UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN (SUNGAI LONG CAMPUS)

FACULTY OF CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

UJMC2324 MEDIA RELATIONS

GROUP ASSIGNMENT

LECTURER/TUTOR: MS CHEW WEE LEE

TUTORIAL GROUP: T1

SUBMISSION DATE: 09-08-2022 (WEEK 9)

COUNTRY: CHINA

NAME ID COURSE

Eunice Tiu Hew Voon 2006347 CC

Karen Chong Kah Yee 1906557 CC

Tamilarasi A/P Tanabalan 1903839 CC

Yap Hui Shan 1901527 CC

Table of Content

No Content Page Number

1. Introduction  1–2

2. Media industry 3–8

3. Media environment 9 – 11

4. Government media relations practices 12 – 13

5. Analysis 14 – 16

6. Conclusion 17

7. References 18 – 20
1.0 Introduction

People’s Republic of China (PRC), also known as China, was founded in 1949 after the
nationalist Kuomintang was defeated by the Communist Party. Since 2012, Xi Jinping became
the president of China; he is the heir of Hu Jintao, the former president of China. China is the
most populous country in the world. As of 2022, the population of China is 1.4 billion.
Additionally, China is the world’s largest media market due to its large population. According to
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), President Xi Jinping has been described as the “leading press
and censor freedom predator on the planet” (“China profile-Media '', 2018). Furthermore,
Freedom House considered China as the most restrictive media environment in the world
whereby there are heavy restrictions on media freedom. This is due to the reason that the Chinese
Communist Party (CCP) has control over the accreditation of journalists, news reporting through
direct ownership as well as harsh penalties for comments critical of the CCP or party leaders
(FREEDOM IN THE WORLD 2021, 2021). Additionally, directives restricting coverage of
sensitive political topics and editorial guidelines are given to media outlets daily as well.

Other than that, experts stated that monitors normally will be employed by the Chinese
media outlets in order to make sure that the content journalists wrote is politically acceptable.
According to Beijing News, which is a state-run paper, it was reported that 2 million people are
hired as a “monitor” to review posts on the internet using keyword searches, and they will then
compile all the reports together for the “decision makers”, who so-called as the “public opinion
analysts” (Media Censorship in China, 2017). These people are hired by both private and state
companies in order to continuously monitor the internet of China.

In China, almost every household has a television, and there are more than 3,300
television channels, regardless of national, local or regional. Furthermore, there are around 1,900
newspapers and every city has their own title. These newspapers normally will be published by
the local Communist Party or the local government every day. Moreover, there are more than
2,600 radio stations in China and mostly owned by the states (“China profile-Media '', 2018).
However, due to the advancement of technology, China has slowly moved from traditional
media to new media.

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 According to China Internet Network Information Centre, China has the largest
population of internet-using with a number of 829 million users, and approximately 26.7% of the
online population lives in countryside areas. They further added that 98.6% of the online
population in China is able to access the internet by using smartphones (“China profile-Media '',
2018). Not only that, China has the largest online video market in the world; there are numerous
streaming platforms in China. For instance, iQiyi (market leader), Sohu, Youku Tudou and so
on. Besides that, there are several online giants that are considered as powerful in China, and
they are known as “BAT”. “B” refers to Baidu whereby it is the top search engine; “A” refers to
Alibaba, which is the leader in e-commerce; and “T” refers to Tencent which owns WeChat, the
instant messenger.

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2.0 Media Industry

The mass media in China encompasses primarily magazines, newspapers, television as

well as radio. Since the beginning of the 21st century, the Internet has become an essential media
communication form, and it is now regulated by the Chinese government. China, the birthplace
of printing and papermaking, had its own model of newspapers hundreds of years ahead of any
other country. Nevertheless, because they were only used by the king’s court to transmit royal
edicts and memorial services, those early newspapers did not represent the origin of mass media
in the modern sense. With Western religious missions and imperialist advances in the late
nineteenth century, modern newspapers and journals started arriving in China (Xu, n.d.).

Moreover, foreigners introduced radio into the country in a similar way about 100 years
later. Television was introduced in Chinese media in 1958, twenty-two years after the world’s
first television broadcast. It was started by the Chinese and has become the fastest-rising form of
mass media in China.

2.1 Newspaper in China

Back then in 2006, China had the largest daily newspaper market in 2006, with 96.6
million copies sold every day, followed by India with 78.7 million, Japan with 69.7 million, the
United States with 53.3 million, and Germany with 21.5 million. Between 2001 and 2006,
revenue from newspaper advertisements in China increased by 128% (Brook, 2018). The
People’s Daily, Beijing Daily, Guangming Daily, and the Liberation Daily are all regional
newspapers in China. In China, the two main news agencies are China News Service and Xinhua
News Agency. The common newspapers found in China were China Daily and The People’s
Daily.

In China, all general-interest newspapers are owned and supervised by the highest
political decision-making body, which is the Chinese Communist Party Committee (CCPC). The
ownership structure of Chinese newspapers corresponds to the CCPC system’s four levels of
hierarchy: nation, province, prefecture, and county. Non-national newspapers are under the
control of local CCPCs. A local CCPC, as a direct owner, supervises the newspapers under its
administration and has the obligation to claim and allocate residuals (Qin, Stromberg & Wu,

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2018). With a few special cases, a lower-level newspaper’s business operations are separate from
those of its higher-level counterparts.

2.1.1 China Daily

China Daily, was founded back then in 1981, it is China’s first national English-language
newspaper. It is also universally recognized as China’s most influential English language
publication and is most widely cited by major foreign media, adhering to the concept of assisting
the world to better understand China (“About China Daily Group”, n.d.). China Daily is the
country’s sole representative in the Asian News Network (ANN), which is a non-governmental
media organisation of 14 major newspapers that are English-language with a combined
circulation of over 20 million.

Besides, China Daily is cited nearly 1000 times per week on average. For decades, China
Daily has been considered as a must-read for influential decision-makers around the world who
wish to understand more about China. Not to mention, China Daily is viewed as a channel that is
indispensable for forward-thinking corporate leaders, who are looking for business possibilities
as well as market share development for their brands, and government officials.

China Daily is now available in over 150 countries and regions worldwide. Roughly 70%
of its domestic subscribers are decision-makers from multinational companies, government
officials, and senior management representatives from Chinese large and medium-sized
organizations (“About China Daily Group”, n.d.). Domestic readers mainly include high-end
nationals and foreigners, such as diplomats and governmental policymakers. Furthermore, China
Daily as a newspaper group runs China Daily Hong Kong Edition, China Business Weekly,
China Daily Website, ShangHai Weekend, China Daily Mobile News and China Daily eClips.
China Daily also owns accounts on various social media such as WeChat, Twitter, Sina Weibo,
and Facebook. Their Facebook followers were 104 million, and Twitter followers were 4.25
million by the end of April 2022 (“About China Daily Group”, n.d.).

2.1.2 The People’s Daily

People’s Daily, which started its publication in June 1948, has been based in Beijing
since 1949 (“Renmin Ribao”, 2017). Currently, it has a circulation of 3 million; it is the most

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authoritative and influential newspaper in China. According to UNESCO, People’s Daily is
listed amongst the top ten newspapers in the world. It publishes the most recent news notices of
Chinese Government decisions and policy information, as well as major international and local
news releases from China (“ Introduction to People’s Daily”, n.d.).

Furthermore, People’s Daily now provides websites in Simplified Chinese, Traditional

Chinese, English, Japanese, French, Russian, Spanish and Arabic, bringing total seven lingual
versions for distributing information and news around the world. It has also established mirror
sites in the United States and Japan, with efforts from over 1000 journalists from over 70 stations
worldwide and around 500 cooperative media as an essential tool for overseas readers to learn
about China on the Internet (“Introduction to People’s Daily”, n.d.).

2.2 Magazine in China

2.2.1 The World of Chinese

People nowadays still read magazines for entertainment or current trends. In China, there
are different types of magazines. For instance, there are magazines about fashion, entertainment,
news, sports, or finance.

The World of Chinese is considered as one of the most influential resources in China,
with a reputation for in-depth reporting, objectivity, and a human-centered method to Chinese
society. It was launched in 2006 and continues to strive to become an important resource for
readers seeking in-depth knowledge of Chinese life (“About Us”, n.d.). Additionally, it was
published by The Commercial Press, which is part of China's earliest publishing house. In their
official website, they also mentioned that they are an international team with the goal of
entertaining, informing, and connecting the growing community of people involved in China
with life on the ground.

2.2.2 DuZhe

Besides, DuZhe is a Chinese general interest magazine. It is one of the most read and
well-known magazines in China. In March 1981, Duzhe was first printed in Lanzhou, China. The
Gansu People's Press publishes DuZhe every two weeks, and its main office is in Lanzhou. In

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addition to original content, the magazine also features condensed articles taken from other
publications, books, collections of jokes, quotes, anecdotal stories, and other quick reads
(Redazione, 2019).

The publication frequency of the magazine during the first half of the 2000s was
bimonthly. With a 3,000,000 circulation, Duzhe was one of the top five magazines in China in
2003 (Redazione, 2019). After Time, National Geographic and Reader’s Digest, DuZhe was
ranked as the fourth-best selling magazine worldwide in the same year.

2.3 Television in China

2.3.1 China Central Television (CCTV)

High-tech programme production, transmission, and coverage are all part of China’s
television industry. China Central Television (CCTV) is the largest and most powerful national
television station in China (TELEVISION IN CHINA: CHANNELS, RATINGS AND
PRODUCTION, n.d.). It is a Communist China state-owned broadcaster in which the CCP has
control. By 1987, two-thirds of Chinese people had access to television, and the country now has
over 3000 channels.

CCTV in Beijing provides television service, as well as local daily programming and
Internet access for viewers to planning, reviews, and programming. In China, television
broadcasting began in 1958. In 1973, the first colour transmissions were made. In 1978, China
had one million television sets. China has the most television viewers in the world, accounting
for an estimated 95 percent of its 1.4 billion people (TELEVISION IN CHINA: CHANNELS,
RATINGS AND PRODUCTION, n.d.). This adds up to over two billion eyes every day.

In addition, the majority of CCTV’s programmes are a mixture of social education, news,
documentary, entertainment, drama as well as comedy with a focus on Chinese entertainment
and soap operas. But, news coverage of sensitive CCP topics is altered and frequently utilized as
a weapon against the opponents of the party (TELEVISION IN CHINA: CHANNELS, RATINGS
AND PRODUCTION, n.d.). CCTV is run by the National Radio and Television Administration,
which reports directly to the Chinese Communist Party's Publicity Department.

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2.4 Radio Station in China

Although people nowadays mostly use their mobile phones to listen to songs on YouTube
or Spotify, radio is still considered a great companion especially during a drive. The Vice
President of Radio for China’s largest broadcaster, Shanghai Media Group, who named Han Lei,
mentioned that radio is still very popular in China due to the increasing number of cars on the
road (Smith, 2019).

There are over 3,000 radio stations that serve the population of 1.4 billion people in
China. On December 30, 1940, the Communist Party of China (CPC) launched the first radio
station, XNCR, which broadcast for the first time ever in China. XNCR, the predecessor of
China Media Group’s (CMG) China Radio International (CRI) and China National Radio (CNR)
now, reported on significant CPC documents, editorials, articles as well as international and
domestic current events (“International media congratulates China's first radio station on 80th
anniversary”, 2021).

2.5 Social Media in China

On the other hand, with the advancement of technology and the Internet, social media has
also slowly come into the market. People start using social media on a daily basis because they
use social media to perform their daily activities. For example, people use social media to watch
movies or videos, to communicate with family and friends, or to keep themselves updated to
current trends. Currently, in China, the most popular online platforms used by the public are
Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent, accounting for more than 70% of mobile usage. Additionally, in
China, there are approximately 1.4 billion mobile phone subscriptions and users who are pretty
upfront to digital technology, actively consuming and producing mobile content (Media & PR-
Work, n.d.).

2.5.1 WeChat

In China, WeChat has evolved from a voice messaging platform to a truly ubiquitous app
experience. It has changed the way Chinese people communicate and use digital devices since

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2011. Tencent Holdings owns the WeChat app, which has over 900 million monthly active users
with users spending an average of 66 minutes on the app every day. The WeChat app, known as
Weixin in Chinese, is now strongly embedded in the fabric of daily life for its users for its
various functionalities (Boyd, 2017). According to the Tencent Penguin Intelligence Survey
Platform’s most recent WeChat User Report, 83 percent of users use WeChat for business
reasons, and the majority of new contacts are now work-related (Media & PR-Work, n.d.).

According to Statista, 60% of users open the app more than 10 times per day, with 21%
opening WeChat more than 50 times per day (Boyd, 2017). That means 17% of WeChat users
spend 4 hours or more per day on the app. WeChat offers everything people want from a
smartphone, from gaming to a smooth payment system.

In August 2013, WeChat Pay made its online debut: the mobile payments feature was
launched, transforming WeChat into one of the most popular cashless payment apps now. How it
functions is users can pay for everything with a tap of the phone or a camera snap (Boyd, 2017).
There are multiple choices within WeChat Pay. A user can send and receive gifts and sending
HongBao (Red Packet) to friends and family is a very popular practice in China.

2.5.2 WeiBo

On August 14, 2009, Sina Corporation launched the Chinese microblogging website Sina
Weibo (also known as Weibo). Weibo means microblogging in Chinese. It cloned Twitter but it
added the comments function back then. Weibo has grown into one of the country’s largest
social media platforms, with 241 million daily active users as of May 2020. Weibo has played an
important role in Chinese society today. The Chinese social media platform, similar to Twitter, is
frequently one of the first places that Chinese citizens will go to post pictures and share first-
hand information in the case of an incident (Gandolfo, 2020). With 550 million monthly active
users, Weibo users are likely to be present near any major incident in China.

Weibo, like Twitter and Facebook, has been plagued by the spread of fake news in recent
years. However, Chinese Internet censors have far greater authority in removing misinformation
and disinformation as what is expected from China’s government.

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3.0 Media Environment

According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), China has become one of the worst
countries for journalists in the world because China maintains extreme levels for internet
censorship, propaganda and monitoring. They also mentioned that there is a rise in repression of
journalists worldwide, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic strikes (“China is world’s ‘biggest
jailer of journalists’, says RSF”, 2021). Not to mention, RSF also highlighted that China remains
the world’s “biggest jailer of press freedom defenders” in 2021, with over 120 of them currently
imprisoned in China, often in situations that are life-threatening.

Furthermore, China was ranked 175th out of 180 countries in the RSF World Press
Freedom Index 2022, and the world-famous world press freedom watchdog has warned that
China belongs among the most dictatorial autocratic regimes in the world. China ranked 177th in
2019, 2020, and 2021, dropping from 176th from 2015 to 2018. It is currently ranked only higher
than the totalitarian countries of Turkmenistan, Eritrea, and North Korea, which have
consistently ranked last over the years (Choesang, 2022). According to RSF, journalists and
press freedom activists imprisoned in China are frequently mistreated and denied medical care.
They even released a list of 15 detained press freedom defenders in China who face death if they
are not immediately released.

To further suppress journalists, the Chinese government accuses them of “subversion”,

“espionage,” or “picking quarrels and causing trouble”. The Chinese law experts called them as
the three “pocket crimes”, a term that they use to describe broadly defined offences, which can
be implemented to almost any behaviour or activity. Independent journalists could also be legally
detained in solitary confinement for six months under “Residential Surveillance at a Designated
Location” (“RSDL”) in China’s “black prisons,” where they are legal representation deprived
and might be tortured (Media Landscape, 2022). Therefore, it can be said that it is not an easy
option to become a journalist in China, especially because there are a lot of rules and regulations
that suppress the freedom of journalists and the freedom of speech.

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3.1 The Change of Traditional Style to Digital Style

Traditional media, such as television, newspapers, radio experienced slower growth while
remaining focused on deep convergence and digital transformation. These media outlets have
been broadening their mobile internet operations and encouraging multimedia growth, providing
news services in a variety of formats across a wide range of platforms. According to the report,
new media, such as short videos and live streaming videos have become a significant motivating
force in the industry (Zhao, 2022).

With the advancement of technology and the Internet, the media environment in China
has switched from traditional to a more digital way. To further explain, the media people in
China have started switching their work mode from a more conventional way to online. For
example, the newspaper or magazines have online versions in China. China, with a population of
over 1.4 billion people, is rapidly entering the age of information and has a wide variety of
communication channels. China is known for its quick transition from rigid government-owned
structures to business models that are new, from traditional media to new media as well as
innovative news production forms (Media & PR-Work, n.d.).

Compared to the previous era, people only read newspapers and magazines physically.
But thanks to the Internet, people brought many things virtually because they are using their
mobile gadgets such as smartphones and laptops every day. People can just scroll through
various social media or official websites to keep themselves updated on the latest news. As has
been mentioned above, a lot of newspapers and magazines in China are publishing online
versions to the readers as well. Many traditional media outlets now include web platforms and
therefore must compete for the interest of Chinese web users with other online media
competitors (Media & PR-Work, n.d.).

Nevertheless, it has shown a clear trend toward new business models involving private
investors. A rise in the number of private companies like Alibaba and Tencent investing in new
online media platforms, somehow shows that the Chinese media landscape is shifting towards
greater innovation (Media & PR-Work, n.d.). Not to mention, information and news apps such as
Toutiao are slowly replacing traditional newspapers as well.

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 As the new media and technology are changing in flux, people in the media industry in
China might need to adapt to this new working environment because it is what happens now and
if they do not switch from traditional to new media, they might find themselves lost of track or
losing some loyal customers. This is due to the reason that readers tend to follow the current
trends and if their preferred company did not publish news or articles online, the likelihood for
them to switch to other news companies will be higher. For instance, if Beijing Daily does not
provide online news, readers will change their preference to China Daily, which is offering
online news to their readers.

In short, the media people working in the media industry in China might need to put in
more effort in their job because their job responsibilities are getting greater compared to those
days when they only need to take care of the conventional media. The media industry might need
to hire more manpower in balancing the tasks so that everyone is working in a harmonious
environment.

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4.0 Government Media Relations Practices

The China government controls any message that flows to the people through its media.
According to Gavin (2021), in 2000, PRC applied a law named as GFW (Great Firewall of
China) and sometimes referred to as the Golden Shield Project which is a combination of
technologies and legislative actions enforced to regulate the use of the internet domestically. This
goes to show that the government of China fully controls the media usage of its people. China
sees its media as a platform to disseminate its political agenda. The China government has taken
many steps in order to make sure that their agenda is communicated even to other countries.
According to Kumar (2021), China has spent almost USD 6.6 billion to strengthen its global
media presence. She also stated that exchange programmes are conducted for foreign reporters
from other countries, trainings are organized for local journalists and regular discussions are held
by the government with Chinese media unions and foreign journalists.

According to Kumar (2021), Beijing uses unusual tactics such as providing state media
content free of charge, paying for entire supplements in respected foreign newspapers, and
launching bilateral cooperation agreements with local media outlets. The China government
makes sure that they are highlighted in the media in the best limelight possible. It takes the
necessary steps to eliminate any news that projects them negatively and turn any negative news
positively. This was seen when the world was affected by the global Covid-19 pandemic. A
newspaper controlled by the Chinese regime, Global Times, blamed Italy for the coronavirus by
claiming that the virus had been born in Italy (Kumar, 2021). When the Covid-19 virus first
started spreading in China, the government silenced, arrested, and intimidated journalists,
activists, and even doctors who tried to tell the seriousness of the virus to the public (Zhang &
Blumenthal, 2020). The Chinese government censored the blog of Fang Fang, an award-winning
writer in Wuhan after she shared her story during the lockdown and all the things she witnessed
during the time period such as insufficient supplies of masks, the tensions in the hospital needing
to handle so many patients, and the government’s incompetence in handling the situation. Fang’s
blog was censored, and her story was said to be biased by the state-run press (Zhang &
Blumenthal, 2020).

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 China has always monitored the news flowing out through its media. According to Xu
and Albert (2017), the Chinese government has long kept tight reins on both new and traditional
media in order to prevent potential subversion of its authority. In May 2010, the first white paper
was issued by the Chinese government on the internet; it requires foreign people and
organizations as well as all internet users in China to follow the Chinese rules and regulations
(Xu & Albert, 2017). According to a specialist on Chinese media censorship named Jason,
President Xi of China announced that all the party’s media work needs to reflect the will of the
party, safeguard the authority of the party as well as safeguard the unity of the party and all the
state’s media has to be in line with the political actions and ideas of its ruling party. Social media
such as Whatsapp, Facebook and Youtube are blocked in China. Restrictions have also been
placed on micro-blogging services in response to sensitive topics such as corruption (Xu &
Albert, 2017). This proves that the Chinese media builds the perception and sets the agenda for
its public. The Communist Party’s Central Propaganda Department (CPD) is the important body
that monitors the media. It works together with the General Administration of Press and
Publication and State Administration of Radio, Film and Television to make sure their content
liaises with the party’s doctrine and make editorial guidelines for the media (Xu & Albert, 2017).

According to the IFJ report, Beijing targets journalists from developing countries that
have a government that is ineffective and is prone to disinformation. For example, China
provides funds to African journalists since journalism is not considered as a core job in African
countries and journalists there do not even have salaries. So Chinese money allows some
journalists to tell their stories without having to depend on the western countries for funds and
ideas (Kumar, 2021). This allows the Chinese government to influence news about them on a
global scale.

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5.0 Analysis

In China, both traditional and social media information channels play a vital role in
providing information to the public. In this day and age, the habits of the public in China have
changed and they think social media can bring a new way to get broader information. They can
even interpret the content according to what they see and what they view instantly. Undeniably,
the information that is distributed through traditional media such as newspapers will reach the
public slower compared to social media like Weibo. Somehow, both traditional and social media
have been well utilized in China, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic kicked in. They use
WeChat, Weibo, QQ and XiaoHongShu to share information such as vaccination campaigns, the
number of Covid-19 cases, Covid-19 symptoms and many more.

As the traditional media have to compete with other online media, most of them, which
are owned by the government, even created the web platforms to get more attention from the
web users in China. This is because the younger generation frequently uses the Internet to surf
online sites like Weibo. Then, it has become one of the most important information sources and
influenced them to change the way of information dissemination in the country. Other than that,
WeChat, which is developed by Tencent, is also the mobile platform that is used the most in
China with 1.4 billion subscriptions that consume and create content actively (Media & PR-
Work, n.d.).

Upon the growing popularity of social media, the government has asked the online users
to attach their real names when they are doing any online posts. This is due to the reason that the
government wants to monitor the social media in China by filtering the automated keyword and
have the authority to control the content directly although the citizens have been given freedom
of speech. It is to prevent the exposure of state secrets that might affect the development of
China or even endanger the country. In my point of view, it shows that the government of China
has strictly controlled all the information that is posted on social media, and they even asked for
more official documents when they post information on official websites (FREEDOM IN THE
WORLD 2021, 2021).

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 According to the FREEDOM IN THE WORLD 2021 (2021), China always restricts the
media environment with its complicated system of censorship in social media. The journalists
who have been accredited by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controlled the news that was
being reported. Not only that, CCP has the right to punish those who give harsh comments for
the party leaders or the CCP. For example, a journalist named Chen Jieren was charged and
prisoned as he alleged the official corruption in Hunan province and published it on social media.
It shows that there were many restrictions on freedom of speech in the media industry of China
that confine the journalists of their reporting.

Censorship is the method created by the Communist Party of China (CPC) to control all
the media content that is being published. CPC launched People’s Daily to maintain the
ownership of the largest newspapers in China in 1949 to achieve their goal (Austin, 2015). Upon
the censorship in China, the “sensitive” words and phrases are also not allowed to be used and
will be deleted by the government. In 2012, there was an intensive online debate which led to
Feng Jianmei who is a 22-year-old woman that lived in China invigorated the outrage of national
and international people as she was forced to abort after an image of her stillborn child was
posted on Sina Weibo by her family. Soon, there were a lot of bad comments that angrily
accused her and the government censored and removed all of the comments quickly (Lars, Lu &
Jason, 2015). Hence, the government can always keep an eye on the comments and the moments
that are posted by the public.

In the early of 2020, a young Wuhan doctor named Li Wenliang who died because of
Covid-19 even got punished because he published the report on the virus earlier. Many people
felt angry and condemned the government of China as they were trying to hide the information
about the virus. There were also three citizen journalists who were detained as they recorded
videos during the lockdown of the city and published them on social media. Their videos were
being shared widely and caused many people to know more about this information. Somehow, it
seems like the government of China wanted to hide the information at first, but the news was
immediately spread on social media (FREEDOM IN THE WORLD 2021, 2021). Moreover, there

15
were 897 cases in between 1st January 2020 and 26 March 2020 showing that the internet users
were being punished as they spoke up about the coronavirus.
In my point of view, the government of China strictly controls the media not to publish
any information that will harm the image of the country although it is given much freedom to the
internet users. The government of China used the media effectively to maintain their reputation
and avoid any negative comments from the public on social media. Somehow, it seems like they
are also trying to hide some information that threatens the nation’s reputation. They use ways
such as controlling the largest newspaper company to prevent the news that is harmful to the
reputation of the country from being spread to the public. Consequently, many people will be
questioning the government and the trust in the media in China is decreasing. Somehow, they
might be wondering about the authenticity of the news that is being spread on social media and
may lose confidence in the government as the government has not been transparent enough for
the public to trust.

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6.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, the mass media that China comprises are newspapers, magazines,
television and radio. There are two common newspapers in China, which are China Daily and
People’s Daily. China Daily is the first national English-language newspaper in China; it is
China’s sole representative in ANN. While People’s Daily is the most authoritative newspaper in
China and 7 different languages are available whereby the readers could choose their preferred
language when they read. Apart from that, the magazine named The World of Chinese is one of
the most influential resources in China, with a reputation for in-depth reporting and objectivity.
Whereas DuZhe is one of the most read and popular magazines in China, making it one of the
top five magazines in China in 2003. Other than that, CCTV is the largest national station in
China, and it is a Communist China state-owned broadcaster. In addition, radio is still popular in
China because of the increased number of cars whereby radio would be a great companion when
driving.

In China, WeChat is one of the most used social media, especially when it comes to
payment. Most of the people in China use WeChat to pay for things they eat and buy. Besides
that, WeiBo is also one of the most used social media in China whereby people often share first-
hand information of an incident on WeiBo. Somehow, due to the advancement of technology and
the internet, China has switched from traditional style to digital style whereby people could read
newspapers or magazines online. They no longer will need to buy the printed ones in order to
read.

As of today, China is ranked 175th out of 180 countries in the RSF World Press Freedom
Index 2022. Somehow, China has become one of the worst nations for journalists in the world
due to extreme levels of monitoring, censorship and propaganda. Furthermore, the China
government takes necessary steps to eliminate any negative news about their own country and
even turn negative news positively. Besides that, the government of China sees its media as a
platform to disseminate its political agenda and has taken steps to ensure its agenda is
communicated to other nations. In addition, the China government tends to hide information that
will damage the reputation of their country from the public, leaving the public not knowing the
truth.

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