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Journalism and Communication in China and The West A Study of History Education and Regulation Bing Tong Full Chapter PDF
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SOCIOLOGY, MEDIA AND JOURNALISM IN CHINA
Bing Tong
Journalism and
Communication in
China
and the West
A Study of History, Education and Regulation
Sociology, Media and Journalism in China
This series provides an interdisciplinary and cutting edge approach to the key
areas of media, journalism and communication in China. Offering titles cut-
ting across these areas, Sociology, Journalism and Communication in China
addresses the rapid changes affecting how news is disseminated in China, how
people communicate in daily life, and how mobile technologies are affecting
contemporary human interaction in sociological and commercial settings.
This series also examines major sociological trends in China and how these
are developing, as well as rapid changes in how communication is affecting
and being affected by China’s growing population and internal migration.
Providing a vital comparative approach, notably with western nations, this
series considers the development of Chinese media, journalistic cultures and
histories and sociological development on a global scale.
Journalism
and Communication
in China and the West
A Study of History, Education and Regulation
Bing Tong
Fudan University
Shanghai, China
This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Singapore Pte Ltd.
The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore
189721, Singapore
Foreword: Deepening Journalism and
Communication Studies Through
Comparative Analysis
1The Manual of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Management System in Universities
and Colleges in China, Edition 1, Page 116, Shenyang, Shenyang Publishing House, 1997.
v
vi FOREWORD: DEEPENING JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES …
Secondly, objective things complement and depend on each other, are dia-
lectically interconnected to each other and exist separately from each other
for their different characteristics. The activities and undertakings of journal-
ism and communication in different countries and regions are independent
but interconnected to each other. These common connections and differ-
ences have made up the second scientific basis for the application of the com-
parative study method.
Thirdly, due to the imbalance of the development of objective things,
the imbalance is seen in the development of journalism and communication
undertakings and activities in different countries and regions and the devel-
opment of journalism and communication undertakings in the same country
or region but in different historical periods. A difference results in a charac-
teristic, while a characteristic constitutes an object of scientific research. This
is another theoretical basis for the application of comparative study method in
the research of journalism and communication.
The application of the comparative study method has two important prem-
ises: firstly, the two or more parties for comparison are comparable, and sec-
ondly, the researchers must own a great mass of data.
The corresponding property relation among different things is called
the identical relation. Only the different things showing the identical rela-
tion are comparable. Therefore, the journalism and communication under-
takings under different social systems in China and foreign countries can be
compared in terms of the nature and functions of journalism and communi-
cation undertakings as well as the internal management and external super-
vision, since the journalism undertakings under different backgrounds show
the identical relation in regard to the nature, functions, internal management,
and external supervision. Also, the past and the present of the Chinese audi-
ence can be compared as the identical relation can be found. However, the
nature of journalism and communication undertakings in China cannot be
compared to the readers of foreign newspapers, while the layout of Chinese
newspapers cannot be compared to the TV audience in the west, as no identi-
cal relation can be seen.
Facts and data are indispensable to all scientific studies. Once mentioned
by Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, “Birds can never fly without the support of air no
matter how strong their wings are. To scientists, the fact is the air. Without
the fact, they can never fly; and without the fact, the ‘theory’ makes no
sense.”4 In the Critique of Political Economics of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels
not only emphasized the significance of facts and data to studies, but also
proposed explicit requirements on facts and data. He pointed out “It takes
years of hard work and intensive study even only to develop a materialistic
view based on a single history instance, because apparently empty talk makes
4The Collected Works of Pavlov, 1st edition, Vol. 1, Page 16, Beijing, People’s Medical
Publishing House, 1959.
FOREWORD: DEEPENING JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES … ix
no sense and this mission can only be completed when a great mass of histori-
cal data has been critically examined and fully mastered.”5
While facts and materials are indispensable to general scientific research
and must meet strict requirements, the requirements on materials and facts
are even higher in comparative study so as to achieve a more focused and
convincing analysis and comparison. When doing research on the science of
history, Hu Shi emphasized that scholars put the most diligent efforts on col-
lecting materials, studied on the materials in an elaborate way and examined
the materials with the most rigorous method.6 Fu Sinian specifically pointed
out it was necessary to make every attempt to seek for and study first-hand
materials in order to do research. He stated in The Objective of the Work in the
Research Institute of History and Language that progress could only be made
when the materials could be directly studied; and it would lead to regress if
only studying materials indirectly, or studying the materials that predecessors
had studied, or studying the material system built by predecessors.
The comparative study of journalism and communication is a part of cul-
tural comparison. According to some scholars’ research, the comparative
method was firstly applied in social sciences instead of natural science. As
early as in the fourth century B.C., Aristotle had conducted a comparative
analysis of the political systems in 158 city-states and, on this basis, written
the famous The Athenian Constitution. It was until the eighteenth century
when the systematic comparative study was conducted for a certain discipline
in a conscious and comprehensive way. In the eighteenth century, the French
Enlightenment thinker Montesquieu, who was honored as the forerunner
of comparative methodology, had compared some countries in the west and
the east in The Spirit of Laws. By the nineteenth century, comparative litera-
ture had emerged in France and the United States in succession. As to China,
Sima Qian had conducted a comparative study of history in the Records of the
Historian; and On the Urgency of Changing the World by Yan Fu in the late
Qing Dynasty was considered as the start of the comparative study between
Chinese and western culture. Following Yan Fu, Wang Guowei, and Liang
Qichao had also researched on comparative literature. Wang Guowei had
made a comparative analysis of A Dream in Red Mansions and Faust. Liang
Qichao had compared and analyzed the systems in China and some other
countries in On Similarities and Differences of the Constitution in China and
in Europe.
As pointed out by some scholars, China’s connection to foreign culture
can be traced back to the Han Dynasty, when the Buddhist culture was intro-
duced to China from India. In the long history from Han, Wei, Jin, the
Northern and Southern Dynasties to Sui and Tang, after countless conflicts,
5Karl Marx, Critique of Political Economy, 1st edition, Page 165, Beijing, People’s Publishing
House, 1959.
6Ge Maochun, Selected Works of Philosophic Thinking of Hu Shi, Vol. 1, 1st edition, Page 536,
fights, exchanges, and integrations between Confucian culture and Taoist cul-
ture in local China and foreign Buddhist culture, they were finally assimilated
by traditional Chinese culture, leading to the rise of a new Confucianism, the
neo-Confucianism in the Song and Ming Dynasty. Later, Marco Polo traveled
around China and Matteo Ricci introduced the Christian culture to China,
but on profound effect of western culture had been generated since China
still considered itself as the “Celestial Empire,” the center of the world at that
time. Therefore, the collision between the two cultures had not produced
an ideological trend. In the modern times, western countries had won the
worldwide dominance relying on their great economic and technical advan-
tages. “Europocentrism” and ethnocentrism had been widely spread in the
western world. Meanwhile, westerners started to reflect on themselves as
inspired by the people under colonial control fighting against aggression and
safeguarding local culture: whether there was another culture outside the
west that could not be conquered or assimilated by western culture; if yes,
how was the culture formed and what characters did it have; and what were
the differences between this culture and western culture. Westerners launched
an upsurge of comparative study of culture for the sake of conquering other
culture. Some scholars with curiosity and preoccupation with cultural explo-
ration also joined the trend. This constituted the foundation for the objective
comparison study of western culture in early times.
Comparative study in China was earlier applied to literature and culture.
In the 1980s, the monograph Five-Hundred Year Comparison Between China
and the West that comprehensively compared the politics, economy, ideology,
culture, science, technology, and education between China and the west was
published. Famous scholar Tang Yijie pointed out that “This is a monograph
of the comprehensive comparison between China and the west that stands on
the reality, looks back into history, faces the world and looks forward to the
future. Being a monograph applying this style of writing for the first time, it
is of great academic and practical values.”7 This 700,000-word monograph is
the most representative work of comparative study known to the author.
The comparative study of journalism and communication in mainland
began in the 1990s. Four representative works are recommended here.
The first is the Comparative Journalism, which was written by Mr. Tao
Han from the Institute of Journalism and Communication, Chinese Academy
of Social Sciences and published in April 1994. This book was actually com-
pleted by 1992 and prefaced by Tan Wenrui who served as the chief editor
of People’s Daily at that time. This book comprehensively conducted the
comparative study of journalism and communication and combined both
historical facts and theories. With merely 160,000 words, it had paved the
way for the comparative study of journalism and communication in mainland.
7HaoXiajun, Mao Lei and Shi Guangrong, Five-Hundred Year Comparison Between China
and the West, 1st edition, Page 4, Beijing, China Worker Publishing House, 1989.
FOREWORD: DEEPENING JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES … xi
According to the publishing notes of the book, this book “fills a gap in jour-
nalism studies in mainland.”
The second is the Comparison Between Chinese and Western Journalism,
which was jointly completed by Professor Fan Fan from the School of
Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University, and five postgraduates
under his guidance and was published in September 1994. This book had
observed and analyzed the similarities and differences in news thoughts, cul-
tural constraints, journalism ethics, and journalist writings between China
and the west from the perspective of culture and philosophy, and put forward
many enlightening academic views of great values and insights.
The third is the Comparative Journalism jointly written by Professor Liu
Xiatang from the Department of Economics and Culture, Jiangxi University
of Finance and Economics and some other scholars from the School of
Journalism, Nanchang University and Jiangxi Daily. This book consists of 18
chapters, including 7 about the comparison of journalism theories, 5 about
the comparison of journalist writing, and 6 about the comparison of journal-
ism businesses. This book is more comprehensive in terms of the layout.
The fourth is the book Outline of the Comparison of Journalism in China
and the West written by the author here as supported by other members of
the research group, and it is a final result of the state “eighth five-year plan”
program of philosophy and social sciences. This book, with over 300,000
words, is divided into seven chapters, respectively including historical review,
editorial policies, media organization, social regulation, ethics of law, journal-
ism education, and journalism concept. Among the above four books, this is
the book of the most comprehensive content, the longest length, and deeper
comparative research.
In addition to the four books mentioned here, there are approximately
more than 100 papers about the comparative study of journalism and com-
munication published in journalistic journals in all places.
Generally, since the comparative study of journalism and communication
just started in China, it reached only a few achievements, had no systematic
research group, lacked necessary organization or investment, and exerted
insignificant influence on journalism and communication practices. Therefore,
at present, it is vital to conduct comparative study of journalism and commu-
nication in a more extensive and profound way and construct the theoretical
framework of comparative journalism and communication. For this purpose,
this book is written and published.
xiii
xiv PREFACE
on their own conditions. Only in this way they could be called the “Marxist.”
China is different from foreign countries, the old China is different from the
new China, and the new China in the first three decades is different from
that in the latest two decades. Correspondingly, the journalism and commu-
nication study under the current historical conditions in China shall have the
methods and conclusions different from foreign countries, the old China,
and the first three decades of new China. In this case, the “Journalism and
Communication Library” proposes the following requirements on the
authors and their works: understanding the characteristics of the times, meet-
ing the requirements of the times, advancing with the times, adhering to the
theoretical courage to profoundly discuss the social transformation from the
planned economy to the market economy and the complicated communica-
tion relationship among the Party, government, media and audience, studying
on new issues, seeking for new methods, acquiring new knowledge, discov-
ering new ideas and demonstrating new conclusions. This is the aim and
expectation of the Library. We expect that each work and each author of the
Library will lead the readers to the academia of journalism and communica-
tion and reveal a new academic world.
Innovation is accompanied by risks. The sense of innovation coexists with
the risk awareness. Innovation means to do things that have never been done
before and say things that have never been said, or overthrow what has been
done or correct what has been said. When denying the old things, systems
or ideas, challenging the traditional customs and obsolete theories and criti-
cizing the old ideas that had been memorized for years, it would necessarily
result in the suppression and strike by the old forces. Therefore, scholars who
stick to theoretical innovation must bear the risk awareness. Compared to
the rapid progress of society and high-speed development of journalism and
media undertakings, the discipline building of journalism and communication
is relatively slow and backward. Under the circumstances, it may be difficult
to prove some new ideas and opinions of the Journalism and Communication
Library to be correct and scientific, and meanwhile takes time and practices
for the correct ideas and opinions to become a common view of the society
and among scholars. Correspondingly, while promoting the sense of innova-
tion, the author must bear a strong risk awareness. We appeal to the society
and scholars to give the tolerance and love to the authors and workers of the
Library. We also sincerely welcome any strict criticism over the works, since
criticisms also suggest the readers’ deep love.
The “Journalism and Communication Library” bears the responsibil-
ity to require the authors concentrating on research, writing books elab-
orately and providing some penetrating academic findings. These works
have explored the new academic areas in journalism and communication,
or cleared some old systems or old ideas, or demonstrated the advices pro-
posed to the journalism and media authority, or applied Chinese language
and Chinese traditional culture to understand foreign works about journalism
xvi PREFACE
and communication in a new way. In a word, the Library must provide peo-
ple with the classical works of academic study of journalism and communica-
tion. Adhering to the principle of a smaller quantity with better quality, the
Library selects three to five research findings among numerous scholars inside
and outside Renmin University of China each year. In three to four years, an
extensive range of academic achievements will be covered by the Library, win-
ning a place in the forest of academic research achievements of the journalism
and communication and even the humanities and social sciences.
Right at the beginning of the new century, China Renmin University Press
has released the Library based on an elaborate plan and a comprehensive
structure. I would like to express deep appreciation and gratitude toward the
strategic insight of the Press and the teamwork of authors. I hope that we can
make a concerted effort to do a better job.
xvii
xviii CONTENTS
Afterword 365
List of Figures
Chapter 4
Fig. 1 The chart of the organizational structure of The Times 184
Fig. 2 Chart of the organizational structure of shareholding
newspapers in the west 185
Fig. 3 Chart of the organizational structure of British and American
newspapers with the separation between news and speech 186
Fig. 4 Chart of the organizational structure of commercial radio
in the United States 187
Fig. 5 Chart of the organizational structure of commercial television
in the United States 188
Fig. 6 Chart of the organizational structure of French Broadcasting
Corporation 189
Fig. 7 Chart of the organizational structure of BBC 189
Fig. 8 Chart of the organizational structure of private or semi-official
news agencies in the west 190
Fig. 9 Chart of the organizational structure of small-sized newspapers
in the United States 191
Fig. 10 Chart of the organizational structure of medium-sized newspapers
in the United States 192
Fig. 11 Chart of the organizational structure of large-sized newspapers
in the United States 193
Fig. 12 Chart of the organizational structure of the news Department
of American Radio Stations 194
Fig. 13 Chart of the organizational structure of a major community
TV station 195
Fig. 14 Chart of the representative operation agencies of medium-sized
newspapers in the United States 196
Fig. 15 Chart of the organizational structure of Ta Kung Pao in 1942 198
Fig. 16 Chart of organizational structure of Shanghai Central Daily News
in 1947 199
xix
xx LIST OF FIGURES
Chapter 2
Table 1 The Verified Magazine Circulation in 1992 27
Chapter 4
Table 1 Daily newspapers that support presidential candidates
with leading articles 156
Chapter 6
Table 1 Statistical table of the winning works of the first
to the Ninth China News Awards 315
Chapter 7
Table 1 Journalism program setting and credit distribution
plan (158 credits) 354
Table 2 Teaching schedule for journalism major 356
Table 3 Graduates’ evaluation on journalism teaching 361
xxi
CHAPTER 1
Have two blades cut each other to tell sharp from blunt; and compare two theo-
ries to tell right from wrong.
—Wang Chong
An independent discipline holding a place in the academia must have its spe-
cial object and unique values. The significance, object and method of the dis-
cipline shall be firstly clarified at the beginning of study. This chapter mainly
aims to explain the significance, object and method of studies of comparative
journalism and communication.
1 The Collected Works of Albert Einstein, 1st edition, Page 253, Vol. 3, Beijing, The Commercial
Press, 1979.
2 Collected Works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Chinese 2nd edition, Page 397, Vol. 1,
the socialist economy, i.e. the public ownership, through the means of press;
while the newspaper in a capitalist country was a reflection of the anarchic
economy of group competition in the press sector.
On the basis of this fundamental difference, you can clearly define the
nature, the functions, the editorial policies, the operating characteristics, the
personnel management and the reporting style, etc., of the two different
kinds of news media in two different social systems. The studies of compara-
tive journalism and communication exactly aim to understand and master the
different characteristics of journalism and communication in different media
ecologies. Only by identifying the different natures, functions and features of
the journalism and communication in different media ecologies, can you cor-
rectly understand the complicated journalism and communication phenom-
ena under current circumstances, have the initiative in news exchange and
international cooperation, know others and know yourself in a realistic way
and develop the strengths, avoid the weaknesses and learn from others. The
Internal and External Journalism History by Japanese journalism master Ono
Hideo and The Comparison of Television Systems by Chinese Taiwan journal-
ism scholar Li Zhan are considered as successful instances of studies in this
respect.
Thirdly, learn from foreign experiences in a critical manner and promote
the development of journalism and communication in China.
To learn from others is an important goal of comparative studies, while
learning in a critical manner will be more effective. In foreign countries, par-
ticularly Western developed countries, based on the 400-year experiences of
the journalism and communication development, the mature and efficient
mechanisms and means of communication reports, news operation, industry
management and team construction have been established, and rich experi-
ences have been accumulated in dealing with the interactive relations between
journalism and communication and the economic, political and cultural sys-
tems as well as the relations between the press and the government, parties,
social groups and the public. Though these experiences, mechanisms and
means are subject to the influence of bourgeois values, the bourgeois journal-
ism and communication, essentially one of the social tools of the bourgeoisie,
still reflects the understandings of the basic laws of journalism and communi-
cation, which can be learned and used by China.
China can find its shortages and weaknesses by comparing to foreign
activities and undertakings of journalism and communication and thus can
improve, transform and perfect the journalism and communication opera-
tion in China correspondingly. Since the Reform and Opening Up, the press
in China has been engaged in increasingly active exchanges and cooperation
with foreign presses and has constantly found its own shortages and weak-
nesses while identifying and sticking to its own advantages and strengths.
According to Upholding the Four Cardinal Principles written by Deng
Xiaoping, “We have already admitted our backwardness of natural science and
now we shall also admit our backwardness of studies of social science (the
1 SIGNIFICANCE AND METHOD OF STUDIES OF COMPARATIVE … 5
Generally, the comparative study refers to comparing the issues that need
to be studied and explored within a certain spatial–temporal scale, identify-
ing their similarities and differences, strengths and weaknesses and advan-
tages and disadvantages, and analyzing and demonstrating the factors that
3 The Collected Works of Deng Xiaoping, 2nd edition, Page 181, Vol. 2, Beijing, People’s
House, 1984.
6 B. TONG
lead to the homogeneity and heterogeneity. The explicit time range shall
be firstly determined for the study. All things develop along with the time
axis and exist and change as time goes by. Only within a certain time range
can the comparison and targeted analysis be done for the comparative study.
Comparison may be vertically comparing the past and the present of the same
object or horizontally comparing the objects of the same kind within the
same time range. Secondly, the relatively stable and clear spatial domain shall
be determined. The comparative study is generally conducted between one
country and another, or one region and another, since this is more specific
and direct. However, the comparison can also be made between one coun-
try or one region and some other countries or regions together. For exam-
ple, the comparison between China and the West consists of several countries.
Furthermore, the provinces or municipalities within a country, the different
areas within a province and different media can also be compared, such as
the comparison of media at the two sides of the Taiwan Straits, the compari-
son of the newspapers of Beijing School and the newspapers of Shanghai and
Guangdong School, the comparison between the press media including news-
papers and magazines and the electronic media including radio and television
and the comparison between the traditional media including newspapers,
magazines, radio and TV and the new media including online media, etc.
It is believed that the comparative study shall be extensive and all-round
spatially and temporally. We advocate that diversified objects shall be incor-
porated in the comparative study. However, like the comparative literature
and comparative law, the comparative journalism and communication shall
have the object placed in the same time range, and shall conduct comparison
mainly between one country and another one or several countries and one
region and another one or several regions in terms of the spatial domain. The
given time and space guarantee the quantity and quality of the comparative
study and helps clarify and regulate on the study object.
Under the certain spatial–temporal conditions, comparative journalism
and communication covers extremely extensive objects of study. Everything,
macro or micro, media or works, virtual or actual, internal or external, people
or things, can be compared, analyzed and studied only if they are comparable,
and can be considered as the object of study of comparative journalism and
communication.
It is a kind of macro comparative study to compare the properties, char-
acteristics, functions and missions, etc., of journalism and communication
undertakings in different countries and regions under different social sys-
tems and historical conditions as well as their economic, political and cul-
tural backgrounds. As introduced above, Mao Zedong had once pointed
out the different properties of the two kinds of journalism and commu-
nication undertakings in the world in an article he wrote in 1957, which
was essentially a comparative analysis of the property of newspapers based
on the Marxist principle of the relationship between the economic base
and the superstructure. Relative to the macro issues such as the properties,
1 SIGNIFICANCE AND METHOD OF STUDIES OF COMPARATIVE … 7
The comparative study is the most widely applied and the most important
method in the comparative journalism and communication. As mentioned
above, the method of comparative study is a thinking process and scientific
1 SIGNIFICANCE AND METHOD OF STUDIES OF COMPARATIVE … 9
method to compare and analyze two or more things that have certain internal
connections based on certain rules, confirm on their similarities and differ-
ences, and grasp the essence, characteristics and laws of the things. Three pre-
requisites must be satisfied to apply this method.
Firstly, adhere to the principle of comparability.
Comparison can only be conducted between the things that see different
essences but show certain similarities. Things without any similarity have no
universal foundation or standard, so they cannot be compared. Therefore,
before applying the comparative study in journalism and communication, the
comparative bases for the comparison must be identified and demonstrated,
to prove the similarities or common grounds of the things.
It is of particular significance to adhere to the principle of comparability
in the comparative study of the things of different kinds. According to the
practices of the comparative study and life experiences, things of different
kinds can be compared. Charles Darwin had compared the human kind with
mammal. However, a certain condition must be satisfied for the comparison,
which lies in that the attribute of the two objects for comparison shares a uni-
versal unit or standard. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels had given an example
of this in the book The German Ideology, “Berciani is considered as an incom-
parable singer when people compare her to other singers, appreciate her with
their ears and musical accomplishments and finally realize her incomparability.
The singing of Berciani cannot be compared to the croaking of frogs, though
general comparison can be conducted between the human kind and the
frog……The first case constitutes the comparison between individuals, while
the second case is merely the comparison of the features of different species
or types.”5
Secondly, adhere to the principle of universality.
The similarities and differences between two or more things are essentially
the universality and individuality of different things. It is necessary to study
on both the “similarities” and “differences” among different things, as they
show certain universality and individuality as well as generality and particular-
ity. Only by fully understanding the similarities and differences and the uni-
versality and individuality of the things can the essence be mastered.
The stable standard for comparison shall be clarified when seeking com-
monness among differences or seeking differences among commonness. This
standard provides the foundation and basis for quantification and qualifica-
tion. Quantitative comparison is relatively easy in the comparative studies
of journalism and communication, as the comparison of the media, audi-
ence, circulation and audience rating is explicit and convincing. Meanwhile,
it is difficult but possible to find the applicable standards for qualitative
comparison.
5 Collected Works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Chinese 1st edition, Page 517~518, Vol.
3, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1960.
10 B. TONG
6 G. W. F. Hegel, Science of Logic, 1st edition, Page 253, Beijing, The Commercial Press, 1980.
1 SIGNIFICANCE AND METHOD OF STUDIES OF COMPARATIVE … 11
1. Distinguish the primary data from the secondary data, as the former is
more reliable. When the secondary data needs to be quoted from other
works, the information shall be verified.
2. Analyze the connection between the author of the literature and the
facts recorded in the literature, so as to discover whether the author
intentionally distorts or omits any truth.
3. Confirm on nothing inappropriate in the preparation of the literature.
4. Compare the different informative materials. The same record on the
same fact in different materials is more reliable; otherwise, the informa-
tion shall be treated cautiously and be abandoned if necessary.
5. Conduct in-depth analysis over the content of literature and meanwhile
perform necessary investigations on relevant economic, political, cul-
tural and social backgrounds.
The economic production in each historical age and the social structure built
on this basis constitute the historical foundation for the politics and spirit of the
age.
—Karl Marx
Anyone pursuing the true knowledge and the correct principles need to under-
stand the origin and evolution of the principles.
—Wang Guowei
or making it known to others. In this way, the rock had become the earliest
communication media. Compared to oral account or description, this method
of describing the world and communicating news with pictures had made
great progress. It required that the communicator (painter) and the audience
(viewer) both understood the meaning of the picture, i.e. both parties had
the agreed coding interpretation or consensus; otherwise, the picture would
have no value as a communication means. In this sense, the standard meaning
of pictures constituted a key step for the development of written language.
According to research findings, it was the demand of production and
development that boosted the progress of standardization of the picture
meaning. At that time, people needed to record the land boundary, land
ownership, buying and selling, rise and fall of the water level of rivers, celestial
bodies motion, and seasons for sowing and harvesting. Therefore, the “qua-
si-written language” in a form of engraved pattern showed up in the areas
exposed to the earliest agricultural development such as Mesopotamia, which
evolved to be the official cuneiform script later on. Emerging about four
thousand years ago, the former hieroglyphs expressed the meaning under-
standable to all people with merely several strokes. For example, a bow and
an arrow symbolize hunting, a wave means the lake or river, the sunrise sug-
gests the daytime, etc. By combining these patterns, a relatively complicated
event could be communicated. The latter represents specific pronunciations
with certain small symbols and is regarded as the early achievement of the
phonetic script and the major breakthrough of human communication activ-
ities. Through over a thousand years of development, the alphabetic script
appeared and was soon popularized; and contributed to the generation of the
famous Greek script after being spread to Greece several centuries later. Like
the tool, fire and language, the alphabetic script is one of the greatest accom-
plishments of humans.
Special attention shall also be paid to the development of Chinese char-
acters. According to the archaeological discovery, the ancient painted pot-
tery dated back to more than six thousand years ago had some symbols on it,
which should be the sprout of Chinse characters. By the Shang Dynasty, after
three thousand years of development, the characters were inscribed on animal
bones and tortoise shells, called the “oracle bone script.” By now, approxi-
mately four thousand and five-hundred characters of this script have been dis-
covered. Meanwhile, characters were also inscribed on ancient bronze objects,
and were named as the “bronze script” by historians. A relatively complete
system of Chinese characters had been formed by then. Until the Warring
States Period, the character systems varied in each country; but later Qin
unified the language with Xiaozhuan (small seal) script. In the Eastern Han
Dynasty, Xu Shen compiled the first Chinese dictionary, Origin of Chinese
Characters, in 22 years, which included 9353 characters of Xiaozhuan script.
The Li (official) script showed up in the late Han Dynasty and the Xing (run-
ning) script appeared in the Wei and Jin Dynasty whose style was between the
Kai (regular) script and Cao (cursive) script. Not only the major characters
18 B. TONG
invented as well as the age of the birth of ancient physical paper in human
culture and communication history.
The application of paper and ink laid the material basis for the invention
of printing; while the seal and stone tablet rubbings provided the technol-
ogy foundation. The invention of printing had led to the major revolution of
journalism and communication and realized the qualitative improvement of
“writing method.” Since then, the news could be printed in a large number,
considerably expanding the scope of news dissemination. Karl Marx regarded
the printing as “the lever of human civilization.”
In the late Sui and early Tang Dynasty, the start of printing, wood-block
printing was invented. Until the Song Dynasty under the reign of Emperor
Renzong (AD 1041–1048), a talented printer Bi Dan had invented mova-
ble type, but it was a regret that the technology had not been popularized at
that time. It was until the late thirteenth century in the Yuan Dynasty when
agriculturalist Wang Zhen invented the movable wooden type and the runner
composing frame that the movable type was applied to practices. The inven-
tion of movable type by Chinese was 400 years earlier than the invention of
lead alloy movable type by Johannes Gutenburg from Germany.
Printing was firstly used to print books. In the west, printing was utilized
to print the brochures for religious propaganda in early days. Since the sev-
enteenth century, journalism and communication activities had gained rapid
development depending on printing. The rise of printing news had changed
the world enormously and conduced to substantial changes of people’s jour-
nalism and communication concepts. The technology of rapid printing and
the basic concept of newspaper had been combined in the 1830s, when the
modern newspapers, the first real mass media, was born.
1 Karl Marx, Capital, 1st edition, Page 784, Vol. 1, Beijing, People’s Publishing House, 1975.
20 B. TONG
1566: Notizie Scritte was released in Venice in Italy, with the sheet-fed print of
Venice Gazzetta.
1568: The single-page irregular newspapers Extraordinari-Zeitungen was
released in Germany.
1583: The irregular newsbook was released in Frankfurt in Germany, which was
changed to two issues a year since 1588 and became the earliest regular pub-
lication in the world.
1590: The weekly Avisa was released in Germany and continued to run until
1609.
1594: The Mercurius Gallo-Belgicus was released in Germany, one issue half a
year, running until 1635.
1702: Daily Courant was released as the earliest daily paper of United
Kingdom.
1749: Berlingske Tidende was released as the earliest daily paper of Denmark.
1777: Le Journal de Paris was released as the earliest daily paper of France.
1785: Daily Universal Register started publication in London, and was renamed
as The Times in 1788.
In Russia which was still subject to feudal rule at that time, the Beдoмocти
(News Press) personally edited by Peter I was created in 1703 as the first
modern newspapers in Russia. However, due to the suppression by the feudal
rule, Prussia Germany, where quite a few newspapers had been released in
early days, had only one official newspaper Berlinische Privilegierte Zeitung
left by 1721 and had all other newspapers banned.
The breakout of the French Revolution in 1789 had led to newspaper
industry flourishing as never before. From 1789 to the end of 1800, 1350
newspapers had been newly created in France, twice the total number of
newspapers and magazines opened in the 150 years before the Revolution.
In the nineteenth century, the capitalist system had been finally established
in Europe after the bourgeois revolution in Germany and the unification of
Germany. In this context, productivity had ushered in unprecedented devel-
opment and financial capital had been gradually formed, providing huge
input to the further prosperity of the newspaper industry. The extensive con-
struction of railways increased the speed of transport and mail delivery; the
papermaking, print and telecommunication industry had seen sharp growth;
and the rapid development of commodity economy enabled the newspapers
to gain great profits through advertising. People’s demand on information
and news were considerably increasing due to the completion of the indus-
trial revolution in the United Kingdom and the spreading of the revolution in
other countries. All these factors above had contributed to the unprecedented
development of modern newspapers.
The most important material resources had been provided to the develop-
ment of modern newspapers in the nineteenth century:
1820: The new papermaking technology was invented, lowering the paper price
by one fourth. Based on the invention of chlorine bleaching and papermak-
ing technology, the wood pulp could be used as the raw materials for paper-
making, resulting in the mass production of cheap paper.
1831: The double cylinder press was invented.
1846: The high-speed cylinder press was invented.
1863: The technology of auto continuous feed was invented.
1835: The first news agency Havas was established, while Wolffs was born in
1849 and Reuters was founded in 1851.
1845: Telegraph was established.
1850: The submarine cable between the United Kingdom and Europe was laid.
1866: The submarine cable between Europe and the American continent was
laid.
1872: The hot-metal composing machine was invented.
from the initial “newsletter” to weekly or quarto or folio daily and presented
the content and form of contemporary newspapers. The printing industry had
been finally separated from the press, while the newspapers had been divided
from magazines. The small private workshops or small enterprises had devel-
oped to be big profitable enterprises that are indispensable to the party, gov-
ernment and industrial financial capital.
The Industrial Revolution had brought two outcomes to the world news-
papering. Firstly, the proletarian newspaper that bore the opposite social mis-
sion against the bourgeois had emerged in the 1820s; and secondly, the cheap
newspapers featuring the qualities of mass media appeared in the 1830s. As
another result of the further development of capitalist newspapering, many
newspaper groups emerged in the late nineteenth century.
In the twentieth century, the newspaper industry ushered in the new his-
torical period of multimedia coexistence.
American scholars have proposed a standard that media will become mass
media when the users account for one-fifth of the total population of the
country. With the United States as an example, based on the standard of 50
million users, it took 38 years for the radio to become mass media, compared
to 13 years of TV, 10 years of cable TV and only 5 years of the Internet. By
June 30, 2001, the number of computers connected to the Internet reached
10.02 million, having grown by 54% compared to the same time in 2000;
and the total number of netizens reached 26.5 million, with a growth rate of
approximately 57% compared to the same time of the last year. The Internet
is also rapidly developing in Japan, Hong Kong China and some other coun-
tries or regions. All these situations suggest that the human journalism and
communication activities are stepping into a brand new age.
24 B. TONG
When discussing the histories of different countries, Karl Marx once said that
the extremely similar events could lead to completely different results in dif-
ferent historical contexts. China has led a totally different path of journal-
ism and communication undertakings compared to foreign countries. The
journalism and communication histories of Germany, the United States, the
United Kingdom, France, Japan and Russia are briefly introduced here as the
background for the comparative study of Chinese and Western journalism
and communication history.
2.1 Germany
Germany had been the home to modern printing from the fifteenth to the
seventeenth centuries, when the irregular handwritten and printed journal-
ism and communication media had been popular. However, the feudal rul-
ers hated people enjoying the freedom of the press and adopted all different
measures to suppress the printed publications. Though as the home to mod-
ern newspapers, Germany failed to do more for the freedom of the press. In
the book The Mass Media of Communication in Federal Germany, Hermann
Meyn, the current chairman of the German Journalists Association, stated:
“The struggle for the freedom of the press has been essentially the strug-
gle to get rid of books and newspapers examination. Soon after Johannes
Gutenburg invented printing (around 1450), the church and the govern-
ment had issued many regulations and stipulated that any book or newspapers
could not be printed or communicated without the prior approval (examina-
tion).” “The strict regulations on the examination of books and newspapers
in Carlsbad decrees (1819) had completely silenced the ‘political voice’ in
German newspapers and magazines. The freedom of press was only temporar-
ily restored by 1848 revolution.”
By reviewing the history of Germany, the home to modern newspapers, we
can find some useful points.