A Differentiated Community: Chinese Journalists and Their Interest-Driven Professionalism

Professionalism of journalism has been debated in China in the past decade, partly because of the commercialization of the mass media and emerging elite media. It still remains a question whether there is a journalistic professionalism in China, or whether such professionalism is a fragmentary one instead of a coherent one. However, it is clear that traditional mouthpiece role of Chinese mass media has no longer been able to offer enough explanation to portray the current change in such a profession.

 This paper focuses on one special phenomenon in Chinese journalistic activity usually named “red-envelop journalism” or paid journalism. Journalists routinely accept money and other gifts from news source including government officials, industries and even foreign companies, which in western journalism is viewed as bribe. However, in Chinese social context, it should be considered more complicated rather than merely a violation of professionalism.

In this paper the transition of function and structure of paid journalism from the mouthpiece era to the current party-market corporatism situation is historically reviewed and analyzed. Then by participatory observation and interview, it is concluded that professionalism is interpreted mainly according to differentiated interests such as fame, market and political capital within journalist community and by other participants in the institution. It is also noted that journalists use interpretative discourse to explain and defend such interest-driven professionalism. Consequently these developments may have profound implications for the transition of Chinese media from a lapdog perspective to a guard dog perspective, while the traditionally defined perspective of professionalism as a watch dog is dismissed.