China's Rise and Global Communication: Problems and Prospects

HU ZhengrongJI Deqiang

Communication University of China

Outline

• 1. Ambitions: China’s project of enhancing competence and raising national image in global communication

(1) Media “going-out” plan (2) National branding: promotional videos• 2. Ambiguities within those plans• 3. Social and Political-economic analysis (1) Internal complexities: Fractured society and interest groups in conflicts Media’s Dual-role and regulatory uncertainties (2) External contradictions: Ideological stereotypes in global media coverage West-dominant media political economy• 4. Discussion: the core value of China’s rise in global

communication order

1. Media “going-out” • 1. China’s culture “going out” plan “China is going to actively exploit international culture

marketplaces, innovate culture ‘going-out’ models, strengthen the competence and influence of Chinese culture and finally enhance the nation’s soft power”– “China’s 12th Five-Year Plan”(2011-2015)

• 2. Media expansion: three examples (1) Xinhua News Agency: World television network: CNC World News Increase of oversea bureaus (2) China Central Television Expansion of multilingual broadcasting services China’s first national TV website: China Network Television (CNTV) (3) Newspapers English edition of Global Times, a product of People’s Daily Group The US edition of China Daily

2. Promotional videos: an attempt of national branding

• Two-stage promotion:

• 1.“Experiencing China”

Presentation of outstanding Chinese figures in various fields

• 2.“China on the way”

Personal telling about how China developed by ordinary Chinese people and foreigners

China promo videos playing in Times Square

3. Ambiguities in those efforts

• What exactly the meaning of “China’s rise” is? • What is the core value of China within the existing

global communication order?• Whether China’s voice can be heard and “correctly”

decoded by audiences from oversea audiences?• If China decides to go the way Western media group

succeeded, the extent to which Chinese media organizations will get the same or higher status with manipulative power in global communication is obscured.

• Those ambiguities lie in the characteristics of Chinese media in the context of reform China since early1980s.

4. Internal complexities

• (1) Fractured society and interest groups in conflicts• “One nation” with diverse social strata• “One nation” with fractured social structure

between the affluent and the poor, the urban center and the rural peripheries, as well as the developed East coastal areas and the underdeveloped West and hinterland

• “One nation” with a variety of interest groups A case: the “Turf War” between SARFT and MII

MediaConvergence

The interplay between marketization and sustaining political governance in the era of media convergence

4. Internal complexities

• (2) Dual-role of Chinese media and regulatory uncertainties

The Dule-role of media: profit making and ideological management.

legitimacy profit

The consolidation of existing special-interest-oriented media structure

4. Internal complexities

• Regulation systems are de facto the reflection of those complexities. By definition, regulation is the temporary outcome or balance of negotiation between various interest groups (always with unequal empowerment of negotiation) within a society, and is essentially not stable but subject to change whenever this balance is broken up.

• The existing regulatory structure encourages marketization on the one hand, and “securing the commanding height” on the other hand. This two-sided regulatory feature has been amplified during globalized media expansion, which might undermine the value basis of China’s rise.

5. External contradictions

• (1) Ideological stereotypes• “With generally low official credibility, China’s state media have

a hard time winning over a skeptical audience.” (Zhang Xiaoling, 2007)

• A case: How did US media represent and frame China’s media “going-out” plan?

US Today (Feb. 18 2009): “China, known for its tight control of people and the news, wants to soften its image around the world and is ready to spend big bucks on a media empire to do that.”

The New York Times (Oct. 5 2009): “China Yearns to Form Its Own Media Empires”

CNN (Sept. 3 2010): “Can Chinese media rule the airwaves?” CNN proposed a market-driven and private-capital-led media reform to soften China’s image, because Americans are suspicious of state-run media.

5. External contradictions

• A temporary conclusion: China’s media “going-out” plan backing by huge government subsidies has been inevitable to fall into the West-dominated media narratives characterized by constant criticizing media control and worrying about their oriental counterparts who will soon to be able to displace them as a new market “empire”.

• (2) The political economy of global media structure: Western / transnational media conglomerates dominant

The logic of dominance

6. China’s rise or a new global communication order

• Discussions remain significant on the road Chinese media should go to present a “full” picture of the country to the world.

• The core value China contributes to the world is NOT: - Trade rule: exchange value in market - Cultural essentialism: Confucianism and Taoism - Post-colonial perspective: Orientalism• BUT: - An imagination base for social development - A tolerance and absorption of diverse cultures - A peaceful rise in a new global communication

order

Thanks!

Authors:HU Zhengrong, Ph.D., Professor Chair, Chinese Association of Communication Vice President, Communication University of China Director, National Center for Radio and Television Studies Email: huzhr@cuc.edu.cnJI Deqiang, Ph.D. candidate Communication University of China Email: jdq@cuc.edu.cn