I joined ICM Program in July 2003. Before that, I spent four years pursuing my BA in Journalism in Nanjing University, China. During the four years, I had my internship in Jiangsu Province TV Station and China News Service in Nanjing. My research interests include media development and civil society, new media and its social impact.

Dr Doobo Shim

Newspaper Commercialization and its political implications in China: A case study of Yangtse Evening Post

This empirical research aims at exploring the newspaper commercialisation's political implications. Habermasian public sphere and his concern of media's "refeudalisation" are used as the theoretical framework. After a holistic examination of the trajectory of newspaper commercialisation in China, the researcher selected the Yangtse Evening Post (YEP), the most circulated commercial newspaper in China, for a case study. The content analysis of its advertisement has mapped the extent to which the YEP has been commercialised and the semi-structured interviews of 15 reporters and editors have explored the political implications of the newspaper commercialisation with such a fusion of the Party and the market. It is found that the YEP is gingerly juggling itself between the Party and the market. It is concluded that, rather than fulfilling the civic role of the public sphere, China's commercial newspapers are facing the problem of "double feudalisation".

• Media commercialization and its impact on civil society
• Government censorship on China's media and its influence on civil society
• New media such as Internet and SMS and its influence on social changes

Jiang Wei and Wang Yi, 2003, Prevalence of Tricks, Porn and Political Jokes: A Study of SMS as an Alternative Digital Media in Mainland China, Digital News, Social Change & Globalization Conference, Hong Kong, 11-12 December.