1 Though among recent exceptions are Lin, Fen J., “Organizational construction or individual's deed? The literati tradition in the journalistic professionalization in China,” International Journal of Communication, Vol. 4 (2010), pp. 175–97Google Scholar; Zhao, Yuezhi, Communication in China: Political Economy, Power, and Conflict (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), esp. ch 5Google Scholar; and Lee, Chin-Chuan, “The conception of Chinese journalists: ideological convergence and contestation,” in Burgh, H. d. (ed.), Making Journalists: Diverse Models, Global Issues (London & New York: Routledge, 2005), pp. 107–26Google Scholar.

2 China consistently ranks near the bottom in world press freedom indexes. See Reporters sans Frontières, Worldwide Press Freedom Index (2009), http://www.rsf.org/en-classement1003-2009.html.

3 For some of the successes of recent Chinese journalism, see Hassid, Jonathan, “China's contentious journalists: reconceptualizing the media,” Problems of Post-Communism, Vol. 55, No. 4 (2008), pp. 52–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 The term is adapted from Hallin, Daniel C. and Mancini, Paolo, Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, who refer to such journalists as belonging to the “North Atlantic” or “Liberal” model of journalism.

5 Lin, “Organizational construction or individual's deed?” p. 176.

6 Note that the four categories are derived primarily from interviews and research on Chinese periodicals, and their application to radio, television or internet journalists is somewhat speculative. Without a sample from a representative survey, I cannot provide reliable frequency estimates.

7 See Rachel E. Stern and Jonathan Hassid, “Amplifying silence: uncertainty and control parables in contemporary China,” Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 45, No. 10 (forthcoming 2012).

8 See Baum, Richard, Burying Mao: Chinese Politics in the Age of Deng Xiaoping (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994)Google Scholar.

9 Lee, Chin-Chuan, He, Zhou and Huang, Yu, “Party-market corporatism, clientalism and media in Shanghai,” Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, Vol. 12, No. 3 (2007), pp. 21–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar, discuss this phenomenon, and contend that Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou represent the three types of party-market media relations extant in China.

10 Lin, Fen J., “A survey report on Chinese journalists in China,” The China Quarterly, No. 202 (2010), pp. 421–34 at p. 423CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Measuring three or more years of college attendance. See Rong, Xue Lan and Shi, Tianjin, “Inequality in Chinese education,” Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 10, No. 26 (2001), pp. 107–24 at p. 113CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Hassid, Jonathan, “Controlling the Chinese media: an uncertain business,” Asian Survey, Vol. 48, No. 3 (2008), pp. 414–30 at p. 427CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 Yuezhi Zhao, Communication in China, p. 29.

14 Interview ET02-3.

15 Zhao, Yuezhi, Media, Market, and Democracy in China: Between the Party Line and the Bottom Line (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1998), p. 19Google Scholar.

16 See, for example, Hassid, “China's contentious journalists.”

17 Brady, Anne-Marie, Marketing Dictatorship: Propaganda and Thought Work in Contemporary China (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), p. 10Google Scholar. For more on media control in China, see Hassid, “Controlling the Chinese media.”

18 Interview GM14-2B.

19 http://press.gapp.gov.cn/gongzhong/chachu_more2.php, accessed 6 May 2009.

20 http://news.xinhuanet.com/zgjx//2009-03/18/content_11028741.htm, accessed 6 May 2009.

21 Yuegang, Lu, “Women de jiben lichang” (“Our basic position”), in Aizong, Zan (ed.), Di si zhong quanli: cong yulun jiandu dao xinwen fazhi (The Fourth Estate: From Watchdog Journalism to Rule of Law in the Media) (Beijing: Minzu chubanshe, 1999), p. 3Google Scholar.

22 Wilensky, Harold L., “The professionalization of everyone?” American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 70, No. 2 (1964), pp. 137–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For an overview of the debate about whether journalists are professional, see Tumber, Howard and Prentoulis, Marina, “Journalism and the making of a profession,” in Burgh, H. d. (ed.), Making Journalists: Diverse Models, Global Issues (London & New York: Routledge, 2005), pp. 58–74Google Scholar; and David H. Weaver, “Who are journalists?” in ibid. pp. 44–57.

23 Even if these norms are not always followed, it is enough that “unethical practices receive uniform condemnation at least in public statements” (Pan, Zhongdang and Lu, Ye, “Localizing professionalism: discursive practices in China's media reforms,” in Lee, Chin-Chuan (ed.), Chinese Media, Global Contexts (New York: Routledge, 2003), pp. 215–36 at p. 225Google Scholar).

24 In this case, the belief that they serve society by serving the CCP.

25 Many European journalists, for instance, would disagree. For the fault lines between American and European “professional” journalists, see Hallin and Mancini, Comparing Media Systems, p. 226.

26 Chin-Chuan Lee, “The conception of Chinese journalists.”

27 Lin, “Organizational construction or individual's deed?” p. 176.

28 Yuezhi Zhao, Communication in China, p. 268.

29 Ibid. p. 253.

30 Chen, Chongshan, Zhu, Jian-Hua and Wu, Wei, “The Chinese journalist,” in Weaver, D. H. and Wu, W. (eds.), The Global Journalist: News People around the World (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 1998), pp. 9–30 at p. 29Google Scholar.

31 Jernow, Allison Liu and Thurston, Anne F., “Don't Force Us to Lie:” The Struggle of Chinese Journalists in the Reform Era (New York: Committee to Protect Journalists, 1993), p. 27Google Scholar.

32 Liangrong, Li, “The historical fate of ‘objective reporting’ in China,” in Lee, Chin-Chuan (ed.), China's Media, Media's China (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994), pp. 225–37 at p. 234Google Scholar.

33 Pan and Lu, “Localizing Professionalism,” p. 227.

34 Jiang, Zhan, “Zonglun: xinwen yulun jiandu yu zhengzhi wenming” (“General introduction: watchdog journalism and civilized governance”), in Jiang, Zhan and Jinxi, Zhang (eds.), Xinwen yulun jiandu yu quanqiu zhengzhi wenming (Watchdog Journalism and Global Democracy) (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, 2007), p. 37, my translationGoogle Scholar.

35 Interview HH05-2A.

36 Interview HE24-2.

37 Interview GX31-2.

38 Interview HL9-4.

39 Interview GM08-2.

40 The Li Datong quotation is from the title of Datong, Li, Yong xinwen yingxiang jintian – “bingdian” zhoukan jishi (Using News to Influence Today – The Freezing Point Chronicle) (Hong Kong: Xianggang taide shidai chuban youxian gongsi, 2006)Google Scholar.

41 Interview GX31-2.

42 Interview HH5-2A.

43 Hallin and Mancini, Comparing Media Systems, esp. ch. 8.

44 For example, the University of California, Berkeley alone hosts several visiting Chinese journalists every year as visiting scholars attached to the Graduate School of Journalism.

45 There are at least three such groups in Beijing and one in Guangzhou, for instance.

46 I borrow the concept from Rachel E. Stern, “Navigating the boundaries of political tolerance: environmental litigation in China,” PhD dissertation in Political Science, University of California, Berkeley, 2009.

47 Interview EU30-3.

48 Li Datong, Using News to Influence Today, p. 1, my translation.

49 Interview GM14-2B.

50 I.e. their content is mostly, though not entirely, for internal government reference (neibu) only and not for general circulation.

51 Something that happens surprisingly often, apparently.

52 Tuchman, Gaye, “Objectivity as strategic ritual: an examination of newsmen's notions of objectivity,” The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 77, No. 4 (1972), pp. 660–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

53 Lee, Francis L.F., “Hong Kong citizens' belief in media neutrality and perceptions of press freedom: objectivity as self-censorship?” Asian Survey, Vol. 47, No. 3 (2007), pp. 434–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54 Strictly speaking, one must have a residence permit to live in Chinese cities, and the vast majority of peasant labourers lack this permit, called a hukou. For more on the hukou system, see Mallee, Hein, “Migration, hukou, and resistance in reform China,” in Perry, E.J. and Selden, M. (eds.), Chinese Society, 2nd Edition: Change, Conflict and Resistance (London & New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), pp. 136–57Google Scholar.

55 Hongfang, Huang and Yong, Yang “Wosheng yubao liudong jiuye xinxi” (“Information on the provincial labour mobility forecast”), Xinhua ribao (New China Daily), 13 January 2004Google Scholar.

56 Interview HL6-4.

57 York, Geoffrey, “China twisting Harper's message; state-controlled media have either ignored PM's advice on human rights or reported his opposition to a boycott,” The Globe and Mail, 10 April 2008, p. A14Google Scholar.

58 Yin, Jing, “The narrative function of news: a comparative study of media representation and audience interpretation of China–US trade relationship,” China Media Research, Vol. 3, No. 3 (2007), pp. 33–42 at p. 35Google Scholar.

59 38.4%, according to Lin, “A survey report on Chinese journalists in China,” p. 423, compared with 54% a decade earlier, according to Chen, Zhu and Wu, “The Chinese journalist.”

60 According to The Economist at http://www.economist.com/countries/China/profile.cfm?folder=Profile-Political%20Forces, accessed 8 May 2009.

61 Lowell Dittmer, “The politics of publicity in reform China,” in Chin-Chuan Lee, China's Media, Media's China, pp. 89–112; Chin-Chuan Lee, “The conception of Chinese journalists.”

62 That is, articles written for the party-state bureaucracy only and not the general public.

63 Lin, “Organizational construction or individual's deed?” p. 179.

64 Interview HY20-5B.

65 Interview GM05-2.

66 Interview ET09-2B.

67 Chen, Zhu and Wu, “The Chinese journalist,” p. 25.

68 People's Daily Staff, “Tibetan separatist exposes Dalai Lama's ‘democracy myth’,” People's Daily English Edition, 21 October 2009, http://chinatibet.people.com.cn/6789022.html.

69 David, John, “Pioneering Xinhua's international journalism training centre,” in Porter, R. (ed.), Reporting the News from China (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1992), p. 19Google Scholar.

70 A common saying, according to Judy Polumbaum and Xiong, Lei, China Ink: The Changing Face of Chinese Journalism (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), p. 44Google Scholar.

71 Under Chinese law, internet sites are barred from doing original reporting, and can only “relay news from Xinhua or news units directly under the control of provincial governments” (Brady, Marketing Dictatorship, p. 129). Some sites do original reporting anyway, however.

72 Renwei, Tan, “A Shanxi incident: a reporter gets beaten violently to death at a coal mine,” Nanfang dushi bao (Southern Metropolis Daily), 16 January 2007Google Scholar, http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20070116_1.htm, as translated by Roland Soong at the EastSouthWestNorth blog.

73 See Xiaojun, Dai, “Zhenjia jizhe paidui ling ‘fenkou fei’” (“Real and fake journalists line up to receive ‘gag fees’”), Zhongguo qingnian bao (China Youth Daily), 27 October 2008, p. A7, for an uncommon example of a Chinese press exposé of such behaviourGoogle Scholar.

74 Interview HL9-4.

75 Edward Cody, “Blackmailing by journalists in China seen as ‘frequent’,” The Washington Post, 25 January 2007, p. A1, emphasis added.

76 Quoted in Reuters, “Beijing to introduce journalist ‘blacklist’,” Reuters, 13 February 2009Google Scholar.

77 Polumbaum and Lei Xiong, China Ink, p. 44.

78 Interview HL2-2.

79 Ibid.

80 Interview GM10-2B.

81 Interview ET04-3.

82 Cody, “Blackmailing by journalists in China seen as ‘frequent’.”

83 Yuezhi Zhao, Media, Market and Democracy in China, p. 72.

84 One of the more prominent examples of this involves the aftermath of the Sun Zhigang case. See Hand, Keith J., “Using law for a righteous purpose: the Sun Zhigang incident and evolving forms of citizen action in the People's Republic of China,” Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, Vol. 45, No. 1 (2006), pp. 114–95Google Scholar, and Hassid, “Controlling the Chinese media.”

85 I am not aiming to impose a normative standard on Chinese journalists. Rather, they themselves usually condemn such behaviour in principle, if not in practice. See Lo, Ven-hwei, Chan, Joseph M. and Pan, Zhongdang, “Ethical attitudes and perceived practice: a comparative study of journalists in China,Hong Kong and Taiwan,” Asian Journal of Communication, Vol. 15, No. 2 (2005), pp. 154–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar, for an interesting and important comparative survey of journalists' ethical attitudes.

86 Interview HE24-2.

87 Interview HL9-4.

88 This type of flowery language is very common in advocate journalists' writing. In this case, the title refers to the price that must be paid inside the artistic community and the psychic wounds on the artists themselves, for the refinements they demonstrate to the world.

89 Ying, Zhang and Yi, Wu, “Jinxing: qiangwai piaoxiang de qiangnei jiazhi” (“Venus: the price inside the wall for the floating fragrance outside the wall”), Nanfang zhoumo (Southern Weekend), 28 July 2005, p. D28Google Scholar.

90 Such a role orientation is hardly exclusive to China. Hallin and Mancini speak of European reporters who “retain more of the ‘publicist’ role that once prevailed in political journalism – that is, an orientation toward influencing public opinion.” They see this attitude prevalent in what they call the “Polarized Pluralist” model of the news, a model similar to the practice by China's advocate journalists. Such reporters aim to push a specific agenda in their writing and influence public opinion through overt persuasion. Hallin and Mancini, Comparing Media Systems, p. 28.

91 Lin, “Organizational construction or individual's deed,” p. 178.

92 Interview HB20-2.

93 Interview EL30-0.

94 Interview ET02-3. For him, it was indeed impossible: he was later fired for his outspokenness.

95 Burgh, Hugo de, The Chinese Journalist: Mediating Information in the World's Most Populous Country (London & New York: Routledge, 2003), p. 193CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

96 Interview GX20-2.

97 Judge, Joan, Print and Politics: “Shibao” and the Culture of Reform in Late Qing China (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1996), p. 25Google Scholar.

98 Ibid. p. 68.

99 See Kluver, Randy, “Elite-based discourse in Chinese civil society,” in Kluver, R. and Powers, J.H. (eds.), Civic Discourse, Civil Society, and Chinese Communities (Stamford, CN: Ablex Pub. Corp., 1999), for a discussion of this traditional roleGoogle Scholar.

100 Judge, Print and Politics, p. 10.

101 Interview HE24-2.

102 Interview HL6-4.

103 Interview GX30-2.

104 Liu Jianqiang interview in Polumbaum and Xiong, China Ink, p. 83.

105 Market pressure is clearly critical in the longer term, but over shorter time horizons the causality between market competition and newspaper content is far from clear. See Jonathan Hassid, “Pressing back: the struggle for control over China's journalists,” paper presented at the Workshop on Media in Contemporary Chinese Politics, Harvard, 25 April 2009.