WPCC Call For Papers: Re-Evaluating China’s Global Media Expansion
As China continues its global economic rise, Chinese media have been tasked with making Beijing’s official voice heard and understood in the world. Eight years after the launch of an accelerated ‘media going-out’ policy, however, the nature and impact of that policy are still contested. It was originally billed as part of a government-led drive to accrue ‘soft power’ for China, but is that still the case under the presidency of Xi Jinping? Politically, technologically and strategically, much has changed for Chinese media since he came to power. As China becomes more assertive internationally, President Xi has reaffirmed the requirement for state media to act in the interests of the government and Communist Party at home and abroad. By 2017, China’s international media offering was vastly more sophisticated than that of 2009. Chinese television, radio, print and websites were delivering streams of factual material to industrialised powers and developing nations, often in local languages and formats, and increasingly tailored to the Western social media networks that are blocked in mainland China. Have the core messages themselves altered, how are they received and have the efforts – thus far – been worthwhile ? China’s media have indeed ‘gone out’, but does the map they set off with in 2009 still make sense today?
This issue calls for papers that extend the debate about China’s media expansion, either by bringing a fresh critical perspective to current lines of enquiry – for example, through comparisons with the global reach of non-Chinese media – or by investigating new or under-covered areas. Submissions that deal with factual content are encouraged, particularly news and news-based features. This issue does not cover primarily cultural ‘soft power’ vehicles such as entertainment, fiction or the work of Confucius Institutes.
Themes may also include but are not limited to the following:
- The practical effects of the drive for media convergence, and how China’s global media organisations compare or compete with one another;
- New vehicles for ‘going out’, e.g. Sixth Tone;
- Social media and the ‘going-out’ policy, including Chinese news organisations’ use of Western social media;
- ‘Going out’ in languages other than English;
- ‘Going out’ to specific parts of the world such as Latin America or Africa;
- The external reception of domestic Chinese agendas or state media discourse;
- Implications of consumption of the ‘going-out’ media within China itself;
- The impact of new technology, international competition and global reporting conventions on the ‘going-out’ Chinese media and their staff;
- Factual material aimed at Chinese-speakers elsewhere in the world.
- Submission of Abstracts:Prospective authors of research articles of between 6,000-8,000 words including notes and references are encouraged to send a 250-word abstract to WPCC2015@gmail.com no later than end 31st August 2017.
- Deadline for abstracts:end 31st August 2017. Please send abstracts to WPCC2015@gmail.com
- The editorial team of WPCC will endeavour to inform authors of abstracts by end 15th September 2017 if the abstract meets the brief of the issue and if they would like to request submission of a full text with a view to inclusion, subject to peer-review and editing on delivery.
- Deadline for full-text submission:15 December 2017. Authors of those abstracts encouraged by WPCC or new submissions should register at the journal website by 15 December 2017 attaching the article. Authors will be notified as soon as possible about acceptance, revisions or rejection and the outcome of the review process with a view to publishing accepted articles subject to any amendments requested. Please route communications about articles submitted via the journal’s online system.
- Please submit articles via:http://www.westminsterpapers.org/about/submissions