中国自由撰稿人考察 (Among innovation and control: being freelance journalists in China)

Lupano E

2010-01-01

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Abstract

Chinese freelance journalists are a relatively new profile of media workers that is becoming increasingly relevant in nowadays China. Commercialisation of the Chinese media have created spaces for these professionals to proliferate and data show that their contribution to the press media in the country accounts for nearly one third, in terms of words. Press freelance journalists in china provide the media with innovative ideas, fresher style and a large amount of writings, thus satisfying the needs of papers and magazines to fill more and more pages, to update their content and to attract readers. Nevertheless, these professionals have no clear status in Chinese society and no certain rules for their job - which rarely is their only activity. This study describes their practices, their routines, their definitions of themselves and their ideas of the role in the society as appeared throguh interviews and through the analysis of handbooks for freelancers. It also describes the type of content freelance journalists provide the Chinese media, which is key to measure the power of their voices in a system that is still striclty controlled by the country's leaders. Squeezed between the demands of innovation coming from the market and the need to respect the "guidance" of the PArty, China's freelance journalists are trying to build their own way to "freedom". A mere freedom of lifestyle, for some. A more challenging freedom of expression, for others.