China's media industry: Landscape and development

Abstract

Although there has always been criticism of limited media ownership and high concentration in Western nations, “ownership and concentration” has not been considered a central issue for discussion in China for many years, largely due to the fact that most traditional media were state-owned. However, in recent years, the emergence and development of new media has brought opportunities for media commercialization. With the wave of market deregulation, more attention has been paid to media concentration issues. People have begun to discuss the impact of limited ownership on media commercialization, noting that a high concentration may create a hindrance to professionalism and ethical standards of journalism. Insightful investigators believe that a check on media concentration would be a blessing to the people and a more diversified media would enable people in the country to have a clearer picture of the world as it really is. This article presents an endeavor to study market concentration and ownership in China. The author has conducted surveys on different media sectors over the past few years, and the chapter will present data from the study and discuss media development and concentration in China.