Trace the Stones in Crossing the River

This study aims to identify and analyse the most recent media structural changes in post-WTO China. The study finds that a media structural reform strategy involving an internal shakeup and external opening up is taking shape in both policy and practice. There are signs to suggest that the media sector is in transition from a market socialism model to a state-controlled capitalist corporation model. This pragmatic approach of media structural reform reflects the Chinese government's strategy to absorb private/foreign capital and western know-how of media management without losing its ownership and political control of the media sector. The author argues that a more diverse media structure and more open media market may lead to a more professional and less corrupt media system in China in the foreseeable future. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Ltd., copyright 2007.]