Policy Paradigm Shifts of Contemporary Chinese Media

In this paper, policy paradigm shifts of contemporary Chinese media are analyzed. Up till now, Chinese media policies have generally changed through three paradigms, including political unification policies (1949-1978), hybrid governance policies (1978-2013) and integrated governance policies (2013-now). All three-policy paradigms have been orienting towards political interests, but place emphasis on different aspects. Mainly politically oriented, the first policy paradigm focuses on seeking political interests. Guided by political, economic and social interests, the 2 one is physically hybrid but not integrated owing to policy conflicts, overlaid management and poor efficiency. The 3 media policy paradigm attempts to integrate policies for solving problems that appear during the 2 policy paradigm.


Introduction
China is experiencing tremendous changes in terms of its media environment with the globalization and rapid development of communication technologies, both time and space have been highly compressed, while enormous changes have happened to media environment.To adapt to new media environment, pertinent media policies shall be formulated by considering more complicated factors that have never existed ever before.This is an important for all countries, because a country's media institutions and policies do not only directly affect development of the media, but also have indirect impacts upon its own political stability, economic development, technological advances and application as well as people's interests.What changes have taken place in modern Chinese media policies?What are internal and external motive forces of formulating these policies?Are these policies established with the drive of technologies or for benefits?What influence formation and evolution of Chinese media policies?This paper will focus on describing policy paradigm shifts of modern Chinese media and interpreting causes of the evolution.

Media
In this paper, media cover two perspectives, namely media including carriers or tools and organizations.

Contemporary Policies
The contemporary period from 1949 when the People's Republic of China was founded to the present was discussed.This was chosen in view that the Communist Party of China has just formally become the sole ruling party of the New China and gotten down to managing a majority of areas of China.Thereafter, the Communist Party of China has been influencing all areas under its jurisdiction.Besides, Chinese media policies have greatly changed since that year, whereas political priorities have been the foremost all the time.At last, the development of media in Mainland China has been closely connected with media policies of the Communist Party of China after that year.
"Policies" refer to the public solutions consciously developed for attaining some goals, ways for putting the solutions into practices and schedules.Particular content of government policies reveal that government balance rights and interests in certain periods and places according to specific political, economic, social and cultural conditions.

Policy Paradigms and Paradigm Shifts
Having originated from Greek, "paradigm" originally meant "common display", based on which its meanings have been extended to patterns, models and examples. 1Introduced by Thomas Samuel Kuhn into the philosophy of science, it is defined as "examples generally acknowledged in practical scientific activities, including laws, theories, applications, instruments and equipment, thereby making models available to the emergence of certain tradition of scientific research.As a common view about epistemology and a scientific theoretical system, "a scientific paradigm is a range of hypotheses related to realities, which may better depict the present world than other hypotheses". 2"Nowadays, 'paradigms' and paradigm shifts have become extremely useful and new tools of policy sciences.As metaphors for describing evident policy changes, paradigms, in essence, accurately capture basic long-term changes to beliefs, values and attitudes of policy subjects (particularly policy makers) about natures and solutions of policy problems." 3Policy paradigm shifts or changes to policy styles are just the changes to the unique 'policy paradigms' of public policies in change patterns of policies such as attributes and solutions of social problems as well as policy orientations, objectives, values, beliefs and ideologies that develop based on them, which are essentially a series of knowledge, experience and ideas of relevant subjects involved in public policies". 4 mentioned above, dramatic changes have happened to multiple factors of Chinese media policies such as their orientations and objectives as well as the values, beliefs and consciousness that have been developed based on the policies with the changes of politics, economy, society, cultures, technologies and supreme leaders.Up till now, Chinese media policies have generally changed pursuant to following three paradigms, including political unification policies (1949-1978), hybrid governance policies (1978 when China was reformed and opened up -2013 when two ministries and commissions were consolidated) and integrated governance policies (symbolized by integration of responsibilities between the General Administration of Press and Publication and National Press and Publication Administration of Radio, Film and Television and the founding of the latter in 2013).These three stages correspond to "transformation", "consolidation" and "adaptation" phases of the single party leadership system of the Communist Party of China.Meanwhile, 5 new leaders would come to power every time when any change occurred in each phases.(1949-1978)   This period extended from the founding of new China by the Communist Party of China in 1949 to the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee convened by Deng Xiaoping (i.e. the new state leader) after the death of Chairman Mao Zedong.Besides, political unification policies covered media policies of the Communist Party of China before the founding of the New China and a range of special changes, accumulated based on various instructions.If media policies of Western countries were considered to be market-oriented (industry and economy), Chinese media policies were guided by politics in that period, so all communications and technologies centered on politics (i.e.propaganda).

Political Unification
Chinese media policies came into being under completely different backgrounds compared with Western media policies.Before the founding of New China, the core issue of the Communist Party of China was to lead proletariats to strive for power from the bourgeoisie.After the founding of New China, Mao Zedong thought that it was essential for the Communist Party of China and China to embark on different businesses "based on class struggle". 6Under this political background, China successively carried out socialist transformation, "Anti-Rightist Movement", Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution from 1949 when the New China was founded to 1978 before the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee.After the founding of the New China, the social structure was relatively simple, where peasants accounted for an absolute majority of total population equaling to 86.74%. 7In terms of the class structure, classes are mainly divided by purely homogenous political stratification.Concerning social mobility, personnel flow was stagnant in people's commune period.
As regards social psychology, individuals lack consciousness and worship leaders with a sense of equilibrium.From the perspective of media technologies, newspapers and radios were major media of mass communication, while movies, telegrams and phones belonged to niche communications.Television was in the initial stage of development, so its impacts can be generally neglected.However, these media technologies radiated outwards from the "center".Thus, everything would be under control as long as the "center" was well grasped.Policies were mostly formulated "based on speeches of political leaders" 9 In general, media policies were replaced by political speeches.
All media of mass communications had pretty important political functions in the New China, where economic functions of communications were seriously neglected or excluded.After the founding of the New China, newspapers were public, private or both types of newspapers coexisted for certain period.According to the incomplete statistics of 28 th February 1950, there were 281 newspapers in the New China, including at least 55 private newspapers. 10After the General Administration of Press and Publication was founded, all private newspapers were required to follow the example of the newspaper of the Communist Party of China. 11From 1952, all private newspapers were run by public-private partnership. 12Generally, broadcasting undertakings should be "state-run" and "prohibited from private management".On the eve of the founding of New China, there were approximately one million radios. 13New China was founded according to policy decisions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China about previous advertising radios and their personnel in newly emancipated cities in November 1948.All radios against the Communist Party of China were confiscated.The radios were purely private under the control of the military control commission by personnel maintaining advertisements and music entertainment, so the content should be the programs relayed from the Xinhua News Station.The radios were prohibited from making any publicity against the people's liberation army or people's government, and their content was supposed to be reviewed.All foreign-funded radios or those run by foreigners were closed apart from private shortwave radios. 14For movies, the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee pointed out in the Decision on Strengthening the Film Industry in August 1949 that cinematic arts gained the greatest support from the masses and the most universal propaganda effects.The development of this industry was promoted, for the purpose that the Communist Party of China, new-democratic revolution and construction can be publicized more vigorously at the national and international levels. 15Chinese TV stations weren't run until 17 th August 1957, and it was the first time that signals of Chinese TV programs were accessible on 1 st May 1958.Attaching importance to publicity, television news mainly presented news bulletins about foreign affairs and government activities of the Communist Party of China and state leaders, recorded and reported their achievements and experience in socialist revolution and construction. 16

Features of the Political Unification Period
Firstly, in that period there had been pretty diversified media, which had their independent policies (mainly formulated for specifying development trends and connections of different media), followed the "spirits of the Communist Party of China" 17 and covered all media policies, which were established based on political interests.
Secondly, media policies stipulated that media had functions of thoughts, direct organization and cultural entertainment, excluding their economic functions.With regard to "interests of people", they were publicized and educated through communications and media led by the Communist Party of China.
Thirdly, media were considered to have economic attributes in that period, on the grounds that infrastructure was provided for mobilizing social production.Left before the founding of New China, their industrial properties completely disappeared after the "socialist transformation".It was just because of this standard that the government controlled media.As a consequence, media could rarely gain any economic benefit or competed with each other.
Fourthly, the value orientations of policies had characteristics of political romanticism (Only existing in ideals or policy texts, goals of media policies couldn't be turned into objective bases of realities); Political leaders and a minority of political elites were subjects making policies; The power for making policies was highly centralized by the central government; Policies were mostly formulated by political elites of empirical decision-making, mostly motivated by leaders' speeches. 18

Challenges to the First Policy Paradigm
China embarked on a range of political movements within three decades after the founding of New China.In this period, China was chaotic in view of its overall political situation.According to the general economic situation, it was actually in a stage of slow or arrested development." 19Such state was unsustainable, since financial support was indispensable for survival and development.In the late 1970s, politics changed drastically home and abroad when the Communist Party of China got to be "transformed".Chinese media policies changed tremendously as well and developed from the period of "political unification" into the period of "hybrid governance".

Hybrid Governance (1978-2013)
"Hybrid governance" had two meanings as follows.On one hand, management policies of new internet media and mobile media were physically "mixed" but not chemically "combined".They were being explored that they were still unclear.On the other hand, hybrid governance revealed that policy orientations of media were not only based on political orientations, but also got to be centered on economy.Meanwhile, substantial improvements were made in social benefits of media, whereas no balance was achieved among these three aspects, which were "harmonious".In a sense, such "hybrid governance" of media promoted the development of new Chinese media, because if new media were strictly controlled at the very beginning when they "crossed the river by feeling the stones", their development and application would be "stagnant".
The period of hybrid policies extended from the date when the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Deng Xiaoping was elected as the state leader to 2013 when duties of the General Administration of Press and Publication were integrated with those of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and the latter was founded.After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, thoughts of new liberalism began to impact China. 20Then, central leaders got to reflect on problems that emerged after the founding of New China.Deng Xiaoping thought that "we had suffered a great deal of losses over the years, as although the socialist transformation was generally completed, we still "focused on class struggle" and neglected productivity." 21As a result, value orientations with characteristics of "political romanticism" got to be transformed into "pragmatic" ones.Furthermore, media policies shifted from the phase of "political unification" to the period of "hybrid governance".Traditional "central" media, including newspapers, radios and television, flourished first and declined subsequently.Instead, the "focus-free" new media (mobile media like networks and cell phones) developed fast towards vigorous development.
After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, Chinese media became market-oriented owing to the economic policies for the reform and opening up.In 1978, the Ministry of Finance approved pilot policies for "enterprise-style management of organizations and institutions" in eight central news organizations, including People's Daily.In 1983, "opening up new financial resources and improving economic benefits" were reckoned as one of policies for radio and TV reforms in the Outline of the Report concerning Radio and Television Work, where an important policy was enacted, namely four-level radio/TV running and overlaid coverage, which are called as "four-level management" for short.This policy, in the deep motivation, is to solve problem of the lack of state financial funds. 22In 1985, cultures, radios and televisions were firstly listed in the tertiary industry in the Report of Statistics on Constructing the Tertiary Industry.In 1988, the General Administration of Press and Publication and the Administration for Industry and Commerce issued Tentative Provisions about Providing Paid Services and Business Activities by News Agencies, Periodical Agencies and Publishing Houses, thereby loosening the control over newspaper prices.In 1996, the General Office of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council issued the Notice on Strengthening News Publication, Radio and TV Management to respond to poor loose management in line with the principles for "controlling total amount, regulating structure, improving quality and strengthening benefits", in order that priorities could be given to improving quality benefits instead of expanding the scales as before in news publication, radio and TV industries.In 1999, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Notice on Strengthening New Publication, Radio and TV Management, putting forward a system for transforming radios and TVs from "four levels into two levels" while proposing founding a radio & TV group.In 2001, the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television firstly stipulated in their Opinions on Strengthening Construction and Management of Wired Radio & TV Networks that efforts should be actively made to promote group construction, carry out management across media or areas and vigorously develop the groups.In 2009, the Executive Meetings of the State Council released the Plan for Vigorous Development of the Cultural Industries, which highlighted alternation of traditional media with digital media, development of the cultural industries across areas or sectors, attraction of social capitals and construction of investment funds for Chinese cultural industries. 23Traditional media have developed through three stages, including "market-oriented development", "group-based development" and current "capitalized development".
The government has successively formulated a range of policies, planned Internet development, clarified priorities for development of Internet in different stages and promoted social informatization since China formally accessed to international internet in 1994. 24Generally, new information communication tools and communicated content generated and produced based on Internet are under "post control".In other words, pertinent policies are basically proposed after the emergence of new problems in the course of development.
Just like politics can't exist in vacuum, capital is necessary for survival and development of media.After China joined WTO, China got involved in the "globalization".Thereafter, the competition was not closed any longer no matter in "ideologies" or "cultural industries", but turned into worldwide competition.With the approaching of the "postindustrial society", information revolution further stimulated the transition of global economy.It was the sole opportunity in the history of modern China for synchronous transition and development together with the world.It was just because of this that Chinese media policies of this period mostly oriented towards economic development.

Characteristics of the Period of Hybrid Policy Paradigm
Firstly, Chinese media systems and structures of this period could be summarized by "one system and dual operation.Chinese media should not only make their publicities according to institutional requirements of the state and the Communist Party of China, but also had to be run pursuant to market laws.In essence, Chinese media were political, but had been market-oriented and industrialized in light of the peripheral changes. 25In this period, media policies mainly intended to guarantee publicity of ideologies while promoting economy of the media industry.
Secondly, media functions were defined in diversified manners.Media developed its sole functions as "throat and tongue" into multiple functions, including information dissemination, knowledge popularization, cultural entertainment, supervision of public opinions and industries.
Thirdly, there were still signs of "governance by people".As a whole, the governance by personnel of the Department of Party Affairs was shifted to governance by laws of government departments. 26Nevertheless, the regulatory departments were backward in terms of their scores. 27urthly, media policies tended to be integrated with the constant emergence of new media or means of communication and faster convergence of media.After 1998, Chinese information industry tried "convergence of triple networks" and Chinese government made several attempts to formulate corresponding convergence policies thereafter.Nonetheless, these policies had relatively many conflicts with the previous ones and were contradictory to vested interest groups.As a result, they could be hardly put into practice.
Fifthly, policies conflicted with each other at times and management was carried out across departments.The laws came from multiple executives that the management was overlaid with poor efficiency.
Sixthly, policies couldn't be formulated at the same pace as the emergence of new media, so the new ones were managed with old policies.The standards for implementing policies tended to be inconsistent.
Seventhly, although policies and media had attributes of industries and undertakings, the practical operations were industries-centered.

Challenges to the Second Policy Paradigm
In this period, media policies facilitated vigorous development and great prosperity of Chinese media.Thus, newspapers, radios, televisions, phones, networks, computers and mobile terminals and so on became popular consumer products, while media became increasingly more independent in their economic returns.On average, 90% of Chinese media's total revenues were earned from advertisements, whereas only 10.7% of them were occupied by government subsidies. 28Although people really gained political, economic and social benefits, the challenges became more complicated in this period.The challenges should be mainly attributable to two aspects.On one hand, threats were posed to national ideological security and social cohesion was weakened; on the other hand, so great difficulties were encountered in reforms that Chinese media groups could hardly develop and were uncompetitive at a global level.
Concerning the first challenges, Chinese people would be divided into four interest groups from the social perspective, including special benefited groups, ordinary benefited groups, vulnerable groups and social grassroots groups.In essence, reforms were just adjustments of structures of social interests, which inevitably made some groups, gain benefits, but some others suffered losses, thereby leading to numerous social conflicts. 29Technologically, Chinese government concentrated on promoting construction of media infrastructure, development and application of technologies in the early stage.
However, they got exhausted to deal with relevant issues with the development of new media because of changes to people's thoughts and behaviors arising from changed media ecology.As a result, they felt helpless to manage the media even if they want to keep them under their control, or manage the "focus-free" media with the thinking for managing "central" media.Many policies failed to thoroughly solve the problems as preventive measures are always taken after problems occurred.In the mean time, "fission style development of new media did not only change the patterns for guiding and communicating public opinions, but also had traditional media marginalized, as a result of which the mainstream media could hardly really grasp the mainstream public opinions. 30om the political perspective, the policies became more and more "de-ideologicalized". 31 As a consequence, public opinions couldn't act as driving forces any longer and tyranny of news was immediately caused.Media became competitive fields among different groups.The spokesmen of interest groups and opinion leaders were prejudiced against critical events and issues.Consequently, plenty of netizens and people misunderstood or were hostile to the Communist Party of China and the country.Government and the people opposite each other's on the Internet. 32 last, although socialist economy with Chinese characteristics had came into being after the reform and opening up, no Chinese characteristic socialist cultures were recognized by a majority of people.Meanwhile, there was a lack of common understanding and cohesion in the society.The "political cultures" were simply and intuitively disseminated without any skill or identity.
On the other hand, there were some challenges as follows.With the development and integration of media technologies, Chinese media should be structurally adjusted accordingly.The greatest barrier consisted in the "four-level radio management" and "strip/slap" segmentation management carried out during the early reform and opening up of China for handling financial difficulties in media development and guaranteeing ideological security."Four-level radio management" resulted in fierce homogeneous competition.The organizations were large with so many employees that resources were wasted.With the constant emergence of new media, perhaps many local radios could support their employees at most owing to the lack of audiences.
Under such "four-level radio management", traditional Chinese media were "path dependent" in the course of their development.Thus, the reforms were bristled with great difficulties, as the radios should take the employment into account, in order to guarantee their development without massive unemployment.For instance, "there were more than one million employees in China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation.However, about only 100,000 employees were sufficient for normal production in Western countries.In spite of this, it was impossible for the enterprise to lay off 900,000 employees. 33The left problems couldn't be completely solved, which mattered about fairness and social stability.In the period of traditional media, segmented "strip/slap" management hindered media from development across sectors or areas and interfered with development of media groups.Under this circumstance, disorderly media management, government decrees from multiple departments and mutual conflicts were caused in the period of media convergence.To coordinate and reform departments, vested interest groups would be involved, so considerable obstacles were encountered.As a result, resources were heavily wasted and repeated construction was completed among Chinese media.Therefore, it was rather difficult to develop any media groups as competitive as national media giants. 34th the approaching of globalization, the media convergence arising from economic growth of China, political needs and new media like internet forced Chinese media policies to develop towards the third stage known as stage of integrated governance.It was also in this period that the Communist Party of China entered the third stage known as "adaptation" in terms of its reign after the phases of "transition" and "consolidation".

Integrated Governance
Integrated governance refers to required resource integration and coordinated operation from the perspective of policies and institutions for supervising information production.Such integration and coordination are seen in interpretation and revision existing policies, formulation and execution of relevant new media policies, configuration and cooperation of organizational departments and so on.To facilitate integration of new media with traditional ones, it is firstly necessary to integrate them from the perspective of policies, which may not only guarantee institutional environment, but also ensure integration and optimization of existing resources as well as efficient supervision. 35.
Like a majority of countries, media have been integrated in terms of their technical patterns, production, sales and cultures for a fairly long period in China. 36However, from the perspective of departmental management and policy adjustment, the integration of Chinese media policies has contributed to the reign of Xi Jinping as a state leader of China.Since Xi Jinping took office as a new Chinese leader, attempts have been made to transform current management of media from the perspective of their natures.Xi Jinping attaches extremely great importance to changes to media environment, reforms of corresponding management departments and policies.First of all, he revoked the General Administration of Press and Publication and the General Administration of Radio and Television, founding the State Administration of Press Publication, Radio, Film and Television.This departmental reform intended to handle the problem that media management departments and policies were mixed but not integrated in the phase of the second policy paradigm.These management departments were mainly responsible for news and publication, radio, film and television undertakings and industries in coordinated manners, supervising the management of press, publication, radio, film and television organizations and their businesses as well as content and quality of publications, radio broadcasts, films and TV programs, and managing copyrights, 37 for the purpose of further promoting reform of cultural systems, coordinating press, radio and film resources, and stimulating prosperous development of these industries The reforms were brought in administration and provided responsibilities to publish news and the and the General Administration of Radio and TV were integrated, while the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television was founded.Such adjustment was not only helpful for reducing overlapped duties, increasing management efficiency and fulfilling responsibilities for management, but also favorable for promoting coordinated development of new media (including newspapers, periodicals, presses, news agencies, TV stations and internet), speeding up the construction of modern communication system and strengthening power of cultural communication.Furthermore, they were beneficial for press, radio, film and TV industries to develop in terms of their scale and strength, enhancing their overall cultural strengths and increasing their competitiveness.They were also useful for integrating public service resources of press, radio, film and TV fields, in order to improve quality of public cultural services." 38On 9 th November 2013, Xi Jinping stated in the first plenum of the Third Plenary Session of the Communist Party of China that "In face of rapid development of internet technologies and applications, current management still has evident deficiencies, mainly including multiple management, overlapped functions, inconsistencies between rights and duties as well as poor efficiency.It has become a realistic and prominent for us to consider how to enhance legal construction and guidance of public opinions for networks, thereby guaranteeing orderly dissemination of network information, national security and social stability".On 16 th November 2013, Xi Jinping's explanation of the Decision of the CCCPC on Some Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening the Reform was published by the People's Daily, mentioning that "to systematically sort out traditional cultural resources, multiple measures such as mass communication, group communication and interpersonal communication should be taken to present charms of Chinese cultures."On 18 th August 2014, Xi Jinping, as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, convened the fourth conference on completely deepening the reform of leading groups to review and approve the Guiding Opinions on Promoting Convergence of Traditional Media with New Media.
In this conference, he proposed "impelling convergence of traditional media with new media, conforming to laws of new communication/development of new media, strengthening Internet thinking, insisting on complementing strengths and integrated development of traditional media with the new ones.With the support of advanced technologies, persistent efforts should be made to deeply converge traditional media with the new ones from the perspective of their content, channels, platforms, operation and management based on content construction, in an attempt to develop a group of new diverse competitive advanced mainstream media, found several fairly powerful accountable influential new media groups with great power of communication.Attention shall be paid to strengthen management while working on the convergence, to make sure that media are converged in a correct direction." 39It was also because of the supreme state leaders' great concerns about media convergence that 2014 was called the "year of media convergence".

Characteristics of the Period of Policy Integration
Firstly, media management and policies are transformed actively and passively.On one hand, numerous problems have been accumulated in the second stage and remain to be solved.As a consequence, tremendous pressure will be imposed when transformation is inevitable.On the other hand, high-level Chinese governments attach great importance to impacts of new media.The supreme leaders of China have successively mentioned management and innovation of media convergence in several important meetings.Besides, they have integrated related management departments and released corresponding policies.
Secondly, this transformation was inevitable with the drive of revolutions of new media technologies.New media have seriously weakened the communication effects of traditional media, dispelled authorities and impacted public opinion guidance.In addition, traditional media have tended to be marginalized.Although media are tongues and throats of the Communist Party of China, new media have achieved certain breakthroughs in these functions.This has posed threats to the Communist Party of China in managing China, on the grounds that "with the progress of communication technologies, it will become easier for us to understand where we are and get involved in them.Thus, we challenge and even defeat the old authorities that previously controlled information flow to create new ones.We are witnessing the disappearance of old authorities and must realize that new authorities will emerge to replace the old ones." 40irdly, apart from compromise, convergence means the balance and integration among politics, economy and society.The development is not sustainable if it is unbalanced.Subsequently, policy adjustments will be inevitable for different interests.How to solve problems concerning "path dependence" by breaking through barriers to interests is not a thing that can be handled overnight.It is just in the early period of integrated policies.At present, more priorities are given to solve problems left in the second period and current new problems in innovating management and thinking.At present, there are far more problems than known countermeasures.In addition to too many uncertainties, more explorations and reforms are necessary.For this purpose, institutional innovations are required apart from tough leaders with highly centralized power.