Daniela Stockmann, Media Commercialization and Authoritarian Rule in China (Cambridge University Press, 2013), 352p. £60.00 hardback

摘要

Media has long been entangled with politics, and in Media Commercialization and Authoritarian Rule in China, Daniela Stockmann provides readers with a comprehensive account of the changing dynamics in Chinese media and politics. As a political scientist, Stockmann situates Chinese media in the authoritarian context. She investigates the role of the state, media organizations, and journalists in shaping the content of news reports, as well as the potential effects of the media on public opinion. The implications of her empirical results for the Chinese regime are profound. One of the central puzzles for scholars is why some authoritarian regimes survive and even consolidate while others fail. Through her analysis of the Chinese experience, Stockmann answers that the media can help the state in two ways: it can make the state more responsive to public demands by providing feedback collected through the process of marketized news production, and it can help the state propagate official messages thanks to its sustained credibility among the public. As a result, Stockmann finds that the marketized media in China brings about "political change without democratization" (p. 5). She suggests that China's tight control over the media may help explain why it was able to weather the Jasmine Revolution, while other authoritarian regimes-like those involved in the Arab Spring-failed.