This book explores the media and conflict relationship in the age of social media through the lens of China. Inspired by the concepts of medialization of conflict and actor-network theory, this book centers on four main actors in wars and conflicts: social media platform, mainstream news organizations, online users and social media content. These four human and non-human actors associate, interact and negotiate with each other in the social media network. The central argument is that social media is playing an enabling role in contemporary wars and conflicts. Both professional media outlets and web users employ the functionalities of social media platforms to set, counter-set or expand the online public agenda. Social media platform embodies a web of technological and human complexities with different actors, factors, interests, and power relations. These four actors and the macro social-political context are influential in the medialization of conflict in the social media era. ''Empirically rich and theoretically innovative, this book advances our understanding of the constantly changing dynamic between international conflict and its medialization. With its compelling case studies, Shixin Zhang's monograph makes a valuable contribution to the literature on Chinese social media in conflict situations.'' - Daya K. Thussu, Professor of International Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

This book engages with the Chinese mediation of wars and conflicts in the global environment.Proposing a new cascading media and conflict model, it applies this to the studyof war correspondents from six levels: media-policy relations, journalistic objectivity, roleperceptions, news framing and peace/war journalism, news practices, and audience. Based on interviews with 23 Chinese journalists and case study analysis of the Libyan War,Syrian War, Afghanistan War and Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the book demonstrates thata new breed of Chinese war correspondents has emerged today. They undergo a complexand nuanced mediated communication process. Neither traditionally Chinese in theirapproach nor western in their perceptions, they are uniquely pragmatic in negotiating theirroles in a complex web of internal and external actors and factors. The core ideology seemsto be anti-West in defiance of the US hegemony and the bias of global media as well asneutral-Muslims. Exploring the role perceptions, values, norms and practices of contemporary Chinese warcorrespondents who go outside China to bring the 'distant culture' back home, this text is keyreading for scholars and students in international journalism, international communication,war and peace studies, international relations and Chinese studies.

This book focuses on China’s media diplomacy and its interplay with a range of international conflicts. It assesses the representation and framing of China, as well as the perception and reception of China’s media communication in relation to various crises and conflicts. Including detailed analyses of many cases, it highlights the complex, fluid and dynamic relationship between media and conflict, and discusses how this both exemplifies and also affects China’s relations with the outside world. In addition, in contrast to most existing studies of mediatized conflict in the digital age, it provides a very valuable non-Western perspective.

This edited collection brings together journalism scholars from mainland China, Hong Kong, the UK and Australia to address a variety of pressing issues and challenges facing digital journalism in China today. While China shares certain affinities with the digital disruption of media in other settings, its experience and articulation of change is ultimately unique. This volume explores the implications of digital media technologies for journalists' professional practice, news users' consumption and engagement with news, as well as the shifting institutional, organizational and financial structures of news media. Drawing on case studies and quantitative and qualitative approaches, contributors address questions concerning: whether China is witnessing 'disruptive' or 'sustainable' journalism; if, and in what ways, digital technologies may disrupt journalism; and whether Chinese digital journalism converges with or diverges from Western experiences of digital journalism. Digital Journalism in China is an important addition to the literature on digital journalism, comparative media analysis, the Chinese Communist Party's social media strategies, tabloidization trends, and the conflict between newsroom and classroom in journalism education, and will be of interest to advanced students, scholars, and practitioners alike.

As a country in transition, Chinese news discourse has quite distinctive characteristics, and more so given the power of state media in society. With China's engagement in world affairs and its massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) now in place, Western media coverage of China has dramatically increased. Against this backdrop, news dissemination and discourse demonstrate a need for academia to give perspectives with interdisciplinary approaches. Chinese News Discourse presents original research from academics in China and the West, showing theoretical, methodological and practical dimensions between news media and discourse. The book focuses on Chinese news discourse by examining what new modern features it demonstrates in contrast and comparison to news discourses in other countries in the coverage of such hot topics as the BRI or the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China, just to name a few. This book is a useful resource for scholars and students of discourse, language, media and communication studies, as well as translation studies.

As a country in transition, Chinese news discourse has quite distinctive characteristics, and more so given the power of state media in society. With China's engagement in world affairs and its massive Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) now in place, Western media coverage of China has dramatically increased. Against this backdrop, news dissemination and discourse demonstrate a need for academia to give perspectives with interdisciplinary approaches. Chinese News Discourse presents original research from academics in China and the West, showing theoretical, methodological and practical dimensions between news media and discourse. The book focuses on Chinese news discourse by examining what new modern features it demonstrates in contrast and comparison to news discourses in other countries in the coverage of such hot topics as the BRI or the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China, just to name a few. This book is a useful resource for scholars and students of discourse, language, media and communication studies, as well as translation studies.

Impact of Globalization on the Local Press in China investigates Chinese news production and content, as well as the main factors that have caused significant changes to Chinese newspapers over the past three decades. By conducting an in-depth study of a particular leading newspaper group in China, Beijing Youth Daily, Zhang identifies and analyzes essential changes in press structure, news organization, and the role of journalists, thus revealing the relations between the global and local, external and internal influences, the Party-state and the media, and the media and the market. This is the first comprehensive study of news making at both macro and micro levels in China. It provides up-to-date empirical data analysis on the operation and practices of transforming Chinese newspapers; offers a tool to form, clarify, and refine concepts on media globalization and journalism in developing countries like China; and serves as a reference point for policy makers, media practitioners, academics, and students who engage in journalism studies, Chinese studies, media management, and globalization studies.

This book explores the media and conflict relationship in the age of social media through the lens of China. Inspired by the concepts of medialization of conflict and actor-network theory, this book centers on four main actors in wars and conflicts: social media platform, mainstream news organizations, online users and social media content. These four human and non-human actors associate, interact and negotiate with each other in the social media network. The central argument is that social media is playing an enabling role in contemporary wars and conflicts. Both professional media outlets and web users employ the functionalities of social media platforms to set, counter-set or expand the online public agenda. Social media platform embodies a web of technological and human complexities with different actors, factors, interests, and power relations. These four actors and the macro social-political context are influential in the medialization of conflict in the social media era. ''Empirically rich and theoretically innovative, this book advances our understanding of the constantly changing dynamic between international conflict and its medialization. With its compelling case studies, Shixin Zhang's monograph makes a valuable contribution to the literature on Chinese social media in conflict situations.'' - Daya K. Thussu, Professor of International Communication, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong

This book engages with the Chinese mediation of wars and conflicts in the global environment.Proposing a new cascading media and conflict model, it applies this to the studyof war correspondents from six levels: media-policy relations, journalistic objectivity, roleperceptions, news framing and peace/war journalism, news practices, and audience. Based on interviews with 23 Chinese journalists and case study analysis of the Libyan War,Syrian War, Afghanistan War and Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the book demonstrates thata new breed of Chinese war correspondents has emerged today. They undergo a complexand nuanced mediated communication process. Neither traditionally Chinese in theirapproach nor western in their perceptions, they are uniquely pragmatic in negotiating theirroles in a complex web of internal and external actors and factors. The core ideology seemsto be anti-West in defiance of the US hegemony and the bias of global media as well asneutral-Muslims. Exploring the role perceptions, values, norms and practices of contemporary Chinese warcorrespondents who go outside China to bring the 'distant culture' back home, this text is keyreading for scholars and students in international journalism, international communication,war and peace studies, international relations and Chinese studies.