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Further tightening of #media space in #China? Thread: Very important speech by Deputy Propaganda Minister Xu Lin 徐麟 signals "next step" of media convergence is for #commercial media to toe the party line and adhere to party narrative. 1/
Titled "Resolutely Defend against Capital controlling Public Opinion 坚决防范资本操纵舆论," Xu Lin calls for further tightening of party guidance of commercial media, warns against "dilution" of party leadership "under the guise" of media commercialization. 2/
"No matter if it's state media or market media, online or offline, small screen or big, there is but one criterion for guidance, and there should be no space outside of the law, no “enclave” for public opinion. 3/
"...We must firmly seize the initiative and leadership of news media discourse, and resolutely guard against the dilution of party leadership under the guise of media convergence" [here he means media commercialization]. 4/
Original: "但无论什么样的媒体，无论是主流媒体还是商业平台，无论网上还是网下，无论大屏还是小屏，在导向上都是一个标准，没有法外之地、舆论飞地。我们要牢牢把握新闻舆论工作的主动权主导权，坚决防止借融合发展之名淡化党的领导，坚决防范资本操纵舆论的风险." 5/
Interesting that it was the party itself that originally promoted "media convergence," in the Chinese context not only the technical convergence in the Western sense, but the transformation of staid party publications into slick, 21st century digital natives. 6/
In recent years, there were various attempts to create joint ventures between party outlets like Xinhua and People's Daily and Internet titans like Tencent and Alibaba. Xu Lin specifically mentions those commercial media outlets whose influence is on par with govt outlets: 7/
E.g. Mango TV/芒果TV、The Paper/澎湃新闻、Hunan Rednet/时刻新闻、Litchi News/荔枝新闻、Southern Media/南方+. In other words, the party understands market media "ran away" from party. Xu Lin admits the next step of media convergence "is a big theme, a hard bone [to tackle]." 6/
Xu Lin is also director of the State Council Information Office and former head of Cyberspace Administration of China. #media #journalism #China Link to speech: https://www.guancha.cn/politics/2020_11_19_572014.shtml 7/
