Legitimizing the think-tank turn: The transformation of Chinese media in the digital era

Abstract

This study analyzes what we call the “think-tank turn” of Chinese newspapers, a popular path of digital transformation that many media organizations have been undertaking in response to the multi-faceted crisis of the media in the past decade. Based on a case study of Paper N, a provincial commercial newspaper in southeast China that has been praised for having organized one of the most successful media-based think-tanks in the country, this study explores how Chinese journalists legitimize their think-tank roles and in the process redefine their relationship with the government. It argues that by turning the newsroom into a policy research hub and the journalists into policy analysts and consultants, Chinese newspapers further subordinate themselves to the institutions of political power, becoming not only their loyal propagandists but also fully-fledged dependents. Implications of the think-tank turn for journalistic legitimacy and the relationship between Chinese media and state in the digital era are discussed.