Mass Media And The Agenda Building Of Public Policy

The relationship between mass media and public policy becomes a hot issue that cannot be overlooked by the government's public administration.Such a theme originated from the classical studies in the field of Communications,whereas the ongoing research show that it is still a valuable research issue.Therefore,in this thesis,the author put this topic in the field of public health and set the Chinese public hospital reform policy as a case.Base on the study of the media representation,the author further discussed the power relationship behind the representation.This thesis,based upon the four selected newspapers like People's Daily,the China Youth Daily,South Metropolis News(National Edition)and the Health News,and the period of research reports from January 1st,2009 to October 31 st,2015,aims at seeking how the “publicity” works in the reports.In the agenda of the Chinese public hospital reform,news media put their focus on the public hospital and make various reports on this public policy.On the whole,the mass media can release the information in time,find the problems and collect the information in order to explore and explain.From the perspective of the agenda,the reports focus on public hospital reform related issues of funding sources of hospitals,whereas the issues on the public hospital medical personnel and services are in lack of concern.From the report features,the reports are more concerned about the results of the reform with the typical reports and the pilot models proposed,with less presentation of the problems and difficulties in the process of reform.From the news sources,administrative officials,especially medical and health authorities and officials are the main targets,followed by experts and scholars.Relatively,medical staff and patients are under inadequate reports.Although the status of mass media in social life has been improved,in the process of public policy its value of publicity is still not fully reflected.Finally,with the background of transformation of the current Chinese society and the media itself,this study argues that the representation of the agenda of public policy issues is still under the control of the state,the market and other factors,during which social forces and media activism can hardly get any room for interaction.Thus,for further developing of media and society,all these forces need to be developed for the realization of public value of the media.