Journal of Communication, September 2003

Transitional Media vs. Normative Theories:

Schramm, Altschull, and China

By Chengju Huang

Wilbur Schramms Soviet communist model and J. Herbert Altschulls Marxist

approach have been widely used as general theoretical frameworks to examine
press systems in the Marxist world in general and China in particular. Though a
growing literature suggested significant changes in Chinese journalism in the past
2 decades, very few studies have sent a direct challenge to the 2 models theoretical
wisdom through the Chinese case. This article finds neither of the 2 models is suffi-
cient in conceptualizing the Chinese case because of Chinese news medias transi-
tional nature and the 2 models inner theoretical flaws as normative press theories.
Furthermore, realizing the growing conflict between normative media theories and
accelerated post-Cold War global media transformation, the author suggests using
a transitional media approach to revisit the traditional normative media approach
and calls for a more systematic study of the transitional phenomenon of global
media systems.

For decades, Wilbur Schramms Soviet Communist Theory of the Press (Siebert,
Peterson, & Schramm, 1956, pp. 105146) was widely used as the general theo-
retical framework to examine press systems in the communist world in general
and China in particular (e.g., Hachten, 1987; Merrill, 1974, p. 35; Merrill &
Lowenstein, 1971, pp. 182184; Merrill & Odell, 1983, pp. 159160; Rivers &
Schramm, 1969, pp. 4045). Criticizing the Schramm schema as ideologically bi-
ased, J. Herbert Altschull (1984) attempted to reconceptualize the worlds Marx-
ist press.
By the early and middle 1990s, while a growing literature from students of
Chinese political economy suggested China had largely transformed itself from
communism into postcommunist neoauthoritarianism under some form of market
economy (e.g., Baum, 1994; Pei, 1994; White, 1993; Y. S. Wu, 1994), some Western
communication scholars continued to put Chinese journalism into Schramms So-
viet model or Altschulls Marxist approach. In Global Journalism: Survey of Inter-
national Communication, edited by John C. Merrill (1995), a widely used text in
Western journalism schools, Lambeth (1995) explicitly put China (together with

Chengju Huang is a postdoctoral fellow in journalism and media studies at Central Queensland
University, Australia.

Copyright 2003 International Communication Association

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 Transitional Media vs. Normative Theories

Cuba and North Korea) into Schramms communist model (p. 5), and he be-
lieved China still kept Soviet-style communist press systems intact (p. 13; see
also Chaudhary & Chen, 1995). Meanwhile, Altschull (1995, pp. 240, 251) insisted
China was still a Marxist country.
Indeed, since the early 1990s, many empirical studies have revealed significant
changes in post-Mao Chinese journalism (e.g., Chang, Chen, & Zhang, 1993; Chu,
1994; Huang, 1994; Lee, 1994, 2000; Zhao, 1998). However, whether or not those
changes are significant enough to question the adequacy of Schramms Soviet
theory and Altschulls Marxist approach in conceptualizing post-Mao Chinese jour-
nalism remains largely unanswered.1 Very few have directly challenged the two
models theoretical wisdom through the Chinese case.
Unsatisfied with this situation, I developed this article to argue that neither of
the two models is sufficient in conceptualizing the Chinese case because of Chi-
nese news medias transitional nature and the two models inner theoretical flaws
as normative press theories. Furthermore, realizing the growing conflict between
normative media theories and accelerated post-Cold War global media transforma-
tion, I call for further study of the transitional phenomenon of global media systems.

The Schramm Schema and China

The central thesis of Schramms 1956 essay is quite simple: The Soviet communist
mass media were antiprofessional and anticommercial as they were used instru-
mentally by the communist party state for various political purposes, particularly
as propaganda tools. As an integral part of the four theories myth, the Schramm
schema has had lasting impact on Western communication scholarship. As
Lowenstein and Merrill (1990) noted, Four Theories of the Press (Siebert et al.,
1956; Four Theories hereafter):

has become standard reading in journalism departments and schools and has im-
planted the four theories concept rather firmly in the minds of journalism stu-
dents, faculty, and practitioners. Almost every article and book dealing with philo-
sophical bases for journalism has alluded to this book, commented on it, or quoted
from it. It has definitely made an impact. (p. 163)

According to the University of Illinois Press (Nerone, 1995, back cover), since
its publication in 1956, Four Theories had remained the best-selling nonfiction
book published by the press, with some 80,000 copies sold by the mid-1990s. In
the Chinese journalism community, Schramm has been described as the father of

1
For example, Chang et al. (1993) have argued that the mass propaganda model used by some
Western scholars to examine Maos media has no longer been adequate in addressing changes in post-
Mao Chinese press. This argument, however, does not necessarily or automatically imply the Schramm
schemas insufficiency in the Chinese context. This is not only because Schramms Soviet model is
more popular and influential than the mass propaganda model, but also because Schramms discus-
sion of Soviet media covered broader issues on communist media systems.

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Journal of Communication, September 2003

communication study (Li, 1993, p. 34) and remains a popular figure. In May 1982,
Schramm visited China. In Shanghai and Beijing he introduced communication
study to Chinese journalism researchers and students for whom communication
study was still a brand new science. After long suffering from Maos totalitarian
communist press approach and isolation from the international journalism com-
munity, Chinas reformist journalists and young journalism students were rightly
hungry to learn from Western liberal democracy and press freedom. Schramms
visit to China was short, but his legacy was indelible. Together with Four Theories,
which was published in Chinese soon after Schramms visit, as a whole, his So-
viet theory, meeting virtually no serious academic critique, has been highly and
widely recognized by its Chinese readers.
It is true that for Schramm, who died in 1987, history gave him little chance to
watch significant social and media changes in China since the mid-1980s. It is true
as well that even before Schramm died, Deng Xiaopings post-Cultural Revolution
reforms since the late 1970s had already led to some noticeable and significant
changes in the news media, as noted by other Western scholars. As early as 1981,
for example, Robinson (1981) noted the striking (p. 72) contrast of Chinese
news media in the Mao era and the post-Mao era. She found that aiming at fur-
thering new economic and political priorities, the functions of the news media in
China have been expanded to include advertising, entertainment, and coverage
of news which is decidedly more Western in approach (p. 58) and the media
even criticize the daily workings of government (p. 63). Luter and Richstad
(1983, p. 179) also noted a remarkably different press has emerged from . . .
change in [Chinas] political direction and press philosophy. In the meantime,
Schramm continued to put the Chinese case into his Soviet model (e.g., Schramm
& Porter, 1982, p. 153).
It is not my intention to cavil Schramm too much, despite his insensitivity to
changes in the post-Mao Chinese press, as major social and media changes in
China occurred after he was gone. Instead, my greater critical concern is the
visible or invisible impact of the legacy left by his 1956 essay on many Western
scholars understanding of current Chinese journalism. Challenging the conven-
tional wisdom of those who continue to put China into Schramms Soviet commu-
nist press model, I argue that the Schramm schema is significantly insufficient in
conceptualizing the Chinese case in the following four key aspects.
Multifunctions press vs. single purpose press. In his 1956 essay, Schramm
wrote: The communication system and all other systems of the Soviet state had
only a single purpose and they are all saying the same thing, namely, to serve
party and state policies (Siebert et al., 1956, p. 122). The consequences of such a
single purpose communication included a great deal of sameness about the con-
tent of Soviet media on any day; the replacement of our own [Western medias]
function of news gathering and news writing by looking at events from the
Marxist-Leninist-Stalinist standpoint; and the lack of advertising, timely news, and
human interest stories in Soviet presses. Even Soviet broadcasting was deadly
serious broadcasting, missionary broadcasting (pp. 123, 124, 133, 134, 136, &
137). Although Schramms description of the Soviet press was basically suitable to

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Maos Chinese press as well (e.g., see Chang, 1989; Huang, 2002; Lu, 1980; Sun,
1986; Yu, 1988), it would be news in itself if one believed it is an accurate picture
of post-Mao Chinese journalistic practices. As shown in the existing literature, the
past decades have witnessed diversification of media structure, expansion of me-
dia function, and comprehensive media commercialization in China (e.g., Chan,
1993; Chu, 1994; Huang, 2001; Lee, 1994, 2000; To, 1998; Yu, 1994; Zhao, 1998).
As previously discussed, as early as the early 1980s some Western scholars ob-
served that Chinese news media were beginning to break from the single purpose
communication model described by Schramm. In a 1985 published textbook widely
used in Chinese journalism schools, leading Chinese media scholars urged the
news media to expand their function from propagating to providing news, gen-
eral information, knowledge, and entertainment, expressing public opinions, and
criticizing the daily working of government and the wrongdoing of officials. They
also called for introducing capitalist management into the countrys state-owned
news media, maintaining the pursuit of profit was a common and universally
recognized media function (Journalism Department of Fudan University, 1985,
pp. 138143, 224239). The 1990s witnessed Chinese news medias comprehen-
sive commercialization as a result of Dengs call for further reform and opening in
1992 and the Chinese Communist Partys (CCP) formal embrace of the socialist
market economy formula in its 14th national congress held in October of that
year. In the newspaper sector, for example, while many new established news
outlets were originally designed as reader-oriented presses (Huang, 2000, 2001),
even traditional party newspapers have been becoming increasingly reader-ori-
ented by increasing their coverage of news, entertainment, and commercial adver-
tisements and publishing commercialized subsidiary press chains (Xie, 1997; Yu,
1994; Zhao, 1998). In short, after more than 2 decades of reforms, Chinese jour-
nalism has now been largely transformed into a multistructured media industry
with multiple functions rather than pure propaganda tools.2 Certainly, official pro-
paganda still visibly and firmly remains in most party organs daily practices, but
propaganda itself has been significantly changed in terms of its content and method.
Although the news media in the Mao era were rather narrowly used to serve
Maos class struggle and mass political-economic campaigns, propaganda in post-
Mao Chinese media has been required to serve the countrys reform and open-
ing policy with a more rational and pragmatic manner (Huang, 2002). Accord-
ingly, things previously belonging to our own alone in Schramms eyes, such as
news competition, commercial advertising, human-interest stories, and even sen-
sational tabloids containing sex and violence, are now widely shared by our
Chinese communist counterparts. Instead of being deadly serious and propa-
ganda-oriented, many Chinese media have been criticized as oversensational and
money driven (Zhao, 1998).
Relaxed media control in China. The Soviet communist press described by
Schramm was a tightly and completely controlled political and ideological system,

2
For a brief but very useful description of Chinese communist journalism history, see Zhao (1998,
chaps. 1 & 2).

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Journal of Communication, September 2003

which perhaps can be called a sardine-can model. In Schramms words, the

Soviet mass media are kept instruments, and they follow humbly and nimbly the
gyrations of the party line and the state directives (Siebert et al., 1956, p. 122). A
similar high-handed media control system also existed in the Soviets satellite
states in Eastern Europe (Buzek, 1964; Lendvai, 1981) and Maos China (Chang,
1989; Huang, 2002; Lu, 1980; Sun, 1986; Yu, 1988). In contrast to this, post-Mao
China has been moving away from such an orthodox communist media control
system and approaching a more flexible media regulation pattern as a result of
significant changes in Chinese politics in general. Since the early 1990s, a growing
literature has been calling for rethinking Chinas new communism under Deng.
Some even questioned whether China was still a communist state in the traditional
sense at all. Shirk (1993), for example, found the Chinese communist institutions
under Deng to be surprisingly flexible and innovative and real bargaining took
place and politics were received or abandoned during tremendous work confer-
ences (p. 113). Impressed with the extraordinary changes in Chinese economy
during his visit to China in 1995, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
also believed that something in Chinese politics must have happened. He de-
scribed China as a strange political system right now. Its a one-party state but the
party itself is abandoning its original ideology (The world according to Kissinger,
1995). Peis work (1994) further argued that the Stalinist-Maoist communist China
that remained in many peoples minds had actually largely been transformed into
a postcommunist neoauthoritarian country (pp. 7, 20): The three pillars of or-
thodox communism in China and Vietnamthe Party-state, a planned economy,
and communist ideologyhave been made hollow by the technocratization of
the state at the expense of the Communist Party, the transformation of a planned
economy into a market one, and the decline of orthodox communist ideology
(pp. 23). Similarly, Cui (1994) noted that although Chinas neoauthoritarian po-
litical system had little to do with aggregation via voting, it had developed delib-
erative democracy and made it an integral part of [the] Chinese system (p. 19).
He also observed: There seems to be a tendency for substantive bargaining and
arguing to spill over and consolidate eventually into formal democratic institu-
tional procedures, as shown in the countrys democratic experiment with local
elections since 1988 (p. 20).
Within journalism, the past decades witnessed the relaxation of media control
as the CCP decided to shift its central work from Maos class struggle to economic
construction and no longer regarded the news media as pure political-ideological
propaganda tools. A relaxed media control policy has also resulted from the news
medias increasing marketization and financial independence from the govern-
ment (Liang, 1992, 1999; Liu, 1998). These significant philosophical and policy
changes have made a Stalinist-Maoist overall, direct, and concrete control on the
news media neither necessary nor possible. Instead, the news media have now
been jointly ruled by both the visible hand of the party state and the invisible
hand of the market. Media control is always there, but the means, extent, and
strategy of control have changed. According to a senior editor of the Beijing-based
Economic Daily, For todays Chinese news media, except for some important or
sensitive political and policy issues such as the independent movements in Tai-

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 Transitional Media vs. Normative Theories

wan and Tibet, foreign policy, and open criticisms of Chinese leadership and their
major socio-economic policies, control on other issues has largely disappeared.3
Wu (1997) also believed that the CCPs media control policy was in the transition
from a microcontrol model to a more relaxed and flexible macrocontrol pattern.
Consequently, the news media enjoyed a relatively freer media environment.
Even within Peoples Daily, mouthpiece of the CCP Central Committee, con-
trol from the central authorities over the newspapers editorial policy had
relaxed (G. G. Wu, 1994). 4
Positive instrumental use of media in post-Mao China. Under the heading The
Soviet Concept and Our Own, Schramm wrote:

[I]n the Soviet Union mass communication is essentially an instrument to be

played upon, by direction of a few Promethean leaders, for a preset result. In
our system, mass communication is a service rather than an instrument, and is
usednot for preconceived endsbut rather as the voice of social and public
needs, interests, tastes, and ideas, as observed and interpreted by the owners
and managers of the media, for the purpose of selling a useful product. (Siebert
et al., 1956, p. 146)

Significantly, Schramms argument not only ignored that media under libertarian
and social responsibility theories also are instrumentalizednot by the state but
rather by private capital (Nerone, 1995, p. 29), but also left little room for any
logically and historicallypossible positive social function of a communist or
socialist press.
China has remained the worlds fastest growing economy since the late 1970s,
and its socioeconomic progress has been widely recognized (e.g., China loom-
ing, 1996). One must bear in mind, though, that this progress was achieved
under the leadership of the communist government, including its active, instru-
mental use of the countrys media resources to serve constructive educational,
developmental, and political goals (Huang, 2002). This has made Chinese journal-
ism closer to the developmental concept of the press as described by Hachten
(1987) rather than to the communist model. However, for an apparent ideological
reason, communist states have long been kept out of the door of developmental
communication. For example, by the mid-1980s, when the developmental nature
of post-Mao Chinas media and social reforms had become rather clear based on
Hachtens (1987, p. 32) theory, Hachten himself, arguably the first one who for-
mally advanced the developmental concept of the press, characterized the Chi-
nese case this way:
3
Confidential interview, Beijing, October 28, 1998.
4
G. G. Wu (1994) has described the change as The pouring pattern is giving way gradually to the
birdcage and now even to the kite flying method of editing (p. 208). According to Wu, the pouring
pattern indicates a top-down information flow, namely, Chinese leaders and ideologues formulate the
ideas and pour them down to the brains of the newspapers commentators. Within the birdcage,
commentators can select among ideas from the speeches, directives, and documents of the central
leadership, just as birds flying within a cage. Using the kite flying method, a commentator is allowed
to select an editorial topic. The topic, like a kite, can fly in the sky, a much larger space than a cage,
with just a string in the hands of the party (pp. 199-204).

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 Journal of Communication, September 2003

The reforms in Chinese society undertaken by Deng Xiaoping have brought

such marked changes in the media as increased use of advertising, more enter-
tainment features, and Western-style news stories. However, the basic function
of mass communication in China remains the sameto support the policies
and goals of the Party leadership. (p. 25)

Hachtens argument was only half true, because he not only failed to realize
significant changes in the Partys policies and goals themselves, but also over-
looked the emerging trend of media commercialization in China. Many years
later, he began to recognize that China seems to have something in common
with corporate capitalism or neo-authoritarianism of its Asian neighbors.
However, he still refused to refer directly to the country as a developmental
case because he believed China, like North Korea and Cuba, still to be a
police state (Hachten, 1999, p. 34). Hachtens comments seem to illustrate
the difficulty for many Western scholars to restructure their theoretical frame-
works to understand Chinas changing social and media context. Hachten was
wrong to characterize China as a police state. Like Lambeth (1995, p. 5), his
equation of China to Cuba and North Korea was also questionable.
Market socialism vs. state socialism. The research objective of Schramms 1956
essay was the Soviet press based on a centralized command economy or state
socialism (state ownership and control) where the profit motive [of the press] has
been removed (Siebert et al., 1956, p. 5). In contrast, post-Mao Chinas media
reforms have so far followed a market socialism model (state-owned but market-
oriented).5 This has rendered the Schramm schema virtually powerless in analyz-
ing Chinas ongoing media commercialization. For example, how will the Schramm
schema fit the sharp rise of Chinas state-run tabloidsthe highly commercialized
daily city newspapers established by the CCPs provincial Party press organs (Huang,
2001), the development of the countrys semi-independent press (Huang, 2000), the
phenomenon of press annexation and conglomeration (Liu, 1998), the marketization
of some party press organs such as the Guangzhou Daily (Xie, 1997), the end of
government subsidy to the news media (Liang, 1999), press competition (Yu, 1994;
Zhao, 1998), the practice of diverse business ventures by the news media (Cheng,
1997), and the strong growth of the countrys advertising industry (Chinese Advertis-
ing United Company & Chinese Advertising Association, 1996)?
In short, it can be argued that together with the demise of communism in China
(Pei, 1994), the orthodox communist media approach as described by Schramm
which featured a strong propaganda orientation, poor professional performance,
and anticommercialismhas largely been buried in China. As a result, attempting
to fit current Chinese journalism under postcommunist neoauthoritarianism and
market socialism into a communist model generalized from Schramms 1956 es-
say, or vice versa, would be surely like fitting the proverbial square peg into a
round hole (Merrill & Lowenstein, 1971, p. 185).
It must be pointed out that Schramm schemas insufficiency in conceptualizing
the Chinese case is due not only to significant changes in Chinese journalism, but

5
For a general discussion of state socialism and market socialism, see Y. S. Wu (1994).

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 Transitional Media vs. Normative Theories

also to its internal theoretical flaws. Some have criticized Four Theories as very
general media typologies that lack flexibility (e.g., Merrill & Lowenstein, 1971, p.
186; Robinson, 1977, p. 118). Others have criticized the books intention to present
a timeless structure of idea by confusing history with theory (Nerone, 1995, pp.
16, 17). It has also been criticized as culturally and ideologically biased because it
defined the four theories from within one of them, classical liberalism, and left no
room for alternative ideas and practices (Nerone, 1995). Whereas these criticisms
of the four theories in general are important and valuable, to date little concern
has been paid particularly to Schramms and many others generalization of his
Soviet model into a universal Marxist communist press theory. Carefully reading
Schramms Soviet Communist Theory of the Press, one would have little diffi-
culty in finding that the essay, as its title suggested, was originally largely a case
study of Soviet media in the 1950s, or in other words a Stalinist Soviet communist
media approach. However, this original Soviet model was later widely and almost
naturally treated or expanded by Schramm himself and Western communication
scholarship in general as a universal Marxist communist press model by providing
virtually no substantial theoretical demonstration and empirical evidence.6 This is
a logical problem, but one such problem is too much for a theory.
Because the Stalinist Soviet press approach was neither the only nor final model
of socialist or Marxist media, to generalize it as a Marxist communist press theory
thus took the risk of equating Marxist communism as a significant critique of
capitalism to Stalinism. As Nerone (1995, p. 125) argued, in Schramms essay,
Marxism is conflated with Stalinism then dismissed as cancerous exaggeration of
authoritarianism. Likewise, the Schramm schema as a universal communist press
model lacks a cultural specificity and an ability to conceptualize variations and
complexities of the worlds socialist media systems, in both time and space, within
its homogenizing and monolithic framework. This suggests it is a useful but not
adequate framework for ones understanding of mass communication in commu-
nist societies. Soon after the publication of Four Theories in 1956, for example, the
universality of Schramms Soviet theory met challenges from Titos Yugoslav press,
as well documented by Robinson (1977). Criticizing Four Theories as a description
of very general, abstract role types (p. 118), Robinson argued that media reforms
in Yugoslavia since the late 1950s had made the Yugoslav press function rather
different from the Soviet model as described by Schramm in some important
ways.7 This had made the Yugoslav case neither a variant of the Soviet model nor
a Western pattern, but a new form of media organization in Yugoslavias self-

6
In 1969, at the latest, Schramm and his coauthor Rivers (1969, pp. 4045) began to interchange con-
cepts such as Soviet communist theory and communist theory, and Soviet leaders and commu-
nists. Many others soon followed suit (e.g., Hachten, 1987, pp. 2327; Lowenstein & Merrill, 1990, p.
165; Merrill, 1974, p. 35; Merrill & Lowenstein, 1971, pp. 182184; Merrill & Odell, 1983, pp. 159160).
It is noteworthy that, although Schramm himself intended to expand his Soviet theory into a general
Communist model, he expressed no concern about other researchers similar actions.
7
For example, Yugoslavias financial and operational media autonomy guaranteed freedom of speech
and the citizens right to know; its ability to supply comprehensive social information; and its role as
public forum, critic of negative phenomena in society, and social educator spreading elementary knowl-
edge for following and understanding the socioeconomic process (Robinson, 1977, pp. 118122).

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 Journal of Communication, September 2003

governing socialism (p. 119). In Cold War-era Eastern Europe, efforts in exploring
non-Soviet, professional, or humanist Marxist social and media approaches never
stopped (e.g., Leonhard, 1974; Curry, 1990). Even in the former Soviet Union, as
Hopkins (1965) noted, there existed various concepts of the press under Soviet
leaders Lenin, Stalin, and Khrushchev (with different directions under the same
authoritarian political system). Fischer and Merrill (1970, p. 4) commented that
Hopkinss study suggested that press concepts in a socialist society not only vary
among individuals at any one time, but changealbeit slowlythrough the years.
Perhaps . . . no press system is really as simplistic or monolithic as might be
generally assumed.
We can now conclude that the Schramm schema as a normative communist
press theory is not only highly problematic for ones understanding of mass com-
munication in a non-Soviet-style communist state (such as Titos Yugoslavia) or a
postcommunist authoritarian, transitional society (such as post-Mao China), but
also insufficient to describe empirical communist media systems in general. There
is an apparent logical paradox in the theory: On the one hand, it was originally
largely a case study of Stalinist Soviet media; on the other hand, it has been widely
used as a universal and timeless model to conceptualize communist media sys-
tems in general. It is quite amazing that Schramm and his coauthors never pub-
lished a revised edition of Four Theories in spite of the changing global media
environment and criticisms of it from time to time. For one reason or another,
Schramms Soviet theory as a universal communist press model has survived and
remains considerably influential in spite of its lack of adaptability. Thus, when
history provided us another opportunity to revisit its legacy through the Chinese
case, we could not afford to miss it.

The Chinese Case and Altschulls Marxist Press Approach8

Altschulls effort to contribute ideologically neutral normative press theories be-

yond the four theories was valuable and rewarding. However, among other things,
in Altschulls dialectical approach, there is some apparent confusion and contra-
dictions. For example, although he referred to the richness of the many melody
variations in each of the three press movements he advanced (Market, Marxist or
Communitarian, and Advancing), and a good many exceptions beyond the three
movements (Altschull, 1995, p. 419), he provided no substantial case study (and
China would have been an appropriate one). While he repeatedly reminded his
readers of similarities and differences among those three press movements, he
seemed to attempt to work on both abstract and concrete, and relativism and
absolutism, at the same time.

8
The discussion in this section is comparatively brief and abstract because (a) Altschulls discussion of
his three press movements itself was rather abstract; (b) he provided no detailed discussion about
China and its journalism when he described China as a Marxist state; and (c) the changes in Chinese
journalism, which will serve as the historical and empirical support of my critique of Altschull, have
already been discussed in my earlier critique of the Schramm schema.

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Transitional Media vs. Normative Theories

For these reasons, in the case of China, described as late as the mid-1990s by
Altschull (1995, p. 251) as the worlds largest remaining Marxist state, one pon-
ders: Is the Chinese case not precisely among what he called a good many
exceptions beyond his three press typologies? As addressed earlier, todays China
is, borrowing Altschulls terms, the worlds largest Market-oriented, post-Marx-
ist or Communitarian, Advancing state (with more than 1.3 billion people,
more than 70% of them farmers), which has been called a strange case (The
world according to Kissinger, 1995). It is strange because it is in transition.
Because it is in transition, it can hardly be simplified by a single existing normative
press model. It is noteworthy that, although Altschull described China as the worlds
largest remaining Marxist nation, he neither provided any theoretical or empiri-
cal evidence to support his argument, nor balanced his argument by referring to
relevant opposing arguments.
Moreover, Altschulls Marxist/Communitarian approach, like Schramms So-
viet model, provided little wisdom for ones understand of media systems in dif-
ferent Marxist nations. Like Lambeth (1995) and Hachten (1999, p. 34), Altschulls
ignorance of substantial ideological and socioeconomic changes in China since
the late 1970s had given him little idea about differences between postcommunist
authoritarian China (and Vietnam) and more traditional and orthodox Marxist
nations such as Cuba and, particularly, North Korea. His ignorance of Chinas
media commercialization also contributed to his failure to look closer at Chinese
journalisms specific characteristics under Deng Xiaopings socialism with Chi-
nese characteristics.
Likewise, Altschulls analysis, focused on the news media in the former Soviet
Union and Eastern Europe, paid little attention to media practices in other socialist
states, particularly Titos Yugoslavia and post-Mao China. It is doubtful that one
can have a comprehensive understanding of the worlds Marxist movement and
Marxist press through such a narrow and limited possession of samples and data.
Ideological bias, as shown in Schramms analysis of the Soviet communist press,
often causes oversimplification (Altschull, 1984, p. 108), but oversimplification
does not necessarily always result from ideological bias. Altschulls three typologies
appear to be a victim of his own critique of variations and complexities of the
worlds media systems and normative media theories limited ability in conceptu-
alizing those variations and complexities. He would have provided his readers
more critical wisdom to understand both the worlds Marxist press in general and
post-Mao Chinese journalism in particular had his analysis been more nonnormative
and empirically oriented.

Toward a Transitional Media Approach?

The conflict between Chinese journalistic practices and Schramms Soviet model
and Altschulls Marxist concept as described in this study resulted from two major
factors: Chinas changing social and media environment and the two models
inner theoretical flaws. This not only reminds researchers to be cautious in using
the two more or less outdated models to conveniently interpret the Chinese case,

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Journal of Communication, September 2003

but also, and perhaps more importantly, opens some more general questions
about media system studies. Among other things, a key question is this: Do we
need to revisit the normative press concept by introducing a transitional press
concept that views the worlds media systems through a dynamic way?
Normative media theories are useful for comparative analysis of media systems
in a general sense because they provide some basic types. Schramms model, for
example, is useful for understanding Stalinist-Maoist communist media. The model
would be useful for historical and comparative analysis of communist media sys-
tems as well. On the other hand, it is precisely because normative media theories
are about ideas of how media ought to or are expected to operate (McQuail,
1987, p. 109) and various normative media theories came into being in certain
historical settings that they lack the ability to adapt to changing social and media
environments. There is an apparent paradox in the normative media concept.
Although theoretically it is widely believed that normative media theories are not
designed to examine any empirical media systems but media systems in a general
or abstract sense (e.g., McQuail, 1994, p. 133), practically, as shown in this discus-
sion of the Chinese case, many researchers cannot help but do the opposite,
risking putting dynamic and complex media realities into various normative pi-
geonholes. Indeed, some have already questioned whether or not one can ever
work out a satisfactory normative media theory at all, considering the growing
and almost irresolvable conflict between the normative concept and rapidly changing
and expanding media systems in the real world (e.g., McQuail, 1994, pp. 132135;
Nerone, 1995, pp. 181184). It can be argued as well that if fitting through norma-
tive media approach is suspect, then one should probably not rest content with
individual empirical studies of media systems alone as well. Empirical studies
themselves are not necessarily or automatically nonnormative oriented. Instead,
the influential normative approach could cast a big shadow on empirical studies
of media systems if researchers lack the consciousness in searching for alternative
frameworks. To revisit the normative media approach, researchers may also need
an appropriate terminology to conceptualize their ideasconsidering the estab-
lished legacy of the normative approach and the usefulness of terminology itself.
Otherwise, individual empirical studies may remain scattered, and their ability in
stimulating new/alternative ideas in media system studies might be limited. Be-
cause some significant empirical studies of media transition in China have stopped
short of challenging Schramms Soviet model and Altschulls Marxist model in
terms of both their inner theoretical flaws and their insufficiency in conceptualiz-
ing the Chinese case, some researchers continue to put China into the two mod-
els. It might be more productive to advance a transitional media approach based
on some initial ideas below.
Nonnormative. A transitional media approach is a nonnormative thinking that
views human communication as a history of transition and makes change and
adaptation its primary orientation. Transition is a general and universal media
phenomenon and all media systems should be analyzed as more or less dynamic
and complex. A certain societys media system is a dynamic and complex body
that is connected with, and fundamentally determined by, that societys changing
political and socio-economic environment and cultural tradition. While recogniz-

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ing the relative independence of various periods of media development in a cer-

tain societys history, a transitional media perspective emphasizes the dynamic
and transitional nature of human communication and draws attention to the vari-
ety and complexity within media development. A transitional media approach
attempts to revisit or balance the normative media approach by questioning its
theoretical sufficiency in conceptualizing the changing media systems in the real
world. Particularly, it challenges the wisdom of the idea that tries to put certain
media systems into well-defined normative pigeonholes. Instead of viewing cer-
tain media systems as a homogenizing and monolithic body, adherents to this
approach believe: In most countries, in any case, the media do not constitute any
single system, with a single purpose or philosophy, but are composed of many
separate, overlapping, often inconsistent elements, with appropriate differences
of normative expectation and actual regulation (McQuail, 1994, p. 133). The
approach thus has a historical mission to examine existing normative press mod-
els theoretical adequacy by comparing the actual roles of a certain societys news
media in the real world with their supposed normative roles through empirical
studies on the one hand, and to provide new theoretical pursuits, when possible,
on the other hand.
Media change is a historical process through both revolution and evolution.
Whereas a normative media approach focuses on radical or revolutionary media
changes in order to regroup media systems into various normative models, a
transitional media approach pays attention to both revolutionary and evolutionary
media change and treats both of them as a transitional process that is far more
complex than certain normative press models are able to handle. A transitional
media approach maintains that certain revolutionary media change is neither the
beginning nor the end of change or transition; it is instead more like a result and
a part of daily evolutionary change of human communication. Revolution may,
to certain extent, resolve some old problems or raise new ones. On the other
hand, although evolutionary media change takes a silent and gradual route, it
does not necessarily mean it is not important or less significant than radical media
change. In the eyes of the normative media approach, current Eastern European
media systems might be well put into the Western liberal pattern. From a transi-
tional media perspective, however, media change in the region is far from a simple
story of the victory of democracy, but an ongoing media transition with many
and complex meanings. As Margueritte (1995) observed, Eastern European jour-
nalism under democracy was actually facing no fewer problems and challenges
than it did under communism in terms of poor professional training and standards
among the journalists, an invasion of profit-driven Western investors and press
models, bribery and corruption, the tendency to control the media from demo-
cratically elected new rulers, and the boom of tabloid journalism and the wither-
ing of quality media. Similarly, in the case of post-Mao China, social and media
reforms are gradual yet significant and lack no challenges as well (e.g., Pei, 1994;
Zhao, 1998).
Culturally open-minded. A transitional media approach is culturally open-
minded, viewing human communication as a socio-historical phenomenon from a
wide range of theoretical perspectives. It maintains that media transition in vari-

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ous societies may take different paths in different political, cultural, and socio-
economic contexts, and therefore may lead to different and often complex media
systems. More importantly, the approach calls for understanding these varieties
and complexities from a cultural and historical perspective, rather than judging
them from a one-dimensional philosophy or ideology.
The post-Cold War era in the information age is witnessing an accelerated
social and media transition across the world. Researchers confront more mixed
social and media systems than the standard ones described by various normative
models. Although some important ideas about transitional media studies have
emerged in the research literature (e.g., Curran & Park, 2000; Downing, 1996;
McQuail, 1994, pp. 122123, 132135; Merrill, 1974, pp. 3642; Merrill & Lowenstein,
1971, pp. 186190; Nerone, 1995), challenges remain. Among other things, a key
challenge is the need for more systematic theoretical thinking in seeking alterna-
tives to the normative media approach. It might be the time to raise high the
banner of a transitional media approach. In the near future, it might not be impos-
sible to advance some general theoretical models about media transition based on
further theoretical and empirical studies.

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