Video: Professor Bingchun Meng discusses her LSE-PKU Summer School course.

Chinese media and communication industries have been undergoing profound changes in the last few decades. On the one hand, we frequently hear the all-too-familiar stories about censorship and surveillance in China that repress freedom of expression; while on the other hand, the Chinese government prioritizes the communication industry as a key sector driving the economic growth. While champions of liberal democracy have been predominantly critical of the various ‘soft power’ campaigns that the Chinese state initiates, transnational media companies have wasted no time in not only entering the Chinese market but also incorporating Chinese investment. At the industry level, marketization, globalization and media convergence have significantly reconfigured the landscape of content production and distribution in China. For users, the proliferation of media content coupled with the fast development of communication technologies has been a process fraught with exhilaration, confusion and contestation.

This course provides critical analysis of the key aspects of the aforementioned transformation, focusing on the political economy of media and communication industries as well as the mediated politics underpinning stories and texts. It will unpack the operation of media and communication industries at the intersection of politics, business and culture. It will also explore the tensions and conflicts around meanings and narratives at the conjuncture of China’s economic growth, social stratification and geopolitical repositioning. 

Click here to see the full course outline