For academic scholars in China, speaking to foreign press is becoming increasingly costly<\/a><\/strong> as universities tighten relevant regulations discouraging such conduct.\u00a0Te-Ping Chen at The Wall Street Journal Reports:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Wu Qiang, a former politics lecturer at Beijing\u2019s prestigious Tsinghua university, said in an interview on Thursday that he was repeatedly scolded by university officials bearing printed-out copies of reports in which he was cited by foreign media. Mr. Wu said he eventually grew more cautious about granting interviews but continued to speak to foreign reporters. As a scholar, he said, \u201cI\u2019ve always felt the responsibility to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Wu, who first began his tenure at the university in 2009, said the university declined to renew his contract in 2015. While no reason was cited, he says, he believes it pertained both to his repeated interactions with foreign media\u00a0and the nature of his research into social movements.<\/p>\n […] Mr. Wu said he was never shown any written guidelines banning communication with foreign media. But other universities have recently posted regulations online requiring approval by school authorities before speaking to foreign media.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen accepting interviews from foreign media,\u201d one such notice advises, \u201cyou must earnestly work to prevent leaking secrets.\u201d [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n At The New York Times,\u00a0Beijing bureau chief Jane Perlez spoke of the ongoing technological challenges of reporting in China<\/a> where the Great Firewall poses a constant hurdle to online information access. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Russia is now attempting to imitate China’s model of internet control with increased online censorship<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In addition to these developments in press freedom conditions, China Media Project’s David Bandurski writes that the media industry in China is also currently undergoing a millennial shift<\/a>, <\/strong>one\u00a0that is characterized by the “progressive loss of professional journalism capacity” as the industry turns increasingly into a “rice bowl” profession for the young. Low pay and censorship are cited as the key factors driving away talent as old hands get pushed out of the industry and replaced by younger and less experienced journalists.<\/p>\n Many factors have driven an exodus of older talent from China\u2019s media, from poor pay and the digital transformation of the industry\u200a\u2014\u200anow hitting traditional Chinese media that for many years had seemed protected from the storms buffeting media elsewhere in the world\u200a\u2014\u200ato the vagaries of censorship, which can sap the professional spirit. But the net effect of this shift is the progressive loss of professional journalism capacity in China\u2019s media.<\/p>\n […]\u00a0Falling pay (relative to cost of living) and rising pressure mean the entire journalism profession is skewing younger in China. A 2016 survey by PR Newswireshowed that more than 80 percent of the \u201cfront-line journalists\u201d reporting the news in China were born after 1985, meaning they were 30 years old or younger. By contrast, a survey of journalists in the U.S., conducted in 2013 by the School of Journalism at Indiana University, showed the median age had risen from 41 to 47 since 2002.<\/p>\n […] Last month, the youthfulness of China\u2019s journalists became a topic of renewed debate on social media in China after former FT China editor-in-chief Zhang Lifen (\u5f20\u529b\u594b) said at the Bo\u2019ao Forum for Asia Annual Conference that while the journalism profession anywhere in the world must rely on cumulative experience, journalists in China treat the job as a \u201cyoung rice bowl\u201d profession\u200a\u2014\u200ain other words, as something to be endured only for a few years early in a career before one moves on to a job with real pay and a real future.<\/p>\n […]\u00a0The discussion inside China of the reasons for journalism\u2019s flagging appeal among older\u200a\u2014\u200aeven just slightly older\u200a\u2014\u200aprofessionals tends not to dwell on censorship, the elephant in the room. But the fact is that media controls, now more stringent and more effective than at any time in the past two decades, have a constraining effect on all aspects of the profession.\u00a0[Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Meanwhile, The Guardian’s Tom Phillips reports that\u00a0a new generation of international war correspondents has emerged in China<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0as a result of the state media’s effort to expand its global reach.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n Shixin Zhang, the author of a book on Chinese war correspondents, said China\u2019s race to the front began a little over two decades ago when editors in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou began sending journalists to conflicts including the Gulf War and Kosovo.<\/p>\n In 2008 that race became a stampede after Beijing announced it would pump 20bn yuan (\u00a32.3bn) into key state-media outlets such as Xinhua, CCTV, China Radio International and Communist party mouthpiece the People\u2019s Daily in a bid \u201cto get its message across to the outside world\u201d. \u201cThe current struggle between East and West is mainly for the right to be heard,\u201d Huang Youyi, the vice president of China International Publishing Group, said at the time.<\/p>\n Privately-owned newspapers and television channels have also joined the rush, hoping to boost ratings and sales. In 2011, dozens of reporters jetted into Libya to witness Colonel Gaddafi\u2019s downfall, reputedly the largest Chinese contingent ever to cover a single conflict.\u00a0[Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Also at The Guardian, Wang Zhen looks at what a day on the job is like for Yuan Wenyi<\/strong><\/a>, one of China’s few female war reporters.<\/p>\n The 36-year-old reporter remembers her action-packed debut as a conflict reporter as a \u201csheer delight\u201d. But her first experience of war was almost her last.<\/p>\n […] \u201cRun! Run! Run!\u201d she recalls screaming at the station\u2019s cameraman, Li Yanjun, as a shell exploded not far from their filming position, sending them scrambling back towards their vehicle.<\/p>\n As they raced away from the action, bullets whizzing through the air, Yuan remembers worrying that the car might explode: \u201cI felt so desperate \u2026 All the blood rushed up into my forehead. I totally lost my voice.\u201d<\/p>\n […]\u00a0Female voices are still a rarity among China\u2019s new generation of war correspondent. But Yuan said she hoped Chinese newsrooms would gradually shake off the outdated idea that war zones were for men. \u201cWork is work \u2013 it\u2019s just the same for me as for everybody else.\u201d [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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