, but also journalists in advertising and reporting, and meanwhile accompanied by the front page of the local party newspaper A Daily, to "inspect the informal and dynamic characteristics of power relations among them" (Lu,2002). It expects to realize what Prof. Pan said, "It not necessarily proposes political advice or development prospect to some organization or institute, but provides an understanding of the reality and a guideline of thinking" (Pan and Wang,2004).Students major in international journalism should not only introduce the world to China but also introduce China to the world. In terms of the communication effects, the local party newspapers are less famous at home and abroad than central and provincial ones, but they are representatives of the ideology of the party and the state and the public opinion. The research of Chinese local party newspapers is beneficial for foreigners to know better about features of Chinese grass-roots political media.