Zhang Jing. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 52-57). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.2-3 / Introduction / Studying the changing reform discourse in China's media reforms --- p.5-8 / Chapter 1 --- Paradigm Change in reform discourse --- p.9-16 / Chapter 1.1 --- Changing paradigm of media operation: A theoretical framework / Chapter 1.2 --- Methodology / Chapter 2 --- "One Decade, Two Paradigms" --- p.17-33 / Chapter 2.1 --- "One decade, Two paradigms" / Chapter 2.2 --- The historical context for the two paradigms in90s / Chapter 2.3 --- The formation of reform discourse / Chapter 3 --- The Contestations of the two paradigms --- p.34-47 / Chapter 3.1 --- The growth of the new paradigm / Chapter 3.2 --- The modification of the old paradigm / Chapter 3.3 --- The future of the paradigm change / Chapter 4 --- Conclusion and Discussion --- p.48-51 / Reference --- p.52-57

The design of this research is based on the liberal pluralism belief that there should be various forms of alternative media co-existing with mainstream media, and the society benefits from having alternatives. The concept of alternative media refers to media that are independent from the political and market power. They deal with alternative topics, which are not covered in their mainstream counterparts. One of the traditions of alternative media research is to examine their potential in the formation of subaltern public sphere. / The core question of this research is to explore the usage of online alternative media, and the link between online alternative media and the ideal of subaltern public sphere, in terms of attitude towards difference, rational discussion and civic participation. Participatory observation, online survey and case studies were applied to find out the answers. / First of all, it is found that the usage of online alternative media is influenced by a number of factors. In addition to the gratifications sought from media usage, a heterogeneous online community is more likely to accept online alternative media, while intense use of alternative media in turn contributes to more tolerance of difference in society. / Secondly, this research examines the relationships between online alternative media and the elements of subaltern public sphere. As the research findings suggest, under high political and economic pressure, little space is left for mainstream public sphere, while subaltern public sphere is possible with the help of online alternative media. Non-hierarchically organized and depend on voluntary work, online alternative media partly escape from political and market pressure and become the birthplace of rational public opinions. Online alternative media contribute to democratic society as they generate public space for deliberation, and cultivate the culture of participation. / Finally, the significance of heterogeneity is emphasized. Online alternative media develop a group of media users who are sensitive to difference in online community whereas at the same time, having more tolerance for difference. This indicates a positive relationship between online alternative media use and the attitude towards a plural and tolerant society. / By bringing in alternative topics and developing a group of users who are sensitive to difference whereas having more tolerance to heterogeneity, online alternative media are gradually changing the media ecology in China. Admittedly, the position of alternative media in China is still somewhat vague, in terms of their actual relation to the political power and market. Despite this, the existence of online alternative media is still a meaningful attempt for the construction of public sphere in Chinese societies. / 自由多元主義相信價值的多元性和自由表達，並且我們的社會可以從中獲益。基於這樣的理論出發點，通過展示網絡另類媒體的產生和發展情況，本研究試圖說明在中國媒體環境中保持不同聲音的必要性與合理性。另類媒體是一類特殊的媒體，它們規模較小，相對另類於政治權力和市場經濟， 並因此可以使用不同於主流媒體的信息渠道和信息呈現方式，討論一些被主流媒體邊緣化的議題。 / 公民社會以及公共領域的理論，經常被用於研究另類媒體。主流公共領域的理想在中國難以實現，本研究因而使用次級公共領域的概念來尋找另類媒體在中國社會中的定位。研究的主要問題是人們如何使用網絡另類媒體，以及另類媒體和次級公共領域的聯繫。通過問卷調查，參與式觀察和典型案例分析，本研究結合定性和定量研究數據，展示了網絡另類媒體在推動中國公共領域形成過程中的關鍵作用。 / 首先，很多因素會影響網絡另類媒體的使用。除了從媒體使用中期待的滿足以外，異質化程度較高的網絡社群更願意接受網絡另類媒體；頻繁的網絡另類媒體使用則會反過來增加人們對於差異的容忍程度。 / 其次，通過逐個檢視網絡另類媒體與次級公共領域各要素之間的聯繫，研究發現網絡另類媒體在很大程度上符合次級公共領域的理想。由於受到較少的政治權力的壓力，並且未被商業化娛樂化控制，網絡另類媒體的討論和出版物的話語具有很高的互動性和反思性，成為理性公共意見的產生之處。另外，網絡另類媒體在促成有效的長期的公民參與方面，有不可取代的優勢。 / 最後，研究強調了差異的意義。網絡另類媒體培養了對差異有感知力，並能很好地反思和接納差異的網絡用戶群體。這個發現揭示了網絡另類媒體使用與一個多元、寬容的社會之間的關聯。 / 應該承認，中國的網絡另類媒體尚未成熟，強大的生存的壓力之下，有時與政治權力和商業機構的存在模糊不清的關聯。但這並不妨礙它們逐漸地改變中國的媒體生態，成為構建中國公共領域的有益探索。 / Wang, Jiayi. / Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2015. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-139). / Abstracts also in Chinese; acknowledgement and appendix in Chinese. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on 05, October, 2016). / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only.

Background/ Objectives: It can always be recognised that mass media is one of key sources of information to society. Moreover, it has a great power to affect our life. Printed media, for example, newspaper as one of media communications contains words and texts, which can also create a strong power to influence readers to receive information, including news coverage of mental illness. The objective of this study is to analyse our selected the terms of Schizophrenia, Psychosis and Psychotic Patients from our selected three local Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong, to see the frequency and the trend of reporting incidents on news stories, and the use of language/words to portray people with mental illness on press coverage. Research questions were about 1) the change of frequency using the term of Schizophrenia, and under the same question the hypothesis was to see if using the term of Psychosis was more than Schizophrenia; 2) reviewed the term of Schizophrenia to see our selected three local newspapers whether or not choosing the term of Schizophrenia on news coverage more than Psychosis; 3) assessed both terms of Schizophrenia and Psychosis regarding incidents in all articles, the former was related to negative stories and the latter was related to good news coverage. 4) We reviewed the trend of using all keywords akin to metaphorical (words) usage in all articles. At last, 5) we also assessed all keywords in regard to the trend of using of stereotyping wordings in all papers in our selected years. Method: We assessed the database of retrospective newspaper via WiseNews of electronic resource at the University of Hong Kong, to retrieve the total of 1884 articles, from chosen newspapers, for example, Apple Daily, Ming Pao Daily News and Tai Kung Pao Daily News. We retrieved those newspapers in 2002, 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2012 for our research study. Results: It is good to see that, since 2001 renaming in Psychosis (思覺失調), the term has been widely accepted in the public and has already been used on news coverage. In comparison with both terms of Schizophrenia (精神分裂 [症]) and Psychosis (思覺失調), we noticed that the frequency of using the name of Schizophrenia on printed media has, however, still remained higher than the term of psychosis to portray people with mental illness in all news papers [Schizophrenia – 40.2% 757/1884 /Psychosis – 24.9% 469/1884]. And we also noted that the term of Psychotic Patients was strong association with people in Schizophrenia to appear on same news coverage, according to our research findings. Meanwhile, it can be seen that using Psychosis (renaming in Chinese) on news coverage was increased gradually from 2002 – 2012, whereas using Schizophrenia was a lead in association with criminal cases, with 35/132 of unfavourable events. On the one hand, it can be noted that the trend of metaphorical usage was increased gradually from 2002 – 2012, and in all newspapers the more frequency of using metaphorical words/usage was to insult/cite someone with 46.2% (175/379 articles). On the other hand, it is not surprising to see that the more frequency of using stereotyping words was “Dangerous” or “Violence” to portray people with mental illness in all newspapers, which was highest record with 61.8% (202/327 counted articles) Conclusion: Mass media is generally recognised as key source of information to society, including media coverage of mental illness. Moreover, press media has a great power to influence us. In content analysis of our selected articles, it can be noted that in 2002 –2012, using the term of Schizophrenia was more than using Psychosis in our selected three local Chinese newspapers. It was revealed that the trend of using metaphorical (words) usage in all papers was increased gradually and the more frequency using of both terms was to insult/cite someone. It can be no doubt that inappropriate words and negative descriptive languages to portray people with mental illness on news coverage could influence people’s perception with negative towards psychotic patients. Stigma is a great impact on people with mental illness to receive treatment appropriately and can minimise their self-esteem as a result of causing social withdrawal. Family and relatives are also considerably stigmatised. Educational promotion is one of critical ways to promote mental health, to increase more public awareness and knowledge of mental illness in our society. It could be suggested that training for journalists could be essential, in order to avoid using of sensational or negative descriptive language on news coverage of mental illness that could reduce stigma. We believe that the more people know and receive information accurate on media coverage of mental illness, the less people can form stigma in our society. / published_or_final_version / Psychological Medicine / Master / Master of Psychological Medicine

This thesis investigates the centrality of media spectacles in contemporary Chinese media culture, as sites of contestation over identity, citizenship and ethics. It examines four media spectacles - the media event of the new millennium celebrations, the news event of SARS reportage, the media stories about AIDS and SARS by new media users, and the media campaign war between Falun Gong and the Chinese state - to show how such contestation occurs in the interplay between the state and the non-state. It argues that the praxis to define identity, citizenship and ethics is not only in contestation (featuring resistance and opposition), but also in conjunction (characterized by mutual accommodation and appropriation) between the state and the non-state. Chinese modernity is produced in such interplay. / This thesis is an interdisciplinary study of Chinese media culture, which combines theories from media studies and critical theory with those from China studies, particularly cultural studies in and about China. Chapter One examines trajectories of studies on Chinese media and culture within the context of China's structural transformations in the post-Mao era. It also offers conceptual discussions of counter narratives of modernity as a tripartite concept and Chinese media spectacles in relation to the thematic structure of the thesis. Chapter Two examines the interplay of the state and the non-state through a case study of the new millennium celebrations. It argues that the interplay produces a rejuvenation millennialism that harbingers China's second coming in the third millennium. This rejuvenation millennialism is a hybrid discourse of nostalgia, nationalism, and utopianism, all of which require a post as their signifier. Chapter Three uses SARS reportage as a case study to examine the intellectual politics of Chinese journalists in their interplay with the state and the society. It shows how journalists use strategies of double-time narration to mediate the different logics that are imposed upon them. It argues that mediation journalism defines and confines contemporary Chinese journalism. / Chapter Four studies media stories about AIDS (the case of Li Jiaming) and SARS (the cases of Sun Zhigang and SMS rhymes about SARS) that are produced, circulated and consumed by Internet and mobile phone users in urban China. It shows how new media users are able to re-configure their subjectivities through the interplay with the state and intellectual/journalist communities. It argues that by allowing the reformation of political subjectivities, talking, linking and clicking has become an important means of exercising citizenship for the subjects of postsocialist China. Chapter Five examines Falun Gong's media campaign war with the state, with the focus on their representations of the body, in order to argue that the contestation between the state and the non-state constitutes a crisis not only for body politics but also for ethics. Falun Gong represents an historical force to split the ethics of the self and the nation from the politics of the state. Representing four aspects of counter narratives of modernity in China, these four media spectacles will inform Chinese politics, culture, society and everyday life in the 21st century.

This thesis examines variations of the Chinese ‘combat film’, from its origins within cinema in 1949, through to the contemporary period. My argument transposes the critical approach of ‘genre’, as a popular style within conventional film criticism, to a specific Chinese form. In particular, this study investigates the ‘combat film’ as a prevailing mode in Chinese cinema, with a particular history, form of progression and set of aesthetics. The argument initially applies the ‘war film’ and ‘combat genre’ categorisations to Chinese forms. Consequently three major variants emerge, manifest in the ‘regulated’ (1949-1966), ‘reformed’ (1980s) and ‘renewed’ (1990s) styles, respectively. These modes are subsequently examined in rigorous narratological and cinematic contexts, resulting in an expanded conception of the Chinese ‘combat’ film. This thesis offers an integrative appreciation of variegations of the Chinese ‘combat film’ since 1949, sutured to wider discursive and socio-political changes within the country. Moreover, this argument produces a framework for a more expansive and complex comprehension of Chinese cinema, one undergoing continual modes of re-negotiation as the medium progresses into the Twenty First Century.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 83-92).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 83-92). Also available in print.

The suicide and the media research field are generally concerned with the effect, content, and production of mass-disseminating suicide information. Most of the previous studies in the field were conducted in western countries. This dissertation is devoted to extending the research map to the Chinese contexts and moving the field forward into the new media era. It proposes a conceptual framework based on the social construction of reality theory and refines the framework through a combination of five studies. Study 1 might be the first investigation on mass-disseminating suicide information’s effect on suicide occurrences in Mainland China, using the Foxconn suicides as a case study. It finds that the Foxconn suicides were temporally clustered and influenced by inter-person contagion within the company, as well as the newspapers’ reporting about the topic in Beijing, the nation’s capital. Study2 examines the prominence and representation patterns of reporting the Foxconn suicides in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan in 2010 calendar year. It demonstrates that the media coverage of the Foxconn suicides in the three societies generally experienced a three-phase evolving process in 2010. Meanwhile, within every phase, the media in different societies showed differences in their representations. Furthermore, the study investigates how the representation can be influenced by news sources and social contexts and explores possible explanations why the Beijing media’s reporting influenced the occurrences of the Foxconn suicides. Study3 compares representation of suicides in case-control psychological autopsy studies with representation of the same suicides in Hong Kong media. Considering the psychological autopsy as relatively more rigorous and validated, the comparison examines the suicide news representation’s accuracy and stereotyping tendencies. It finds a strong homogenisation of the Hong Kong newspapers in accurately reporting suicide methods but inaccurately reporting suicide risk factors, and that their reporting was problematic in stereotyping of gender-and method-specific suicides. Study 4 is a qualitative study of 33newspaper journalists’ experiences with producing suicide news from representative daily newspapers in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Utilising the grounded theory method, it extracts how the journalists construct media reality of suicide within a social context. The study summarises criteria of suicide news values, identifies three types of key agents which are often engaged by the journalists in constructing suicide news, and also generates a comparative framework of suicide news production in the Chinese contexts. Study 5 examines what suicide-related information is easily accessible online in Mainland China and Hong Kong and compares it with its counterparts in English. It explores how the comparative framework proposed by Study 4 can also be applied to understand the nature of the online suicide information and serves as a bridge connecting the thesis with future studies on suicide and the new media. The five studies collectively contribute to understanding the nature and mechanism of constructing media reality of suicide in the Chinese contexts. By applying the research findings, suicide prevention professionals would be able to develop context-sensitive strategies to cooperate with the media and prevent suicide. / published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, March, 2017. / This thesis examines how African journalists negotiate the tension between their understanding of journalism and the actual practice of journalism within the context of Chinese media organisations based in Africa. Adopting the Shoemaker and Reese (1996) hierarchy of influences model and using interviews with African journalists in Kenya and content analysis, I examine this tension within the framework of the relationship between role conception and role performance. China has framed its media expansion into Africa on the premise that it aims to tell the ‘true African story’ to global audiences. This is consistent with China’s Africa policy promising mutuality and equality between China and Africa. However, the findings indicate an African and a Chinese level of gatekeeping and journalistic agency exist within Chinese media organisations based in Africa. These levels often coexist, but they also collide, resulting in Chinese interests and ideas prevailing over those of African journalists, and often in a type of journalism that de-emphasises African belonging and identity. This study represents an original contribution to the debate on the relationship between role conception and role performance, from a non-western perspective. It demonstrates the ways in which the relationship between role conception and role performance within Chinese media organisations in Africa is hinged upon conditional autonomy in relation to the typology of stories. The elements of the hierarchy of influences model are more active when Chinese interests are present in a story than when they are absent. Consequently, the editorial policy of ‘positive reporting’ promoted by Chinese media organisations is more active in the coverage of activities related to China than non-China content. This thesis enriches the five levels of analysis in Shoemaker and Reese’s hierarchy of influences model. This study proposes language as a level of influence straddling media routines and organisation influences, when applied to Chinese media organisations in Africa. This thesis also contributes to the ideologisation debate on Chinese media expansion into Africa. While the debate has been dominantly framed through the Manichean prism of positive or negative, this thesis proposes Chinese media expansion into Africa will result in a hybrid form of journalism professionalisation in which Western and Chinese journalistic traditions co-exist on the continent. / XL2018

abstract / English / Master / Master of Philosophy