Dual Identity and Multiple Tasks: Contemporary Chinese Party Media’s Involvement in Political Communication

Abstract

Alongside the reform and opening-up policies in China since 1978, there has been a transformation of China’s governmental functions and of its media system.\xa0While adapting to the complex political process towards democratization, the\xa0Chinese Communist Party media have further expanded their dual identity as\xa0both organizational communicator and mass communicator, and are involved\xa0in Chinese political communication in a variety of ways. To improve the role\xa0of internal organizational communication, the Party media have extended their\xa0sphere of activity from traditional Internal Reference (xinwen neican 新闻内参) to\xa0Online Public Opinion Monitoring (yuqing jiance 舆情监测) and Media Think\xa0Tank Consultation (meiti zhiku 媒体智库). As leaders in China’s market-oriented\xa0media reform and tech-driven media integration, the Chinese Party media have\xa0remained dominant and privileged agents in China’s mass media system, and\xa0active participants in social political communication in a number of ways, from\xa0traditional policy publicity, to media supervision and timely external opinion\xa0guiding.