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. While adapting to the complex political process towards democratization, the Chinese Communist Party media have further expanded their dual identity as both organizational communicator and mass communicator, and are involved in Chinese political communication in a variety of ways. To improve the role of internal organizational communication, the Party media have extended their sphere of activity from traditional Internal Reference (xinwen neican 新闻内参) to Online Public Opinion Monitoring (yuqing jiance 舆情监测) and Media Think Tank Consultation (meiti zhiku 媒体智库). As leaders in China’s market-oriented media reform and tech-driven media integration, the Chinese Party media have remained dominant and privileged agents in China’s mass media system, and active participants in social political communication in a number of ways, from traditional policy publicity, to media supervision and timely external opinion guiding.