Should journalists get close to politicians? An Analysis in Context of China

1. Introduction

The understanding the balance between public media generated by journalists, and the platform of political independence needs enough in-depth speculation. This paper is trying to see the different premises hold by these categories and the limit to which they should get intermingled, especially for initiating public interest and benefits.

politics and media

2. Impacts of Politicians on Journalists

Though the News Media of China has been predominated by television, radio, newspapers and magazines; yet since 1994, there is a strong presence of internet mode of communication has been felt (IMS, 2008, p.9). During this development, the context of understanding the impacts of politicians over the journalists remain vital. Some are positive while others are negative.

2.1 Positive Impacts

The positive impact of the politician can be noted as the journalists get acclaimed for delivering news ontime. As for instance, the Japan Earthquake and Wenchuan attained enough political support through media as people were made aware of ‘preparedness related to earthquakes, actions led by government, role of teams for medical rescue, secondary effects of these earthquakes, etc.’ (Otani, 2012).

The mass communication is getting faster, exclusively wider and is freer than ever expected and is possible under the influence of political support to journalists. In this context, people of China are getting immediate news like those of Royal Wedding from the UK, activities of Osama Bin Laden, etc in the most detailed manner from political end.

            

2.2 Negative Influences

Irrespective of having the reputation of attaining political support, the News Media of China is much preoccupied by controversies and limitations (Xu, 2014).  There are issues of fake as well as inaccurate news declarations, especially in case of Japan Earthquake salt, followed by UCLan story. Blames are also led upon Chinese News Media for being exaggerate and moving around pay news that supports politicians and the advertisement sponsors.

3. CONCLUSION  

Eventually, it can be noted that it is very important to check out the reliability status of News Media in China and to understand the amount of credibility that it possess under political dominance.

The common perspective is that politicians support the journalists, but at the same time restricts the news or manipulate the same for their interest and the journalists agree to the same.

REFERENCE

Engelmann, I. (2012) "Political Instrumentalization of News Factors in Journalism: Effects of Journalistic Attitudes on News Decisions of Issues, Sources, and Statements". Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Sheraton Phoenix Downtown, Phoenix, AZ Online 25^th of May 2014. http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/ [retrieved on 29th of May, 2014]

IMS (2008) The growth of media in China and its impact on political and economic development in China. CONFERENCE REPORT. Conference organised by International Media Support, the Danish National Commission for UNESCO and Copenhagen Business School. Copenhagen, 28 November 2008.  http://www.i-m-s.dk/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ims-growth-china-2008.pdf [retrieved on 29th of May, 2014]

Otani Y, Ando T, Atobe K, Haiden A, Kao SY, Saito K, Shimanuki M, Yoshimoto N, Fukunaga K. (2012) Comparison of two large earthquakes: the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake and the 2011 East Japan Earthquake.Keio J Med. 2012;61(1):35-9.

Xu, B. (2014) Media Censorship in China. Council on Foreign Relations. February 12, 2014 http://www.cfr.org/china/media-censorship-china/p11515 [retrieved on 29th of May, 2014]