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CHINA MEDIA CENTRE
University of
Westminster
Programme
Creativity and
Innovation in Chinese Media
London June 22-23
University of Westminster, 115 New Cavendish Street, London, W1W
6UW
The last thirty years have seen a
transformation of the Chinese media. They have moved from
being solely the “throat and tongue of the party” supported by
state subsidies to a situation where the majority of their income
is from advertising revenue, for which they must vigorously compete
with each other. The need to gain and hold an audience are
today central to the concerns of media managers, journalists and
creative workers. At the same time, they still need to follow
the party line and to carry positive messages about China’s
development. Many observers have noted how these two tasks
impose unique burdens on the media and oblige them to develop new
strategies to report the news and to entertain the audience.
The change in the economic situation of the media, and the
orientation on the preferences of consumers, has meant that Chinese
media producers have had to find new forms of journalism and new
kinds of programming that are attractive to the mass
audience.
In television, despite the regulatory protection that CCTV still
enjoys, it must face sharp competition in markets like Guangdong
from provincial and city stations whose programming is much more
attuned to local tastes and language. Nationally, provincial
satellite channels, notably from Hunan, are in the forefront of
innovation in entertainment programming. Similarly, Phoenix
TV is introducing new ways of reporting the news and winning a
substantial audience, particularly amongst the younger and elite
audiences.
In the newspaper press there has been a series of new and
innovative titles, which have much more sensational and
personalised reporting than the old norms. Some journalists have
reported on events and individuals that have had major
repercussions for aspects of the legal situation. At the same
time there has been an explosion of journalism devoted to different
aspects of lifestyle and consumption, aimed squarely at the new
middle class audience. In the broader printed press, a new
generation of magazines targeting audiences like young women and,
more recently, young men, have enjoyed substantial success in terms
of circulation.
Social change, and in particular the rise of car ownership, has
also led to a revival of radio. The notorious traffic jams of
big Chinese cities have created what is literally a captive
audience for the medium. So, too, increasing affluence and
the spread of the internet has led to an explosion of computer
gaming, both offline and online, that is attractive to many young
people.
The sources of these new ideas are many and varied.
Sometimes, as with TV dramas, there is the straightforward purchase
and broadcasting of foreign shows, many originating from Korea,
which have proved very popular with audiences. In
entertainment programming, there have been notorious cases of
unauthorised borrowings from abroad (Supergirl is the most
famous example) but today there are more and more entirely legal
purchases of foreign formats. In broadcast news, Phoenix uses
presentational techniques developed by international broadcasters
to deliver the same sort of news as CCTV in a more approachable
format. In magazines, the model is one of close collaboration
in joint ventures between Chinese publishers and big western
publishers that have established Chinese equivalents of many of the
most famous global fashion and lifestyle titles. These
borrowings, however, are hardly ever simple transfers from one
country to another: in almost all cases, Chinese importers
modify the original to fit better with the preferences of their
audience.
Increasingly, however, Chinese media are seeking to break free from
imported models and to produce media content that is wholly
original. They are following in the footsteps of producers in
other countries who started off with a debt to more advanced media
systems but have increasingly generated their own
nationally-specific content. Some Chinese media organisations
have plans to develop themselves into truly global players, to
generate wholly original content, and to export their programmes,
ideas and formats to other countries.
These innovations in the media are taking place at the same time as
the much more general and very rapid social and cultural changes
that are sweeping China. Millions of people flood into the
cities from the countryside and millions of urban dwellers have
seen their personal wealth and their cultural horizons transformed
in the last thirty years. Some welcome these cultural changes
and celebrate the forms of media that are attractive to this new
audience. They welcome the relative freedom and the influence
of foreign ideas and values, seeing them as the building blocks of
the new China. Others worry that the deluge of novelty
threatens the traditional values of Chinese culture and seek to
insulate the population from alien cultures. In the film
industry, for example, some claim that the price of international
success has been the adaptation of traditional Chinese themes and
stories to fit western tastes. China will only succeed in
exporting cultural products, they argue, if they are stripped of
their unique Chinese characteristics.
We invite papers that look at any aspect of this complex process of
change.
Our interests include, but are not
limited to:
· Joint deals
between Chinese and overseas media companies
· Intellectual
property rights and the Chinese media
· Adapting foreign
models to Chinese conditions
· Originating
wholly Chinese media artefacts
· Managing the
process of change, creativity and innovation in the Chinese
media
· Planning entry
into the global market
· The nature of
cultural change in contemporary China
· New freedoms and
new constraints for Chinese media producers
· Chinese media and
foreign capital
For futher information please
contact Guo Dawei georgedawei@hotmail.com
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