The course is planned as a combination of lectures and seminars aimed primarily at Sinology-major BA students, but also open to students from other majors with an interest in the development of Chinese mass media over the past 150 years. The main focus of lectures and discussions is on the evolution and transformations of mass media in China: from newspapers to radio and television broadcasting to the Internet and social media. A part of classes is devoted to familiarising course participants with the factual details of mass media’s history and current situation in China and the politics surrounding issues of censorship, propaganda, and freedom of press. Another part of classes rotates around readings of research literature and problems raised in them. Yet another share of the course deals with primary sources, involving hands-on analysis of mass media. The aim of the course is to deepen students’ knowledge of the history and functioning of mass media in China.
Poslední úprava: Guleva Mariia, M.A., Ph.D. (13.01.2026)
Podmínky zakončení předmětu
Timely fulfilment of class assignments (including readings, presentations, and group work specified in relevant Moodle sections: https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=18899); concluding presentation of primary sources’ analysis with discussion of relevant literature.
Poslední úprava: Guleva Mariia, M.A., Ph.D. (03.02.2026)
Literatura
Brokaw, Cynthia J., and Christopher A. Reed. 2010. From Woodblocks to the Internet: Chinese Publishing and Print Culture in Transition, circa 1800 to 2008. Boston: Brill.
Chen, Titus C. 2022. The Making of a Neo-Propaganda State: China’s Social Media under Xi Jinping. Leiden: Brill.
Culp, Robert J. 2019. The Power of Print in Modern China: Intellectuals and Industrial Publishing from the End of Empire to Maoist State Socialism. New York: Columbia University Press.
Ellul, Jacques; translated by Konrad Kellen and Jean Lerner. 1965. Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes. New York: Vintage Books.
Herman, Edward S., and Noam Chomsky. 1994. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. London: Vintage.
Hu Zhengqiang 胡正强. 2018. Zhongguo jinxiandai manhua xinwenshi 中国近现代漫画新闻史 [History of cartoon in news in modern and contemporary China]. Beijing: Renmin Chubanshe.
Hung, Chang-tai. 2021. Politics of Control: Creating Red Culture in the Early People’s Republic of China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Krysko, Michael A. 2011. American Radio in China: International Encounters with Technology and Communications, 1919–41. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lei, Wei. 2019. Radio and Social Transformation in China. Abingdon: Routledge.
Meng, Bingchun. 2018. The Politics of Chinese Media: Consensus and Contestation. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Mittler, Barbara. 2004. A Newspaper for China? Power, Identity and Change in Shanghai’s News Media, 1872–1912. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Asia Center.
Reed, Christopher A. 2004. Gutenberg in Shanghai: Chinese Print Capitalism, 1876–1937. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Wang, Fei-Hsien. 2022. Pirates and Publishers: A Social History of Copyright in Modern China. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Wang, Xiaohong, Xingang Chen, and Lingbo Tu. 2021. “State and Market: A Historical Review and Theoretical Remapping of the Broadcast Media Transformation in China”. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 65 (5): 827–40. doi: 10.1080/08838151.2022.2060980.
Wei, Shuge. 2017. News under Fire: China’s Propaganda against Japan in the English-Language Press, 1928–1941. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Yang, Guobin. 2011. The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online. New York: Columbia University Press.
“Zhongguo xinwen chuanbo shi” bianxiezu <中国新闻传播史>编写组 (ed.). 2021. Zhongguo xinwen chuanbo shi 中国新闻传播史 [History of news broadcasting in China]. Beijing: Gaodeng Jiaoyu Chubanshe.
Zhu, Ying, and Chris Berry (eds.). 2009. TV China. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Poslední úprava: Guleva Mariia, M.A., Ph.D. (09.02.2026)
Sylabus
Please follow the course in Moodle (https://dl1.cuni.cz/course/view.php?id=18899) for reading assignments and other updates.
Class 1. Introduction: mass media in society and issues of state control; discussion of excerpts from Chomsky’s Manufacturing consent and Ellul's Propaganda. Class 2. Development of newspaper business in China, discussion of assigned chapters from Mittler (2004) and Reed (2004). Class 3. Radio broadcasting during republican period, discussion of assigned chapters from Krysko (2011). Class 4. Mass media during Second Sino-Japanese War and the transformation of news press, discussion of assigned chapters from Wei Shuge (2017). Class 5. Establishing party / state control over mass media in the early years of the PRC, discussion of assigned chapters from Hung (2021) and Culp (2019). Class 6. Radio broadcasting in the PRC, discussion of assigned chapter from Lei (2019) and article by Wang, Chen, and Tu (2021). Class 7. Emergence and contents of television broadcasts, discussion of assigned chapters from Zhu and Berry (2009). Class 8. Transformation of mass media with the spread of the Internet, discussion of assigned chapters from Brokaw and Reed (2010) and Meng Bingchun (2018). Class 9. Internet, social media, and activism, discussion of assigned chapters from Chen (2022) and Yang Guobin (2011). Class 10. Reading and discussion of assigned sections from Hu Zhengqiang (2018) and Zhongguo xinwen chuanbo shi (2021). Class 11. Analysis of recent publications in Renmin Ribao, Qiushi (http://en.qstheory.cn/), etc. Class 12. Viewing and discussion of ongoing CCTV news broadcasting: trends and contents (using https://tv.cctv.com/live/cctv1/ or sources of students’ choice). Class 13. Discussion of materials at https://chinadigitaltimes.net/, https://sinopsis.cz/, etc.
Poslední úprava: Guleva Mariia, M.A., Ph.D. (09.02.2026)
