How the Market Is Changing China's News The Case of Xinhua News Agency

Dr. Xin is the world's foremost scholarly expert on the history and contemporary operations of the Chinese national and international news agency, Xinhua. Her comprehensive and critical analysis will be an enduring source of information about an institution that now ranks among the most powerful of the world's media. This major intellectual accomplishment draws not only on Dr. Xin's keen scholarship but also on her direct, personal knowledge of the agency. -- Joseph Oliver Boyd-Barrett, director, School of Communication Studies, Bowling Green State University Using China's national news agency, Xinhua, as a case study, this dissertation-cum-book provides a microanalysis of the impact of marketization and globalization on China's media system over three decades. Xin (Univ. of Manchester, London, UK) details Xinhua's history and its interactions with national, local, and international structures, looking at changes not just to Xinhua but also to journalistic practices relative to investigative reporting, news values (e.g., timeliness), and paid journalism. Though repetitive at times, the study does a credible job pulling together much information in a well-organized format. The author interviewed about a hundred editors, reporters, and academics in three cities on the mainland and in Hong Kong, Macau, and London, and used Xinhua News Agency yearbooks as her primary sources. Though she worked for Xinhua for two years, Xin does not seem to draw on those experiences in her analysis. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. CHOICE