Chinese views on the relationship between journalism and society and culture

 Student: Zheng HaoYuan（John）

"Media is an extension of the human body", media can be everything, everything is a medium, all media can have some connection with human organs, in the sense of communication refers to the use of media to store and disseminate information material tools. If this is the case, then the relationship is too complicated, so I will only briefly talk about the media in Devleur's words-the mass media, which is our media today. I will divide it into mainstream media (official media) and independent media (we media).

Mainstream media

With the development of human beings, the role of the media is gradually improving. Looking at the history, we can easily find that with the evolution of the times, people must have more and more ways to obtain information, and more and more people can obtain social information. A large part of this comes from the official guidance of public opinion. For example, the earliest Journalismpaper in China is the official Journalismpaper of the Tang Dynasty, and Dunhuang Jinzouyuan is the earliest original Journalismpaper in the world, which was issued by the Jinzouguan stationed in the court by the military governor during the period of Emperor Xizong of the Tang Dynasty. There were tabloids and tabloids in the Song Dynasty of China. A huge controversy is whether all kinds of officially published books and articles are ancient media? Is the Four Books and Five Classics a kind of "media"? I personally think that in that era, all kinds of classics and articles not only play the role of academic education and enlightenment, but also play an important role in disseminating ideas and recording events. In the case of stable economic conditions, the media largely determines the development of society and even the progress of science. People transmit information through various media to promote the development of society, and the development of society promotes the progress of science and technology, and promotes the development of media. All kinds of poems, songs, novels and so on will be told together with contemporary entertainment media.

For contemporary China, conveying information has become the most basic demand, and the role of modern media is to convey subjective ideas, accurately locate the target audience, entertainment, and create an atmosphere of public opinion. Whether we admit it or not, almost all the values and ways of thinking we construct now come from different media. Teachers teach, TV programs are broadcast, and all kinds of Journalism are more or less mixed with subjective thinking. The role of Journalism today is not to convey the precise details of each event to the public, but to selectively display them according to demand, so as to achieve the purpose of propaganda. The role of entertainment media is to provide spiritual comfort or even spiritual paralysis for the public to a certain extent, in order to coordinate social relations and resolve social contradictions, especially when public crises come, entertainment media can often play a role in diverting public attention.

Therefore, the mainstream media is mainly responsible for guiding public opinion, coordinating society, transmitting official values, and resolving public crises.

Independent media

Independent media a medium that provides information to a specific audience or organization, mainly on the subject of users or unofficial institutions. The role of independent media in society is diverse. Some of them play the role of public opinion supervision, and some play the role of conveying opinions to specific groups. In their respective vertical fields, they are equivalent to the role of mainstream media in society.

There is no completely objective and impartial media in the press. Independent media refers to the Journalism media appearing in the 21st century, which is contrary to the mainstream media. It is spontaneously formed by the people and writes folk reports from a personal perspective. The idea of "independent media" is one of the core ideas of western journalism. The so-called "independent media" refers to the private media independent of the government and political parties in terms of finance, funds and ownership. Of course, many independent media work for the "Journalism ideal", they are as fair and objective as possible, but limited by people's subjective thinking, so they still have some ideological output. More "independent media" are linked to capital, the nature of the media shows that without capital, it is almost impossible to operate, the media without capital will be suppressed by the mainstream media and even the powerful self-media, and there are few opportunities for wide dissemination.

So in many cases, in China, independent media can be regarded as a more comprehensive source of consultation than official media, which can provide more perspectives, more relative fields and more subdivisions.

When it comes to the relationship between Journalism and culture, let's first talk about what Journalism is. There are many definitions of Journalism given by scholars, but the core is "recent events", and the essence of Journalism is information. The Journalism definition that I advocate is: "The information transmission of the fact that the audience cares about to happen recently." There are five elements: audience, timeliness, facts, information and communication. In foreign countries, information theory appeared in the 1940s, communication appeared in the 1970s, and then gradually introduced into China. Before information theory and communication science, journalism in Chinese classrooms was taught with content and form, and more emphasis was placed on content, like a political propaganda science. What is the content of the Journalism? It's all kinds of information, all kinds of cultural information. This is about what culture is.

Culture is defined as the sum of all social wealth, but generally refers to spiritual wealth. Since it is a sum, it can summarize an era, a region and represent a height. Such as Han culture, Chinese culture, American culture, farming culture and so on. But this is not specific, we can also subdivide it into six kinds from the perspective of content and form, namely, information, knowledge, thought, morality, aesthetics and institutional culture. Information is the first layer of culture. At the end of the duckweed, no matter what the content of culture is, it is always revealed and disseminated from information, then precipitated into knowledge, refined into thought, sublimated into aesthetics, standardized into morality, and finally fixed in the framework of the legal system, such as school rules, military discipline, national law, etc. The biggest framework of a country is the constitution. It can be seen that in the large department of culture, Journalism is only responsible for a small part of information (just as books are mainly responsible for knowledge and ideas), accounting for only one sixth, and it is the initial superficial culture. Information is not knowledge or thought, but "Mao knowledge" and "Mao thought". However, without the disclosure and dissemination of information, there will be no accumulation and formation of knowledge, ideas and other stages of culture. In this sense, information is the germ, pollen and seed of culture. Journalism is their carrier, the spring breeze that blows pollen, and the soil for raising seedlings. It is an industry that lifts heavy weights lightly and brings heavy weights lightly.

Just as everything else is advanced and backward, culture is also advanced and backward. There are four conditions, or four steps, for the formation of an advanced culture: first, it is necessary to fully accumulate; second, it is necessary to criticize and discard the old; third, innovation is needed; and fourth, popularization and promotion are needed to be tested by practice. It can be seen that in these four steps, every step forward in culture is inseparable from the promotion of Journalism communication. Far from it, at the beginning of China's reform and opening up in 1978, in order to break the rigid political and economic system and outdated ideas in the past, the great discussion on the criterion of truth in Journalismpapers and the reports of numerous exciting reform cases greatly promoted the birth of a Journalism culture in this period. Chinese society has taken on a Journalism look at all levels of knowledge, ideology, morality, aesthetics and system. Because the essence of information is to weed out the old and bring forth the Journalism, Journalism always disseminates Journalism things, destroys the withered and rotten, and is the "midwife" of the Journalism culture and the Journalism era.

To study the relationship between Journalism and culture, we should not only study the structure of social culture, but also the small cultural structure of journalists. Among the six forms of culture, information is the most superficial, the most transient, and the most changeable. Therefore, journalists can not be as professional as scholars, experts, politicians and artists. However, in order to grasp, identify and disseminate information in an instant, he must have extraordinary discrimination, decision-making ability and expression. This is about the cultural accomplishment of journalists. Although he is engaged in the work of one-sixth of the cultural form, he is based on the other five-sixths. Although he is engaged in the collection and dissemination of surface information, "the wind rises at the end of the duckweed", he can not be a duckweed blowing with the wind. He must have deep roots in the cultural soil. Generally speaking, there should be a taproot. For example, if you are a political reporter, you should be familiar with political knowledge; if you are a financial reporter, you should be familiar with financial knowledge. There must also be many hair roots, fibrous roots, literature, history, philosophy, aesthetics, sociology and so on, to nourish themselves with knowledge of all aspects. Tide makers can "hold the red flag in their hands without getting wet" at the head of the tide, and their efforts are not in their hands, but in their grasp of the tide at their feet. Although he reports on "the Journalism buds breaking through the ground in the spring breeze", he knows the law of winter to spring. He stood on the ridge of the field and looked at Tian'anmen, even at the whole world. Ten minutes on paper needs ten years practice off paper. As a result of long-term practice, many journalists have really become experts who have learned well or handsome talents who can control the overall situation. A good journalist must be a cultural person in the end.

Journalists are the trendsetters of the times and society. Although the red flag in his hand is not heavy and easy to raise, it is not easy to practice standing at the head of the tide and "holding the red flag without getting wet". This is the relationship between journalists and culture.

To sum up, Journalism, society and culture are mutually influential, interrelated and interactive, so Journalism can not get rid of society and culture.