blog




  • Essay / Influence of the Chinese Communist Party on...

    “It's not what you say, it's how you say it” (Luntz, cited in Scheufele and Tewksbury, 2007: 9). positions of power, such as the media and influential political leaders, to give prominence to certain issues they deem important, while relegating other issues they deem less important and out of sight of the public. There is an extensive literature on the agenda-setting process, but it focuses primarily on agenda-setting in the West. Therefore, this article will examine agenda setting in China, which has a communist government in power that likes to use the influence and control it has and likes to apply harsh censorship on the media and its content. “Chinese media have played an effective role in developing positive propaganda programs in support of the Party's ideologies and policies (Li, Qin and Kluver, 2003)” (Luo, 2012: 1). It will examine whether or not the Chinese government is successful in using its control over the media to promote the issues it believes in. The aim of this article will be to see to what extent the Chinese government exercises control over the media. This will be done using articles and blog posts from government and independent sources that will help provide unbiased results. The lack of literature on agenda setting outside the West makes this an interesting case to study as it may provide additional insights and opportunity to explore agenda setting in a Chinese context . Agenda setting is an important topic in political communications and China is emerging as a strong and powerful global player. It is therefore crucial to examine agenda setting in a Chinese context. 6). [Accessed November 18, 2013].Zhang, , Market and Democracy in China - Between the Party Line and the Bottom Line (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press). Zhou, Y. and Moy, P., (2007) “Parsing Framing Processes: The Interplay Between Online Public Opinion and Media Coverage' Journal of Communications 57: 79-98. Appendix “...we reiterate that the media must report the story in strict accordance with the electronic copy of Xinhua News Agency; minimize history; don't speculate on that; don't exaggerate; do not put the story on the front page or home page of the website; do not produce any further reports or comments; don't use images... (October 30, 2013)” (Henochowicz, China Digital Times, 2013).