Table Of ContentSOCIOLOGY, MEDIA AND JOURNALISM IN CHINA
Bing Tong
Journalism and
Communication in
China
and the West
A Study of History, Education and Regulation
Sociology, Media and Journalism in China
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Bing Tong
Journalism
and Communication
in China and the West
A Study of History, Education and Regulation
Bing Tong
Fudan University
Shanghai, China
ISSN 2662-7981 ISSN 2662-799X (electronic)
Sociology, Media and Journalism in China
ISBN 978-981-15-7872-4 ISBN 978-981-15-7873-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7873-1
Jointly published with China Renmin University Press
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Translation from the Chinese language edition: 比较新闻传播学 (新闻传播学文库) by Bing
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F : d J
oreword eepening ournalism and
C s t
ommuniCation tudies hrough
C a
omparative nalysis
Being a branch of journalism and communication discipline, the comparative
journalism and communication is regarded as subordinate to journalism and
communication. Journalism and communication is a science studying on the
phenomena, undertakings, and laws of journalism and communication. The
comparative journalism and communication, as a subdiscipline of journalism
and communication, studies on the journalism and communication phenom-
ena and undertakings and their laws in all different places by comparison.
Compared to journalism and communication, the significance of method-
ology of the comparative journalism and communication is emphasized. In
this respect, the comparative journalism and communication can be defined
as follows: a branch discipline of journalism and communication that reveals
the laws of journalism and communication in a comprehensive and in-depth
manner through the systematic comparative research on the phenomena and
undertakings of journalism and communication in different countries and
regions.
The State Bureau of Technology Supervision had published the Table of
Code of Disciplines (National Standard) on November 1, 1992, which listed
the Comparative Journalism (code 860.1050) as a third-level discipline under
the second-level discipline journalism and communication (code 860).1 This
was the first time to establish the discipline status of comparative journalism
in legal instruments during the construction of humanities and social sciences
disciplines in China.
1The Manual of Humanities and Social Sciences Research Management System in Universities
and Colleges in China, Edition 1, Page 116, Shenyang, Shenyang Publishing House, 1997.
v
vi FOREWORD: DEEPENING JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES …
In 1997, journalism and communication was listed as the first-level dis-
cipline by the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, which
symbolized the status elevation of journalism and communication (previ-
ously known separately as journalism science and communication science) in
humanities and social sciences in China and proposed more stringent require-
ments on education and scientific research of journalism and communication.
Since the Academic Degrees Committee renamed the previous journalism
science and communication science to be journalism and communication, the
author here uses the comparative journalism and communication instead of
the comparative journalism. In another book, An Introduction to Theoretical
Journalism and Communication, the author explained the change of the
name in this way: journalism and communication, not simply the journalism
science and the communication science, is a discipline exploring the commu-
nication process and law of news, which, on the basis of traditional journal-
ism, incorporates some academic achievements of communication, applies
some academic terms of communication, examines the phenomenon of news
communication and reviews the process of news communication from a new
perspective and with a new method, and discusses the special laws and prin-
ciples of journalism and communication that are distinguished from the ordi-
nary public communication.2
Compared to other subdisciplines of journalism and communication, such
as journalism and communication theory, history of journalism and com-
munication, journalism and communication practices, journalism and com-
munication law, journalism and communication ethics, and journalism and
communication sociology, the comparative journalism and communication
shows its own characteristics.
Firstly, while the subdisciplines mentioned above have their own special
objects of research, comparative journalism and communication mainly stud-
ies on the phenomena and undertakings of journalism and communication,
sharing a similar object of study with the discipline of journalism and com-
munication. However, what varies between the two lies in that comparative
journalism and communication incorporates the phenomena and undertak-
ings of journalism and communication in two or more countries or regions in
the object of study, covers extensive research objects and proposes the special
regional requirements.
Secondly, though the method of comparative study is adopted in these
subdisciplines mentioned above, it is used in an extensive and frequent way
for comparative journalism and communication. In a manner of speaking, the
comparative study method constitutes the foundation and vitality of compar-
ative journalism and communication; or, in other words, comparative jour-
nalism and communication will cease to exist without the comparative study.
2Tong Bing, Preface of An Introduction to Theoretical Journalism and Communication, 1st
edition, Page 1, Beijing, China Renmin University Press, 2001.
FOREWORD: DEEPENING JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES … vii
Only by extensively and carefully comparing and analyzing a great mass of
data can the common law of journalism and communication as well as the
special law of journalism and communication in different countries and
regions be discovered and understood.
A detailed explanation is given to the latter characteristic.
The word “method” in the western language is derived from Greek
“μéταōδōs.” In this word, “μéτα” suggests “along” and “ōδōs” means
“road.” Therefore, the “method” refers to moving along a certain road. As
pointed out by a scholar Wu Daiming, in the modern scientific sense, the
“method” is the collective name of the approach, means, tool, and mode that
people use for a certain purpose when attempting to keep a grip on reality
theoretically or practically in all areas.
Many great scientists emphasized on the extreme significance of the
method. Ivan Petrovich Pavlov said that “Science is advancing based on the
achievements made in the study method. A progress of the study method will
make us move a little further and bring us a broader view filled with the new.
Therefore, our primary task is to draw up the study method.”3
As an important methodology, comparative study plays a more important
role in humanities and social sciences. Japanese scholar OkiHara Yutaka com-
pared the role of comparison in social sciences to the role of experiment in
physics and biology.
Comparison is a way of thinking to compare the properties and character-
istics of a thing to that of another thing and determine the common grounds
and differences, thus to fulfill people’s goal of understanding and practice.
The method of comparative study refers to researching on humanities and
social sciences by means of this thinking pattern and reaching certain conclu-
sions or laws based on a great many phenomena.
There are sufficient theoretical bases for the application of the compara-
tive study method and the introduction of the method to the journalism and
communication studies to all countries and regions.
Firstly, the dialectical combination of unity and diversity constitutes the
common law of the development and changes of objective things, which is
embodied in the unity of the laws of journalism and communication and
diversity of the activities of journalism and communication in different coun-
tries and regions. These common grounds and differences are considered
as the objective basis for comparative study. The things coexisting simulta-
neously in a space and the things existing in succession all share some com-
mon grounds and show certain differences. Therefore, the comparison can be
conducted spatially and temporally. In the former case, we can compare the
established forms of things and then discover the external characteristics of
different things; and in the latter case, we can compare the historical forms of
things and understand the different conditions of the same thing in different
tenses.
3A Collection of Pavlov’s Works, 1st edition, Page 49, Science Press, 1955.
viii FOREWORD: DEEPENING JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES …
Secondly, objective things complement and depend on each other, are dia-
lectically interconnected to each other and exist separately from each other
for their different characteristics. The activities and undertakings of journal-
ism and communication in different countries and regions are independent
but interconnected to each other. These common connections and differ-
ences have made up the second scientific basis for the application of the com-
parative study method.
Thirdly, due to the imbalance of the development of objective things,
the imbalance is seen in the development of journalism and communication
undertakings and activities in different countries and regions and the devel-
opment of journalism and communication undertakings in the same country
or region but in different historical periods. A difference results in a charac-
teristic, while a characteristic constitutes an object of scientific research. This
is another theoretical basis for the application of comparative study method in
the research of journalism and communication.
The application of the comparative study method has two important prem-
ises: firstly, the two or more parties for comparison are comparable, and sec-
ondly, the researchers must own a great mass of data.
The corresponding property relation among different things is called
the identical relation. Only the different things showing the identical rela-
tion are comparable. Therefore, the journalism and communication under-
takings under different social systems in China and foreign countries can be
compared in terms of the nature and functions of journalism and communi-
cation undertakings as well as the internal management and external super-
vision, since the journalism undertakings under different backgrounds show
the identical relation in regard to the nature, functions, internal management,
and external supervision. Also, the past and the present of the Chinese audi-
ence can be compared as the identical relation can be found. However, the
nature of journalism and communication undertakings in China cannot be
compared to the readers of foreign newspapers, while the layout of Chinese
newspapers cannot be compared to the TV audience in the west, as no identi-
cal relation can be seen.
Facts and data are indispensable to all scientific studies. Once mentioned
by Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, “Birds can never fly without the support of air no
matter how strong their wings are. To scientists, the fact is the air. Without
the fact, they can never fly; and without the fact, the ‘theory’ makes no
sense.”4 In the Critique of Political Economics of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels
not only emphasized the significance of facts and data to studies, but also
proposed explicit requirements on facts and data. He pointed out “It takes
years of hard work and intensive study even only to develop a materialistic
view based on a single history instance, because apparently empty talk makes
4The Collected Works of Pavlov, 1st edition, Vol. 1, Page 16, Beijing, People’s Medical
Publishing House, 1959.
FOREWORD: DEEPENING JOURNALISM AND COMMUNICATION STUDIES … ix
no sense and this mission can only be completed when a great mass of histori-
cal data has been critically examined and fully mastered.”5
While facts and materials are indispensable to general scientific research
and must meet strict requirements, the requirements on materials and facts
are even higher in comparative study so as to achieve a more focused and
convincing analysis and comparison. When doing research on the science of
history, Hu Shi emphasized that scholars put the most diligent efforts on col-
lecting materials, studied on the materials in an elaborate way and examined
the materials with the most rigorous method.6 Fu Sinian specifically pointed
out it was necessary to make every attempt to seek for and study first-hand
materials in order to do research. He stated in The Objective of the Work in the
Research Institute of History and Language that progress could only be made
when the materials could be directly studied; and it would lead to regress if
only studying materials indirectly, or studying the materials that predecessors
had studied, or studying the material system built by predecessors.
The comparative study of journalism and communication is a part of cul-
tural comparison. According to some scholars’ research, the comparative
method was firstly applied in social sciences instead of natural science. As
early as in the fourth century B.C., Aristotle had conducted a comparative
analysis of the political systems in 158 city-states and, on this basis, written
the famous The Athenian Constitution. It was until the eighteenth century
when the systematic comparative study was conducted for a certain discipline
in a conscious and comprehensive way. In the eighteenth century, the French
Enlightenment thinker Montesquieu, who was honored as the forerunner
of comparative methodology, had compared some countries in the west and
the east in The Spirit of Laws. By the nineteenth century, comparative litera-
ture had emerged in France and the United States in succession. As to China,
Sima Qian had conducted a comparative study of history in the Records of the
Historian; and On the Urgency of Changing the World by Yan Fu in the late
Qing Dynasty was considered as the start of the comparative study between
Chinese and western culture. Following Yan Fu, Wang Guowei, and Liang
Qichao had also researched on comparative literature. Wang Guowei had
made a comparative analysis of A Dream in Red Mansions and Faust. Liang
Qichao had compared and analyzed the systems in China and some other
countries in On Similarities and Differences of the Constitution in China and
in Europe.
As pointed out by some scholars, China’s connection to foreign culture
can be traced back to the Han Dynasty, when the Buddhist culture was intro-
duced to China from India. In the long history from Han, Wei, Jin, the
Northern and Southern Dynasties to Sui and Tang, after countless conflicts,
5Karl Marx, Critique of Political Economy, 1st edition, Page 165, Beijing, People’s Publishing
House, 1959.
6Ge Maochun, Selected Works of Philosophic Thinking of Hu Shi, Vol. 1, 1st edition, Page 536,
Shanghai, East China Normal University Press, 1981.
