| As one of the world's remaining communist regimes, China provides a unique study of media transition amid a vigorous capitalist economic revival while at the same time continuing a communist political system. In recent years, scholars have become increasingly interested in the commercialization impact on the Chinese media system and the interplay of power within the Communist Party-state. China does not easily fit into previous media models for explaining its media operation, function or effects during the economic transition.;This research aims to examine the political economy of the media system in China by using the five filters of Chomsky and Herman's Propaganda Model, which was originally established to describe the media production in the United States. Through a series of structural factors including the state-dominated market centralization and ownership scheme, dependence on advertising as a major funding source, normalized sourcing patterns, implicit and overt censorship, as well as promoting official ideology and controlling competing ones, the Chinese media are serving the interest of the Party-state and the elite class that is closely related to it.;Meanwhile, while most journalists are aware of how the system operates and comply with it, some of them are trying to push the boundaries of what is acceptable to publish. These efforts will continue to exist as the Chinese media system is becoming less monolithic and moving toward a more sophisticated system of mass persuasion. |
