Chinese Journalism Utterly Lacks Professionalization - Essay Example

If One Defines Professionalization According To North American Ideals of Political Neutrality, Objectivity and Autonomy from Political Parties and Governments, Then Chinese Journalism Utterly Lacks Professionalization INTRODUCTION In a generalised view, journalism can be described as a procedure of conveying true facts to the common public by effective evaluation and breaking down of news and other forms of information. The concept of journalism is based upon multiple principles which include the concepts such as truth principles, work independence, professionalism and information disclosurement ( Maras 20-50). In the earlier days, printed media forms were generally used for publishing journals however based on the current trend of technological upliftment, the publishing style in the current days has shifted towards the implication of digital media. For instance, in the present days, almost every type of journal articles can be found on the World Wide Web (WWW). Apart from these, the concept of professionalism finds significant level of importance when it comes to safeguarding the integrity of the journalist. As a matter of fact, any individual can post or write about anything. However, the level of attention which that online written content will attain mainly depends on its writing quality and the quantity of justifiable facts which have been included into it. The objective of this report will be to understand the factors which have resulted in the lack of professionalization within Chinese journalism on the basis of aspects which include Political Neutrality, Objectivity and Autonomy. The comparisons will be made in context to that of the North American ideals. DISCUSSION The foremost part of the discussion will comprise facts that will reflect the trend of Chinese journalism. The present topic describes that the journalism trend followed in China is highly unprofessional in comparison to that of the North American journalism ideals. As projected by Zhaoc, Chinese journalism is acquainted of being instrumentalized and regulated by bureaucracy and the political pressure. In simple words, the concept of independence within work appears to be less preferred within China (143-174). Besides, multiple instances seemed to have occurred where the concept of paid journalism has been put to practise for reasons such as data enclosement or negative reviewing of multiple business processes. For instance, according to the legal obligation mentioned in the ‘Article 35’ of Chinese Constitution, every individual within this nation has the right as well as the freedom of ‘speech’, ‘assembly’, ‘association’, and ‘publication’ (Zhaoc 143-174). However, these freedoms are often ignored by the ‘Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’when it comes to disclosure of cases which are politically sensitive. Adding to that, the government even considers such political matters disclosement as punishable offense and imposes serious charges on the journalists (Freedom House, “Freedom of the Press.”). This shows the unprofessionalism within the Chinese journalism. Moreover, there does not seem to appear any type of protection law for the journalists against being attacked and thus it adds up to the worsening of the situation (Freedom House, “Freedom of the Press.”). With regard to even more appalling part, the judges of the courts also get appointed under the direction of the CCP and thus the decisions are also made on behalf of the government. This further distorts the integrity of the journalism principles (Freedom House, “Freedom of the Press.”). Nonetheless, in 2008, an open-government ordinance came into the effect in as insurance towards freedom of information. Consequently, till date, the Chinese journalists are provided either limited or almost no freedom of taking benefits out of this act due to the secret suppressive nature of the government and thus the incapability of the journalists in relation to using the legal resources in an effective manner (Freedom House, “Freedom of the Press.”). A few other instances of journalism suppression by the Chinese government also came up with time and have been discussed as follows. Case instances such as the protest done by the Chinese newspaper ‘Southern Weekly’ with regard to the censorship can be highlighted as prime occurrences. This newspaper came up with multiple publishing where it tremendously scrutinized the Chinese government for holding off their press freedom. As a counterpart, the government allowed the common population to criticise the corrupt government officials over Chinese micro blogging platforms. Based on the blogging reports by the common people, severe investigations got carried out on the named government officials followed by their firing off. Thus, again similarity to the provided context has been found regarding a lack of professionalization within the Chinese journalism (The Conversation Media Group, “The Southern Weekly and Censorship in China: A Nation Fights Back.”). However, on the contrary, a specific portion of the Chinese population believes that all these actions taken up by the government are for temporary basis and instead of the system becoming flexible regarding censorship, it will turn up into being further rigid in the coming period (The Conversation Media Group, “The Southern Weekly and Censorship In China: A Nation Fights Back.”). This contradicts with the sovereignty factor of the common people against the mentioning in the Article 35 of the Chinese Constitution. This protest got followed up by the blocking up of the blogging accounts of multiple journalists who made comments against the government officials (The Conversation Media Group, “The Southern Weekly and Censorship in China: A Nation Fights Back.”). The concept of keeping China’s general population into the limelight has also been a trick played by the Chinese government and this game has been in continuation since multiple decades. For instance, during the period of 1979 (Reform Era), the government had as tight control over all sorts of news publishing media such as newspaper and television among others. Adding to that, the government itself used to fund all the newspapers within the nation and thus used to regulate the content being published as well (Hassida, 51-61). Correspondingly, Hassidb in one of his journals has put specific roles of the Chinese government. In his article, he has mentioned the Chinese journalism in terms of two specific views. The first view describes the complete control of the Chinese Communist Party on the entire journalism sector of the nation. However, the second view describes the tendency of the Chinese journalism sector to be adopting the American style of professionalism (813-832). The author has also mentioned dimensions based on which the integrity of the journalism profession can be safeguarded. As per Hassidb, the commitment towards journalism majorly depends on the level of independence and the level of advocacy. In accordance with the author, the journalists should be themselves responsible for determining the worthiness of the paper rather than trying to publish contents under the restrictions of the governing officials (813-832). Zhao, in the book ‘Communication in China’ has mentioned an interesting fact that China is the only nation which licences its journalists. The author also mentioned facts regarding the absence of any sort of authorised censorship for the Chinese news media. These instances project the ignorance of the Chinese government with regard to liberalising the rights of the journalists regarding publishing their unpressurised and independent views (20-40; Polumbaum 20-50). Contextually, it is observed that norms have been setup which mandate the necessity of passing the preliminary copies of the news which is about to be published first to the party authorities before they get released within the common population. Furthermore, the party does have the right to terminate any specific news section or the entire news report under any circumstance if the contents of the preliminary news report project any sort of unsuitable context that might hamper the interests of the party. Through this way, the government can easily conceal all its political and bureaucratic matters and prevent them from reaching the common people. This rigidity within the system also hampers the independence of the journalists (Zhao 20-40). These sorts of rules and policies established by the Chinese government appear completely contrary to the norms as established by the western nations where specific privilege and importance is provided to the concept of professionalization within the news media sector. The highest ranking officials of the news publishing organizations can only put their authoritative power based on the final declaration from the government officials. In addition, the Chinese government has also appointed officers who serve as intermediaries between the news agencies and the party and are often involved in conveying of propaganda based messages and guidelines from the party officials to the editorial members of the news agencies (Zhaoa 20-40). One such case example is the receiving of the party’s propaganda guidelines by the Beijing newspaper between the period of 2003 to 2004 when the newspaper was about to publish certain contents of the ‘Sino-Japanese’ relationship (Zhaoa 20-40). This projects a tight control of the government over the functionality of the news media. The Chinese Communist Part maintains both prepublication and post-publication techniques in terms of maintaining its control over the news media within the nation. These government practises significantly affect the neutrality, objectivity and autonomy factors of journalism (Zhaoa 20-40). During the period of 1950, the party authorised the functioning of certain commercial newspapers and other news media with the prime intention of fulfilment of the needs of the urban population. This is due to the reason that the party believed that the traditional working style of the party press will not be capable enough in terms of satisfying the news requirements of the urban area population. Moreover, since these news organizations were authorised by the party so in a generalised way it can be stated that the party also retained the control over these private news agencies. Additively, these news agencies were forced to structure their coverage in such a way that fits the interests of the party. The journalists of the commercial news agencies were stated as rude in terms of interviewing style by the government officials and were thus often restricted from carrying out their news collection procedures. This highlights a lack of autonomy on behalf of the journalists to project to truth in front of the public (Zhaob 16-25). Apart from just the political pressure, multiple cases of journalist bribery have come up in China within the last few decades. From instance, the coal mine incident in the Shanxi province of China which resulted in the death of one worker. Further investigation of this case brought out facts regarding demanding of bribery by the journalists present over there from the mine authorities. Cases like these significantly hampered the professional face as well as reputation of the Chinese journalism (Zhang 173-188). Adding to that, as per the statements made by Tong, China generally follows an authoritarian procedure over its new media and the entire system gets controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (1-30). On the contrary, Shirk, in his book has mentioned the shifting of the Chinese news media from being completely controlled by governmental propaganda to being truth revellers The author has also described the efforts made by the CCP in relation to keeping the concept of censorship into effect for retaining its control over the news media (4-20; Hsing, Hsing and Lee 170-178). Multiple other articles also project the attitude and the work value of three specific locations of the China namely (Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan). Various aspects reveal that multiple journalists have been receiving gifts, monetary benefits and various other freebies from the news sources although it is very unprofessionalistic to accept such things (Sun, and Chio 1-40). Above that, these articles have also described the nature of theses journalists as being completely ready when it comes to news revilement of the private organizations however they change their views and opinions when it comes to revilement of government related matters (Lo, Chan and Pan, “Ethical Attitudes and Perceived Practice: A Comparative Study of Journalists in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan”). COPNCLUSION From all the above described facts, a picturization can be drawn regarding how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) being a governmental body defies all the constitutional rules and procedures and utilises the nation’s news media for their own benefits. From a generalised view, this can be stated as an unethical act but still it is being practised. Therefore, as a matter of fact, a positive attitude can be formed with regard to the provided topic that Chinese journalism does lack in professionalization as compared to the journalistic model and trend of the western nations. 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Understanding Chinas Media System in a World Historical Context. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Print. Read More