(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
but also Chinese cultural tradition and some aspects of Western tradition (such as
nationalism). Both terms—neoliberalism and postsocialism—are characterized by
self-innovation and ideological hybridization. Scholars have recognized the hybridity
and incoherence of China’s postsocialist, neoliberal, developmentalist project, as
exemplified in the expression “hybrid Chinese socialism-cum-neoliberalism” (Sigley
2004, 566). Or as David Harvey summarizes, China is a “construction of a particular
kind of market economy that increasingly incorporates neoliberal elements
interdigitated with authoritarian centralized control” (Harvey 2005, 120).
While not a subjugate child of neoliberalism, the Chinese party-state nevertheless has
adopted some neoliberal principles in economic development without relinquishing its
political control and socialist ideology. Its hybrid economic system—from the
household responsibility system, two-track pricing system, to special economic
zones—has proved to be a successful alternative model to the so-called “Washington
Consensus.” This model is also implemented in media management.
The history of Chinese media reforms is that of experimenting a two-track system in
media and communication. That is, a state-controlled news and current affairs sector
in combination of a market-oriented entertainment business. While the market power
and imperative are unleashed and harnessed to stimulate domestic media and
communication industries, the party logic dominates how media is managed and who
controls the backbones of China’s media and communication infrastructure. In the
rush toward marketization, digitalization and internationalization, the party-state
organ media, such as CCTV, People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency, China Radio
International, and China Film Group Corporation, are encouraged and supported by
the central government to combine their resources to support one another in their
ventures into the Internet, mobile and other digital broadcasting production and
distribution platforms. At the same time, some media content production is
outsourced to domestic and foreign private production companies in order to stimulate
market competition. As indicated before, these companies often work with one
another and government agencies (in media and Telco) to cross promote one another.
Supported by favorable policies, CCTV has established itself as the flagship in
Chinese media and new media industries.
119