Mouthpiece or money-spinner?

Abstract

The start of direct retail television in China signalled a new and more liberal stage in the commercialization of Chinese television in the second half of the 1990s. The mass media in China have been going through a steady process of marketization since the mid-1980s. This process has gathered pace since 1992, in a political climate congenial to economic liberalization, which was created by the late Deng Xiaoping touring and blessing the booming cities in south China in January that year. Constantly caught between the market and the state, television in the late 1990s is more than ever living a double life as a mouthpiece and a money-spinner. This article sets out to make sense of the unintended ‘cultural pluralism’ reflected on the small screen, looking at the most recent changes in television journalism as the last stronghold of party propaganda, and the latest money-spinning business in direct retail programming and in advertising generally. The danger of over-marketization is clearly there to be perceived for those who want to take a look.