Suchergebnisse

With Xi Jinping's consolidation of political power in China, a personality cult has increasingly emerged. In this article, we analyze online documents and state news media to argue that this phenomenon is driven in part by local government officials and traditional media but most significantly by individual Chinese 'netizens'. The current personality cult phenomenon is thus primarily society-driven and bottom-up rather than state-driven and top-down. We argue that the rise of this personality cult around Xi has its roots in national anxiety in an important transitional period in China. While some worry about a possible return to the politics of the Cultural Revolution by encouraging this personality cult, others are responding to economic anxieties and to the social anxieties created by social injustice greatly due to official corruption. We conclude that the possibility of society-driven personality cults will increase over time, as a paradoxical corollary of the potential of new media to allow for the democratization and opening up of politics and culture to new voices.

Media convergence is thriving in terms of either practical experience or scholastic debates around the world. This study aims to examine journalistic convergence in China. Using qualitative data drawn from the case study of Shenzhen Press Group in Guangdong, South China, we argue that the media's response to the Chinese government's push for media convergence is simply a gesture of compliance. While media management do not consider convergence as a prime concern, rank-and-file editors and journalists respond to media convergence with non-cooperation or non-acceptance. The study concludes, on the basis of the specific contexts in which China's media convergence operates, that social context and, in particular, the relationship between media and state should be fully taken into consideration in studies of media convergence.