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NEWSPAPER PHOTOGRAPHY IN CHINA

By

Keith R. Kenney

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

College of Communication Arts and Sciences

1991

ABSTRACT

NEWSPAPER PHOTOGRAPHY IN CHINA

By

Keith R. Kenney

This study provides a general understanding of newspaper photography in China.

First, it examines factors inﬂuencing the production and selection of photographs. Second,
it analyzes the content of photographs. Analysis of content includes investigation of the
agenda of photographic coverage, the way people are depicted in photographs and the
presence of an ideological framework.

This study also uses Chinese newspaper photographs to test two competing theories of
news content. It tests the hegemony theory, which states that news is selected and shaped
to reﬂect the ideas and values of a power elite. It also tests Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's
economic theory, which states that news content is determined by the ideologies of those
who finance the media.

To understand the production and selection of photographs, articles about the functions
and value of photojournalism were translated. In addition, unstructured interviews were
conducted with photojoumalists and editors at 11 Chinese newspapers and Xinhua news
agency.

To analyze the content of photographs, a sample of nine newspapers published in
February 1987 was selected. Ten subject matter categories and two direction categories
were used to determine the agenda of coverage. Four gender categories, six age categories,

nine occupation categories and three treatment categories were used to determine depiction

of people in photographs. Nine value categories, each with a conservative, moderate,
radical or "no value" position, and four style categories were used to determine the
ideological nature of photographic coverage.

To test the hegemony theory, photographic content of newspapers in September 1986
and February 1987 was compared, and six hypotheses were tested.

To test the economic theory, photographic content in newspapers with different types
of funding was compared, and 11 hypotheses were tested.

Findings from the interviews show how politics, economics, routines of staff
photographers and editors determine content. Findings from the content analysis indicate
Chinese newspapers publish fewer photographs of political affairs than American
newspapers, but the same percentage of human interest photographs. Coverage was not
biased toward any group of people, but it was ideological. The hegemony theory was
largely supported, but the economic theory was supported only for newspapers with

commercial funding.

Copyright by
KEITH R. KENNEY
1991

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many people helped me to complete this dissertation. Although the practice is not
common, I'd like to thank everyone in chronological order.

Two people were instrumental in arranging my trip to China. Upon arrival at Michigan
State University in autumn 1984, I met Lau Tuen-yu, another student in the Mass Media
Ph.D. program, who told me about a communications program just getting underway at
Xiamen University. He was kind enough to introduce me to Timothy Yu, a consultant to

H

the university, who works in Hong Kong. Upon "T.Y.'s recommendation, Timothy gave
me a chance to do some consulting work for the College of Communications at Xiamen
University. This work directly led to a job teaching photojournalism. I owe my chance to
do this research, as well as a wonderful opportunity to take pictures, and an interesting
experience to "T.Y." and Timothy. Thank you so much.

Several people prepared me to go to China. In the "International Mass Communication"
course, Dr. Mary Gardner helped me write a paper that served as the foundation for my
literature review. In spring 1985, Dr. Warren Cohen, director of the Asian Studies
Center, helped me obtain a fellowship to study Chinese for a year. As part of the fellowship,
I attended valuable seminars led by people who had taught and conducted research in China.
I also took courses on modern Chinese history and the arts in China. I thank all of these
teachers for their instruction and encouragement.

Upon arrival in Xiamen, several people served as translators or interpreters. Xu Bin, a
teacher at the university, translated many articles for my literature review. A graduate

student, Zhang Kangcong, also translated many articles about Chinese photojournalism

and frequently served as an interpreter. Another teacher, Li Xiufeng, spent six months

helping me translate all the captions for pictures in a month's worth of a dozen Chinese
newspapers. "Safety" Chen, chairman of the Communications Department, and David
Pam, a reporter for Shenzhen Special Que Dal y, served as interpreters for some
interviews. An undergraduate student, Wei Bing, was extremely kind in giving up her
Spring Festival in order to travel with me to Shanghai and Beijing to serve as my interpreter.
I thank these people for making the dissertation possible.

Other people in China assisted my work. I wish to thank everyone who helped me
arrange interviews and who agreed to be interviewed. Their frank discussions and friendship
were truly welcome.

I am indebted to Qin Xinmin, a Chinese student in the Mass Media Ph.D. program
who has worked for Xinhua News Agency, for reading my literature review and offering
welcome advice. Another doctoral student, John Clogston, was a helpful friend
throughout the process. I thank them and my other classmates for their support

After spending one more year at Michigan State University, I accepted a faculty position
at the University of South Carolina. Joseph Shoquist, dean of the College of Journalism
and Mass Communications, was extremely supportive during the entire three years it took to
complete my dissertation. Everyone who has left a school ABD can appreciate the depths of
my gratitude to him and the Associate Dean of Academics, Dr. Henry Price.

In writing the dissertation, I again wish to thank Zhang Kangcong, who by this time
had become a graduate student at USC. "K.C." helped correct problems we discovered in
the pre-tests. He coded all the photographs, and he helped edit all the chapters. Since I met
"K.C." in Xiamen in 1986, he has unselﬁshly given his time and expertise in order that I
complete this research with the highest quality. I owe him the most.

Finally, I wish to thank my wife, Leslie Kenney. It has not been easy for us to raise
two children while I attended school. Nor has it been pleasant for her to listen to my

grumbling during the past seven years. I love her and thank her for all her support.

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ............................................
Chapter
I. INTRODUCTION .......................................
Purpose of the Study .................................. ’. .
Theory .............................................
Endnotes for Chapter 1: Introduction .........................
II. LITERATURE REVIEW ...................................
Functions, Value and Content of Photographs ...................
Functions of photographs ..............................
Value of photographs .................................
Content of photographs ...............................
Inﬂuence of the Power Elite Upon News Content .................
Inﬂuence of Financial Relationships Upon News Content ............
Endnotes for Chapter 2: Literature Review .....................
III. METHOD .............................................
Interviews ...........................................
Content Analysis .......................................
Sample ...........................................
Instrumentation .....................................
Procedure .........................................

Endnotes for Chapter 3: Method ............................

vii

ix

10
19
22
23
23
27
33
36
45
59
68

968

70
72
76
88
95

IV. FINDINGS ........................................... 97

Interviews .......................................... 97

Content Analysis ..................................... 1 13
Differences between newspapers ......................... 113

The hegemony theory ................................ 125

The economic theory of Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld .............. 131

Endnotes for Chapter 4: Findings ........................... 138

V. CONCLUSION ......................................... 141
Endnotes for Chapter 5: Conclusion ......................... 9 160
APPENDIX A: INSTRUCTIONS TO CODERS ....................... 161
APPENDIX B: CODING FORM ................................. 169
BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................... 172

viii

p—s

PWHP‘MPP‘N

LIST OF TABLES

Source of News Photographs

Quantity and Size of Photographs in Nine Newspapers

Subject and Direction of Photographs in Nine Newspapers

Relationship Between Newspapers and Type of Subject, in Percent
Characteristics and Treatment of Main Actors of Photographs in Nine Newspapers
Values Expressed in Photographs in Nine Newspapers

Types of Values in Photographs in Nine Newspapers

Relationship Between Newspapers and Type of Values, in Percent

Style of Photographs in Nine Newspapers

10. Relationship Between Newspapers and Style, in Percent

11.
12.
l3.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.

Subject of Photographs in Two Time Periods

Direction of Photographs in Two Time Periods

Type of Values in Photographs in Two Time Periods

Relationship Between Type of Newspapers and Subjects of Photos
Relationship Between Type of Newspapers and Type of Values
Relationship Between Type of Newspapers and Style of Photographs
Relationship Between Type of Newspapers and Type of Subjects

Relationship Between Type of Newspapers and Occupation of Main Actors

ix

108
114
115
117
118
120
121
122
123
124
127
127
130
132
132
133
134
135

CHAPTER]

INTRODUCTION

W
One purpose of this dissertation is to acquire a general understanding of newspaper

photography in the People's Republic of China. Another purpose is to test two competing
theories of news content. This chapter explains these goals, as well as the scope and
potential beneﬁts of the research. It also presents the assumptions of both theories and
deﬁnes key concepts. Five hypotheses are derived from the two theories.

This study began because the author had an opportunity to teach photojournalism for
one year in the Department of Communication at Xiamen University. Established in 1981,
the department attracts Chinese students who speak ﬂuent English. They receive lectures
and training from American as well as Chinese professors. Upon graduation, these
students work for English-language media or for Chinese businesses that have frequent
contact with foreign media.

Before teaching at Xiamen University, the author knew little about Chinese
photojournalists or their published photographs. Newspaper photography in China is a
relatively new and unstudied subject for Western researchers due in part to language
difﬁculties, but even more to access problems to photojournalists and their employers.
Although the author cannot speak more than rudimentary Chinese, his English-speaking
students frequently volunwered to u'anslate. Personal contacts developed from his teaching
at Xiamen University frequently provided introductions to journalists who would agree to

be interviewed.

In order to provide relevant instruction, the author needed to understand if Chinese
photographers report the news in the same manner as American photographers. Journalists
working within different press systems share certain imperatives and processes of news.
Joru'nalists everywhere are admired, paid and promoted for demonstrating mastery of
writing, photographing or editing skills. At the same time, they are constrained by the
bureaucratic settings in which they work, by the inexorable demands of scheduled
production, and by the homogenizing tendencies of editing.1 Knowledge of these
constraints is important for understanding the Chinese press and Chinese photojournalism.

In China, the news media follow the Communist concept of the press. According to
this view, a free and independent press is considered a divisive, costly luxury that does not
serve the needs of the state and hence the people. Instead, the news media are controlled
and directed by the Communist Party in order to assist the task of nation building. The
news media publish the policies and goals of the entire society as determined by the top
Party leadership. As part of the Communist Party, the media are supposed to help instruct
the masses and lead the proletariat.2

Under the Communist concept, the news media are perceived as instruments of political
socialization, along with other institutions such as families and schools. Media help
Communist governments to rule and they as instruments of unity and consensus. They are
integrated into the monolithic Communist state and have become, in practice, conservative
caretakers of the status quo.3

The goal of a general understanding of newspaper photography in China was achieved
in two ways. First, interviews with photojournalists and editors were conducted in order
to learn what factors inﬂuence the production and selection of newspaper photographs.
Second, an analysis of the agenda, depiction and ideology of photographic coverage in
different newspapers was conducted in order to detemtine differences between

newspapers.

Inﬂuences on the production and selection of newspaper photographs were studied in
order to understand why photographs look the way they do. In addition to describing
news content, many researchers are intereswd in explaining either the determinants of the
news or the effects of the news upon readers and viewers. To understand the determinants
of news, some researchers directly study the processes of gathering and reporting news.
Others study the news product and make inferences about the determinants of news. Such
inferences, however, must be corroborated with an independent source of data. Interview
data, therefore, were used both to understand working journalists' perspecrives about how
and why photographs are made, and to corroborate inferences made in the content analysis.

The subject matter of photographs was studied because agenda setting theory suggests
news media establish or su'ongly inﬂuence topics of public debate. Exposure to media
news may not tell people what to think, but people are told what to think about.4 Research
in the Uniwd States indicates that joru'nalistic photographs have great persuasive powers to
shape people's attitudes and belief systems.5 They can attract readers' attention,6 produce
intense emotional reactions;7 and have a type of raw realism that enhances credibility.8 It
is assumd that journalistic photographs have similar effects upon Chinese readers. Given
the possibility that photographs help to su'ucture the public's perceptions of socio-political
reality, it is worthwhile to learn the agenda of photographic coverage.

The treatment of pe0p1e of who appear in newspaper photographs was studied to
determine whether newspapers favor a particular group or political party. The values
expressed by photographs were studied to determine whether newspapers permit a
diversity of ideas. Understanding the depiction and ideology of photographic coverage
allows us to infer whether news is shaped and selecwd to suit the needs of a particular
group or party. If the depiction of people and the values of photographic coverage correlate
with the biases and ideology of the Chinese Communist Party, then the Party probably

determines news content.

Studying depiction and ideology of photographic coverage is of more than just
academic importance. Two surveys in the 1980s showed that news media in China are
losing credibility. A 1985 survey found that most people thought newspapers were
"credible" or "basically credible." Journalists were considered to be conveyors of
information rather than mere propagandists.9 A 1988 survey, however, found that 65
percent of the people agreed the press was losing credibility.10 One reason for declining
credibility may be that news coverage in the late 1980s was biased and ideological.

A limitation of this investigation is that only nine newspapers were studied. The
author believed it would be better to study a few newspapers in depth than many
newspapers in a shallow manner. Interviews were conducted with journalists of all but one
of these newspapers. These interviews helped the author understand the context of
meanings in photographs. Because only a small sample of the large universe of possible
newspapers was studied, however, generalizations are somewhat risky.

In addition to acquiring a general understanding of newspaper photography, a second
purpose of this dissertation is to test two different theories about the determinants of news
content. Scholars have investigated ways in which journalists, their media employers,
news gathering routines, and society can affect media content.11 In addition, there has
been a proliferation of content studies that have generated much data. The problem is that
few of these content studies actually test theories about the forces affecting news content.12
This study tests whether the "hegemony" theoryl3 better explains determinants of news
content in China than Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's economic theory of news content. 14

The hegemony theory, which states that news is selected and shaped to reﬂect the ideas
and values of a political elite, seems likely given the history of the People's Republic of
China. According to Chin-Chuan Lee, an absolutism of command economy, command
politics and command culture existed under the leadership of Mao Zedong. The director of

China Times Center at the University of Minnesota said this "commandism" intruded "into

 

5

every facet of social life and put individual thought and behavior under scrupulous
control."15 National power was totally centralind into a uniﬁed "Party-state-military-
economic-ideological" complex in which "a small corps of senior leaders atop the
pyramidal structure made ﬁnal decisions."16 This power su'ucture rested on state coercion,
and it monopolized ideology and the mass media.

The power elites controlled the media through formal and informal mechanisms such as
ownership, ﬁnancing, licensing, personnel management and censorship. Lee believes that
elites used the media as an means to impose ideological hegemony on Chinese society.
Dissent was suppressed, he writes, and the media provided ex post facto justification of
elites' policies. Lee also gives examples of how the media were used to initiate policy
shifts.”

Throughout the history of the People's Republic of China, the primary function of
Chinese media has been to serve as the mouthpiece of the Party.18 Hu Yaobang describes
the "main task" of Party journalism as "using a great quantity of vivid facts and speeches
promptly and accurately to spread to the whole counu'y and the whole world the ideas of
the party and government and the opinions and activities of the people in various areas." 19

At the same time, journalists have had a responsibility to serve the informational needs
of the people. In 1943 Lu Dingyi, former head of the central committee's Pr0paganda
Department, wrote an important document about the role of joru'nalism in China. It
stressed Party journalists' obligations of accuracy and of close links to the people.20

According to China scholar Brandy Womack, since the death of Mao Zedong in 1976,
the public informational role of the media has been taken more seriously. The hostile
stereotype of China's press as a "propaganda machine routinely spewing forth self-serving
lies," must be balanced with the audience-oriented side of China's journalistic theory.21

Especially during periods of political liberalization in China, such as the mid-19808,
journalistic partisanship has tilted away from the state and toward public interests and

demands, writes Lee. The notion of a more professional model of journalism emphasizing

occupation independence and the transmission of nonpartisan information emerged, and the
news media became a channel for people's feedback to state and Party leaders. A small
amount of press freedom became possible, at least until the Tiananmen crackdown in
1989.22

The press was able to serve the people a little more, and the Party a little less, because
under Deng Xiaoping the state became less inu'usive. Diversity of viewpoints and
ideological laxity became tolerable to some extent. This "opening up" was due more to
necessity than anything else. Deng understood that economic reforms desperately needed
in China were not possible without some political reform, so some political control was
yielded in order to modernize China. Modernization compelled the state to bestow greater
autonomy on a more pluralistic, though still weak, civil society. As a result, the elite's
ideological grip upon jomnalism loosened, and it became possible for other factors to
influence news content.23

With a decline in the importance of ideology and a rise in the importance of economics,
a number of new media outlets were created. In fact, the number and diversity of
newspapers rose dramatically in the 19805 in order to serve specialized interests and
constituencies. According to statistics from the mm, more than
half the newspapers in China at the beginning of 1986 were less than ﬁve years old. In
1987, newspapers considered Party organs comprised 16 percent of the total of 2,509
newspapers, which is in startling contrast to the Cultrual Revolution era, when only Party
organs were allowed to publish. As the number of Party papers has declined, the volume
of other types of publications has risen steeply. Targeted-population papers form 10
percent of the total, special-subject papers form 23 percent, and enterprise papers account
for 25 percent. The success of evening newspapers is especially striking. Thirty-ﬁve
evening papers (1 percent of the national total in terms of titles) capture 11 percent of the

circulation nationwide because of their softer, livelier content.24

Not only did more and different types of newspapers appear, but the literature review
will show that newspapers began to lessen their ﬁnancial dependence upon the
government. As the state gradually decreased its subsidies, newspapers began selling more
advertising. Some newspapers also tried to boost circulation by providing more news that
readers wanted rather than news they were told they needed. Other newspapers were
ﬁnanced by large organizations such as the military or national trade union or youth
organization. Money for these organizations ultimately came from the government, but the
connection was not always sucng.

If journalists began to serve the people more and the politics less, and if newspapers
began to be funded from sources other than the government, then the hegemony theory
may not completely explain the determinants of news content. According to Shoemaker
and Mayﬁeld's economic theory, the ideologies of people who ﬁnance the media determine
media content. When the power elite completely ﬁnance the media, then the hegemony and
economic theories coincide, and news content should reﬂect the ideas and values of the
elites. When newspapers receiving funding from other sources, however, news content
should be determined by those sources rather than the power elites. When newspapers are
ﬁnanwd by a combination of govemment money and other money, then news content
should reﬂect both the ideologies of government elites and Other ﬁnanciers.

Support for their theory comes from studies showing content diversity within
newspapers. With an increased desire to attract both audience and revenues, newspapers
answered readers' demands for more cultural and nonpolitical coverage.25 The example of

the W indicates that the more a newspaper was independent of Party
ﬁnancing, the less it appeared to serve Party interests, and the more it appeared to serve the

people.26
In order to test these different theories of the determinants of photographic content,

Chinese newspapers with different types of ﬁnancing were studied. If the ideas and values

of a political elite determine photographic content, then content should favor the political
elite and be consistent among different types of newspapers. On the other hand, if the
ideas and values of people who ﬁnance the media determine photographic content, then
content should favor the ﬁnanciers and it should differ among newspapers in a predictable
manner.

The theories were also tested by studying the effects of the changing political situation
upon photographic content. The content of newspapers in September 1986, which was the
high point of journalism reform in China, was compared with the content of papers in
February 1987, when conservatives were in control. The literature review shows that in
September, journalists were boldly calling for a free press with political autonomy. In
addition, a press law was drafted to protect investigative reporters from angry political
leaders. After the student demonstrations against Hu Yaobang's fall from power in
December 1986, conservative leaders gained control of the press and propaganda
machinery. In January, several newspapers were closed for political "errors," and by
February, the campaign against "born'geois liberalization" was peaking. If the ideas and
values of a political elite determine photographic content, then content should soon follow
changes in elites' ideas and values. On the other hand, if the ideas and values of people
who ﬁnance the mdia determine photographic content, then content should not change
during the period of political vacillation.

A limitation of this test of theories is that only three newspapers were used to test the
effects of situation on photographic content. The scope of the investigation was limited to
tluee newspapers because of practical considerations. Although a sample of nine
newspapers from February was collected, it was not possible to collect all nine newspapers
when the author arrived in China in September 1986. Generalizations based upon such a
small sample must be tentative.

A second limitation is that only jomnalistic photographs in Chinese newspapers are

studied The scope of the study is limited to photographs because the author cannot read
Chinese. Although it was feasible to have all photographic captions of a month's worth of
nine newspapers translated, it was not practical to have the entire contents of these
newspapers translated Support for either theory of news content, therefore, is tentative.

Despite these limitations, results of this study have potential value. First, this study
should interest visual communication scholars. It provides theoretical and operational
deﬁnitions of ideology in photographs. Although a few semiologists have investigated the
connotational meanings of photographs, this is the ﬁrst time that the values and style of
journalistic photographs have been studied in order to understand whether an ideological
framework was present. Such theoretical and methodological advances would be useful to
scholars who wish to understand the meanings of photographs.

Second, this study should add to the store of knowledge of scholars of China by
providing an understanding of newspaper photography in China. Various aspects of
Chinese newspapers have been investigated, including articles, editorials, letters to the
editor, and advertisements, but not photographs. Understanding newspaper photographs
will supplement previous studies of the Chinese press.

Third, this study beneﬁts international communication scholars because it provides
some indication of how strongly media are inﬂuenced by political elites and how much they
contribute to ideological hegemony. Control of the press in China may be similar to elites'
conu'ol of the press in other socialist countries.

Finally, this study serves scholars interested in theory because it offers a test of
Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's economic theory of news content. Investigating how much
media are inﬂuenced by ﬁnancial sources rather than government power is important

because it can further scholars' understanding of the forces determining news content.

10

Them
According to the hegemony theory, news content is determined by the dominant

ideology of a group of powerful elites who inﬂuence the country's ideas and values both
through overt force and in a more subtle, passive manner. Proponents believe there are a
number of social classes, ethnic and religious groups, age groups and political groups
struggling against each other. Each group seeks to emphasize its ideology and to exclude
competing ones. When an elite group's ideas and values are legitimated as the ideas and
values of the nation, they become the dominant ideology. The dominant ideology gives
elite group members a considerable advantage over others because it helps sustain their
economic and political positions.” At any given time, however, there is no single .
functioning elite group in control, but rather an alliance of small, powerful groups. The
dominant ideology, therefore, must reﬂect the conﬂicting desires of these groups.28

Hegemony is the imposition of one or more groups' ideology on other groups. It
refers to the cultural, intellectual, and moral direction exercised by the elites over others
with less power. The powerful elite group can impose its dominant ideology upon
subordinate groups through overt force and ideological compulsion. It can also achieve
dominance in a more subtle, passive manner by setting limits on the thoughts and actions of
subordinate groups.29

The media contribute to hegemony by (1) disseminating the ideas and world views of
the elites; (2) denying alternative ideas which might lead to change or to a growing
consciousness by subordinate groups of their interests; and (3) by preventing the
mobilization of such consciousness into active and organized political opposition. They
systematically engineer people's consent to the established order.3O

According to McQuail, "the hegemony theory can, with little exercise of the imagination,
be found to account for many of the ﬁndings about content as reﬂecting exercise of societal
control by self-interested elites or classes."31 A weakness in the theory, however, has been

the lack of a good explanation of how powerful elite groups are able to control the media.

11

Critical scholars assume the media are indirectly controlled in capitalist societies. They
believe the media’s reﬂection of the dominant ideology is a natural consequence of the
system in which the media operate. Critical scholars argue that in trying to make as much
money as possible, capitalist media attempt to gain as large an audience as possible. The
media must therefore use ideas and values that are most familiar and acceptable to the
audience, which almost inevitably means the ideology ﬂowing through the social structure
from the power elite. This "common sense" framework of priorities and problems, and of
rights and wrongs of actions, inevitably supports the status quo. The media will criticize
the status quo to a certain extent, thus establishing their own legitimacy, yet they will never
criticize the status quo enough to seriously tlueaten or change it.32

Another argument why the dominant ideology pervades capitalist media is based upon
the way journalists "frame" news that poses a threat to the dominant ideology. Journalists
deﬁne potentially threatening people, ideas, and events within the frame of reference of the
dominant ideology, rather than within other groups' frames of reference. Potential threats
become muted because anything outside the dominant ideology is coopted. It is put into a
form that will not conuadict--and may even support-~the status quo.33

In Marxist societies, communication scholars assume the media are more directly
controlled by the power elite. The elite exercise social control over journalists through
recruitment, promotion, demotion and policy.34 Their power is likely to be reinforced by
"public ignorance of social reality, emphasis on the legitimacy of the state and established
class institutions, delegitimation of challenges to the social order and diversion of
discontent and frustration towards the scapegoat deviants, militants and non-
conformists."35

Three theoretical assumptions follow from the hegemony theory: (1) the power elite
have a dominant ideology that is imposed upon other groups in order to sustain the
economic and political positions of the elites; (2) the power elite have direct and indirect

12

control over news organizations; and (3) the power elite can suppress news that challenges
the dominant ideology and emphasize news that supports the dominant ideology. Two
hypotheses concerning the hegemony theory will be tested.36

Hypothesis one: News content will consistently reﬂect the dominant ideology.
(Hla): Subjects that support the dominant ideology will appear more frequently than
subjects that challenge it. (Hlb): People who support the dominant ideology will be
depicted more favorably than people who challenge it. (ch): Values that support the
dominant ideology will appear more frequently than values that challenge the dominant
ideology. (Hld): Presentation of news will be more controlled than spontaneous.

News content is deﬁned as the complete range of quantitative and qualitative
attributes of both verbal and visual communication of news.37 The subject of news, the
depiction of news, the values implied in news and the presentation of news are relevant
aspects of news content. Dominant ideology is defined as the ideology of the power
elite. The power elite are the leaders of political, economic, governmental and social
organizations who wield the most power. They also include well informed persons who,
because of their prestige or power, can exert inﬂuence on the decision makers.38
Ideology is deﬁned as an integrated set of ideas and values by which a particular group of
people judge the world and to which they adjust their actions.39

It is reasonable to expect that news can reﬂect the ideology of a particular group of
people. News reports cannot be completely objective because the process of writing, .
photographing and editing reports about people and events is always somewhat subjective.
There is no single truth, and news cannot simply mirror social reality without distortion.
News is ideological, however, when it consistently reﬂects the ideas and values of a
particular group and not other groups. News is ideological when events embarrassing to a
group are not covered, and events favorable to a group are selectively emphasized. News

is ideological when group supporters are consistently depicted favorably and outsiders are

13

depicted as deviants. News is ideological when it is manipulated, rather than reported
candidly, in order to serve the interests of a particular group.

Hypothesis two: Given a major ideological policy shift within the power elite, news
content will change and reﬂect the new ideology. (H23): Subjects that challenge the
dominant ideology will appear more frequently during periods of reform when the ideology
is changing than in periods of stability when the ideology is ﬁxed and strictly enforced.
(HZb): Values that challenge the dominant ideology will appear more frequently dming
periods of reform when the ideology is changing than in periods of stability when the
ideology is ﬁxed and strictly enforced. 1

Ideological policy shift is deﬁned as a change in the set of ideas and values of a
particular group. An indication of an ideological policy shift is a change in the way the
power elite act, and the way they react to others.

It is reasonable to expect news content to change following an ideological policy shift
because such a shift signals that a new set of ideas and values is necessary to reﬂect the
power elite's changed goals and needs. During a period of reform, however, the dominant
ideology is in ﬂux as outside groups with new ideas and values are gaining power. Strict
enforcement of the old dominant ideology is not possible. Only when the new groups have
either been assimilated or rebuffed by the power elite can the ideas and values of the
dominant ideology be enforced. At that time, the dominant ideology is likely to be strictly
enforced, and no subjects or values challenging the dominant ideology will be permitted.

Altschull, however, asserts that the mass media may not be accruately classiﬁed on a
nation-by-nation system. Ideology is not usually consistent within a nation or within a
political system—it is not a social system variable. Instead, ideological inﬂuences within a
country are diverse. Using the nation as the unit of analysis misses this intra-nation
diversity and contributes to null ﬁndings when studying the determinants of news

content.40

14

Altschull emphasizes the ideology of those who ﬁnance the media rather than the
ideology of power elites or a political system. The saying “he who pays the piper calls the
tune” applies to the mass media, says Altschull, and no mass medium exceeds the
boundaries of autonomy acceptable to the paymasters.41

Altschull recognizes that there are differences in the ﬁnancing of different media and of
different media outlets within a counuy, even within such archetypal social systems as the
United States and the Soviet Union. He outlines four basic relationships between the
ideology of media ﬁnanciers and media content. Each of these may be thought of as
continuous, independent variables, but each may also be combined with the others in
various combinations to interact in other ways. Different counuies’ mass media systems
will exhibit these types of relationships to varying degrees at different levels of the system
and at different points in time.42

In the ofﬁcial pattern, the content of the media is determined by rules, regulations,
and decrees. Some news media may be themselves state enterprises, some may be directed
through government regulations, and some may be controlled under a network of licensing
arrangements. No nation is free of ofﬁcial controls; the variations come in the degree of
autonomy that is permitted. In the commercial pattern, the content reﬂects the views of
advertisers and their commercial allies. Even under planned economies, some commercial
inﬂuences can be detected, although these are exerted only indirectly. In the interest
pattern, the content of the medium echoes the concerns of the ﬁnancing source, a political
party perhaps or a religious organization or any other body pursuing speciﬁc ends. In the
informal pattern, media content mirrors the goals of relatives, friends, or acquaintances,
who supply money directly or who exercise their inﬂuence to ensure that the tunes of the
piper are heard.43

Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld have taken Altschull's ideas and integrated them with the

ﬁndings of previous research about the factors that inﬂuence the selection and shaping of

15

news content. They have created a theory of news content, which states that news content
is determined by the ideologies of those who ﬁnance the news media. They expanded
Altschull’s approach to explain inﬂuences on content at different levels of analysis. As in
the hegemony theory, the ideology of media ﬁnanciers can be measured on a system level
(as in capitalist versus socialist states), but unlike the hegemony theory, the new theory
holds that it can be measured on a variety of other levels. Using a lower level of analysis
permits explanation of intra-nation content differences.44

Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld offer the following theoretical assumptions: (1) media
ﬁnanciers hold a variety of ideological positions, although they do not hold ideological
positions on all issues; (2) the strengths and directions of ideological positions will vary
among media ﬁnanciers; (3) ﬁnancial support from multiple som'ces will mean that the
various ideologies of these sources will interact to inﬂuence media content; (4) the resulting
inﬂuence will indirectly affect the entire process of gathering, shaping and transmitting
news; (5) these ideological inﬂuences provide the best explanation of systematic variations
in news; and (6) in the case of funding from mixed sources with unequally strong, yet
opposing ideological positions, content will reﬂect the strongest ideological position, but its
inﬂuence will be mediated by the other positions.“5

The following hypotheses, which are derived from Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's
theoretical statements, will be tested in this investigation of newspaper photography in
China.

Hypothesis three: The more a newspaper is ﬁnanced by “official” sources, the more
its content will reﬂect the ideologies of governmental bodies. (HBa): Fewer photographs
will appear in "ofﬁcial" newspapers than in other newspapers. (H3b): Subjects of concern
to state and Party leaders will appear more frequently in "ofﬁcial" newspapers than in other
newspapers. (H3c): Values of ofﬁcials will appear more frequently in "ofﬁcial"
newspapers than in other newspapers. (H3d): Presentation of news will be more

controlled than in other newspapers.

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It is logical to expect that newspapers with ofﬁcial funding would publish content
reﬂecting the ideologies of governmental bodies because journalists' paychecks come from
the government. "Ofﬁcial" newspapers are not competing for readers, so fewer graphic
devices will be used to entice readers. Another reason that fewer photographs are expected
in "ofﬁcial" newspapers is that photographs are better at showing events than
communicating issue positions. "Ofﬁcial" papers will advocate issue positions rather than
reporting about speciﬁc events or people because they attempt to guide or educate the
public. Subjects of concern to ofﬁcials will appear frequently because journalists see their
jobs as transmitting the govemment’s point of view in an accurate and complete way.
Journalists me their role as that of a public educator and are likely to hold values similar to
those of the ofﬁcials, so values of ofﬁcials will be reﬂected in the news. Presentation of
news will be more conuolled because journalistic objectivity is less important at "ofﬁcial"
newspapers. Journalists will view themselves as conduits through which ofﬁcial points of
view pass, and they will manipulate the news in order to clearly present an ofﬁcial point of
view.

Hypothesis four: The more a newspaper is ﬁnanced by “commercial” sources, the
more its content will reﬂect the ideologies of audiences and advertisers. (H4a): More
photographs will appear in "commercial" newspapers than in other newspapers. (I-I4b):
Subjects of concern to readers and advertisers will appear more frequently in "commercial"
newspapers than in other newspapers. (H4c): Values of readers and advertisers will
appear more frequently in "commercial" newspapers than in other newspapers. (H3d):
Presentation of news will be more spontaneous than in other newspapers.

It is logical to expect that at newspapers with commercial funding, content will reﬂect
the ideologies of audiences and advertisers because commercial media rely on audiences for
direct funding through subscriptions. Commercial media also sell the size and quality of
their audience to advertisers. Photographs will be used because they attract readers and

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arouse emotional responses. Subjects of concern to readers and advertisers, which are not
sufﬁciently reported by "ofﬁcial" media, will appear more frequently in order to attract
readers. In general, "commercial" newspapers must be more competitive, so content will
be more diverse and contain more controversial material. Freed from ﬁnancial ties to the
government, newspapers are freer to challenge the values of government ofﬁcials. Out of
economic self-interest, "commercial" newspapers may support more free-enterprise values
even though ofﬁcials support more socialist values. More content is likely to be event-
oriented because event-oriented stories tend to be more exciting than issue-oriented stories.
With event-oriented stories, the possibility for spontaneous news presentation is greater.
Many routine events, such as press conferences, are pre-planned by news promoters, yet
other events, such as accidents, occur involuntarily and become news without ofﬁcial
promoters.46 Issue-oriented stories, on the other hand, seldom concern accidents, and the
presentation of news is likely to be conuolled in order to present a point of view.

Hypothesis five: The more a newspaper is ﬁnanced by special “interest” groups,
the more its content will reﬂect the ideologies of the groups. (HSa): More specialized
content will appear in "interest" newspapers than in other newspapers. (HSb): "Interest"
newspapers will more favorably depict the speciﬁc special interests that ﬁnance the
publications than other newspapers. (H5c): As with newspapers ﬁnanced by "ofﬁcial"
sources, presentation of news will be controlled rather than spontaneous.

It is logical that newspapers ﬁnanced by a special “interest” groups will reﬂect the
ideologies of the groups because content is used to compete with other groups for
membership and ﬁnancial supporters rather than to attract a mass audience. Only subjects
of direct interest to the group will be published because attracting a larger audience is not
important. Speciﬁc special interests are expected to be favorably depicted because
journalistic objectivity is less important than journalists' personal attitudes towards the
content. "Interest" newspapers educate and persuade readers to the group’s goals, and

18

journalists will be socialized to these goals, so the presentation of news is manipulated to
reﬂect those goals. Presenting news in a timely, candid manner is less important than
getting out the information necessary for achieving the group’s goals.

In order to test Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's theory, it is ﬁrst necessary to show that
some alternative ideas and values exist in the society that could challenge the dominant
ideology, or show that during periods of reform, the dominant ideology is in ﬂux.
Second, one must show that the power elite do NOT have complete control over news
content and that some political autonomy exists for journalists. Third, one must identify
the paymaster(s) of news organizations. One can then test whether or not news content
reﬂects the interests of the paymaster(s) as speciﬁed in the hypotheses.

In summary, this dissertation provides a general understanding of newspaper
photography in China. First, it examines factors inﬂuencing the production and selection
of photographs. Second, it analyzes the content of photographs. Analysis of content
includes investigation of the agenda of photographic coverage, the way people are depicted
in photographs and the presence of an ideological framework.

This study also uses Chinese newspaper photographs to test two different theories of
news content. It tests the hegemony theory, which states that news is selected and shaped
to reﬂect the ideas and values of a power elite. It also tests Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's
economic theory, which states that news content is determined by the ideologies of those

who ﬁnance the media.

19

Enn f ' 'n

1 Jane L. Curry, "Media Management and Political Systems," in W
m ed. Jane L. Curry and Joan R. Dassin (New York: Praeger, 1982), p. 254.

2 William A. Hachten, W 2nd ed. (Ames: Iowa State University
Press, 1987), pp. 23-27. ‘
3 Ibid.

4 Maxwell McCombs and Donald Shaw, "The Agenda-Setting Function of the Mass
Media," W 36 (1972): 176-187.

5 See Shawn W. Rosenberg with Patrick McCafferty, "The Image and the Vote:
Manipulating Voters' Preferences," W 51 (Spring 1987): 31-47; and
Norman G. Van Tubergen and David L. Mahsman, "Unflattering Photos: How People
Respond," W13: 51 (Summer 1974): 317-320.

6 See Wayne Wanta, "The Effects of Dominant Photographs: An Agenda-Setting
Experiment," MW! 65 (Spring 1988): 107-111; and Rita Wolf and Gerald
L. Grotta, "Images: A Question of Readership," WM 6 (1984):
30-36.

7 See Jennifer Brown, "News Photography and the Pornography of Grief," We;
Wig}: 2 (Spring/Summer 1987): 75-81; and Gary Bryant, "IO-51 P.I.

Emotion and the Photographer," 1 fM M ' E ' 2(Spring/Summer1987):
32-39.

3 Kenrick S. Thompson, Alfred C. Clarke and Simon Dinitz, "Reactions to My-Lai: A
Visual-Verbal Comparison," WM 58 (January 1974): 122-129.
9 Brantly Womack, "Media and the Chinese Public: A Survey of the Beijing Media
Audience," special issue of WM 18 (Spring-Summer
1986).

10 Zhou Li, "The Chinese Press Should be a Business," in mm
edited by Milton Holstein (Salt Lake City: University of Utah, 1989), pp. 15-18.

11 For a review of ﬁve major theoretical approaches to the study of news content and
their research ﬁndings, see Pamela J. Shoemaker with Elizabeth K. Mayﬁeld, "Building a

Theory of News Content: a Synthesis of Current Approaches," .InumalismMQnggmphs
103 (1987).

12 Ibid.
13 The concept of hegemony is attributed to Antonio Gramsciusee Quintin Hoare and

Geoffrey N. Smith, eds., and trans., Selections f_er the Prism Neteﬁnks ef Antenie
gimmsei (New York: International Publishers, 1971).

14 Shoemaker with Mayﬁeld, "Building a Theory of News Content"

20

15 Chin-Chuan Lee, "Mass Media: or China, about China," in Wm. ed.
Chin-Chuan Lee (New York: Guilford Press, 1990), pp. 4-5.

16 Su Shaozhi and Xiao Xiaoming, "The Voices of Struggle between Reformists and
Rulers," W (New York), 2 June 1990, pp. 35-37. Quoted in Lee,
"Mass Media: Of China, about China," p. 5.

17 Lee, "Mass Media: Of China, about China," p. 5.

18 Brantly Womack, "Editor' s Introduction," in MW
We: a special Issue of Chineseﬁociolcaand

W 18 (Spring-Summer 1986). P. 9.
19 Hu Yaobang quoted in Womack, "Editor's Introduction," p. 10.

20 Lu Dingyi, "Our Basic Viewpoint Concerning Jom'nalism," uanslated by Brantly
Womack, in Womack, W 18 (Spring-Summer 1986):
164-173.

21 Womack, "Editor's Inuoduction," pp. 7-12.

22 Lee, "Mass Media: or China, about China," p. 7.

23 Ibid., pp, 5-6.

24 Warm (Beijing: Chinese Social Science Press, 1988),
p.411, cited in Lee, "Mass Media: Of China, about China," pp. 15-16.

25 See Lynn r. White 111, "All the News: Structure and Politics in Shanghai's Reform
Media," in Veiees Qf China, ed. Chin-Chuan Lee (New York: Guilford Press, 1990), pp.
88-1 10.

26 See Hsiao Ching-chang and Yang Mei-rong, "'Don't Force Us to Lie': The Case of
the W11," in Wm, ed. Chin-Chuan Lee (New York:
Guilford Press, 1990), pp. 111-121. .

27 Todd Gitlin, Wingmerkeley: University of California
Press, 1980), pp. 249- 282;

23 Samuel L. Becker, "Marxist Approaches to Media Studies: The British
Experience," WW 1 (March 1984): 66-80, and Gitlin,
WWW PP 249 232

7-9 Home and Smith. WM

30 Denis McQuail, Wheeling. 2nd ed. (London: Sage, 1987), p.
63; see also Stuart Hall, "Culture, the Media and the 'Ideological Effect,” in Mm
WW, ed. James Cman, Michael Gurevitch, and Janet Woollacott
(London: Edward Arnold, 1977), pp. 315- 338; and Stuart Hall, "The Rediscovery of
'Ideology,"' in W ed. Michael Gurevitch et al. (London:
Methuen, 1982), pp. 56-90.

31 McQuatl.Mass_communicatinn_rhm p. 197.

32 Becker, "Marxist Approaches to Media Studies."

bet:

Stat
39 (I

21

33 Ibid.

34 Gitlin Wins pp. 249-232.

35 McQuail. Massccmmunicauonahm p. 63.

36 Hypotheses for this study are presenwd following discussion of the relevant theories
rather than discussion of the literature for two reasons. First, the hypotheses are derived
from these theories and should hold true regardless of the time or place of media content
under investigation. Second, increased understanding and clarity of writing are possible
when the hypotheses are found in this admittedly unconventional location.

37 Shoemaker and Mayfleld, "Building A Theory of News Content," p. 4.

38 Robert c. Angell, "Content Analysis of Elite Media: Social Values of Soviet and
American Elites," MW 8 (December 1964), p. 330-331.

39 Shoemaker with Mayﬁeld, "Building a Theory of News Content," pp. 4-5.

40 Herbert J Altschull WWW
Affair: (New York: Longman, 1984).

41 Ibid.

42 Ibid.

43 Ibid.

44 Shoemaker with Mayﬁeld, "Building a Theory of News Content."

45 Ibid. Actually, they list eight assumptions, but the ﬁrst and last were excluded
because they seem too obvious to mention.

46 Harvey Molotch and Marilyn Lester, "News as Purposive Behavior: On the

Strategic Use of Routine Events, Accidents, and Scandals," W
39 (February 1974): 101- 112. ‘

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

Very little information about Chinese newspaper photography has appeared in books or
journals published outside of the People's Republic of China. This chapter uses
translations of mainland sources to examine factors that inﬂuence the production and
selection of newspaper photographs. Studies of the content of photographs are also
examined.

In addition, this chapter reviews the inﬂuence of the ideology of China's power elite
upon news content. On one hand, a set of economic, social and political values of
conservative government and Party leaders have prevailed in China. On the other hand,
alternative values of moderate and radical reformers are shown to compete with this
dominant ideology. Members of the power elite are shown to have direct and indirect
means to control news content of all media organizations. They can suppress news that
challenges the dominant ideology and emphasize news that supports it. Several studies of
news content indicate that given a major ideological policy shift, news content changes and
reﬂects the new ideology.

Finally, this chapter reviews the inﬂuence of the ideology of ﬁnanciers upon news
content. The power elite does NOT always have complete control over news content. In
periods of reform, journalists have some editorial autonomy. Although the most important
paymaster is clearly the Communist Party, other sources contribute to the ﬁnancing of
news organizations. Studies that Show news content reﬂects the ideologies of paymasters

other than the Party could not be found.

22

23

Eenetjens, Value and Cement ef Phetogeephs

Fenetione ef photegrgephg
The theoretical functions of newspaper photography inﬂuence the production and

selection of photographs. Photojournalism in China has four functions: political,
educational, cognitive and aesthetic. Photographs are political in that they support Party
policies and campaigns. They educate readers by explaining Party policies and by
advocating proper behavior. Photographs serve a cognitive function because they increase
readers' knowledge about China and they generally broaden readers' ﬁeld of vision. They
also provide readers aesthetic pleasure by visually communicating the news in a lively
manner.1

Ideally, photographs are a combination of political propaganda, persuasion with facts,
and artistic expression.2 Usually, however, the political and educating functions of
photographs are more important than the cognitive and aesthetic functions. Chinese
photojournalists cannot be objective in the sense of remaining detached and presenting an
impartial record of the news. They must consider the possible social effects of news on
audiences. They must also cooperate with Party ofﬁcials to carry out the Party's central
tasks.3 Photojournalists are political activists who are supposed to unambiguously Show
readers "what to love, what to hate, what to support and what to oppose."4

During the ﬁrst 29 years of the People's Republic of China, when class struggle was
considered the central task of both the Party and the media, photographs followed a rigid,
socialist pattern. In an unmistakable manner, they had to "educate the new communist
man" and to "contribute to the consu'uction of communism." Many photographs showed
Party leaders, or workers and farmers in the production processes, or machines and
buildings. Others showed a meeting hall crowded with delegates. People in photographs

always smiled and stood straight, with "sunshine" on their faces. Newspapers were

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24

supposed to report only nice and happy things that showed the "superiorities of socialism."
Any negative news, such as crime and disaster, was not allowed.5

Political excesses frequently occurred during the Cultrual Revolution, when "facts
served politics." Newspapers only Stressed the class character of photojournalism, and
they denied reality. Photographs showed false deeds and false "advanced pe0ple." Events
were staged for photographers, people were added to pictures (or deleted from pictures),
and society was "beautiﬁed." A style of photography known as "heroic realism" was
practiced. As a result of such distortions of the truth, photojournalism lost all credibility.6

At the end of the 19705, when a movement of reform began, photojournalists were .
encouraged to photograph without interfering with their subjects, unless they were creating
a still-life picture of objects or a simple portrait. By not arranging their subjects,
photojournalists were more likely to obtain natural, lively and credible photographs that
readers enjoyed.7

Political pressure upon photojournalists to create images with unambiguous educational
value, however, remains strong in the 19805. Rather than seek concrete, meaningful
material, photojournalists frequently direct people and action in the pictures to suit political
purposes. They prefer to photograph acceptable topics in a formulaic manner because such
conventional images are more likely to be published.8 For example, many pictures show
people with crops (signiﬁes bumper harvest) or people with machines (signiﬁes industrial
production).9

Another problem is that photographs show the outer appearance of people, but not their
uniqueness as individuals, nor their spirit. People are always smiling, regardless of the
circumstances. 10

Such stereotyped images lack emotion and fail to have an impact on readers, who
sometimes doubt their u'uth. The oversimplified images frequently appear "too perfect."11

According to Wang Wenlan, director of the photography department of China Daily,

25

readers do not like overly didactic photographs that always teach how to do this and how to
do that. They prefer human interest photos that elicit emotional responses.12

Two instances of fabricated news photographs were reported and strongly condemned
in the Chinese press in 1986. In the ﬁrst instance, some factory workers made a silk
banner with a slogan for Army Day. Local military leaders wanted to make the slogan
more appealing so that the local military newspaper would publish the photograph. The
new slogan falsely stated that 110 factory girls would be willing to marry Chinese soldiers
ﬁghting Vietnamese at the front. The carefully designed photograph ﬁrst appeared in a
local paper, where it attracted much attention. Military leaders then uied to stop further
publication, but were unsuccessful-- W published the photograph. The
factory received many letters from hopeful soldiers. 13

The editorial comment which accompanied articles explaining and criticizing the

fabrication is worth quoting in full:

Truthfulness is the lifeblood of journalism. This is self-evident and
understood by everyone. But the practice of false reporting not only occurred in the
Cultural Revolution; it lingers today. This is thought provoking. People cheated
for their own interests. Some units created a rule that there Should be a certain
number of articles about every unit every year. In order to meet the quota,
fabrications are arising. This is the root of the problem. We should make a closer
inspection of the articles and photographs submitted to newspapers in order to
diminish false reporting and be responsible to readers. The author must also take
responsibility for his/her reporting. If a similar case happens, we will publicize the

fabricators' names and their units as we did today.14
In the second instance, a dramatic photograph of a soldier saving a person's life in

heavy ﬂooding had been staged, and it was criticized upon publication in 1981. Then four
years later, a different person than the photographer resurrected the ﬂood picture and
modiﬁed it in the darkroom. The modiﬁed picture was exhibited and published in
W as a ph0tograph of ﬂooding in 1985. A self-criticism by the manipulator
of the "double-false" photograph was published in the newspaper.15

Some pictures are also arranged by photographers in order to create a more aesthetically

pleasing image. Editors who think of photographs as art more than a form of reporting are

26

likely to select images because of their composition and animation rather than their news
value or information. Photojournalists are then tempted to fabricate images in order to
please editors.l6 One unusually frank author writes that Chinese photojournalists are
seldom able to unify news values with aesthetic values. Instead, one of the following is
likely to occur: "The picture has news value but lacks visual appeal and impact, or the
picture has visual appeal but lacks believability."17

When pictures lack candidness, the problem is sometimes blamed on inadequate
photographic technique. Because photojournalists cannot make aesthetically pleasing
images by candidly photographing the moment, they must arrange all the elements in order
to tell the story. Improvements in cameras, lenses, ﬁlm, and darkroom chemistry are
supposed to help them take candid pictures in a greater variety of situations.18

Articles in journalism magazines frequently offer aspiring photojournalists general
advice. For example, photojournalists should " go deep into life" in order to conduct
research, to seek truth from facts, and to select typical moments. They should observe
their subjects, so they will be able to adjust any preconceived ideas to meet actual
conditions. 19 In order to " go deep into life," photojournalists should be inquisitive,
sociable, bold, and hard working.20 Because such advice lacks speciﬁcs concerning
photographic techniques, however, it is unlikely that such articles interest or help many
readers seeking to improve the quality of their images.

Articles also encourage photojournalists to study the works of Marx and to understand
Party policies.21 Without a sensitive political mind, said one author, a photojournalist is
not qualiﬁed to carry a press card.22 Constant studying of political documents is necessary
to prevent misunderstandings of the changing political climate. The Party sometimes
changes its central tasks, and these changes subsequently lead journalists to put different
emphases in stories and photographs.23

Under Deng Xiaoping, for example, economic development has replaced class struggle

27

as the central task of the Party and media. Today's press serves as a bridge between the
government and the pe0ple in the effort to develop a modern, socialist China. With the
change in policy under Deng, some photojournalists place a higher value on facts because
they realize that "all that is not consistent with facts is meaningless."24 As part of the
campaign to promote economic development, newspapers in the 19805 were full of pictures
showing new bridges, roads, and hotels as well as pictures of successful ﬁsh farmers,

handicraft makers, and other entrepreneurs.

Watch:
In theory, the work of photojournalists and reporters is valued equally. Editors like

to say that photographs and news stories are like two wings of an airplane, both being
equally essential.”

In practice, however, photographs have been subordinated to news stories. Until
recently, most newspaper space was occupied by lengthy news articles and government
reports. Development of photojournalism was hindered because Chinese journalism
followed the Marx-Lenin-Engels-Stalin pattern of jomnalism established in the Soviet
Union, where newspapers did not use many photographs or large photographs. Small
images were published to break up copy and ﬁll blank areas. The most important locations
in newspapers were occupied by stories.26 In the 19605, readers' perception of the value
of photographs gradually declined until at one point they would not have been surprised
had no photographs at all appeared in a newspaper.27

Recently, photojournalism has gained more respect. Editors realize that with life's
quickenin g tempo, people want to receive information quickly, and photographs tell a story
at a glance. With photographs, people simultaneously receive both information and
pleasure.28 On the other hand, editors do not want photographs to be considered more

important than stories. They believe Chinese newspapers should not indiscriminately

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absorb Western journalism practices, which display photographs too prominently. Instead,
newspapers should equally stress photographs and words.29

Several newsroom practices are responsible for limiting the development of
photojournalism in Chinese newspapers. One is the newspaper editors' use of the "on-
duty" system to ensure that journalists earn their pay. According to He Bibao, a Chinese
author who seeks bold journalism reform, for more than 30 years, roll call was taken at the
beginning of each day and a summary meeting was held at the end of the day. No one
could go home until after the summary meeting. Unless editors sent photojournalists out to
take pictures, they had to remain in the ofﬁce; otherwise, people would suspect they were
leaving for personal business. As a result, photojournalists would sit at their desks all day
reading newspapers and drinking tea. Photojournalists became passive and lazy, only
taking pictures when they were needed for the next day's newspaper?’o

A different policy for ensuring production from photojournalists is the "quota" system.
Photojournalists submit a minimum number of photographs to editors each month--their
quota--in order to justify their pay. According to one author, reaching a quota should not
be the sole criteria for judging a photojournalist's work. An evaluation should be based
upon the social effects of the photographs--whether or not they push forward the
development of China.31 As a result of the "on duty" and "quota" systems,
photojoru‘nalists lacked the incentive to work hard and produce a large number of high
quality images.

A second problem limiting development of photojournalism was newspaper editors'
excessive frugality. Editors sometimes cancelled photography assignments of interesting
topics and events because the assignments were too time consuming or expensive. For
example, photographers who volunteered to travel to remote mountain areas or minority
areas were not given support because the trips cost too much money. In fact, leaders

would praise photojournalists who used less ﬁlm, less paper and less money.32 In some

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29

ways, photojournalists are limited because of the lack of transportation infrastructure in
China. Rather than jump into a staff car and race to a spot news event, photographers ride
the buses.33

A third practice that limited development of photojournalism was newspaper editors'
reluctance to publish images that tarnished the image of socialism. According to He Bibao,
reporters could expose some social problems and openly criticize harmful practices, but
photojournalists could not. Crimes, disasters, trafﬁc accidents, and harmful phenomena
could not be photographed. When they tried to take such photographs, journalism
inspection units would say they were trying to show the "dark side" of society and would
prevent publication. As a result, "forbidden zones" were created for Chinese
photojournalists. To make matters worse, sometimes foreign correspondents were
permitted to expose the "dark side" of society, but not Chinese photojoumalists.34

According to J iang Qishen g, chair of the Chinese Photojournalism Society, Western
newspapers frequently publish pictures of unexpected negative events, but the Chinese take
a more "controlled attitude" toward such pictures. They decide whether to use such
pictures based upon their usefulness to socialist consu'uction. Photographs which Show
the "negative side of society" should also be limited, writes Jiang, because they may have
harmful effects upon society. Reporting on crime may lead to more crime and reporting on
disasters may make readers lose faith in socialism and the nation's future.35

An exchange of metaphors between J. Swatt, chairman of World Press Photographers
competition in Holland, and He Yanguang, director of the photography department of '
China Yeetl; New , illusuates the problem of putting limits on acceptable subject matter for
photojournalists. Swatt said, "While the earth revolves round the sun, a group of
distinguished people on the earth are observing the world with three eyes; they are
photojournalists." The Chinese photojournalist lamented: "The prize photojournalists look
at the world with three eyes, while their Chinese counterparts are even unwilling to open

their two eyes; sometimes they look at the world with one eye open and the other closed. If

30

that is the case, then how can we make our news and press photos believable?"36

A fourth practice that limited development of photojorunalism was the policy of
labelling foreign photojournalism "bourgeois." Before the reform movement, there was an
indiscriminate rejection of foreign photojournalism, causing a deep gulf between Chinese
and foreign photojournalists. According to He Bibao: "What was considered good abroad
was not considered good by us. What we considered good was not considered good
abroad."37

Because foreign photojournalism was bourgeois, there was a lack of both professional

and academic exchange between China and Western counuies. As a result, China was
unaware of technological and professional advances abroad. According to Chen Xiaobo,
photojournalism editor of Xinhua news agency, there is a large gap in techniques between
China's press photos and those of other countries. He noted that some people believe
China has lagged in press photography for at least 30 years.38

A final factor limiting the development of photojournalism in China was the lack of
adequate educational training. Many photojournalists lack a general education, and some
have received only a primary school education.39 Their photojoru'nalism training is
received on the job ﬁom older, more experienced newspaper photographers, who taught
themselves the necessary technical skills. During this training period, trainees may have
half as many photographs published as experienced staff photographers because many of
their pictures are not suitable for publication. It takes three-to-ﬁve years before a trainee is
enu'usted with important photography assignments.40

Recently, efforts have been increased to supply China's 5,000 newspapers and
magazines with university-trained photojournalists. In 1986 there was at least one
photojournalism course offered in each of the journalism departments of 37 universities.
The one or two photojournalism courses students generally take in their third year of study,

however, is dwarfed by 140 class hours in liberal arts, political theory and skills courses in

31

print journalism. Only People's University in Beijing, with its 30 optional photojournalist
courses, including picture editing, design, and picture transmission, offers in-depth study
of photojournalism. At other universities, photojournalism courses generally emphasize
theory and basic camera and darlcroom skills. The practice of taking news pictures receives
insufﬁcient emphasis.41

Because university enrollment is limited, yet demand for photographic training is high,
the China Photography Correspondence College was created in 1985. Correspondence
courses were immediately successful, and the fundamentals of photography were taught to

20,000 amateurs in 1986-1987.42

Although undoubtedly many amateurs just want to learn
how to photograph family and friends, a substantial number are interested in
photojournalism. In 1986, China had 440,000 amateur news photographers.43 This is a
large number considering the high cost of cameras and ﬁlm, but it is a small number
considering the u'emendous population in China. Having a large number of amateur
photographers interested in photojournalism is important because some of them may
become stringers for newspapers.

In a frank article published in 1985, He Bibao makes several suggestions for bold
reform in order to raise the quality of photojournalism in China to compete with
photojournalists from around the world. One of his more radical suggestions is to have
Party and government leaders cancel "forbidden zones." If state secrets are not disclosed,
then photojournalists should be able to report on a wider range of news. Spot news
reporting of unexpected events such as ﬂoods and earthquakes should be increased, and
investigative reporting that criticizes problems in society should be allowed. To safeguard
the basic rights given to photojournalists by the state, he wants a press law to be passed as
soon as possible. He also wants to "break the big pot," meaning that photojournalists

should no longer enjoy guaranteed job security.44

He Bibao wants journalism leaders to recognize that photojournalists play a valuable

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role at newspapers. In order to make the status of photojournalists equal to that of
reporters, editors should give photojournalists enough time and money to do their jobs
well. Then they should display their photographs better by sizing them larger and placing
them in more prominent locations of the publication. Editors should encourage
photojournalists to improve their skills and be creative on assignments. They should forbid
pre-arranged photographs to appear in the newspaper and instead demand fresh, candid,
lively images. Editors should select more human interest pictures to make newspapers
richer, more colorful, and more readable. Another way to improve the status of
photojournalism is to encourage photojournalists to enter photography contests, including
international contests. An international academic seminar on photojournalism should be
held every two or three years.45

At one newspaper, the changes suggested by He Bibao have already been at least
partially implemented. China Daily, China's ﬁrst national English-language daily
newspaper, is a pioneer in photojournalism reform. Targeted to Western readers inside and
outside of China, the newspaper is heavily inﬂuenced by Western journalism, and its
editor-in-chief Feng Xiliang was educated at the University of Missouri. Editors and
reporters highly value photographs and staff photographers are regularly sent on
assignments throughout the country. Since its ﬁrst publication on June 1, 1981, £13m
Daily has carried a large photo on its front page every day, and sometimes stories are cut in
order to leave more space for photographs. A picture page is regularly published on
Fridays.46

"Forbidden zones" may not have been completely cancelled, but in the latter half of the
19805, China Daily has published photos about earthquakes, ﬂoods, trafﬁc accidents and
other disasters. Staff photographers work hard to get images with strong visual and
emotional impact. They use telephoto lenses and available light to unobtrusively capture the

most telling gestures and actions of their subjects instead of directing and posing them. For

33

pictures of important meetings or pictures of leaders, photographers are required to produce
images that are different from traditional ones. A special photo feature called "Candid
Camera" was created for publishing feature pictures of ordinary life which interest and

amuse readers.47

Centent ef phetogzephg

A search of the literature uncovered only one (unpublished) study of the content of
photographs in Chinese newspapers. A sample of ﬁve newspapers taken in January 1985
showed that photographs of "life and people" were predominant, and depending upon the
newspaper, they ranged from 20-40 percent of the total. "Sports news" photographs were
least common; they ranged from 2-12 percent. The percentage of photographs of "state
affairs" ranged from 8-18 percent. Photographs of "economic news" ranged from 8-34
percent. Photographs of "world news" ranged from 0-27 percent. Photographs of "travel"
ranged from 3-10 percent. Photographs of "culture and art" ranged from 5-23 percent.
Photographs of "science or animals" ranged from 1-14 percent.48

Although the author of the study did not operationalize his categories, deﬁnitions of
subject matter categories may be inferred from descriptions in other articles about Chinese
photojournalism.

The "life and people" category refers to feature photographs showing common people
relaxing, pursuing hobbies, or doing some other typical activity of daily life. This category
frequently includes close-ups of pe0ple's faces, or pictures of events taken from a variety
of camera positions or angles of view. The images are generally candid, upbeat and
timeless.49

"Sports news" photographs show action shots of competitive sporting events, as well
as popular exercise or sports by the masses in factories, farms, schools and army units.
This category also includes portraits of athletes and team pictures. Sports photographs

excite and inform readers about their favorite sports, and they build admiration for heroes

34

and heroines.50

Photographs of "state affairs" show timely news events related to the government or
Party, including the public activities of Party and government leaders, such as attending
conferences, meeting foreign guests and making inspections. This category also includes
portraits of Party, state and military leaders. Political meanings are always emphasized,
and these pictures have important historical value.51

"Economic news" photographs may show urban or rural indusu'y, factories, markets,
agriculture, forestry, or husbandry. This category includes photographs of new highways,
bridges, buildings, factories, and shipyards. It also includes pictures of laborers, "model
workers," and businessmen. Photographs of industry and agriculture have a reputation for
being lowest in quality.52

"World news" photographs include any photographs taken outside of China. They
may show political activities of foreign governments, war, racial conﬂicts, crime, disasters,
human rights issues, space travel, scientiﬁc or medical news, economic development, etc.

"Travel" photographs show popular tourist destinations, which usually have natural
beauty or historical signiﬁcance. This category may include pictures of nature, including
landscapes and ﬂowers.53 '

"Culture and art" photographs show scenes ﬁom operas, movies or plays. The
category includes pictures of musicians, artists, actors, singers, and entertainers. It also
includes pictures of social and cultural events and entertainment. Photographs of the
various minority nationalities in China should fall in this subject matter category if they
emphasized the literature, culture, religion, dress, environment, or education of
nationalities.54

"Science and animals" photographs Show advances in science and medicine, including
new technological products, new medical procedures and other advances in efﬁciency, skill

and knowledge in space, transportation, energy and communications. This category also

35

includes pictures of hospitals, doctors, operations, scientists, etc. It also includes
photographs of animals, especially animals in the wild.

These subject matter categories differ from categories used by Western researchers.
For example, there is no category for accident-disaster, for violence-armed conﬂicts, for
crime-corruption, for social-political problems, or for sex.

Five criteria deﬁning excellence in photojournalism were created by the appraising
committee for the Beijing Photojournalism exhibition on December 12, 1981. Good
photographs should be "newsworthy," "truthful," "lifelike" (Show a typical moment in a
natural, candid manner) "lively," (show people's feelings in an exciting, powerful way),
and well composed (show an idea in a simple clear manner that is aesthetically pleasing).55

The ﬁve criteria are not equal in importance and their order of importance cannot be
changed, writes Jiang Qisheng, chair of the Chinese Photojournalism Society. News value
and u'uthfulness are most important because they oppose the tendency to stress political
demands and the tendency to emphasize artistic qualities. When politics and art are served
ﬁrst, photojournalists manipulate lighting, setting, people, events, etc., and they practice
fraud. Jiang believes these criteria gave a strong impetus to the reform of photojournalism.
They set a clear target for enhancing the quality of photographs following the Cultural
Revolution. He admits, however, that few photographs in China are able to meet all ﬁve

criteria.56

36

Inﬂuence ef the Eewer Elite Upen Newg @ntent

Because a dominant ideology changes as different power groups rise or fall and as
policies shift, it is difﬁcult to specify values of the power elite in China. One value that has
continued through time, however, is that the Chinese should be loyal to all members of a
community, not just to those with whom they have a personal relationship. Maoist slogans
of "serve the pe0ple" and "ﬁght self" show that dedication to the public cause and a
conscious suppression of selﬁsh inclinations were important values before 1978. In the
19805, the theme of collectivism changed somewhat, and the principle of socialism became
"to each according to his labor." Material incentives are used to spur production, and
individuals are encouraged to pursue proﬁtable enterprises. Yet collectivist values have
not been abandoned. Selﬂess behavior, service to others, generosity and good manners are
still emphasized.57

A second, related value that has continued through time is egalitarianism and populism.
The Chinese Communists recognize the existence of classes and the necessity of
maintaining political authority, yet they generally seek to minimize material and
psychological inequalities. They wish to eradicate "irrational subordination," of younger
generations to the elderly and of women to men. In the 19805, despite policies permitting
accumulation of wealth, egalitarianism remains a value in Chinese politics. The policy of
rural decollectivization is justiﬁed by emphasizing the beneﬁts to poorer peasants. Policies
that allow some to get rich ﬁrst are defended by saying the social value of production
exceeds the individual reward; therefore, society is better off.58

A third value that continues with some changes is that the Chinese should be committed
to political activism and class struggle. Since the Cultural Revolution, official emphasis
has shifted away from antagonistic struggle and toward activism for modernization. The
new slogan is "stability and unity." Struggle techniques such as criticism and self-

criticisrrr, however, are still used. Military struggle against an enemy is a common theme in

37

the media, and struggle against bourgeois cultural inﬂuence continues.59

A fourth value of government and Party leaders is that the Chinese should be self-
reliant. Party leaders insist that human efforts can overcome all obstacles, and they urge
people to employ their own initiative and capacities to accomplish tasks. Dependence on
higher authorities, religion, and superstition is discouraged, as is resignation to one's fate.
In the 19805, there were numerous campaigns against the "iron rice bowl" of total job
security, and individuals who have succeeded through their own efforts are encouraged and
their successes are publicized. Self-reliance is also a caution against excessive dependence
on the import of technology.60 1

Pre-refonn Chinese society took for granted several other values. Because China had a
socialist economy, they believed the state should own the means of production, and that
central planning was needed to direct the economy. PeOple accepted the orthodoxy of the
Party's absolute rule over all affairs. They felt that tight ideological control of individual
expression was necessary, and they were hostile toward Western ideas.61

In the 19805, however, moderate reformers in the Party hierarchy began to successfully
challenge the orthodox economic values of the dominant ideology. AS early as November
1979, Zhao Ziyang excluded the planned economy from the list of principles implied by a
commitment to socialism; and by late 1985, Deng Xiaoping had done the same. Although
averse to risk, moderate reformers believed that the marketplace, rather than the state,
should conuol the production and sale of agricultural goods and a few small manufactured
goods. Fairly stringent controls over other aspects of the economy should remain,
however, in order to preserve a balanced economy. The principle of public ownership
became more ﬂexible so as to allow for the "existence of a variety of economic forms"

while ensuring the "dominant position of the economic sector under public ownership."62

Radical reformers wanted to transform China's socialist economy to more of a capitalist

economy. They believed the marketplace should be the most important mechanism for the

38

allocation of goods and services and the determination of prices. Markets should control
not only agricultural goods, but almost all aspects of production, including capital and
labor. State owned industrial and commercial enterprises should be restructured, and
individual and private enterprises should be encouraged. The economy should be
grounded in the sanctity of private property rights. They even encomaged the Chinese

government to experiment with the sale of stocks.63

Moderate reformers also began to successfully challenge the Party's absolute authority
over all aspects of Chinese life. They believed Party cadres should consult more with
members of an organization and create a more open organizational climate. They sought to
reduce the Party's conuol over personnel appointments in non-Party organizations and
thereby minimize its interference in day-to-day operations. They implemented the
managerial responsibility system and decreased the amount of direct Party intervention in
economic management. Radical reformers wished to go further. They called for direct,
contested elections so that political legitimacy could be derived from the consent of the
governed. They called for democratization of the political system. Conservatives were
opposed, however, to any sign of political pluralization that would challenge the dominance
of the Party in Chinese political life.64

Finally, moderate reformers successfully challenged the values of conservative leaders
concerning freedom of thought and the indoctrination of youth. They believed greater
freedom of thought was required to modernize China. Intellectual, scientiﬁc and technical
questions should be addressed on their merits, without regard to ideological considerations.
Radical reformers believed that freedom of thought should also include the freedom to
discuss political matters. Indoctrination of youth could be overdone and limit independent
thinking. Conservative leaders, on the other hand, still believed that politics should shape
public opinion and Chinese culture. Arguing "there is only one u'uth," the Red Flag, an
important ofﬁcial publication, also insisted that "freedom of speech, literary creation, and

39

publication" must adhere to "the four basic principles." Conservative leaders also believed
the state has the right, even the obligation, to promote moral conduct by educating youth in
an ofﬁcial doctrine believed to be morally valid.65

The Chinese Communist Party and government attempt to instill these values (and
others) throughout the population via agents of socialization such as the educational
system, the family and the mass media. This section focuses on the way the power elite
control media organizations and shape the content of news.

One way the power elite ensure their interests are protected is with a regulation that
publications must be licensed by the government in the name of organizational units such as
government departments or industrial enterprises. Only ofﬁcial publications are issued
license, and they are supervised by Party committees at their level and above. A
publication is considered to be illegal if not registered with the publications bureau within
whose jurisdiction it is published.66

At the height of the "anti-bourgeois liberalization" campaign in January 1987, the Ofﬁce
of Media and Publications was created in order to maintain political stability. Director of
the ofﬁce, Du Daozheng, said he would concentrate on "straightening out papers that run
articles against the socialist system and the Chinese Communist Party's leadership."67 The
ofﬁce is supposed to draft and implement laws and regulations on publishing, examine all

publications, and exercise uniﬁed planning and management. Transgressors, said Du,
"should be educated, blamed, warned, and punished respectively according to the
seriousness of the cases.

The power elite also exercise direct control through their power to appoint and remove
leading personnel at news organizations. Party functionaries rather than journalists are
frequently appointed as chief editors or directors.69 Prominent editors and reporters are
sometimes dismissed if they refuse to listen to the Party. For example, Hu Jiwei, Wang

Ruoshui and Liu Binyan were dismissed from m.” Qin Benli, chief editor of

40

the W. was ﬁred even though he worked at a paper published by the
Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences rather than a paper under the supervision of the
city's Party committee.7l

Concurrent assignments in Party and state organizations also helps ensure elites'
conuol over media. Over the years, policy formulation, implementation, and supervision
have been closely coordinated through the practice of assigning senior ofﬁcials
concurrently to posts in each of these roles. For example, on the eve of the Cultural
Revolution, Wu Lengxi concurrently held the positions of deputy chairman of the
Propaganda Department (Party), editor-in-chief of Peeple's Daily (Party), director of
Xinhua News Agency (state), and president of the Association of Journalistic
Workers. The practice has been decried, yet it undoubtedly continues, especially at
high levels.72

Although there is no formal pre-publication censorship apparatus in China, the
power elite are able to suppress news that they ﬁnd objectionable. Whenever the
government or Party feels threatened, a set of "Regulations on Guarding State Secrets" can
be enforced. Issued in 1951, shortly after the revolution, this document enumerates ﬁfteen
categories of information that must not be revealed, including: anything about the armed
forces and national defense, foreign affairs, the police and state, economic planning, even
the ethnic minorities, warehouses, and public health. A sixteenth article covers "all state
affairs which have not yet been decided upon, or which have been decided upon but have

not yet been made public." A seventeenth article speciﬁes "all other state affairs which

should be kept secret."73

Xinhua News Agency aets as an important gatekeeper controlling the ﬂow of news to
all media, printed and elecuonic. To some extent, it determines what news to release, what
to withhold, and when to release it. It has the exclusive right to publish important

documents and to report major Party and government policy decisions.74

41

Xinhua's power over domestic news is limited, however, by the fact that local media
are allowed to cover local news not reported by Xinhua. Control is also limited by the fact
that both Chinese and foreign correspondents talk directly to government and Party

ofﬁcials, conduct interviews, and attend press conferences, reporting on all of which is free

from Xinhua review.
Xinhua's power is more effective regarding the content of news from outside of China.
International news comes primarily from Xinhua, which maintains bureaus in 86 countries

abroad and which has exchange agreements with 47 foreign wire services. Several major

newspapers, however, as well as Radio Beijing, W, and Bemngﬁeuew
have limited numbers of reporters stationed abroad.76 .

Directives from Party ofﬁcials can lead to the suppression of news by ensuring that
events go uncovered, or at best covered only in internally-circulated bulletins. For
example, newspapers at the national level reportedly received instructions not to cover the
student demonstrations in the winter of 1986. It took four days for China's media to
acknowledge what Voice of America and the British Broadcasting Corporation already had
made widely known.77 How to interpret directives about what can be reported is often
decided by local Party committees instead of by editorial boards.78

The power elite can also ensure that news which supports the current political and
economic structure will be disseminated by news organizations. From the ﬁrst days of the
revolution, the media in China were required to follow policies and directives of the
Chinese Communist Party. According to a circular issued by the Propaganda Department
on 16 March 1942: "The central task of a newspaper is to propagate, carry out our Party's
policies and to mirror our Party work and the life of the ordinary people."79

Three years later, when the Party was still operating out of its wartime base in Yanan,

Mao Zedong emphasized the important role of the media in the dissemination of Central
Committee policies. In a speech to the staffs of Xinhua news agency and W

Mao said: "The Party Central Committee exercises its leadership over work in various

42

parts of the counu'y mostly through the newspaper and news agency. As such your work
. . ,,80
15 very important.

Today, basic media policies are formulated by the Political Bureau and the Central
Committee's Secretariat to ensure than all media follow central Party policy in the
dissemination of information and ideas. Generally the policies are uansmitted through the
Propaganda Department, which is responsible for propaganda and which exercises close

supervision over media content. From the Propaganda Department, media policies are sent

to the appropriate action bodies in the Party, state, and military establishments.81

The Cenu'al Committee also controls media policy via a number of additional ofﬁces
under its supervision. For example, the editorial ofﬁces of Eeeple'iﬂaily, W and
Enlightenmentﬂaily are important because these three inﬂuential publications convey to the
public the most authoritative statements on Party attitude and policy. The Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences is important because it hosts a family of institutes related to
media affairs, including the Institute of Journalism and the Institute of Information.82

Party and government ofﬁcials can use rewards and punishments to ensure
communication policies are followed by journalists. Journalists who report on issues
favorable to the power elite can receive beneﬁts ranging from increased access to
information to special awards and gifts. Work that displeases or criticizes ofﬁcials can lead
to sanctions. Each publication or broadcast station operates as a work unit, which assigns
housing, coordinates social affairs, and approves travel or further educational study.
Journalists must think twice before angering people with so much control over their
lives.83

Unfortunately for journalists, guidance on what news is acceptable and what is

unacceptable is not always clear. In most situations, journalists are expected to rely on

their own caution and sensitivity to the political atmosphere around them rather than on

43

minute directives. The knowledge that news might be suppressed, embargoed or revised
tends to engender caution among editors and passivity among reporters. Because of
ambiguities in the editorial control system, along with the lessons of past political
campaigns in which bold journalists did not fare well, journalists practice self-censorship.
More often than not, journalists themselves have acted as the most effective censors of
news.84

The effects of the Party's direct and indirect control over journalists can be seen in
studies of news content. Several past studies show that the image of the United States in
Peeple'a Daily reﬂected the attitude of the power elite toward the United States. Edelstein
and Liu found anti-American propaganda was in the late 19505, when Chinese leaders
resented America's alliance with Taiwan and its support of France in Indochina. Themes
of "US. imperialism," and "deepening socio-economic crisis" characterized news of the
United States in liemtle'§_]2aj]y.85 In a follow-up study 14 years later, Liu found that
"US. imperialism," and "social and economic crisis" remained two of the most important
themes.86 A different study of Main in the same time period also found a largely
negative view of the United States.87 A post-Mao study of the newspaper found that
"socio-economic crises" remained a key theme, but admiration for advanced U.S. science
and technology also frequently appeared. This was undoubtedly due to China's need for
rapid economic development. Another common theme was praise for US. determination
to contain Soviet hegemonism. This theme reﬂected China's increasing concern that the

Soviet Union may pose a greater threat than the United States88

Themes of "imperialism, waning prestige, weakening economy," and "meddler"
also characterized news of the United States in W in the late 19505 and early
19605.89 A content analysis of the same magazine several years later, however, found a
gradual softening of hostility toward the United States replaced with a toughened position
toward the Soviet Union.90 Again, the shift in themes probably reﬂects the shifting

balance of power among the three counuies.

to

11

re;

44

Although these studies have value, they do not attempt to identify the presence of many
aspects of Chinese Communist ideology in the news media, nor do they study aspects of
ideology in a cross-sample of publications. One study, however, identiﬁes several
ideological values of the "new socialist man." During the Cultural Revolution, an analysis
of editorials in Ligation Army Daily found that "human will and determination," "service
to the people," "the priority of the human element over material or technological
advancement," and "self-sacriﬁce/self-negation" were important values.91 Only one study
was discovered which analyzed the content of a variety of news publications. In a study of
11 regional newspapers, Mills found signiﬁcant variation among newspapers in their
reporting of foreign policy toward the superpowers.92

For the purposes of this investigation, the most relevant studies are those which
examine whether news content changes when there is a shift in the dominant ideology.
Several content studies have found content changes over time which indicate that Party
ideology inﬂuences content of the news media. Hinicker found that the contents of the
media shifted after the Lushan conference to increased stress upon themes of ideology and
class struggle with decreased emphasis upon production.93 Chu and Chu found that letters
to the editor of Peeple's Daily written during the Cultlual Revolution were signiﬁcantly
different in quality and quantity than letters written after the fall of the Gang of Four.94
Georgette Wang found that fewer items in Wily about the United States were
negative after Nixon's visit to China in 1972.95 China's decreased hostility to the United
States after Nixon's visit was conﬁrmed in an analysis of news from Xinhua News
Agency.96 Lee found a more favorable portrayal of the United States in my
following normalization of the Sino-U.S. relationship.97 According to Lee: "The media
transmit ofﬁcial messages, legitimize issues, and encourage mass endorsement of the
regime-prescribed ideology. The media, in short, mirror the ruling ideology and usher in

power/policy shifts."98

45

f ° i l ' h' w n

Despite the elaborate system for centralized control, there have been times when the
news media sought to challenge the political status quo. This was ﬁrst evident in 1956
when Mao Zedong invited criticism of the Party with the call, "Let one hundred ﬂowers
bloom," and "Let one hundred schools of thought contend." Chinese journalists,
perceiving the advantage of the open climate of the "Hundred Flowers" campaign, thought
it was also time for reform in journalism. Although in the early period discussion focused
on technical matters such as reporting methods and writing styles, later questions about
Communist Party leadership began to appear in the press. Peeple'g Daily, Enlightenment
Daily and other papers organized many forums at which open discussion of political,
artistic, literary and scientiﬁc issues was encouraged. The press then reported highly
critical views of the status quo uttered by people at the forums. Emboldened journalists
began calling for greater editorial autonomy and news gathering freedom. News stories,
commentaries, cartoons and pictures criticizing bureaucracy appeared in the press. An
unprecedented amount of space was also devoted to readers' views and complaints.99

This period came to an abrupt end, however, as criticisms of the Party led to an "anti-
rightist" crackdown in 1958. Journalists learned a powerful lesson concerning the risks of
being too outspoken. Editors of two national papers oriented toward intellectuals,
Beijing's Enlightenment Daily and Shanghai's Wenhui Daily, were accused of undermining
the Party and compelled to make "self-criticisms" admitting their wrongs. 100 Few
jomnalists made the mistake of freely airing their independent views for the following
twenty years.

A second period of jomnalism reform began after the Third Plenum of the Eleventh
Central Committee in December 1978. Changes similar to those in the 1956 reform period

occurred. In the beginning, the emphasis again was on technical improvements in training,

of

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46

reporting methods, editing skills and writing style. As time went on, increased prominence
was again accorded readers' letters, human interest stories and investigative reports. 101
Of all the reform measures, the most ambitious was the attempt to use the press as an

independent investigative force, which could supervise the bureaucracy and voice the
concerns of the people directly to the power elite. Using the press in this manner is similar
to the Party's concept of "criticism and self-criticism." Party newspapers have frequently
used news reports, editorials and letters from readers to criticize the wrongs of others and
of Party cadres. 102

In the past, however, there was an unwritten rule that ofﬁcial newspapers were not
supposed to run articles critical of Party authorities over that paper (for instance, a
newspaper representing a province's Party committee and government is not to criticize
provincial leaders). This began to change after 1979. Hu Jiwei, editor of My,
said criticism should be constructive and should be guided by Party organs, but it must also
be strict and fearless in order to "place the party's work under the supervision of the
masses." He rebutted the claim that bad publicity about high-ranking cadres would harm
the Party's image. He warned that his newspaper would go after "tigers" as well as "ﬂies,"
and would break with the u‘adition of never giving the names of higher-level ofﬁcials who
were criticized until they had been purged. Peeple'g Daily began publishing a series of
exposes of important ofﬁcials, including a vice-premier, an oil minister, and a minister of
commerce.103

During the "Spiritual Pollution" political campaign of 1983, however, Party leaders
believed that news of leaders' errors was tarnishing the image of the Party. The Party
reasserted its determination to maintain control, and Hu and the deputy editor were ﬁred. 104

The necessity of press allegiance to the Party was also Suongly communicated in 1985,
when Hu Yaobang, then general secretary of the Central Committee Secretariat, made a

major policy statement on journalism work. He emphasized that the press should serve as

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47

the "mouthpiece, eyes and ears" of the Party. Serving the people and serving the Party, he
said, were one and the same. Hu also stressed the importance of conformity to Party
discipline, saying journalists did not have the same license for creative independence as did
literary writers. And he cautioned against excessive enthusiasm for exposing the "dark
side" of society. The press should strive for 80 percent positive news reports and 20
percent negative news. 105

Hu Jiwei, who was again given a position of importance, president of the national
Journalists Society, disagreed with Hu Yaobang's ideas, and he began to attack the idea
that newspapers can only propagate the Party line. He said that Party leaders will
inevitably make mistakes and cited the anti-rightist campaign and the Cultural Revolution as
examples of poor leadership. To ensure that Party leaders would not continue to hurt the
people, Hu suggested the Party be placed under the supervision of the people.
Newspapers should be given the responsibility of supervising the power elite and of
serving the people, Hu said.106

Later in 1985, Hu traveled to Hong Kong to inquire about journalistic practices there
and was encouraged by Hong Kong journalists to demand more rights for Chinese
journalists. Upon his return, he wrote that "freedom of news is a particularly important
ﬁ'eedom of speech and publication." He asked Party leaders to deﬁne "freedom of
gathering news and reporting." He asked what was meant by "starting rumors" and
"divulging secrets." He pointed out that the vagueness of these terms hindered journalists
in their jobs.107

Hu continued to press for freedom of the press by arguing that journalism was a
"branch of leaming;" therefore, it should be allowed "the freedom" accorded to academic
subjects. Free, open discussion should be allowed and the "hundred ﬂowers" principle
must be carried out so that people could compare different views and "judge what is right
and what is wrong." He speciﬁcally denounced "the long-standing evil practices of putting

bad labels on other people and throwing one's weight on people who have different

48

opinions."108

In August 1986, journalists' calls for political autonomy became louder and more
frequent. An editor of Enlightenment Daily called for relaxed Party control over
newspapers and for permission to publish news of the "dark side." All editor of Mm
Rail! said cadres should not "excessively meddle in the affairs of newspapers," and that
journalists should not impose too many restrictions on their own work. Even Wang Furu,
deputy director of the Information Bureau of the Propaganda Department said Party control
should be relaxed. He said the leading organs should study "how to manage newspapers
and journals in a scientiﬁc way, how to offer 'autonomy' to these journalism organs and
prevent overly rigid control over them." 109

Later in August, at a forum of newspaper editors, demands were made for increasing
the scope of news coverage. Editors said that "newspapers should reﬂect more about the
demands and wishes of the masses." Teng Teng, deputy head of the Propaganda
Department seemed to agree. He said Party newspapers should "become the readers'
bosom friends."110 Teng also Seemed to agree that editors required more autonomy. He
said, "What the newspapers publish and do not publish should henceforth be decided by
the newspaper offices themselves. Party committees at all levels should improve their
leadership over party papers and give the newspaper ofﬁces a free hand to carry out press
reforms. . . ."111 Unfortunately, Teng was soon labeled as having "a proneness to
bourgeois liberalization."l 12

In September 1986, the Institute of Journalism under the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences released a research report advocating a new theory of the press. The primacy of
the propaganda function was rejected and a "multi-function mass medium" was
recommended. The report said the press should have the functions of covering news,
providing entertainment and providing advertising. It suggested that newspapers present

diverse views on matters of public concern. It also suggested that ofﬁcial views of Party

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49

leaders be separated from the views of journalists and readers.113 If implemented, such
suggestions would redeﬁne press-Party relations.

Sun Xupei of the Journalism Institute also argued for additional major reforms that
would challenge the Party's monopoly of power over news media. No longer should all
publications be Party organs, he said. Instead, China should adopt a multi-tier, multi-type
socialist press structure with the Party organs being the core. The press system should be
sufﬁciently diversiﬁed to include non-Party and non-political media in order to achieve a
certain pluralism.114

If a non-political press was to be possible, then legislation would have to govern the
press rather than Party directives. The drafting of a Chinese press law was revived in
August 1986 to protect the rights of reporters in gathering news, the rights of newspapers
in reporting news and conducting criticism, and the rights of the masses in reﬂecting their
problems in the press. The law would also explain the limitations and obligations of
journalists, who would be expected to exercise self-discipline to promote social
responsibility. Such a press law presumably would ensure that any news could appear in
the press as long as it did not violate the Constitution and other laws, or it was not
detrimental to the public interest. The Party would continue to play a dominant role, but
feedback would be used to involve public opinion in governance.115

An example of how newspapers could serve as a watchdog over political leaders
occurred in August 1986. Hu Jiwei praised the Party secretary of the special economic
zone of Shekou, Guangdong Province, for not only not interfering when the local daily
newspaper ran a letter criticizing his work, but actually encouraging the criticism.116

In November 1986, an article published in Wily went so far as to call for a free

and independent press. The unnamed author wrote:

A free press can ensure people the right to criticize individuals or the government
and voice their ideas.

Freedom of speech and publication is the basic condition for political democracy,
which is the ultimate goal of China's political refoan To ensure this freedom, media

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50

and publication laws should be published.

So long as it does not violate the law, any speech or article should have the right
to be published without interference from any quarter. Editors or editorial boards
should have the right to decide what to publish. Intervention by any organization or
individual should be taken as infringing upon civil rights.

The key to the reform of the press is that each newspaper should have adequate
decision-making power. The party and the government should keep interference to a

minimum.1 17
Yet with the student demonstrations of December 1986, "cooler winds" began to blow

and journalism reform was curtailed. The brief period of investigative reporting, criticism
of Party leaders, and political autonomy for journalists was over, and Party control
returned. Several newspapers were closed for political "errors," including the popular
W and the W in the special economic zone of
Shenzhen. Shenahen Xeeth News had published articles by Liu Binyan and other
investigative journalists. It had even published an article calling for the resignation of Deng
Xiaoping. 1 18 In addition, the Party's propaganda chief, Zhu Houze, less than two years
in the job and an exponent of liberal cultural and literary policies, was summarily ﬁred.1 19
As the conservatives took control of the press and propaganda machinery, the news
media reverted to prOpaganda against "bourgeois liberalization," a code word for internal
opposition to Party rule. Media continually repeated the theme that the modernization of
China must be done in accordance with the "four cardinal principles." People were warned
not to "negate the socialist system in favor of capitalism." The media claimed that Western
inﬂuences were creating problems in China such as corruption of youth, increase of crime,
degeneration of literature, and undisciplined behavior of university students. Western
inﬂuences were also blamed for problems such as rejecting the leadership of the Chinese
Communist Party, divorcing art from politics and the encouragement of "sex literature." 120
Although the periods of relative political autonomy have been brief, they are signiﬁcant
because they indicate that news content is not always determined by the ideology of the

Chinese Communist Party. The next step in testing the economic theory of Shoemaker and

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Mayﬁeld is to identify possible ﬁnancial sources of the news media other than the Party.

The press has been state-ﬁnanced for about 40 years, and most papers continue to
depend on government handouts. According to ﬁgmes presented at the Institute of
Journalism conference in 1988, state subsidies to newspapers at the provincial level or
above totaled nearly 5.3 billion yuan (about US. $1.4 billion) annually. 121

In the market-oriented climate of post-Mao China, however, the state has gradually
reduced subsidies. Meanwhile, papers are being squeezed by rising newsprint prices and
postal costs. In 1988 the price of newsprint rationed by the state was 1,550 yuan (about
US. $418) a ton, and unrationed paper was 1,750 yuan. Newspapers that cannot afford
these inflated costs have had to limit their circulation. 122

A survey of seven newspapers in Beijing showed that all suffered serious losses in
1987. The losses stood at millions of yuan each, with the greatest more than 20 million
yuan.123 Newspapers, therefore, must ﬁnd independent means to support themselves
apart from the declining subsidies. As part of the economic reform, newspapers have been
called upon to diversify and increase revenue through Other business activities. Some
newspapers already run hotels, offer tomism services or own sideline businesses. 124

If there is a positive side to these ﬁnancial woes, it is that ﬁnancial self-sufﬁciency
would lessen journalists' dependence upon the Party. Journalists have advocated greater
commercialization of the press on the premise that shifting ﬁnancial dependence from the
state to consumers would liberate news organizations from Party mutt-01.125

The need to be ﬁnancially responsible may also improve the quality of newspapers.
According to Zhou Li, a graduate journalism student at the Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, people in China believe the press can perform effectively only if it operates as a
business. 126

To operate as a proﬁtable business, newspapers would have to increase revenue by

selling advertising, by raising the price of newspapers, or by increasing circulation. Papers

52

could also reduce operating expenses.

In the ﬁrst half of the 19805, newspapers were the main vehicles for advertisements in
China. China Daily (the nation's only English-language newspaper) and People's Daily
often devoted full pages to advertisements, mostly for Beijing hotels and Guangzhou-based
companies. 127

Newspapers have also made efforts to build circulation by providing more news that
readers want rather than only providing news that readers need. According to Polumbaum,
"One outgrowth of the expanded scope accorded market forces in China's economy
appears to have been the notion that the conventional propaganda function of China's news
media ought to be supplemented by informational and entertainment functions required and
desired by the media consumer."128

More than any other type of newspaper, evening newspapers are likely to publish news
content suited to readers' interests. According to Qian Xinbo, deputy director of the
Institute of Journalism, evening papers "cover more local news and stress informative and
interesting stories, so they are very popular." 129 Xinmin Evening News, for example, is a
tabloid that uses an informal, chatty style and avoids long government documents and
speeches. 130 Beijing Evening News is also a tabloid that stresses local news and human
interest stories. 131

Although evening newspapers are owned by their local municipal Party committees,
they are intended to supplement the local ofﬁcial Party newspapers. Evening papers are
supposed to serve the peOple a bit more, and the Party a bit less, than official papers.
According to Gu Xing, former chief editor of W, "our policy and
experiences demand us to pay much more attention to people's voices than the other papers
do. n l 32

Gu added that the task of evening papers is "to touch upon the depth of common
people's life, to reveal the people's wills, and to echo the peOple's voices." He said, "We

fully understand that when people read evening papers, they carry a different eye from that

53

when reading other dailies. They want to read more short relaxing articles of interest,
knowledge, and artistic ﬂavor to enrich their lives." According to Gu, evening newspapers
do not preach to readers. 133

Photographs published in evening newspapers are also selected in order to attract
readers. Feature photographs of people's daily lives are common as are pictures of culture,
arts, sports, historical spots, scenery, and ﬂowers.134

A special section of photographs devoted to criticizing local problems was added to
Beijing Evening News in order to improve life in the capitol city. One picture showed a
rubbish-ﬁlled street that was turned into a smelly quagmire by wandering unpenned pigs
when it rained. Another showed a school playground jammed with construction materials
from a nearby site. The mess prohibited children from playing and caused accidents. After
the pictures were published, city ofﬁcials solved these problems, said photographer Sima
Xiaomeng. She said she felt good about taking such pictures and acting as the "conscience
of society."135

Evening newspapers have a more liberal and reader-oriented mandate because of their
relatively late (1980) return to publishing following the Cultural Revolution.”6 They are
different from all other types of newspapers because they go directly to individual readers
who ﬁnd the newspaper worthy of its cost. Other newspapers rely on subscriptions from
different institutions such as schools, factories, military units and other work groups to
maintain high circulations. 137

The number of evening newspapers has increased rapidly since Beijiag Evening News
and Qaan gzhea Evening News ﬁrst resumed publication in 1980. In August 1987, 37
evening papers were published in China. 138 Evening newspapers also have some of the
largest circulations. According to a 1984 study, evening newspapers in Beijing, Shanghai
and Guangzhou were the only provincial and city level papers whose circulations surpassed

one million.139

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Results from the Beijing Audience Study show Beijing Evening News has the largest
leadership of twelve papers available in the city--72 percent of the people read one or more
issues per week. The survey also shows that one copy of Beijing Evening News is read by
an average of ﬁve people. People's Daily, on the other hand, is read by 48 percent. 140
Womack interpreted these ﬁgures by writing: "The high ranking of Beijing Evening News
is not only a compliment to that paper, but implies criticism of Beijing Daily (the local
ofﬁcial Party paper). The relatively low ranking of People's Daily is a negative comment,
though not a damning one."1"'1

Given the fact that evening newspapers have both a mandate to respond to readers'
needs and an economic imperative to meet those needs, and that evening newspapers
appear to be successful in pleasing readers, suggests that evening newspapers ﬁt an
"ofﬁcial-commercial" ﬁnancial pattern.

Another type of newspaper that may ﬁt the "ofﬁcial-commercial" pattern is that targeted
for foreign audiences. The English-language newspaper China Daily, for example, serves
diplomatic personnel, business representatives, correspondents, students, visiting VIPs,
scholars, and large numbers of toruists in China. Overseas subscribers are mainly
corporate executives, government ofﬁcials, professionals, and libraries.142 According to
Huang Qing, deputy editor-in-chief, "it is the policy of the Editorial Board to make QED;
Daily a newspaper which caters to the needs and complies with the reading habits of
foreigners." 143

Under the supervision of the Information Department, China Daily has its own editorial
policies, which deﬁne the paper's principal goals as objectively presenting China and
China's news to its unique group of readers and providing services and entertainment
specially suited to those readers. The paper is written and edited in English and enlivened
by the kind of layout to which Western eyes are accustomed. It uses short stories and

separates news from comment. Although the paper has a great deal of editorial freedom, it

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cannot deviate from the Party line. In general, it attempts to keep a low proﬁle on political
matters. 144 w

The paper uses a large, eye-catching photograph on its front page to attract attention.
This front-page photo is a special consideration for foreign readers, who are used to bright
and attractive newspaper layout and graphics.145 By paying special attention to the quality
of news photographs, China Daily has distinguished itself as a trailblazer among Chinese
newspapers. In 1983 and 1984 its Photography Department won the honored title of
National Advanced Unit awarded by the All-China Journalist Association. In 1984 Editor
Feng Xiliang was awarded the Perceptive Eye Prize by the National News Photography
Society for the newspaper's selection and handling of news photos. 145

Like evening newspapers, Dhina Daily does not preach to readers. "We have a
different readership, very different from that of Beepie'sDaiiy," said former deputy editor
Zheng Defang. "If we tried to preach, you know what the reaction would be."147

To attract foreign readers, the newspaper must maintain its credibility. The paper uses
dispatches from the four major Western news agencies transmitted via Xinhua News
Agency. In order to help the paper emulate Western news practices, many of its journalists
are sent abroad for education and training. More than 50 have studied at the University of
Hawaii, Stanford University, and Columbia University, or journalism schools in Missouri,
Minnesota, and Michigan. More than 60 have trained at newspaper ofﬁces in Australia,
Britain, Germany, and the United States. In addition, foreign specialists have been invited
to give special courses or lectures to China Daily staff.148

thna Daily has a separate department that handles advertising sales. In 1985 it
published an average of two pages of advertising and Six pages of news. This is
considerably more than Eeeple's Daily, which ran less than one page of advertising and
seven pages of news.149 In the past few years, the situation has improved and demand for

advertising space in China Daily is greater than the space available. Zheng Defang. former

56

deputy editor, has commented that "we get more money from our advertisements than from
our circulation." 150

Given the different editorial policies, sources of news, and education and training of its
staff, it is expected that the content of China Daily will differ from most newspapers
published in China. A comparative study of Peeple's Daily and China Daily did ﬁnd
signiﬁcant differences in content and style between the newspapers, and these differences
were attributed to the different readerships.151 Because the newspaper tailors its content to
a clearly deﬁned readership, and because it accepts a substantial pr0portion (25 percent) of
advertising, suggests that thna Daily ﬁts the "ofﬁcial-commercial" pattern.

Newspapers owned by mass organizations are suggested as ﬁtting an "ofﬁcial-interest"
pattern. Two examples include Dhina Yeath News, organ of the Chinese Communist
Youth league, and Werltgs' Daily, organ of the All China Federation of Trade Unions.
W emphasizes news of particular interest to youth, such as educational
matters, culture, sports and employment. Recently it has had the dual function of
defending youth against charges of decadence and submission to "bourgeois liberalism,"
while at the same time seeking to restore the faith of youth in socialism and the Communist
Party.152 Workees' Daily features material about economic developments, trade union
activities, the welfare of workers, and other labor-related matters. It also pays attention to
domestic political developments and some attention to international affairs. 153

Another paper that may ﬁt the "ofﬁcial-interest" pattern is the i ti n A D i1 , an
organ of the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). This
paper plays a major role in shaping the views and attitudes of PLA members, from rank-
and-ﬁle to the highest echelons. By speaking for the vast military establishment whose
views it has helped shape, the newspaper carries considerable clout in the political
arena. 154

The ﬁnal, and easiest, type of ﬁnancial ownership pattern to identify is the pure

"ofﬁcial" pattern. A number of Chinese newspapers are owned by the Party and

57

considered ofﬁcial Party papers. At the national level is Eeeple's Daily, the organ of the
Central Committee. At the regional level are newspapers for each province and major
cities. Almost all regional-level papers carry, before the word ghee (daily), the name of
the province, city or autonomous region of which it is the ofﬁcial organ. At the local
level are papers which operate at the level of a county, commune or production brigade.
The contents of these papers deal with local conditions and are simply written, brief, and
easy to understand.155 These papers will be considered to ﬁt the "ofﬁcial" pattern.

The third step in testing Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's theory of news content is to show
that news content reﬂects the ideology of the ﬁnancial arrangement. The literature reveals
little on this matter. The only study of relevance was one that examined a variety of
national and regional newspapers published in 1979-1980 and found content variations
existed among Chinese newspapers.156 Finding such diversity is signiﬁcant because the
hegemony theory would predict uniform news content.

In summary, photojournalism in China has four functions: political, educational,
cognitive and aesthetic. Politics still has a strong inﬂuence, and photojournalists
sometimes direct people and action to suit political purposes. They also pose people to
create images with either unambiguous educational value or high aesthetic value. In the
19805, however, economic development was emphasized more than ideology, and some
photojournalists placed a higher value on unadomed facts. Opposing the tendency to serve
politics and art, they suessed the "newsworthy" and "truthful" qualities of photographs.
They preferred to take candid, "lifelike" pictures to posed pictures, which frequently appear
stereotyped.

In theory, the work of photojournalists and reporters is valued equally. In practice,
though, photographs have been subordinated to news stories. Several newsroom practices
have limited the development of photojournalism, including editors' use of the "on-duty"

system, their excessive frugality and their reluctance to publish images that tarnished the

58

image of socialism. Two other problems were the policy of labelling foreign
photojournalism "bourgeois" and photojournalists' lack of educational training.

Values held by conservative Party leaders, by moderate reformers and by radical
reformers were used to deﬁne a dominant ideology and a competing ideology. Social
values concerning people's incentive to work, their criteria for social status, their culture,
and their degree of reliance were discussed. Economic values concerning the ownership of
property and the role of the marketplace were also explained. Finally, political values
concerning political power, the indocuination of youth and freedom of thought were
analyzed '

Much of the literature supports the hegemony theory of news content. The power elite
exercise direct and indirect control over journalists in a number of ways, and the effects of
this control were apparent in several previous studies of news content in Wily and
W. Other content studies have found that news content changes when there is
a shift in the dominant ideology.

Some of the literature, however, offers support for Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's
economic theory of news content. There have been times, late 1986 for example, when
journalists challenged the status quo and began to call for political autonomy. Although
brief, they are signiﬁcant because they indicate that news content is not always determined
by the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party. In addition, newspapers have received
reduced subsidies from the government and have attempted to achieve ﬁnancial self-
sufficiency. Greater commercialization of the press has shifted newspapers' dependence to
advertisers and consumers and freed them of some Party control. Not all Chinese
newspapers are Party organs-some are more more commercially oriented and others are

owned by mass organizations.

59
El EYE] 2.1. E .

1 Xu Guangchun, "On the Chinese Characteristics of Photojournalism," in Annual Dn
“I on. , or; '1000- 11 i t . 0 incl. “ 1': (BeijingzMachincry
Research Institute, 1985), pp. 370-82.
2 Jiang Qisheng, "How I Began the Theoretical Study of Photojournalism," in A
' n f E s n Photo'ournalism (Beijing: Xinhua News Agency, 1982), pp. 1-9.
3 Yan Ling, "Some Comments on Photojournalism," Light and Shadew 3 (1984): 2-4.
4 Shi Shaohua, "On Photojournalism," in W
(Beijing. Xinhua News Agency, 1982), pp. 1- 33.
5 Wu Changhua, "Press Photos Gaining Importance, Vitality," rn ngng

uni soarVo ctr-.‘Lr'nu .clOt‘it'ero 0.1.

SeieneegBeijmg, ed Milton Hollstein (Salt Lake City: The University of Utah, 1989), pp.
19-23.
6 Li Ruifeng, "Some Fundamental Issues About Photojournalism," in Illegnetieal

Want (Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House, 1983), pp. 53- 64.
7 Jiang Qisheng,‘ 'Arrangement Photography and Non-Arrangement Photography,"i

WW (Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House, 1983), pp. 122-n
136; and J rang, "How I Began the Theoretical Study of Photojournalism."
8 Xu Guangchun, "Improve the Style of Work and Produce High Quality News

Photos," in W (Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House, 1983),
pp. 108- 116; and Duan Wenhua, "On Developing Photojournalistic Themes," in

W (Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House, 1983), pp. 185-
19 l .

9 See Ge Xinde, "Appealing Achievements but a Difﬁcult Experience: Comments on
Prize-Winning Journalism Photographs ln Shanxi Province," in W
W (Shanxi: People' 5 Arts Press, 1985); and
Sheng Jirun, "On Techniques," in IneenetiealDenateseLMalisni (Beijing: Xinhua
Publishing House, 1983), pp. 196-205.

10 Jiang Qisheng, "On the Aesthetics of Photojournalism," in W
lenmalim (Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House, 1983), pp. 32-52; and Xu Peide,
"Foreign-directed Photojournalism," in W (Beijing: Xinhua
Publishing House, 1983), pp. 306-314.

11 Jiang, "On the Aesthetics of Photojoumalism;" and Xu, "Foreign-directed
Photojournalism."

12 Quoted in Wu, "Press Photos Gaining Importance, Vitality."

6O

13 "Strongly Uphold the Principle of Truthfulness in Photojournalism," thnalgntn
Nays, 6 November 1986, p. l.

14 Ibid.

15 Xin She, "The Principle of Truthfulness in Photojournalism Cannot Be Violated,"
Wm!!! 1 (1986): 34.

16 Gu Wei, "On Some Problems about Criteria for Appreciation of Photojournalism,"
in ii -1- .I r‘ I ‘10 fN 'o-nl 'ho 0- .Jlsll " 0-11 'n o I“ '1
(Beijing: Machinery Research Institute, 1985), pp. 75-80; and Jiang , "On the Aesthetics of
Photojoumalism."..

17 Gu Wei, "On Some Problems about Criteria for Appreciation of Photojoumalism;"
and Jiang Qisheng, "On the Properties and Basic Principles of Journalism and

Photor'oumalism " in Anmalﬂmheﬂmcmammbmmmﬂmmmmef
Wimeijing: Machinery Research Institute, 1985), pp. 85- 96.

18 Zhang Yinquan, "The Connection Between the Techniques and the Truthfulness rn

Photojournalism," in W (Beijing: Xinhua Publishing
House, 1983), pp. 139-143.
19 Liu Liping, "A Press Photographer Should be Talented," in AW

W (Beijing: Machincry Rescmh
Institute, 1985), pp.286-290.

20 Li Jin, "Be Deeply Rooted in Reality and Report News that Reﬂects the Changing of
an Era," in InemetieaLDeliatesgLJgnmam (Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House, 1983),
pp. 97-107.

21 Li Shoufang, "Reﬂecting the Spirit of the Times is the Glorious Task of
Photojournalism," in n a] n h Th f N ' n 1 Ph
M (Beijing: Machinery Research Institute, 1985), pp. 30-38.

22 Zhao Ban, "On the Problem of Raising the Quality of Photojournalists," leamalisnt
Ehetegnanhy 6 (1986): 7-9.

23 Xu Bihua, "Photographic Coverage of Political News," in W
lgnmalistn (Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House, 1983), pp. 212-220.

24 Xiang Huageng, "On Truthfulness of Photojournalism," in Ibeenetiealﬂbatesef
mumalism (Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House, 1983), pp. 134-138.

25 Interview with Yang Putao of Xinhua News Agency, 20 January 1987.

26 Xu, "On the Chinese Characteristics of Photojournalism."

7'7 Wu, "Press Photos Gaining Importance, Vitality."

28 Mu Qing, "Photojournalism is a Meaningful Indusuy," WW 5
(1986): 2-3.
29 "Promote the Development of Photojournalism," lenmalism Phetegianhy 1 (1986):
4-5. -

61

30 He Bibao, "Some Thoughts on Reform of Photojournalism," in W

EWWQLE (Beijing Machinery
Research Institute, 1985), pp. 428- 436.

31 Xu Yiuzhu, "Promote Photographic Indusu'y, Build Up Photographers' Army, and
Set a Practical Plan," lenmalismﬁhetegranhy 5 (l986):4-5.

32 He, "Some Thoughts on Reform of Photojournalism."

33 See Sima Xiaomeng, "My Life as a Woman Photographer," thna Recensgnets,
February 1984, pp. 56-58; and Nicholas C. Chriss, "She Does It All," Editer é; Biblisher,
May 18, 1985, p. 14, 30-31.

34 He, "Some Thoughts on Reform of Photojournalism."

35 Jiang Qisheng, "On the Classiﬁcation of the Styles of Photojomnalism," in Annual
Q} the lbw ef Nan'enal Pnetejenrnalisnt; A Celleetien ef jljlieses, 1285 (Beijing:
Machinery Research Institute, 1985), pp. 96-110.

36 Quoted in Wu, "Press Photos Gaining Importance, Vitality."

37 He, "Some Thoughts on Reform of Photojournalism."

38 Wu, "Press Photos Gaining Importance, Vitality."

39 Wu, "Press Photos Gaining Importance, Vitality."

40 Huang Kuangyu, "On the Education of Photojoumalists' In Chinese Higher

Education InsriturionS" in W

W (Beijing: Machinery Research Institute, 1985), pp. 300-309.
41 Keith Kenney, "Photojournalism Education Growing in Chinese Schools,"

Wm 42 (Autumn 1987): 19-21.
421bid.

43 Ibid.

44 He, "Some Thoughts on Reform of Photojournalism."

45 Ibid.

46 See Wu, "Press Photos Gaining Importance, Vitality;" and Ding Qilin, "China Daily
Serves English-Language Readers," in W

orttr r 01' ll ‘5 trit- 0.. l' rml‘,chIilt0n
Hollstein (Salt Lake City: The University of Utah, 1989), pp. 1-4; and Wang Ningjun,
"Photography at China Dai y," (unpublished paper, 1985).
47 Wang, "Photography at China Dai y."
481bid.

49 Jiang, "On the Classiﬁcation of the Styles of Photojournalism."

50 Liu Don gao, "Photographic Coverage of Sports News," in W
Intimalism (Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House, 1983), pp. 244-255.

51 Qi Guanshan, "Photographic Coverage of Central News," in Want

Re;

Bro

Cons
9a

m
P- 159

Selit/0
68 ,

Publish;
m

\325

69 s.

62

Malian) (Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House, 1983), pp. 206-211.

52 Yang Putao, "Industrial Phorography." in W
(Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House, 1983), pp. 221-225.

53 Tao Guangming, "On the Characteristics of Photo Reporting at Evening Papers,"
WM 4 (1986): 8-9.

54 Liu Yunlai, "Photographic Coverage of Nationality Issues," in W
eﬂenmalisni (Beijing: Xinhua Publishing House, 1983), pp. 235-244.

55 Ma Zhaoyu, "A Tentative Study of the Principles and Laws of Photojournalism," in

all ,._ .l I' Ir»; 0 krIIIr ,'H 00.II-.. II it 0 ' In I It“ ': (Beijing:
Machinery Research Institute, 1985), pp. 16-23.

55 Jiang Qisheng, "Introduction," in 'z - i in Ph ' li h
ShanxLPipyinee (Shanxi: People's Arts Press, 1985). See also Lu Shi, "The Art Value of
Photojournalism," in W (Beijing: Xinhua Publishing
House, 1983), pp. 162-173.

57 James R. Townsend and Brantley Womack, Belin’es in China, 3rd. ed. (Boston:

Little Brown, 1986), pp. 198-199.

58 Ibid., pp. 201-203.

59 Ibid., pp. 199-200.

50 Ibid., pp. 200-201. ,

61 Xue-liang Ding, "The Disparity Between Idealistic and Instrumental Chinese
Reformers," Asian Snrvey 28 (November 1988): 1117-1139.

62 Harry Harding, China's Secend Revelatien; Refem after Mae (Washington DC:
Brookings Institute, 1987), pp. 80-83.

63 Ibid., pp. 78-80.

64 Ibid., pp. 84-86.

65 Ibid., pp. 183-187; and Lawrence R. Sullivan, "Assault on the Reforms:
Conservative Criticism of Political and Economic Liberalization in China, 1985-86," Qina
Quanteﬂy 114 (June 1988): 198-220.

66 Harold w. Jacobson. sxamumemalcummunrmumimhelzmnlessmuuie
sigma (Washington DC: Ofﬁce of Research, United States Information Agency, 1983),
p. 159.

67 Quoted in William B. Ketter, "No 'Glasnost' Yet for Chinese," ASNEBulletin,
Sept/Oct 1987, p. 27.

68 Wang Xiaohui, "Interview with Du Daozheng, Director of Journalism and
Publishing Bureau," Xinhua News Agency, Hong Kong, 26 April 1987. Translated in
£318 29 April 1987, K35-36.

69 See Judy Polumbaum, "Chinese Journalists and Their Discontents," paper presented

pawn—_-

IF?

Ch
De
1 ,1

Pia

3.
('3

.09 90 00/

147.
84
85

311v-

Afiiirs,

63

at the conference "Voices of China," Minneapolis, MN, October 1989, p. 22; and James C.
Y. Chu, "The PRC Journalist as a Cadre," W 12 (November 1975): 1-12.

70 See Thomas B. Gold, "China Battles Spiritual Pollution on the Eve of 1984," Asian
Sumey 24 (September 1984): 947-974; and Orville Schell, W
W (New York: Doubleday, 1988), pp. 282-286.

71 Polumbaum, "Chinese Journalists and Their Discontents," p. 22.

72 Jacobson, ms of Int m l C mm ni 'on in he P o l ' Re bli f hin ,
p. 17.

73 Fox Butterﬁeld, China-Alive in the Bitter Sea (New York: Times Books, 1982), p.
385.

74 See Ignatious P. Yao, "The New China News Agency: How it Serves the Party, "
lenmalism Quanerly 40 (Winter 1963): 83- 86; and Huang I ran "Xinhua' 5 Political and
Diplomatic Coverage," in h n in i ° P 'v

WWW cd Milton Hollstein (Salt
Lake City: The University of Utah, 1989), pp. 65- 69.

”Jacobson, "II IfI‘Irr 0111.12.11 r,"‘II‘ {‘IJ 0 11:,
p. 155.

76 Ibid., pp. 169-179.

77 For details of how the press covered the student demonsuations in 1986, see Schell,
DiseesandDemeenau, pp. 223-244; Julia Kwong, "The 1986 Student Demonstrations in
China," Asian Snnyey 28 (September 1988): 970-985; Alan P. L. Liu, "China: Students
Demonstration and the Communist Party," W 34 (March 1987): 76-

81; and Bone-diet Stavis W (New York:
Praeger, 1988), pp. 89- 110.

78 Polumbaum, "Chinese Journalists and Their Discontents," p. 25.
79 See Womack, ed., "Media and the Chinese Public", Appendix 1.

80 Quoted in Jacobson. WWW
9f China, p. 17.

31 Ibid.. pp. 18-20.

2 Ibid., pp. 21-27.

33 Robert L. Terrell, "Modernization and the Media in China," Gazette 33 (1984): 14s
147.

84 Polumbaum, "Chinese Journalists and Their Discontents," pp. 26-27.

35 Alex 8. Edelstein, and Alan P. L. Liu, "Anti—Americanism in Red China's Pennies
Daily: A Functional Analysis," W211! 40 (Spring 1963): 187-195.

86 Alan P. L. Liu, "Control of Public Information and its Effects on China's Foreign
Affairs," Asian Survey 14 (October 1974): 936-51.

l!

the

U.

(I)

64

87 Georgette Wang, "The Eeonle'sDaily and Nixon's Visit to China," in Iheﬂeiys

WWW edited by Andrew Arno and Wiml
Dissanayake (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1984), pp. 133-145.

33 Chin-Chuan Lee, "The United States as Seen Through the PeoplesDaily," Jamal
WM 31 (Autumn 1981): 92-101.

89 C. A. Oliphant, "The Image of the United States Projected by W."
lenmalism Qamerly 41 (Summer 1964): 416-420.

90 Daniel Tretiak, "Is China Preparing to 'Turn Out'?: Changes in Chinese Levels of
Attention to the International Environment," Asian Snrvey 11 (March 1971): 219-237.

91 James C. F. Wang, "Values of the Cultural Revolution," leLrnaLoLQeinmnnieam
27 (Summer 1977): 41-46.

92 William Mills, "Treatment of Foreign Policy Issues in the Regional Chinese Press,"
Asian Survey 21 (July 1981): 785-810.

93 Paul J. Hinicker, vl 'n 10 n hin li (Beverly Hills: Sage,
1977). pp. 229-247.

94 Godwin C. Chu and Leonard L. Chu, "Parties in Conﬂict: Letters to the Editor of
the Eeenle'sDaily," lqnmalefﬁemmnnieatien 31 (Autumn 1981): 74-91.

95 Georgette Wang, "The Eeqnle'sDaily and Nixon's Visit to China."

96 Kai Wang and Kenneth Starck, "Red China's External Propaganda During Sino-
U.S. Rapprochement," lenmalism Qnaiterly 49 (Winter 1972): 674-678.

97 Lee, "The United States as Seen Through the BeeplesDaily."

93 Ibid., p. 93.

99 Jinglu Yu, "The Abortive 1956 Reform of Chinese Journalism," Mm
Quarterly 65 (Summer 1988): 328-334; and Roderick MacFarquhar, Iheﬂundnedﬂmyens
WW (New York: Praeger, 1960), pp. 59-76.

100 Ibid.

101 Judy Polumbaum, "Of the Party, By the Party and For the Party--And the People:
China's Journalists in an Era of Reform," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Missouri,
1989, pp. 27-28.

107- Leonard Chu, "Press Criticism and Self-Criticism in Communist China: An
Analysis of its Ideology, Structure, and Operation," Gazette 31 (1983): 47-61.

103 Quoted in Andrew J. Nathan, Chinese Dememey (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1985), pp. 184-185.

104 Gold, "China Battles Spiritual Pollution."

105 Hu Yaobang, "On the Party's Journalism Work," speech delivered at meeting of
Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Secretariat, 8 February 1985. Translated in
ﬂlS 15 April 1985, Kl-15.

65

106 Pai Ting, "Hu Yaobang Clariﬁes Three Debated Issues, Hu Jiwei Talks About
Successes and Errors of the Party's Paper," ChingEau (Hong Kong), 10 February 1985,
pp. 20, 22. Translated in BB_IS, 21 February 1985, Wl-4.

107 Lo Ping, "Notes from a Northern Journey," and "Hu Yaobang is Attacked from
Both Sides," ChengMing (Hong Kong), 1 June 1985, p. 6-12. Translated in ES, 6
June 1985, W2-8.

103 Hu Jiwei, "Study Journalism in the Period of Socialist Construction," Pennies
m (overseas edition), 4 August 1985, p. 2. Translated in BBLS, 7 August 1985,
K14-17.

109 "Beijing's Journalism Circles Propose that News Reports Should also be United,"
Ia_Kung_Eae (Hong Kong), 7 August 1986, p. 1. Translated in EBLS, 13 August
1986, W3-4. .

110 Zhang Chijian, "Provincial Newspaper Editors Hold Forum Under the Auspices of
the CPC Propaganda Department," BeenlejsDaily, 19 August 1986, p. 1. Translated in
EBlS, 25 August 1986, K5.

111 "Teng Teng, Deputy Director of Propaganda Deparunent of CPC Central
Committee, Speaks on Press Reforms," Beeple‘sJLaily, 20 August 1986, p. 3. Translated
in EBlS, 25 August 1986, K4.

112 Zhu Chengpei, "Party Newspapers and Party Control," in Waging
U,'r't",l~|‘-!‘ I .IiI..-.' I..Il«. I t.I‘l 0 ‘ 11"i rI'I I 0....
SeieneeshBeijing, ed Milton Hollstein (Salt Lake City: The University of Utah, 1989), pp.
81-84.

113 Quoted in Polumbaum, "Of the Party, By the Party and For the Party." pp. 3637.
114 Quoted in Kenneth Starck and Yu Xu, "Loud Thunder, Small Raindrops: The
Reform Movement and the Press in China," Danette 42 (1988), pp. 149-150.

115 See Starck and Xu, "Loud Thunder, Small Raindrops; " Wang Hui, "A Press Law
Begins to Take Shape," in hina' h n 'n M i : Pers 'v rn i m
Students ef the Chinese Academy ef So_cial Scienees, Beijing, ed Milton Hollstein (Salt
Lake City: The University of Utah, 1989), pp. 77-80; and Sun Xupei, "Socialist Press
Law is a Law for the Protection of Freedom of the Press," Wen ﬂui Bag, 30 August 1986,
p. 2. Translated in ES, 12 September 1986, K1-6.

116 Hu Jiwei, "Political Structural Reform as Seen From a Shekou Press Report on a
Critical Article," Nanfangﬂibae, 19 August 1986, p.2. Translated in EELS, 28 August
1986, Kl6-21.

“7 "Press Must Defend its Role as Critic," China Daily, 7 November 1986, p. 4.

118 Mark Hopkins, "China: A Door Closes," MW:
July/August 1987, pp. 37-40.

“9 Ibid.

LII I! _ k-

139

Beijing ‘
141
142 l

Slate Um
143 0

Cl

66

120 James Schnell, "Bourgeois Liberalization: The Labeling of Unwanted American

Inﬂuences by the People's Republic of China" W (New
York State) 3 (February 1990): 111- 120.

121 Polumbaum, "Chinese Journalists and Their Discontents," p. 21.

122 Zhou Li, "The Chinese Press Should Be a Business."

123 Ibid.

124 Ibid.

125 Polumbaum, "Chinese Journalists and Their Discontents," p. 21.

126 Zhou, "The Chinese Press Should Be a Business.

127 Gu Zhenqiu,‘ 'Chinese Advertising: A New Phenomenon," in hin' h n in

uni" In 'I I:_I.-.‘II-.II I‘III'II'WIII I.-

Seienees, Beijing, ed Milton Hollstein (Salt Lake City: The University of Utah, 1989), pp.
53- 58.

123 Polumbaum, "Of the Party, By the Party and For the Party," p. 32.

129 Qian Xinbo, "Recent Developments in Chinese Journalism," Austxalimlemalim
Beyiesy 6 (January 1984): 36-39. See also John A. Lent, "First the Cultural Revolution,
Now the Media Revolution," MeuiaDeyelment 1 (January 1986): 23-25.

130 Sun Warming, "W293: a Popular Newspaper in Shanghai," Asian
W 36 (November 1987): 264-266.

131 Li Rong, "Beijingers Love the Evening News," in W

"1" [(0.2‘01lv. "I0! '1‘ I! '5 20'" 0 '21-. '0'
Beijing, ed Milton Hollstein (Salt Lake City: The University of Utah, 1989), pp. 9-13.

132 Ibid.

133 Ibid.

134 Tao "On the Characteristics of Photo Reporting at Evening Papers."

135 Chriss, "She Does It All;" and Sima, "My Life as a Woman Photographer."

136 Womack, "Media and the Chinese Public," p. 21.

137 Sun, "Xinmin Evening Post."

138 Li Rong, "Beijingers Love the Evening News."

139 Ibid.

140 Womack, "Media and the Chinese Public;" and Everett M. Rogers et al., "The
Beijing Audience Study," Cemnnlnieatiqnﬁeseancj 12 (April 1985): 179-208.

141 Womack, "Media and the Chinese Public," p. 40.

142 Won Ho Chang, Mass Meaia in China: It: Histguy and the Futuie (Ames: Iowa
State University Press, 1989), p. 113.
143 Ding, "China Daily Serves English-Language Readers."

144 Chang, Mass Media in China, p. 119, 126.

67

145 Ibid., p. 116.

146 Ibid., pp. 125-126.

147 Ibid., p. 116.

148 Ding, "Chinaﬂajiy Serves English-Language Readers."

149 Chang, MESS Mﬁdiﬂ jn S :hina, p. 114.

150 Ibid.

151 Qian Shaochang. "232212322111: and Wily: A Comparative Study,"£iazet1e
40 (1987): 57-68.

152 Jacobson, W, P- 273°

153 Ibid., pp. 271-272.

154 Ibid., pp. 269-270.

155 Ibid., pp. 262-264.

156 Mills, "Treatment of Foreign Policy Issues in the Regional Chinese Press."

36;
ﬁve

06W

Emmi
leader:

Mend,

CHAPTERIII

METHOD

This chapter explains how ﬁeld research was conducted in China. Unstructured
interviews were completed in order to learn how photojournalists take pictures and how
newspaper editors select pictures for publication.

This chapter also explains how a content analysis was conducted. With a sample of
nine newspapers published in February 1987, ten subject matter categories and two
direction categories were used to determine the agenda of coverage in different newspapers.
Four gender categories, six age categories, nine occupation categories and three treatment
categories were used to determine the depiction of people in photographs. Nine value
categories, each with a conservative, moderate, radical or "no value" position, and four
style categories were used to determine the ideological nature of photographic coverage.

To test the hegemony theory, photographic content of three newspapers published in
September 1986 was compared to photographic content published in the same newspapers
ﬁve months later in February 1987. To test the economic theory, photographic content in
newspapers with different types of funding was compared.

Mus
Participant observation and institutional-level analysis are the usual methodologies for
examining the determinants of news content,1 but they were not possible in China. Party
leaders would not allow a Western researcher to directly observe journalists at work for an

extended petiod of time. Accordingly, interviews were the best means available to

68

69

understand the process of newspaper photography. Unstructured interviews were
conducted with photojournalists and editors at eleven Chinese newspapers and Xinhua
News Agency in order to learn what factors inﬂuence the production and selection of
newspaper photographs. These interviews were also used to corroborate inferences from
content analysis ﬁndings. Whenever one seeks to draw valid inferences about sources
from the messages they send, the content data must be compared directly or indirectly with
evidence from independent sources.2

Controlled probability sampling techniques are usually difﬁcult in any type of ﬁeld
research.3 Interviewing journalists at a random sample of Chinese newspapers was not
attempted because it would be a logistical nightmare to visit newspapers throughout China,
and because the author did not believe honest, fruitful interviews would be likely unless a
Chinese "sponsor" provided an introduction.

Interviews were conducted at Xiamen Dag y because it was easy to form connections
with the local newspaper staff. Interviews were conducted with Xinmin Evening N ewe,
W, n H i D 'l , and Xinhua News Agency in Shanghai because a
relationship was developed with Professor Shu Zongqiao of Fudan University, who helped
make the arrangements. Interviews were conducted with W9rker's Daily after its bureau
chief in Xiamen helped arrange an interview with one of the paper's photojournalists in
Beijing. Interviews with journalists from Pe991e's Dnily,L ineiati9n Army Daily, we
Y9ngn News, Beijing Evening News, and Chi_nn_Bni_ly were all arranged by journalists at
thneBaily. Interviews with photojournalists and editors at §henzhen Begial 29ne Dﬂ y
were arranged by the author's employer, the chair of the communication department at
Xiamen University. Interviews were also conducted with photojournalism professors from
Fudan University and Jinan University, and with members from the Shenzhen News
Photography Association the Chinese Photography Association.

Additional interviews had been expected, but were not possible after the start of the

7O

"anti-bourgeois liberalization" campaign in early 1987. Journalists began to worry about
speaking freely to a Western researcher and several interviews were suddenly cancelled.

Each interview followed a general plan of inquiry, yet a set of speciﬁc questions was
not asked in particular words or in a particular order. Because the subject of photo—
journalism in China is relatively unstudied, a ﬂexible format was required. Simply asking
prepared questions would not permit the author to pursue speciﬁc topics raised by Chinese
journalists. It seemed more fruitful to allow initial questions to shape subsequent ones.
Through an interpreter, the author would ask a question, wait for the answer to be
translated, and then frame another question either to dig into the earlier answer in more
depth, or to redirect the person's attention to an area more relevant to the investigation.

An assumption behind all interviews is that the respondents will honestly answer the
researcher's questions. When interviewing Chinese journalists about controversial
subjects, however, the assumption of a full, honest answer does not always hold. The
author is aware that some journalists did not give their independent views on some
questions, but rather answered with the standard Party line. Some journalists did not feel
comfortable enough with the author to fully answer the questions, and they held back
information that could potentially get them into trouble with editors or Party leaders. At the
same time, the author believes he was able to gain the trust of some journalists. Analysis

of interview data that appear to have the greatest validity will be emphasized.

@ntent Anniysis

In order to understand the agenda of photographic coverage, a traditional content
analysis was conducted. When using content analysis, the researcher usually measures the
amount of manifest content according to different categories. Precise criteria are used for
coding evidence, and repetition is assumed to be a useful indicator of signiﬁcance. One

advantage content analysis has over other data-generating and analysis techniques is that it

71

usually yields unobtrusive measures in which neither the sender nor the receiver of the
message is aware of being analyzed.4 Unlike interviewing, there is little danger that the
process of content analysis will confound the data.

In order to understand the depiction of photographic coverage, a less traditional form of
content analysis was used. Rather than measure the amount of manifest content, the
researcher must consider whether the subject, form and context of an image are favorable
or unfavorable. One can evaluate the favorableness of a photographic subject by
recognizing connotative meanings of the people who appear in photographs, as well as
meanings of any symbolic objects or general settings. One can evaluate the favorableness
of photographic form by recognizing connotative meanings of the lighting, camera angle
and scale used by photojournalists when creating the photograph. One can evaluate the
favorableness of photographic context by connotative meanings in the captions. If
photographic coverage is consistently favorable or unfavorable, then the researcher can
infer that journalists' treatment of the subject matter was biased.5

In order to understand whether ideological considerations are paramount in shaping and
choosing photographs, or whether alternative explanations better account for the meaning
of pictures, a new form of analysis had to be created. The ideological nature of
photographs cannot be determined by examining the surface meaning of a photograph or
even the form of a photograph. Ideological meanings are usually thought to operate at the
latent level of content.6

An ideological analysis is more concerned with the entire message of a photograph or
text and with the way elements are related to one another, than with the frequencies with
which some elements appear. An ideological analysis is concerned with the overall "frame"
of the communication.7 Hackett deﬁnes media frames as "persistent patterns of cognition,
interpretation, and presentation, of selection, emphasis, and exclusion, by which
journalists routinely organize discourse."8 Gamson deﬁnes the frame in a similar manner:

"A frame is a central organizing idea for making sense of relevant events and suggesting

72

what is at issue."9

All sources of communication should be regarded as sponsors of frames. In some
cases, there may be no motive other than a conscientious effort to frame events in a way the
source considers most meaningful. In other cases, the frame may favor the interests of a
particular group the source represents, helping it to further its programs or neutralize its
opponents. The purpose of conducting an ideological analysis of photographs in Chinese
newspapers is to determine whether values expressed in photographs consistently reﬂect
the values of a particular group of people, and if the photographs are manipulated to reﬂect

those values.

Sacral:

Nine newspapers were chosen in order to determine differences between newspapers
and to test theories about the determinants of news content. It was easy to ﬁnd Chinese
newspapers that ﬁt the "ofﬁcial" pattern of ﬁnancing. It was impossible, however, to ﬁnd
newspapers that clearly ﬁt "commercial" or "interest" patterns of ﬁnancing because all
Chinese newspapers are funded by the government to some degree. Instead of pure
"commercial" or "interest" categories of newspapers, therefore, hybrid categories called
"ofﬁcial-commercial" and "ofﬁcial-interest" were created that represent a newspaper
supported by two types of ﬁnancing. Three newspapers that ﬁt the "ofﬁcial-commercial"
pattern were selected, as were three that ﬁt the "ofﬁcial-interest" pattern.

The literature indicates that evening newspapers have both a mandate to respond to
readers' needs and an economic imperative to respond to those needs. Evening
newspapers are largely funded by individual subscriptions and somewhat by advertising.
They may not receive state subsidies, or may receive small subsidies, but their presses and

buildings were paid by the state, so they have "official" ﬁnancing. Two of the most
popular evening newspapers, each with circulations near one million, are Beijing Evening

73

New and W (from Shanghai). The literature also indicates that China
Daily tailors its content to a clearly deﬁned readership and accepts a substantial proportion
of advertising. For these reasons, Beijing Evening Newg, Xinmin Evening News, and
Chineﬂaiiy newspapers were selected to represent the "ofﬁcial-commercial" ﬁnancial
pattern.

The literature also indicates that newspapers owned by the military and mass
organizations may ﬁt the "ofﬁcial-interest" ﬁnancial pattern. Military newspapers are
ﬁnanced by the military. Of course, the military budget comes from the government, but it
is possible that once the military receives funds, it acts independently of the government.
As in the United States, funds for Army newspapers come out of the Army's budget,
which is appropriated by Congress. Army newspapers likely owe greater allegiance to the
Army, however, than to the government. They publish news of interest to army soldiers
and may reﬂect the ideology of military leaders, not governmental ofﬁcials. In China,
W was the only military newspaper that could be obtained, so it was
included in the sample. Just as military papers may act independently of their governmental
ﬁnanciers, so may trade union newspapers and youth organization newspapers.
Originally, the budgets for these organizations come from the Chinese government, but
once appropriated, the organizations may have some autonomy in spending the money. Of
the various newspapers owned by mass organizations, W and Chine Zontn
Nays were selected because they have large circulations and great potential inﬂuence over
clearly deﬁned segments of the population.

Finally, the literature indicates that 29992129in and newspapers with the name of a
province, city or autonomous region before the word rim (a Chinese word meaning daily
newspaper), are official organs of various levels of the Chinese Communist Party.
Because it represents Party policies at the national level, W was selected to

represent the "ofﬁcial" pattern. In order to obtain maximum diversity within the sample of

"ofﬁci
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74

"ofﬁcial" newspapers, a provincial-level newspaper and a city-level newspaper were also
selected. Although a provincial newspaper could have been randomly selected, Enjian
Baily was selected because the author lived in Fujian province and believed it would be
easier to understand the contextual meanings of photographs in this newspaper. The author
would have no ﬁrst-hand knowledge of people or events seen in photographs published in
distant regional newspapers. A city-level "ofﬁcial" newspaper could also have been
randomly selected, but Ximﬂﬂy was selected because the author lived in Xiamen city,
and it was a local newspaper. f

The newspapers were speciﬁcally selected to test the theoretical hypotheses described in
Chapter One. If news content reﬂects the dominant ideology regardless of the ﬁnancing of
the news organization, then hypothesis one is supported. On the other hand, if patterns
of content correlate with three types of ﬁnancial patterns, then Hypotheses three, four
and five are supported.

Two time periods were chosen in order to determine the effects of situation upon
photographic content and to test theories about the determinants of news content

All of the February 1987 issues of all nine newspapers were selected for study. This
month was selected because it was the ﬁrst month the author could subscribe to all nine
newspapers. Fortunately, the time period also had theoretical relevance. As reported in the
literature review, after the student demonstrations in December 1986, journalism reform
was sharply cm'tailed in China. Party leaders reasserted control over the press, even
closing some newspapers for political "errors." News media published an increasing
amount of propaganda against "bourgeois liberalization." During this period of ideological
retrenchment, therefore, more conservative values and more manipulation of photographs
would be expected.

In addition, all of the September 1986 issues of M, Qiineilg'ly and
My were selected for study. This month was also selected for a practical reason

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(the author arrived in China in late August) but ended up having theoretical signiﬁcance.
As reported in the literature review, September 1986 represented a high point in the
journalism reform movement in China. Journalists called for relaxed Party control. They
began to reject the propaganda function of news and to increase the sc0pe of news
coverage, including the "dark side" of socialism. The press increased its investigative
activities, even publishing news critical of Party authorities. Rather than interfering, some
Party leaders encouraged the criticism. As the Party's monopoly of power over news
media was challenged, journalists sought a diversiﬁcation of the press system that would
include non-Party and non-political media. They wanted a press law to preserve their
rights and ensure a free, independent press. During this period of reform, therefore, more
moderate or even radical values would be expected to appear in photographs, and more
candid images would be expected.

Studying Xiamen Daily, China Dg'ly and P999199 Daily during these two periods
permits the study of how political climate affects news content. It also permits a test of
hypothesis two: given a major ideological policy shift within the power elite, news
content will change and reﬂect the new ideology. If the ideological nature of the content of
photographs published in September is different from the ideological content of
photographs published in February, then the hypothesis will be supported. Such a ﬁnding,
however, does not run counter to the economic theory of Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld
Because two of the papers are "ofﬁcial" newspapers, their content would be expected to be
determined by Party policies and to reﬂect the changing ideologies of Party leaders.

Although a month's worth of newspapers was collected for each time period, a
subsample of a "constructed week" was created for an in-depth analysis of photographs.
The months of September 1986 and February 1987 were divided into seven strata. All
Mondays were grouped together, as were all Tuesdays, and so on. One issue was
randomly selected from each stratum. The ﬁnal sample consists of newspapers published

on Sunday, February 1; Monday, February 23; Tuesday, February 24, Wednesday,

76

February 11; Thursday, February 5; Friday, February, 27; and Saturday, February 14.

The sample also includes issues of mm, Qina Daily and Pe9ple'a DQ‘ y
published on September 5, 6, 10, 14, 22, 25 and 30.

W

The coding instrument consists of nine sets of coding categories. Sets of coding
categories are discussed in the following order: context categories, subject matter
categories, direction categories, value categories, gender categories, age categories,
occupation categories, treatment categories and style categories.

Two context categories were developed based upon common sense. Photographs were
coded as "stand alone" if they were not directly related to written articles on the page.
They were coded as " accompanied" if the photographs were related to an article about
the same subject.

Ten subject matter categories were developed. These seven were based upon the
literature: "world news," "economic news," "science and animals," "political affairs,"
"travel and culture and art," "sports news," and "life and people." An eighth category,
"violence," was developed to account for photographs that frequently appear in Western
newspapers, but seldom appear in Chinese newspapers. A ninth category, "education and
indoctrination," was developed to account for photographs that either showed people
studying and training or that showed people setting an example for others. A tenth
category, "other," was developed to account for any photographs that could not ﬁt the other
categories. For these subject matter categories, the recording unit was the photograph, and
the context unit was the photograph with its caption.

A "world news" category included all photographs taken outside of the PeOple's
Republic of China other than photographs of Chinese people who have temporarily traveled
abroad. It included photographs of People's Liberation Army soldiers serving outside of

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China.

An "economic news" category included all photographs showing production,
distribution and sale of goods to consumers as well as the people and infrastructure
involved in routine economic activity. It included photographs of agriculture, husbandry,
forestry, rural or urban industry, factories, or markets in China. It also included pictures
of farmers, laborers, and businessmen. It also included pictures of new highways,
bridges, buildings, factories and shipyards.

A " science and animals" category included all photographs showing advances in
science and medicine. Pictmes of new technological or medical equipment, new
procedures and other Chinese advances in efﬁciency, skill and knowledge belonged in this
category rather than "economic news." This category included pictures of space, and
intermdiate users of energy and communications. It included portraits of scientists,
doctors and nurses. It also included photographs of animals. 10

A "violence" category included all photographs showing social and political conﬂicts
such as demonstrations, protests, terrorism, scandals, court actions, strikes, and riots. It
included pictures of armed conﬂicts such as military operations, guerrilla warfare, and
terrorist activities. It also included pictures of disasters and accidents such as airplane
crashes, earthquakes, ﬁres, refugees and suicides.

A " political affairs" category included all photographs of an overtly political nature.
It included photographs related to the public activities of government leaders and Chinese
Communist Party leaders, including government meetings, negotiations, and elections.

An " education and indoctrination" category included all photographs showing
military or civilian people studying in school or training in an organized manner. It
included pictures of people informally talking about their experiences and values.

A " travel and culture and art" category included all photographs showing popular

tourist destinations in China, including places with natural beauty or historical signiﬁcance.

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78

It also included picttn'es of nature, including landscapes and ﬂowers. It included all
photographs showing scenes from operas, movies, or plays. It included pictures of all
manned forms of social or cultural entertainment. It included portraits of musicians,
singers, artists, actors, and entertainers. It also included pictures of the various minority
nationalities of China emphasizing the literatm'e, culture, religion, or dress of minorities.

A "sports news" category included all photographs of competitive sports,
recreational sports, or popular exercise. It also included pictures of athletes and athletic
teams.

A " life and people" category included all photographs showing regular people
relaxing, pursuing hobbies, or doing other typical activities of daily life. It included
photographs of people recognized for achievements that are not political, economic or
scientiﬁc. Amateur athletes and amateur artists or entertainers were included, but not
people whose careers were related to athletics, culture or art. It also included portraits if
they showed people as individuals.

An "other" category included all photographs that could NOT ﬁt one of the previous
nine subject categories.

In order to analyze the differences among newspapers, all subject matter categories
except "world news" and "other" were collapsed into three type of subject categories based
upon the function of the photograph. According to the literature, photojournalism has four
functions: political, educational, cognitive and aesthetic. "Political-educational"
photographs included pictm'es coded "political affairs" and "education & indoctrination"
because they are overtly political, or they preach ideological values or they set a positive
example for others. " Cognitive" photographs included pictures coded "economic news, "
"science & animals" and "violence" because they are "hard news" that increase readers'
knowledge about China. "Entertainment-aesthetics" photographs included pictures
coded "travel & culture & art," "sports news," and "life & people" because they are "soft

79

news" that readers enjoy.

The agenda of photographic coverage was also measured by determining the
frequencies of photographs that fell into two direction categories. A "negative" category
was developed because the literature frequently refers to news of the "dark side" of Chinese
society. In addition, any mention of negative news, regardless of the context, is
signiﬁcant in the Chinese press because of its rarity. A "non-negative" category was
developed for all other news of China.

A " negative" category included all photographs showing negative news, including
imperfections, bad inﬂuences, immorality, or hurtfulness in China. If some venture was
unsuccessful, or if an accident occurred, it was coded as "negative." Even if the
photograph showed how people help others after a disaster, or if it had some other type of
positive "spin," the picture was still negative because something negative happened before
the improvements, corrections or help began.

A "non-negative" category included all photographs showing neutral or positive
news. The recording unit was the photograph, and the context unit was the photograph
and its caption.

The depiction of coverage was measured by assessing the balance of photographic
coverage of the different genders, ages and occupations of people, and by detemrining if
journalists' treatment of those people was favorable, neutral or unfavorable. The balance
and treatment of photographic coverage are measures used to infer whether journalists are
impartial or biased. If there is a disproportionate number of photographs of one gender,
age group and occupation, and if those people are consistently depicted in a favorable or
unfavorable manner, then the reporting is thought to be biased

Gender and age categories were developed based upon common sense and a sense of
how Chinese people deﬁne "children" and "youth." Occupation categories were developed
based upon the literature review and examination of the photographs. For all of these

categories, the recording unit was the photograph, and the context unit was the photograph

80

with its caption.

Four gender categories were developed for this study. If the main actor(s) was male,
or female, then the photograph was coded accordingly. If the photograph had two or
more people who were considered main actors, and if the main actors included males and
females, it was coded " both genders." If the gender of any of the main actors could not
be recognized by viewing the photograph, and the genders could not be determined by
reading the caption, it was coded "unrecognized gender."

Six age categories were developed for this study. If the main actor(s) appeared to be
1-12 years old, the photograph was coded as " children." If the main actor(s) appeared to
be 13-25 years old, it was coded as "youth." Appearance of 26-60, was coded as
" adults." If they appeared to be older than 60, it was coded as "elderly." If the ages of
the main actors could not ﬁt one of these four categories, it was coded "mixed age
groups." If the approximate ages could not be determined, it was coded " unrecognized
ages."

Nine occupation categories were developed for this study: "Public ofﬁcials"
included government leaders or Party employees at all levels. "Soldiers and police"
included military troops and ofﬁcers. "Professionals" included biologists, chemists,
physicists, engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, doctors, nurses, and other
white-collar workers employed by the state. "Laborers" included factory workers,
machine operators, foremen, mine workers, and other blue-collar workers employed by the
state in rural or urban industry. " Entrepreneurs" included all people who were self-
employed except farmers. "Intellectuals" included educators, students and social
scientists who worked in the ﬁelds of anthropology, economics, history, psychology, and
sociology. "Farmers" included peOple who lived and worked in the countryside unless
they were involved in rural industry. "Entertainers" included artists, sports ﬁgures,

singers, actors, and acrobats. "No occupation" included children, youth and elderly

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who were too young or too old to have an occupation. It also included people with
unrecognized occupations or occupations that did not ﬁt the above categories.

Journalists' treatment of main actor(s) was coded on a three-point nominal scale of
"favorable," "neutral," or "unfavorable." Such a scale is commonly used when
measuring direction of attitudes or values. The recording unit was the photograph, and the
context unit was the photograph with its caption.

Journalists' treatment was determined by examining the connotative meanings of the
"subject," "form" and "context" of photographs. "Subject" connotations were based upon
main actor(s)' facial expressions, gestures, and bodily posture. For example, a
cheerful, conﬁdent facial expression is likely to be evaluated more favorably than an
unhappy or worried one. Vivacious hand and arm movements may be evaluated more
favorably than hands and arms at rest. An erect posture is more favorable than a bowed
torso, which tends to communicate feelings of defeat or dejection.11

"Subject" connotations were also based upon main actor(s)' behavior.
Photojom'nalists can choose to photograph an activity with favorable or unfavorable
connotations, and editors can select photographs based upon the meaning of the activities
depicted. For example, depending upon the context, people helping others, talking with
others, playing, or studying may be evaluated favorably. On the other hand, pictures of
ﬁghting, arguing, working (too hard) and suffering may be evaluated unfavorably.12

Finally, " subject" connotations were based upon the objects in a photograph and the
setting of a photograph. Objects and settings can sometimes be manipulated to express
favorable or unfavorable connotations about the main actor(s). For example, harvested
crops and new machinery are symbols of success and should indicate favorable evaluations.
Guns and barbed wire are symbols of problems and indicate unfavorable evaluations. Parks
and schools are more favorable settings than courtrooms and prisons.13

In addition, journalists' treatment was determined by examining the connotative

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82

meanings of the "form" of photographs. The "form" included the lighting, camera
angle and scale used by photojournalists to photograph main actor(s). For example, light
can be used to ﬂatter a person or make them look ominous. People photographed from a
high camera angle appear less important than people photographed from a low camera angle.
Long shots may convey a colder, more aloof mood about people than close-ups of their
faces. 14

Finally, journalists' treatment was determined by examining the connotative meanings of
the "context" of photographs. Captions can create positive, neutral or negative
connotations about the main actor(s). Adjectives and adverbs describing people's actions
may indicate bias. 15

Categorization of the overall treatment of the main actor(s) as "favorable," "neutral" or
"unfavorable" was determined according to all aspects of the "subject matter," "form" and
"context" of the photograph. "Subject," "form" and "context" elements were not weighted
equally, as each coder was asked be sensitive to the meaning of a photograph and to use his
or her judgment to code it on a three-point nominal scale.

According to Markoff et al., extremely precise coding criteria can be met only at the
sacriﬁce of validity and relevance. They argue that complete operational speciﬁcation is not
necessary if reliability and validity can be established.16 A coder can be thought of as "a
measuring instrument which must be sensitive to variations in the material and dependable in
the sense that it responds in the same way to functionally equivalent material.17

Although it is probably a safe assumption that people of any culture would be able to
code the subject and direction of photographs, and the gender, age and occupation of main
actors appearing in photographs, it is less safe to assume they could code the treatment of
main actor(s). The author is unaware of nonverbal communication research in China and
realizes that gestmes, objects and settings may have different connotational meanings in

China than in the United States. Studying the connotative meanings of light, camera angles,

83

and scale of photographs is especially troublesome because so little is known about
production of photographs in China. Finally, because the author must rely upon
translations of the captions, many nuances of meaning may be lost.

The author took four steps to assure that journalists' treatment of main actors was coded
in a valid manner. First, the author lived in China for one year and observed the routines of
many people, including journalists. Second, the author worked directly with the translator
while all the captions were translated. By asking questions and obtaining background
information, a fuller understanding was obtained than if the translation work was completed
by an anonymous worker. Third, many "subject," "form" and "context" indicators were
considered when coding the treatment categories. It may not be possible to know if each
indicator, such as lighting, has the same connotations for Chinese and American newspaper
readers, but when all indicators are considered together, an accurate judgment of favorable,
neutral or unfavorable can be made. Finally, a college-educated, media-sawy man from the
People's Republic of China was used to code all the photographs.

Interpreting connotative meanings of Chinese photographs should not present a major
problem because journalistic photographs generally communicate a clear message on some
aspect of the news to a mass audience. Personal self-expression is not the goal, and the
range of connotative meanings is limited. The problem remains, however, that the author
cannot assume that Chinese readers interpreted the photographs the same way as coded for
this study. A test of this assumption is beyond the scope of this investigation.

The ideological name of photographic coverage was determined by deciding if values
expressed in photographs consistently reﬂected the values of a particular group of people,
and if the style of photographs indicated that they were manipulated to reﬂect those values.
Values are important because they indicate which elements of life are cherished or
preferred. 1 8 Style of photographs is important because it indicates whether a photograph is
free of interference by the photographer or the main actor(s) appearing in the photograph. 19

The consistency of values and the way photographs are made are measures used to infer

84

whether news is framed out of ideological considerations or from other considerations. If
the values expressed in photographs are only relevant to a particular group of people, and if
photojournalists pose people in order to make a point, then photographic coverage is
thought to be ideological.

Since many different values may appear in photographs, it was difﬁcult to conceptualize
a manageable number for this study. The criterion adopted for selecting the value
dimensions was their relevance to distinct groups in Chinese society. Conservative Party
leaders generally have orthodox socialist values about economics, society, and politics. A
group of moderate reformers, who seek to develop socialism with Chinese characteristics,
seem to embrace a hybridization of socialist and capitalist values. A group of radical
reformers, who seek the rapid transformation of China, seem to reject orthodox socialist
values and to embrace Western capitalist values. Differing concepts of the good society
obviously will bring these groups into conﬂict and cause strain. The value categories and
positions described below come from the literature review, an article about social values of
Soviet and American eliteszo, and considerable trial and error with the sample of
photographs. The recording unit was the value, and the context unit was the photograph
with its caption.

Nine value categories were developed. They were: "ownership of property," "role of

the market, 1ncentive to work," "criteria for social status," "degree of reliance,

culture,"
"indoctrination of youth," "freedom of thought" and "political power." Each of these
categories had four positions. In general, the (a) value positions represent the perspective of
conservative government and Party leaders. The (b) value positions represent the
perspective of moderate reformers in the government and Party, and that of advertisers.
These values tend to support a mixture of a socialist economy and a free market economy.
The (c) value positions represent the perspective of radical reformers who wish to develop a

more capitalistic society. The (d) positions represent a valueless perspective.

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The three positions of the "ownership of property" category were: (a) public
ownership of the means of production is encouraged; (b) a mixed system of private and
public ownership is encouraged, although public ownership should remain dominant; and
(c) private ownership and the sanctity of private property rights is encouraged. In the (c)
position, individual and private enterprises is allowed to ﬂourish, and experiments with the
sale of stocks is conducted.

The three positions of the " role of the market" category were: (a) central planning
in all sectors of the economy is necessary; (b) the market is an important, if limited,
supplementary mechanism to state planning; (c) the market should be the most important
mechanism for the allocation of goods and services, and the determination of prices.

The three positions of the "incentive to war " category were: (a) no material
reward is needed when serving society--helping others and suppression of selﬁsh
inclinations are most important; (b) some wage differentiation is needed as reﬂected in the
slogan "to each according to his labor;" (c) big bonuses and big spending will stimulate
worker enthusias --"to get rich is good."

The three positions of the " criteria for social status" category were: (a) political
achievement or military distinction is emphasized; (b) individual intellectual, artistic or
athletic achievement is emphasized; (c) productive output or accumulation of wealth in the
private sector is emphasized.

The three positions of the "degree of reliance" category were: (a) government will
take care of people who cannot care for themselves; (b) peOple rely upon others in their
community, rather than government or family; (c) people rely on their family for help--they
use their own initiative and capacities to accomplish tasks.

The three positions of the " culture" category were: (a) Chinese culture should serve
socialism and avoid bourgeois ideas and values; (b) some ideological constraints on culture

should be relaxed, but general guidelines must remain; (c) Chinese culture must be allowed

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to ﬂourish without ideological considerations, and cultural contacts with capitalist countries
should be encouraged.

The three positions of the " indoctrination of youth" category were: (a) Political or
military leaders should be responsible for transmitting China's ideals to young people; (b)
Nonpolitical institutions should take chief responsibility for transmitting ideals to youth; (c)
there is a danger that indoctrination of young people will be overdone and limit independent
and creative thinking.

The three positions of the " freedom of thought" category were: (a) there is only
one truth, political in character, needed to shape public opinion; (b) freedom of thought
should be limited to literary, scientiﬁc and technical questions; (c) even political matters and
previously forbidden subjects should be discussed freely.

The three positions of the " political power" category were: (a) everyone should
uphold the "four cardinal principles" and not challenge Party authority; (b) the power of the
Party must be reduced-Party leaders should consult more with others and interfere less in
day-to-day operations; (c) political pluralization is needed-multiple parties and direct,
contested elections are needed so that political legitimacy is derived from consent of the
governed.

In order to analyze differences among newspapers, these nine value categories were
collapsed into four type of value categories. "Conservative" photographs included
pictures representing (a) value positions. " Moderate" photographs included pictures
representing (b) value positions. "Radical" photographs included pictures representing
(e) value positions. "No value" photographs included pictures that were coded (d) and
that did not reﬂect any value positions.

An assumption of this study is that the values appearing in photographs represent the
values of those who determine news content, whether they be the power elites or the

ﬁnanciers of the news media. This assumption is supported by corroborating evidence in

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the review of the literature and in the ﬁndings of the interviews. Another assumption is that
the values perceived by the researcher will be the values perceived by Chinese readers. As
stated before, a test of such an assumption is beyond the scope of this investigation.

Four style categories were developed based upon the author's experience as a working
photojournalist and the review of the literature. These categories were: "posed portrait,"
"posed action," "candid" and "ambiguous photo." In Western societies, photojournalists
sometimes pose people in order to make either simple portraits that visually identify a
person, or environmental portraits that show a person in relevant context On other
occasions, Western photojournalists candidly photograph people to make news portraits
that show why people are in the news. When photojournalists take pictures of news events
or feature situations, they do so in a candid manner. When photojournalists take pictures to
clarify or dramatize a preconceived idea, they pose the pictures and call them illustrations.
According to the literattne review, Chinese photojournalists were supposed to follow
similar guidelines when taking pictures. The recording unit was the photograph, and the
context unit was the photograph.

A "posed portrait" category included photographs showing people staring directly
into the camera, without pretense about posing for the camera.

A " posed action" category included photographs showing people not staring into the
camera, but seemingly engaged in an activity arranged by the photographer or the main
actor(s). Activities are likely to have been posed if the people are smiling, if the
arrangement of people is "perfect," and if the lighting, composition and camera angle
appear "perm"

A "candid photo" category included photographs showing people who appear
completely unaware of the camera, and the lighting, composition and camera angle do not
appear "Perfect"

An "ambiguous photo" category included photographs that do not easily ﬁt the

above categories.

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A coding sheet and instructions for coders (see Appendix) were developed. Two

lengthy training sessions were held with potential coders in order to explain the coding
instructions. All of the coders were graduate students who could read Chinese. Issues of
newspapers not included in the sample were used for training. Several improvements in
the coding sheet and instructions were made based upon these training sessions. The
material covered in the instrumentation section reﬂects these improvements.

Two pre-tests were conducted. Two people independently coded one issue of each of
the nine newspapers included in this investigation. Reliability for the second pre-test was
calculated by dividing the number of times two coders agreed upon a classiﬁcation by the
total number of coding decisions for each variable. For example, there were agreements
concerning 55 of the 58 subject matter category coding decisions, so reliability was 95
percent. There were agreements concerning 29 of the 32 gender category coding decisions;
reliability, therefore, was 91 percent. There were agreements on all age category coding
decisions. There were agreements concerning 29 of the 32 occupation category coding
decisions, so reliability was 91 percent. There were agreements on all the direction
category coding decisions. There were agreements concerning 45 of the 47 value position
coding decisions, so reliablility was 97 percent. There were agreements concerning 27 of
the 32 style of presentation coding decisions, so reliablility was 84 percent.

After coding the time and place of publication, each coder was instructed to follow a
procedure that included six coding steps. They coded the context, subject matter, direction
and main actors of photographs as well as journalists' treatment of main actors, the values
expressed in photographs and the style of photographs.

First, coders were asked to examine each photograph and the surrounding articles to

detemrine the context of the photograph. The context categories were created as a potential

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89

aid in explaining results from the content analysis.

Second, coders were instructed to reexamine each photograph and read the caption to
learn what the photograph was about. Answers to the following questions were used to
help coders categorize the subject matter of the photographs: What is the theme of the
photograph? Why is the photograph newsworthy? Coders were warned NOT to look at
headlines or articles surrounding photographs in order to determine the appropriate subject
matter category.

If a photograph was coded as "world news," then coders were asked to stop coding
and to proceed to the next photograph. The direction, main actors, treatment, values and
style of photographs taken outside of China were not analyzed because this investigation
concerns the ideas and values of Chinese people, not the ideas and values expressed by
people who appear in photographs taken outside of China. Because these variables could
not be coded for "world news" photographs, they were treated as missing values.

Subject matter categories were used to help determine the agenda of photographic
coverage in Chinese newspapers and to analyze differences among newspapers. They
were also used to test four hypotheses.

According to (HZa): subjects that challenge the dominant ideology will appear more
frequently during periods of reform than in periods of stability. This hypothesis was tested
by comparing the relative percentages of subject matter categories of photographs published
in September 1986 and in February 1987. Operational indicators of subjects that challenge
the dominant ideology were "political affairs" and "violence" subject matter categories.

According to (H3b): subjects of concern to state and Party leaders will appear more
frequently in "ofﬁcial" newspapers than in other newspapers. This hypothesis was tested
by comparing the relative percentages of subject matter categories of photographs published
in newspapers with three types of ﬁnancing. An operational indicator of subjects of

concern to state and Party leaders was "political affairs" subject matter.

id
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90

According to (H4b): subjects of concern to readers and advertisers will appear more
frequently in "ofﬁcial-commercial" newspapers than in other types of newspapers. An
operational indicator of subjects of concern to readers and advertisers was the
"entertainment-aesthetics" type of subject matter.

According to (HSa): more specialized content will appear in "ofﬁcial-interest"
newspapers than in other types of newspapers. An operational indicator of specialized
content was the distribution of photographic subject matter. If all ten subject matter
categories are represented in a newspaper, then the content is more general than speciﬁc.

Third, coders were instructed to again examine each photograph and read the caption to
decide whether the photograph concerned negative or non-negative news. In addition to
the subject matter categories, direction categories were used to help determine the agenda of
photographic coverage in Chinese newspapers and to analyze differences among
newspapers. They were also used to test one hypotheses. According to (Hla): subjects
that support the dominant ideology will appear more frequently than subjects that challenge
the dominant ideology. An operational indicator of subjects that support the dominant
ideology is the "non-negative" direction category because these photographs indirectly
show the success of socialism under the direction of the Chinese Communist Party. An
operational indicator of subjects that challenge the dominant ideology is the "negative"
direction category because these photographs show something wrong with the economic,
social or political status quo.

Fourth, coders were instructed to identify the main actor(s) of each photograph. A
main actor(s) was deﬁned as either the person(s) performing an activity, or the person(s)
most prominent in the photograph. If there were no people in the photograph, or they were
irrelevant to the meaning, then coders were asked to stop coding and to proceed to the next
photograph. If there were no main actors, then gender, age group, occupation, treatment

and style categories could not be coded, and they were treated as missing values.

91

Gender, age and occupation categories were used to assess the balance of photographic
coverage in Chinese newspapers. The occupation categories were also used (in
conjunction with the treatment categories) to test two hypotheses.

According to (Hlb): people who support the dominant ideology will be depicted
more favorably than people who challenge it. Operational indicator sof people who support
the dominant ideology were the "public ofﬁcials" and "soldiers and police" categories.
These people are the power elite, or people who support the power elite. It was difﬁcult to
ﬁnd an operational indicator of people who challenge the dominant ideology, yet
throughout the history of China, "intellectuals" have been the most likely group to
challenge people in authority. For this study, therefore, the "intellectuals" occupation
category was used as an operational indicator of people who challenge the dominant
ideology.

According to (HSb): "ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers will more favorably depict the
speciﬁc special interests that ﬁnance the publications than other types of newspapers. An
operational indicator of special interests that ﬁnance publications is the occupation of people
who support the publication. For example, soldiers should be favorably depicted in
Bimmﬂaﬂy and laborers should be favorably depicted in Weriens' Daii' y.

Fifth, coders were instructed to examine the "subject," "form" and "context" of each
photograph to evaluate journalists' treatment of main actor(s). Treatment categories were
used to help determine whether or not photographic coverage was biased and to help test
(Hlb) and (HSb), as discussed above.

Sixth, coders were told to study the nine different values and then examine each
photograph to determine whether or not one of the values was expressed by the photo or
caption. If none of the values was expressed, then (4) was coded for each value category.
If one of the values was expressed, then coders decided which of the three value positions
was most appropriate and coded (1), (2) or (3). They were told to code a vlue if it could be
inferred by viewing the image, AND the inference was conﬁrmed in the caption. A value

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92

was also coded if it was explicity stated in a caption. Coders were told NOT to look at
headlines or articles surrounding photos in order to determine the appropriate value
position. If two or more of the values were expressed by a single photograph (an unlikely
occurrence), then coders were told to choose the most important value and decided which
of the value positions was most appropriate.

Value categories were used to help determine whether or not an ideological ﬁamework
was present. They were also used to test four hypotheses.

According to (HR): Values that support the dominant ideology will appear more
frequently than values that challenge the dominant ideology. Operational indicators of .
values that support the dominant ideology were the "conservative" and "moderate" type of
values. These photographs express economic, social and political values associated with
conservative leaders and moderate reformers in the government and Party. Operational
indicators of values that challenge the dominant ideology were the "radical" value positions.
These photographs express values associated with leaders of the reform movement who
generally work outside of government.

According to (H2b): values that challenge the dominant ideology will appear more
frequently during periods of reform than in periods of stability. September 1986 was used
as an operational indicator of a period of reform, and February 1987 was used as a period
of stability.

According to (H3c): values of ofﬁcials will appear more frequently in "official"
newspapers than in other types of newspapers. Operational indicators of values of ofﬁcials
were photographs expressing "conservative" and "moderate" type of values. This
hypothesis was tested by comparing the relative percentages of photographs expressing
different type of values with newspapers ﬁnanced by different sources.

According to (H4c): values of readers and advertisers will appear more frequently in
"ofﬁcial-commercial" newspapers than in other types of newspapers. Operational

93

indicators of values of readers and advertisers were the "moderate" type of values. These
photographs express values of a socialist China that is opening to outside inﬂuences, and
they tend to support a mixture of a socialist and a ﬂee market economy.

Seventh, coders were instructed to examine each photographs to determine whether the
style of presentation was posed or candid. Style categories were used in conjunction with
value categories to determine whether or not an ideological ﬁamework was present. Style
categories were also used to test four hypotheses.

According to (Hld): presentation of news will be more controlled than spontaneous.
An operational indicator of controlled news was the "posed action" style category. These
photographs may have been intentionally manipulated by photojournalists and/or people
who appeared in the photographs in order to clearly express and idea or feeling that may or
may not be true. An operational indicator of spontaneous news was the "candid photo"
style category. These photographs appear to be documents of news or unaltered moments
of daily life.

According to (H3d): presentation of news in "ofﬁcial" newspapers will be more
controlled than spontaneous. According to (H4d): presentation of news will be more
spontaneous in "ofﬁcial—commercial" newspapers than in other types of newspapers.
According to (HSc): presentation of news in "ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers will be more
controlled than spontaneous. These three hypotheses were tested by comparing the relative
percentages of "posed action" and "candid" photographs for newspapers with three types of
financing.

One Chinese—speakin g graduate student who had participated in the training and pre-
tests was selected to code the sample of photographs. The author of this study also
independently coded one issue of each of the nine newspapers. Scott's pi index of
reliability was then used to calculate the reliability of coding for the sample. This formula

corrects not only for the number of categories in the category set, but also for the probable

94

ﬂequency with which each category is used.21

Reliability of coding was consistently high for all categories. Four disagreements
occurred when coding 76 photographs into ten subject categories, so according to Scott's
pi, reliability for coding the subject of photographs was .94. The reliability for coding the
gender of main actor(s) appearing in photographs was .86. The reliability for coding the
age group of main actor(s) appearing in photographs was .89. The reliability for coding
the occupation of main actor(s) was .89. The reliability for coding the style of photographs
was .83. Six disagreements occurred when coding 51 photographs into three treatment
categories, yielding a Scott's pi of .75. Only one disagreement occurred when coding 65
photographs into two direction categories. Despite consistent agreement between judges,
the reliability for coding the direction of photographs was .67 because the likelihood of
non-negative photographs was very high. The reliability for coding values expressed in
photographs was difﬁcult to determine. Nine disagreements occurred, yet there were 27
different value positions (or the no value position), for each photograph, so there were nine
disagreements out of a total of 1,820 decisions. Most disagreements arose concerning
values expressed about culture.

In summary, subject matter categories and direction categories based upon
photojournalism articles published in China were created to determine the agenda of
photographic coverage in Chinese newspapers and to analyze differences among
newspapers. They were also used to test hypotheses concerning two competing theories of
news content. Gender, age and occupation categories were created to assess the balance of
photographic coverage in Chinese newspapers. Treatment categories were created to help
determine whether or not photographic coverage was biased. Occupation and treatment
categories were also created to test two hypotheses. Value categories and style categories
were used to help determine whether or not an ideological framework was present. They

were also used to test a total of eight hypotheses.

95
WW

1 William C. Adams, "Network News Research 1n Perspective: A Bibliographic
Essay," in We, ed. William Adams and Fay Schreibman
(Washington. Television and Politics Study Program, 197 8) pp. 11-46.

2 Ole R Holsti WWW (Reading
Addison-Wesley, 1969), p. 14.

3 Earl Babbie, W. 3rd ed. (Belmont: Wadsworth, 1983),
pp. 251-252.

4 Eugene J. Webb et al.. Wm
Seienees (Chicago: Rand-McNally, 1966).

5 Keith Kenney, "A Method for Studying Bias and Ideology in Journalistic
Photographs," paper presented at the AEJMC Convention, Minneapolis, MN, August .
1990.

6 Hall, "Culture, Media and the 'Ideological Effect;'" and Hall, "Rediscovery of
Ideology."

7 Gitlin, The Mini e mg is Waiening.
8 Robert A. Hackett, "Decline of a Paradigm? Bias and Objectivity in News Media
Studies," WW 1 (1984): 229- 259

9WilliamA Gamson "NewsasFraming." inﬂmﬂimcﬁcnmlﬂmmﬂm
R h, ed. AkibaA. Cohen (Newbury Park: Sage, 1989), pp. 157-161.

10 Science and animals were linked together in a content analysis study of newspaper
photographs by a Chinese scholar, and the linkage has been maintained for this study.
Although the category was not operationalized, it is possible that photographs of animals in
the Chinese press are more likely to relate to science than to life and people. For example,
animals may be shown as part of environmental concerns rather than as pets.

11 Kenney, "A Method for Studying Bias and Ideology."

12 Ibid.

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

16 John Markoff, Gilbert Shapiro and Sasha R. Weitrnan, "Toward the Integration of
Content Analysis and General Methodology," in MM ed. David R.
Heise (San Francisco. Jossey-Bass, 1975), pp. 1 -.58

17 Dorwin P. Cartwright "Analysis of Qualitative Material," in W
W ed. Leon Festinger and Daniel Katz (New York: Dryden, 1953),
p. 468.

18 Angell, "Content Analysis of Elite Media."

19 This idea is based upon common sense, the author's personal experience as a
photojournalist, and the literature on photojournalism in Western countries.

96

20 Angell, "Content Analysis of Elite Media"
21 Holsti. Wm pp. 140-141. The formula isz

 

pi=

1 - % expected agreement

To ﬁnd the percentage of expected agreement, ﬁnd the proportion of items falling into
each category of a category set and sum the square of those proportions.

Ct
he:

C 017

CHAPTER4

FINDINGS

This chapter presents ﬁndings ﬁom interviews with photojournalists and editors and
from a content analysis of photographs in nine newspapers. Interview data indicate that
politics, economics, routines of staff photographers, routines of amateur correspondents
and routines of editors inﬂuence the production and selection of newspaper photographs.
Content analysis data indicate signiﬁcant differences among newspapers. Several
hegemony theory hypotheses and a few economic theory hypotheses were supported by the

content data.

.Intw'ms

Journalists conﬁrmed results ﬂom the literature review that politics strongly
inﬂuences the type of pictures published by Chinese newspapers. Most photojournalists
are members of the Chinese Communist Party, and all attend weekly meetings with other
newspaper employees and Party secretaries at which important government and Party
documents are discussed. Their sense of what is newsworthy and their attitudes towards
people and events are shaped by long periods of political study and their experience as
journalists. Rather than attempting to serve as a mirror of reality, they take an active role in
supporting the policies of the Chinese Communist Party.

Shenzhen, for example, is a special economic zone with unusual latitude to experiment
with forms of capitalism. Economic news of the newly built city is important to both Party

leaders and foreign investors, yet publishing honest, objective reports in general circulation

97

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newspapers is not a priority. Instead, the news is slanted to serve political needs of local
leaders, as well as moderate reformers at the national level, who wish to make the
economic reforms successful. As the ofﬁcial newspaper of the Shenzhen city government,
WW1); promotes the modem, booming city. When photographers
go on assignments, they know they should take pictures of new buildings, new roads and
high technology equipment.1

Chief photographer of the paper Jiang Shigao said photojournalists internalize Party
policies and practice self-censorship when they take pictures. When a joint venture
between China and foreign investors is successful, a picture is taken. If joint ventures fail,

the newspaper will not report them. He said:

We are not trying to hide our weak points so much as we are trying to attract new
investors. If we reported the weak points every day, it would become difﬁcult to
establish our reputation as a good place. No one gives us orders to show progress. We

have our own self-restrictions. We are used to this way of working.2
Sometimes a photojournalist must do more than simply aim his or her camera at

appropriate subject matter in order to support Party policies. Pictures of a crowd of people
celebrating at a large wedding party in the countryside, for example, may not be desirable.
Such images go against the Party line, which discourages extravagant weddings. A
photographer may have difﬁculty, however, showing the idea of "waste" without posing a
large number of people. In these cases, cutlines are used to shape the meaning of
photographs and to educate readers about government and Party campaigns.3

What was not clear ﬂom the literature review is that photography staffs are frequently
split between younger photojournalists who seek greater freedom to report news in an
objective manner, and older photojournalists who continue to believe that political policies
should shape the news. Younger photojournalists wanted to photograph major news
events, good and bad, in order to document people and events of the time. Energetic and
ambitious, they pushed the boundaries of acceptable subject matter. Some took great risks

to photograph the student demonstrations at Tiananmen Square following the downfall of

pic
Xili

99

Hu Yaobang in December 1986. They also photographed spot news events such as major
ﬁres and accidents in order to compete in international photojournalism competitions.
Unless they worked for editors who were brave enough to test the limits of political
restrictions, however, such photographs were seldom published. Instead, photojournalists
would display the images at exhibitions or hold them until the political winds changed.4

As younger, more professional journalists reach leadership positions, freedom of the
press in China will increase, said He Yanguang, chief photographer at China Y9nih News.
He said:

Sometimes we can't publish very good photographs for political reasons. Younger
photographers are really attempting to do a good job, but because of traditional views,
they still meet some difﬁculties in their work. Under the open policy of recent years,
the paper We) has been able to raise questions and problems in
society, and to publish several photographs. Although there has been some
progress in recent years, in the minds of readers and photographers, the

developments have been too slow.5

Chinam has led other newspapers in publishing spot news photographs, including
pictures of ﬂoods, train derailments and airplane crashes. Former editor-in-chief Feng
Xiliang said:

Normally such pictures are taboo, but we introduced them to Chinese
newspapers. We were the ﬁrst paper; now other papers are carrying real news
photos also.6

91293231! was able to publish such photographs because it primarily serves foreign
readers. It does not fulﬁll the same propaganda tasks as other newspapers, and it has more
ﬂexibility to interpret the policies of the government and Party.

A few photographs that show problems in Chinese society are published in special
columns such as "Letters from Readers." They may show trash that has not been picked
up, vandalism at a memorial site, crowded buses, or trees chopped down for personal gain.
In the captions, the appropriate governmental department is asked to look into the matter
and take action. These pictures are generally taken by amateur "ﬂeelance" photographers
rather than staff photographers. Both readers, and the people criticized, would take them

gCl

100

more seriously, however, if they had been taken by staff photographers.7 According to the
chief photographer of W23!!- photographs that truly show the dark
side of society cannot be published easily. There is a saying in China, said Jiang Shigao:
"We just beat ﬂies, not tigers. Sometimes we are even afraid of beating ﬂies."8

Economics as well as politics inﬂuences the content and quality of newspaper
photographs. In the 19805, Chinese newspapers were generally printed on paper that had a
yellow tone and readily absorbed ink due to the fact that better quality paper stock was too
expensive or unavailable. Because the paper was yellow, bright highlight areas in
photographs were not possible. Because the paper was absorbent, a small dot of black ink
became a blob of gray in a photograph and ﬁne details were lost as ink dots spread into
surrounding light-toned areas. With yellow highlights and gray shadows, contrast was
limited. As a result of poor quality newsprint, pictures sometimes appeared as masses of
grey with unrecognizable subject matter.

At many regional or city-level newspapers, letterpress rather than offset printing was
generally used. If other factors remain equal, offset printing will yield better reproduction
of photographs than letterpress. The Beijing editions of national newspapers ﬂequently
used offset lithography equipment, but the same newspapers would be printed by
letterpress at facilities outside of Beijing. Even with offset printing, quality results still
depend upon the skill and motivation of press workers, which were not always high.9
Letterpress reproduction and inadequately trained press workers frequently limited the
quality of photographic reproduction at smaller newspapers.

Poor photographic reproduction directly affected the content of newspaper
photographs. Photojournalists had to simplify their images to ensure their intended
message would be visible to readers. They made sure that all editorially important
information was in the foreground or middle ground of the image, with as few distractions

as possible in the background. Photojournalists could not use back light to convey mood;

101

instead, scenes had to be well lit so images would reproduce well. 10 In general,
photojournalists could not trust that the subtle details of their photographs, especially
details in shadows, would remain after their pictures were reproduced.

Ownership of a newspaper is another economic force that shapes the news. A
journalist at W bluntly admitted that the "paper belongs to the National Trade
Union, is controlled by the union, and cannot publish news against the opinions of the
union." Because of demands by union leaders, the newspaper frequently publishes
pictures of workers' efforts to modernize China rather than pictures of sports or theater,
which photojournalists believe readers would prefer.11 .

Photojom'nalists would work harder if they believed in what they were doing, said a
photojournalist at My. Rather than taking pictures of what they feel is
important, they must follow the wishes of editors, and photograph factory machines and
smiling workers. An apathetic work attitude results. "We cannot put our whole energy,
time and ability into making such photographs successful," said Cai Jinhe.12

Another economic factor affecting the way photojournalists work is the lack of
transmitters at many newspapers. At Xiamn Daily, for example, it takes three days to
receive Xinhua news photographs by mail, so pictures of events in Beijing or overseas are
not timely. National-level newspapers may receive wire photo transmissions, but the lack
of portable transmitters limits photojoumalists' ability to cover distant events in a timely
manner. Photojournalists leaving a major city must spend many hours, if not days,
traveling by trains, buses or ships to arrive at their destination, and then they must travel
back to the newspaper in order to deliver their ﬁlm Even within a city, problems with
transportation limit their news gathering potential. Journalists in China seldom have access
to cars, and even when they do, they lack drivers' licenses, so they must also request a
driver.

Despite the transportation obstacles, photojournalists at national-level newspapers such

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102
as 299mm, Qt'niailaﬂy, Werkm' Daily and Limi'an'en Army Daily are sent
throughout China to cover a wide range of events. With fewer resources and less prestige,
photojournalists at city-level newspapers primarily cover local events. At major political
events, access may be restricted to the most important news organizations, such as Xinhua
news agency, China Central Television, 2mle‘eBaily and China Daily. Other
newspapers must use Xinhua photos of these events.

Regardless of the size of the newspaper, photojournalists have state-of-the-art camera
equipment. Many photojournalists carry two Nikon 35mm cameras with zoom lenses,
ﬁlters, ﬂash and tripod. A medium-format camera such as a Hasselblad, and a variety of
wide-angle and telephoto lenses are available ﬂom newspapers' equipment rooms. When
shooting color pictures, many photojournalists use ﬁlm made by Kodak, but when
shooting black-and-white, they use ﬁlm made in China. Quality of darkrooms varies, and
many photojournalists enlarge their images on a China-manufactured paper, which is less
consistent in light sensitivity and color thanpprinting papers made in the United States or
Europe. In general, photographic equipment and supplies are not forces limiting the quality
of photographic images. "We worry about not having very good photographs even though
we have this excellent equipment," said a. photographer at China Dg'ly.13

Mny photojournalists studied in art or ﬁlm departments rather than journalism
programs.14 Several said they would rather be art photographers than news
photographers. As art photographers they would have more prestige in the eyes of the
public. They could develop an individual style, and they could photograph any subject
they like. They would not have to serve as propagandists for the Party.15 They also want
to be art photographers because then their images would be published in magazines, where
they would be sized larger and reproduced better. Their images would be also be shown
in exhibitions, and they could win substantial cash prizes if an image won in a contest A
Shenzhen photojournalist won 4,000 yuan ($1,000) for a picture submitted to an art
photography contest.16 The transition ﬂom news photography to art photography is not

pl

CX

103

difﬁcult. Even in photojournalism contests, pictures seem to win because they have good
artistic characteristics or because they support Party policies, not because of their news
value.” For these reasons, some photojournalists devote more time creating artistic
images than news images. They try to become art photographers by shooting color ﬁlm in
a creative manner following a tradition of art. 18

In addition to politics and economics, the routines of staff photographers affect
photographic content. The ways picture assignments are made, the quantity of ﬁlm used to
complete assignments, and the evaluation of staff photographers' work are routines that
affect the type of pictures that appear in newspapers as well as their quality and quantity.

Many ideas for pictures come from amateur community correspondents, and
photojournalists are expected to respond to these "assignments." W, for
example, has nearly 100 amateur correspondents who work in factories and schools around
Shanghai, and news tips from these people lead to 60-70 percent of the paper's pictures,
said Zhao Lichun, a photographer for the Shanghai newspaper. Relying on local people
for news tips follows the philosophy of the Chinese Communist Party, he said. "In China,
journalists follow Mao's words: 'ﬂom the people, to the people.”19 Other local
newspapers also wait for amateur correspondents or local businesses to call and suggest
pictme opportunities. Relying on such sources for picttn'e assignments leads to a high
ﬂequency of positive, public-relations type photographs.

The type of pictures published in newspapers is also affected when photography
assigmnents are made at weekly staff meetings. At some newspapers, photojournalists
decide who will cover what events at a weekly meeting. "Basically, all the photos for the
week's papers are planned ahead of time," said Zhang Hong, a photographer for Wenjjni
Daily.20 Of course, some provisions are made to cover unexpected events, but the result
of this routine is that most pictures show "planned" events. Chinese photojournalists

generally are not mentally prepared to quickly respond to unanticipated news events

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104

At some newspapers, photo assignments are made in a timely manner. At 2%
Daily and Chinaﬂaily, the chief photographer makes daily photo assignments. At other
papers, section editors make photo assignments for important news events. Editors may
also assign photographers to a "beat," where photojorn'nalists look for suitable pictures
every day. Examples of photographic beats are: industry and trade, culture and education,
political life and foreign affairs, agriculture, and suburbs. Yet assigning photojournalists to
"beats" can cause problems, said the chief photographer at My, because
photographers become jealous and tend to encroach on others' areas.21

Rather than rely upon amateur correspondents, staff meetings, or editors, some
photojournalists seek greater independence. They talk to ﬂiends, read other newspapers
and watch news on television in order to ﬁnd good picture ideas. They believe
photojoumalists' status improves when their images stand alone, instead of simply being
used to illustrate articles, so they go to work units and recreation areas to ﬁnd newsworthy
subjects.22

A second routine that affects picture content and quality is the amount of ﬁlm
photojournalists shoot when covering an assignment. At Xiamen Daily, for example,
photojournalists shot seven or eight rolls of ﬁlm per month.23 Photojournalists, however,
never complained about inadequate ﬁlm supplies, and photography department budgets
were generally considered more than adequate.

Photojoumalists' shooting were responsible for low ﬁlm consumption. For simple
assignments, photojournalists need only ﬁve or six pictures because each photo is thought
out carefully before photojournalists press the shutter, said the chief photographer at m
Baily.24 Wang Wenlan said that photographers at My choose a good angle and
then wait for the "decisive moment" to make sme each picture is perfect. Motordrives
waste ﬁlm and seem useless, he said. For events with great news value, visually exciting

events, or sporting events, photojournalists shoot one, two or three rolls of ﬁlm.25

105

Photojournalists ﬂ'om other newspapers offered additional reasons for the low ﬁlm
consumption. One said few pictures are shot because editors cannot appreciate the
difference between a good news photograph and a mediocre or bad one.26 A second said
photojournalists use only a little ﬁlm because their editors discuss images before
photographers leave for an assignment, and photographers plan their pictures well.27
Although photojournalists say they do not like posed images, the practice continues except
for news situations and sports.

A third routine that affects picture content and quality is the way photojournalists' work
is evaluated. In China, photojournalists frequently work under a quota system-~they must
publish a minimum number of pictures each month. At Shenzhen §peeial gene Dg'ly,
photographers were required to have 16 pictures published per month. At W9rke_r,~,' Daily
and MW, however, only four published pictures were required, and the
quota at We was ﬁve pictures.28 Because photojournalists want to meet
their quotas, they must take pictures their editors will like and publish. Me'eBaily and
W were the only newspapers investigated without quota systems.

Adherents of the quota system say it guarantees a source of photographs for the
newspaper, and it allows editors to meaSure how much photographers work29 Opponents
say the system is unreasonable because news varies, and a photographer's output will vary
with the news.30

In fact, the quota system seldom spurs great quantity of work. Because the quotas are
low at some newspapers, staff photographers have little incentive to shoot many
assignments. They may even try to abuse the system by submitting photos in 1987 that
were actually taken in 1985, said Jiang Shigao, chief photographer at W
ZgneQain. Photographers also take advantage, he said, when they shoot many pictures at
an assignment and then turn in a slightly different picture every few days.31

Nor does the quota system stimulate quality photojournalism. Photographers receive

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106

the same credit points whether the pictrne required great or little effort, so they lack
incentive to take time-consuming or inconvenient pictures. "Our photographers take
pictures of factory workshops all the time," said Jiang. "They don't want to go to other
places because it is easier to shoot workshops and machines."32

Competition with other photojournalists for the best image is not necessary with the
quota system. In fact, some Chinese photojournalists believe that photojournalists from
other countries are too aggressive in pursuit of the best story-telling moment. Zhang
Hong, a photographer at WenﬂniBaBy, said foreign photojournalists are more likely to
elbow their way to the front of a crowd to get good pictures. Zhang admires their spirit,
but he believes that the public disapproves of such aggressive behavior. Chinese
photojournalists, in contrast, care more about other photojournalists and work to ensure
that everyone gets good pictures.”

Photographers receive bonus pay for exceeding the quota, but the amount is small
compared to their salaries. At Shenzhen Smiﬂ Zgne Daily, the bonus for photojournalists
equals one-third the amount paid to amateur correspondents?’4 Editors prefer that staff
photographers shoot more photographs because then they can use fewer photos from
amateurs, and therefore, they can save money. Some photojournalists, however, prefer to
shoot the minimum. They may work for the paper 16-20 hours per week and work for
themselves the rest of the time.35 A combination of the quota system with the long-
standing practice of guaranteed lifetime employment means that chief photographers have
few carrots or sticks to motivate their staffs.

In addition to the routines of staff photographers, the routines of amateur
correspondents affect photographic content. Amateurs generally send newspapers three
types of photographs: news, art and pictures that show problems in society. Submission
of news pictures is generally encouraged as a means of supplementing reporting by staff
photojournalists. Pictures that show problems are probably submitted because people are

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angry and want local government ofﬁces to take action. Amateurs submit art photographs
because they enjoy taking art pictures and take pride when then appear in newspapers.

Of course, payment for the pictures in another incentive. At Xiamenﬂaily, amateur
correspondents are paid 48 yuan per picture (4 yuan=$1), depending upon its quality and
size when published. National-level newspapers may pay 10-20 yuan for pictures, and
Chinanaily pays the best: 25-60 yuan. The pay for freelance pictures is generally
equivalent to the pay for a LOGO-character article ﬂom correspondents, and is probably
generous compared to people's salaries.36

Finally, the routines of editors also affect photographic content. There are no photo
editors at Chinese newspapers. Instead of having one person handle all the pictures in a
newspaper, many editors are responsible for selecting, sizing and placing photographs.

Newspaper editors can select photographs ﬂom amateur community correspondents,
staff photojournalists or Xinhua news agency. Editors frequently choose amateurs'
photographs because they reﬂect the spirit of the community in a way that readers
understand. According to the chief photographer at W, "Without the
amateurs, there would not be so many readers; the amateurs know more about readers'
lives."?’7

Table 1 shows that of the newspapers investigated, 2mm used the greatest
percentage of photographs ﬂom amatetn' correspondents. They provided 80 percent of the
pictures in the eight-page daily newspaper. By comparison, the 16 staff photographers

provided only 2—3 percent of the pictures published. Chief photographer J iang Duo said:

Wally has many correspondents, and it relies on them. It doesn't have to
force its staff photographers to produce what may be dull photographs. Some days
there is little news in society. News must have great inﬂuence and a great impact to

appear in mascara.”
WW editors used the largest proportion of staff- generated

picttnes. The paper only began publication in 1981 and has not yet built up a pool of

correspondents, so the staff provides 70 percent of the pictures (see Table 1). The seven-

108

member photography staff is under a heavy burden, said J iang Shigao, because so few
good pictures are received ﬂom amateur correspondents.39 He wants to encourage regular
contributions by correspondents, but is unhappy about the quality of images submitted.
"Most photographs from amateurs can't be used because they lack news value," he said,
"yet if we don't use such pictures, then amateurs won't send any more."40

Editors seldom selected pictures from Xinhua news agency. Xinhua photographs earn
little respect from journalists and are only published when pictures ﬂom other sources are
not available. An example is pictures of international events, where the agency has a
monopoly on news, or of important domestic events with restricted access. Local papers

won't use Xinhua pictures because they lack variety and spirit, said Jiang Shigao.41

 

 

 

Table 1
Source of News Photographs

Newspaper mfj Amateurs Xinhua
Shenzhen Special Zone Daily 70% 25% 5%
Beijing Evening News 65 30 5
Xinmin Evening News 60 30 10
Xiamen Daily 50 40 10
Wenhui News 50 40 10
China Youth News 30 60 10
Liberation Army Daily 30 50 20
Workers' Daily 25 70 5
China Daily 10 8O 10
People's Daily 3 80 17

 

NOTE: Data are based upon reports by staff photographers.

 

pht

m0]

109

Wang Wenlan, chief photographer at China Daily, said: "Xinhua ideas and photos are
too old and moldy, like something stored in a house for a long time. No one will buy such
moldy things."42

Before the Cultural Revolution, editors used a much higher percentage of Xinhua
photographs. Newspapers had fewer staff photographers, and Xinhua provided most of
the photographs. As newspapers began to pay more attention to local pe0ple and events,
they wanted local photographs by staff photographers and amateur community
correspondents.43

A Xinhua editor admitted that the agency's photographs are more serious and formal
than pictures produced by staff or amateur photographers. In the past Xinhua photographs
were not as vivid or fresh, he said, yet since the 19805, the news agency has tried to tailor
photographs to the needs of each newspaper. Evening newspapers, for example, receive
more entertaining, human interest photographs.44

Even though good photographs may be available, editors frequently lack sufﬁcient
expertise to select the best images. With the exception of Feng Xiliang at China Daily,
editors rose to their position because of their skill with words or because of their strict
allegiance to Party ideology. "In China, few editors-in-chief know about photography,"
said Jiang Shigao.45

Because they do not understand the potential power of photojournalism, some editors
view pictures as decoration, a means to break up type and improve the appearance of a
page. They encourage photographers to take beautiful pictures even though the pictures
may not communicate anything important. The line between art and news photography
becomes blurred.

Given dramatic news photographs, editors may balk at publishing them. For example,
a picture was taken of an accident in which a crane was lifting long steel rods, when one

fell and pierced a worker's back like a needle, said Jiang Shigao. With the rod in place,

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other workers took him to the hospital. The wounded man looked like a cross and couldn't
enter the hospital doors, so the rod was cut. Although the man lived, Jiang said editors at
W wouldn't use the picture because they said it showed too
much blood, was too cruel, and was not good to see. J iang argued that if the photo was
not used, then photographers would be discouraged from ever again taking photographs of
news value. It was not published, but it later won ﬁrst place in the Guangdong
photography contest. Although of low technical quality, the photo won because it had
great news value. Photographers fear that readers will lose respect for pictures when the
ones published in newspapers lack news value, Jiang said."’6

The editor-in-chief of the Shenzhen paper said editors must consider a picture's
inﬂuence upon readers. If a picture reﬂects real life and will not have a bad inﬂuence, then
it can be published He said selection of photographs by editors rather than the chief
photographer is necessary because the entire newspaper must be coordinated by the
editorial staff. Pictures are just part of the paper, and editors must consider the paper in its
entirety.”

In addition to selecting pictures, editors size photographs for their page. Photographers
sometimes complain their pictures are run too small, but they admit that the size of Chinese
newspapers is a limiting factor. Xinmin Evening News, an eight-page tabloid, rarely
publishes pictures larger than 3 square inches. Reproduction is letterpress and of poor
quality. A photographer at the newspaper explained that pictures are run small because the
paper has poor reproduction. "Beijing papers have good reproduction, so photos can
attract people," said Zhang Zulin. "In Shanghai, reproduction is not as good, so there is no
sense in running photos large."48

Photographers also justify small pictures because they suit the design of Chinese
newspapers. "ﬁninaBaily should have large photographs," said Zhang Hong, "because it
has long articles in English, and without large photos, the design would appear bad. Wen
liniﬂaily's design is different. Articles are not long, so photos should not be big."49

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111

W publishes a large photograph at the top half of the ﬂont page because its
former editor-in-chief believes photographs are important. While studying at the
University of Missouri in Columbia, Feng Xiliang learned that photographs attract readers,
and that large photos have great emotional impact. Later, he consciously adopted the
Western practice of using large photographs in order to attract foreign readers to m
cart”

To use such large photographs, however, was a bold move that broke with socialist

traditions. He said:

Especially in the ﬁrst few issues, there was a lot of discussion about the
innovations at China Baﬂ y. People were always complaining about 'bourgeois liberal'
ideas. 'It is scary the pictures are so big,‘ they said. Today other papers, such as
My, W, and W regularly use large pictures on
their ﬂont pages.51

Editors are also responsible for placing photographs on a page, but they do not
generally crop photographs because they respect the judgment of photographers in this
area.52 When designing a page, editors generally start with articles, not pictures. It is
only later in the afternoon or evening that editors choose pictures and add them to the page,
said Xue Yifeng, editor-in-chief of W. If Xinhua sends a long
and important story or speech, there may be no room for pictures, he added.53

Photographers at Beijing Evening New cringe when they think of editors' handling of

pictures. Hu Qi said:

Photographers try to talk with editors if the picture is very important. Sometimes
photographers will assume responsibility for the makeup of an entire page to ensure
proper treatment of a good picture. Editors always want to put more information into a
page, not more photos. Photojournalists are embarrassed about the pictures appearing

in newspapers, but no one can override editors.54
ChinaDaily is the only paper investigated that decides on placement of photographs

before articles. "The photo-priority layout at Chinaﬂaﬂy was an innovation," said Fen g
Xiliang.55 The former editor was awarded a prestigious award, the Perceptive Eye Prize,
by the National News Photography Society for the newspaper's selection and handling of

112

picttnes. Some newspapers have been inﬂuenced by its example and are now using bigger
pictures in more prominent locations.

Although the situation was improving in early 1987, photojournalists at most
newspapers still complained that editors valued stories more than photographs. Photo-
journalists were less likely than reporters to receive passes to photograph sports or
entertainment events. Their best images were not selected, or if selected, they ran small.
Photojournalists seldom became senior editors. As the chief photographer at Beoeleis
Baily said, "The wing of reporting is much stronger than the wing of photography unless

there is an important event where pictures are clearer than words."56

113

genieni Anﬂysis
Warm:

In a randomly constructed week's worth of nine newspapers published in February
1987, 394 photographs were published. As shown in Table 2, Xinmin Bvening News
published 19 percent of the photos, more than any other newspaper. W9rkeis' Daily
published the second largest number of photographs--l4 percent. At the other extreme,
W published only 7 percent of the photos in the sample.

Although zing'n Eyening News published the most photographs, the images were
smaller than in other newspapers. The average size of its front page photographs was only
4.6 square inches. The other tabloid, Beijing Evening News, also published tiny
photographs on its front page. Inside photographs were a similar size for both
newspapers. Such small images, reproduced by the letterpress printing process on coarse
yellow news print, yielded images that were difﬁcult to read. In contrast, thna Daily
published one large photograph (44.7 square inches) on its front page each day. Cnina
199m also published a large photograph daily on its ﬂont page, and its average size
was 29 square inches. Both these newspapers used moderate or large size photographs on
inside pages. Images in these newspapers had enough impact to attract readers‘ attention.

Most newspapers ran only one photograph on their ﬂont pages. Workeis' Daily
published more photographs on its front page than other newspapers, almost two each day,
and the photos were moderate in size--19 square inches. Xinmin Evening News published
the second most photographs on its front page--an average of 1.5 per day. Three of the
broadsheetsquple's Daily, China Bﬁly and W9ikgs‘ Baily consistently published front-
page photographs above the fold

Of the February photographs, 40 percent were accompanied by a story and 60 percent
were not. Photographs accompanied by a story were most likely to concern "travel, culture

and art." Stand-alone photographs were about economics or "education and indoctrination."

114

 

Table 2
Quantity and Size of Photographs in Nine Newspapers

 

Percentage of photos Average Number Average Size

AWL—WW

#People's Daily 13.5% 1.00 20.5 sq. in.
Fujian Daily 7.9 1.07 19.6
Xiamen Daily 7.9 1.14 14.6
Liberation Army Daily 9.4 1.18 22.7
Workers' Daily 14.0 1.96 19.4
China Youth News 6.9 1.00 28.7
*Beijing Evening News 8.5 1.00 5.9
*Xinmin Evening News 19.0 1.46 4.6
#China Daily 12.9 1.08 44.6
100% = (394)

NOTES: * = tabloids; all others are broadsheets
# = eight-page newspapers; all others are four-page newspapers

Wﬂaily and W publish the most photographs per page.

 

In order to determine the agenda of photographic news at different newspapers,
photographs were assigned to one of ten subject categories. Table 3 shows that pictures of
"travel and culture and art" and "economic news" were most frequent; they each made up
20.6 percent of the total. The next largest category was "education and indoctrination"
with 18.8 percent of the total. "Travel and culture and art" photographs were generally
non-political images intended to promote knowledge and pride in China's culture.
"Economic news" photographs generally provided positive examples for readers or boasted
of China's achievements. For example, they showed people developing skills in order "to
get rich" and work units meeting or exceeding production quotas. Other pictures showed

new buildings, roads, bridges or factories. "Education and indoctrination" photographs

115

almost always expressed a value or set an example for others.

Few "violence" pictures were published. One picture, however, showed a local road that
collapsed when waves from a typhoon eroded China's coast line.57 Another showed some
minor damage ﬂom a tornado.58 Cln'naDaily published a picttn'e in its Candid Camera
section of people selling cigarettes on the black market.59 Beijing
Evening News published a picture of a bus driver and two other men who were honored
for capturing a man armed with ten grenades.60

 

Table 3
Subject and Direction of Photographs in Nine Newspapers

 

Subject:
Travel & culttue & art 20.6%
Economic news 20.6
Education & indoctrination 18.8
World news 13.2
Sport news 7.1
Life & people 6.9
Science & animals 6.0
Other 3.5
Political affairs 2.3
Violence 1.0

100% = (394)

Subject Type:
Cognitive 32.2%
Political-educau'onal 24. 8
Entertainment-aesthetic 43 .0

100% = (394)

Direction:
Negative 3.2
Non-negative 96.8

100% = (342)

 

116

Only 2.3 percent of the pictures directly concerned political affairs. A few of the nine
pictures showed ministers in meetings or making inspections. Others were just head shots
of officials. One picture showed police ofﬁcers talking to Tibetans in order to maintain
order in the mud villages.61 Another picture showed ofﬁcials and police patrolling the
streets of Fuzhou, the capitol of Fujian province, on motorcycles in order "to make sure
people have a happy new year."62

When the subject categories are collapsed into three "type of subject" categories, it is
easy to see the importance of entertainment photographs in Chinese newspapers. They
account for 43 percent of the total. "Political-educational" photographs accounted for 25
percent of the total, and the other 32 percent were "cognitive."

Of the 342 photographs assigned to a direction category, only 11, or 3.2 percent, were
negative. The subject of these pictures was either "violence" or "education and
indoctrination," with the exception of one photograph of a statue on the streets of
Shanghai, which seemed obscene to some people.63 One "education and indoctrination"
picture showed Buddhist disciples. The caption criticized people who were getting rich and
spending their money on "unhealthy" things such as religious ceremonies, funerals and
weddings.64 hijianng'ly ran a picture showing how people were disrespectful to an
ancient wall that is an important historical site. The caption asked people to stop putting
garbage behind the memorial marker and to stop producing bricks in kilns at the foot of the
wall.65 A KianienJQaily picture showed boxes of broken brandy bottles. According to the
caption, about 10 percent of the shipment was destroyed, and the receiving company hopes
railroad companies will improve the way they load and unload goods.66 Xinmin Evening
News called upon the department in charge to remove a tree that had been blown onto a
street. The picture shows a side street and uprooted tree. 67

Differences among newspapers are apparent in terms of the type of subjects that appear
in photographs. Table 4 shows that Fnjig Daily, China Dg'ly and Peeple's Daily, for

117

example, publish a greater percentage of "cognitive" photographs than other newspapers.
WW M2331. and Chinalcuhﬂm publish a greater
percentage of "political-educational" photographs. Beijing Bvening News and ﬁnm_iri
Eyeningﬂesys publish a greater percentage of "entertainment-aesthetic" photographs. The

relationship between newspapers and type of subjects is not strong.

 

Table 4
Relationship Between Newspapers and Type of Subject, in Percent

 

212 ED X12 LAD ED GIN. BEN KEN CD
Cognitive 41.7 69.2 37.9 10.0 22.2 12.5 24.2 29.8 46.5

Polit—educat 38.9 7.7 20.7 46.7 46.3 45.8 9.1 6.0 14.0
Entertain-aesth19.4 23.1 41.4 43.3 31.5 41.7 66.7 64.2 39.5

100% = (36) (26) (29) (30) (54) (24) (33) (67) (43)

Chi-square < .001
Lambda asymmetric = .076
NOTE: PD = My; FD = Enjiangaily; XD = Ximn Dar_l' y; LAD = Limian'en Army

mWD=W$CYN=Cmmmﬂm;BEN=Beﬁinaﬁxemngﬂm;XEN=
W;mdw=m&am.

 

In order to determine whether the depiction of people appearing in photographs was biased
at different newspapers, the "main actors" of photographs were coded according to gender, age
group, occupation and the favorableness of their treatment Table 5 shows that balance of
coverage was best achieved in terms of the gender of people who appear in photographs; 35

percent of the main actors were men and 23 percent were women.

118

 

Table 5
Characteristics and Treatment of Main Actors of Photographs in Nine Newspapers

 

Gender:
Male 34.6%
Female 23.4
Both genders 30.8
Unrecognized gender 11.2

Age Group:

Children 4.8%
Youth 5.2
Adults 66.9
Elderly 6.3
Mixed age groups 10.5
Unrecognized ages 6.3
Occupation:
Public ofﬁcials 2.6%
Soldiers and police 1 1.9
Professionals 7.1
Laborers 25.3
Entrepreneurs 1.5
lntellectuals 1.5
Farmers 5.9
Entertainers 26.0
N o occupation 18.2
Treatment:
Favorable 35.3%
Neutral 63.6
Unfavorable 1.1

100% = (269)

 

119

In terms of age groups appearing in photographs, coverage was less balanced. Adults
appeared in 67 percent of the photographs. Children, youth and elderly each appeared in
only about 5 percent of the photographs. One newspaper in the sample, Chinalmnh
Nesys, is targeted at youth, yet its photos seldom showed youth as the main actors.

Photographic coverage also did not seem balanced in the sense that farmers were the
main actors in only 6 percent of the photographs. Other groups that seemed under-
represented include entrepreneurs and intellectuals (1.5 percent each). Pictures of
entrepreneurs showed food and street vendors, the owner of a small company that
distributes ﬂuit to retailers, and the owner of a small company growing ﬂowers for export.
One picture showed a man identiﬁed as an entrepreneur who generously gave 20,000 yuan
during the past seven years to charities for children's welfare and for families of soldiers
ﬁghting in Vietnam.68 Pictures of intellectuals showed an historian, an author and school
teachers. Entertainers appeared more frequently than any other occupational group.

Cross-tabulations of various groups and the treatment they received showed that no
relationship was present (lambda asymmetric = .00). Almost everyone was shown in a
favorable or neutral manner. Of the 269 photographs showing people, 35 percent
portrayed them favorably and 64 percent portrayed them in a neutral manner. Only three
photographs treated a main actor unfavorably. A picture in 299919113in showed people
waiting in the no-smoking section of the Beijing railroad station obscured by dense
cigarette smoke.69 Walla published a picture that juxtaposed a grim man with a
smoke-spewing smokestack.7O A W picture showed people tasting
the results of a cooking competition.71

In order to determine whether photographic coverage at different newspapers was
ideological, value positions expressed in photographs were coded. Table 6 shows the
percentage of every value position among the 342 photos. Because only one value could

be coded for each photograph, the percentages were low.

 

Values Expressed in Photographs in Nine Newspapers

 

Ownership of Property:

Conservative 0.0%
Moderate 1 .2
Radical 4.4
No value 94.4

Incentive to Work:

Conservative 4.1%
Moderate 0.3
Radical 0.0

No value 95.6

Degree of Reliance:

Conservative 2.0%
Moderate 1 .8
Radical 1 .2

No value 95.0

Indoctrination of Youth:

Conservative 1.8%
Moderate 2.6
Radical 0.3

No value 95.3

Political Power:

Conservative 0.6%
Moderate 0.3
Radical 0.0

No value 99.1

100% = (342)

Role of the Market:

Conservative 0.6%
Moderate 3.8
Radical 0.0
No value 95.6

Criteria for Social Status:

Conservative 7.6%
Moderate 17.3
Radical 0.9

No value 74.2

Culture:
Conservative 0.6%
Moderate 5.0
Radical 3.5

No value 90.9

Freedom of Thought:

Conservative 0.0%
Moderate 0.6
Radical 0.9

No value 98.5

 

121

Table 7 also shows the percentages of the type of values for all nine values combined
together. Of the 342 photographs, 17 percent expressed conservative values, 32 percent
expressed moderate values, 10.5 percent expressed radical values and 40.5 percent
expressed no value. These results show, therefore, that 59 percent of the photographs
expressed a value and 41 percent did not.

 

Table 7
Types of Values in Photographs in Nine Newspapers

 

Type of Values:

Conservative 17.3%
Moderate 31.6
Radical 10.5

No value 40.6

100% = (342)

 

The most common radical value position was "private ownership and the sanctity of
private rights is encouraged," and it appeared in 15 photographs. The radical value,
"Chinese culture must be allowed to ﬂourish without ideological considerations,"
appeared in 12 photographs.

Differences among newspapers are apparent in terms of the type of values expressed
by photographs they publish. Table 8 shows, for example, that of the 36 photos
published in 29991e’s_12aily, 33 percent expressed a conservative value and 28 percent
had no value.

 

 

 

 

_ﬂ——

122

 

Table 8
Relationship Between Newspapers and Type of Values, in Percent

 

ED ED XD LAD m2 (XE DEN. KEN CD
Conservative 33.3 11.6 10.3 56.7 9.3 29.2 15.1 3.0 11.6

Moderate 27.8 15.4 37.9 6.7 44.4 25.0 48.5 38.8 20.9
Radical 11.1 2.8 29.2 0.0 3.7 12.5 12.1 7.5 23.3
No values 27.8 69.2 27.6 36.6 42.6 33.3 2.3 50.7 44.2

100% = (36) (26) (29) (30) (54) (24) (33) (67) (43)

Chi-square < .001

Lambda asymmetric = .073

NOTE: PD =EecnlelLDailx;FD =Eujiart12ailv; XD =Xianen2aily; LAD =L_m;aud__x' 'nAIm
Baily; WD = Werkeis' Daily; CYN = China YQlIlh ﬂees; BEN = Beijing Evening News; XEN =
W; and CD = china Daily.

 

Wally was even more conservative. Of the 30 photos, 57 percent
expressed a conservative value and 37 percent had no value. W, on
the other hand, was more likely to publish photographs expressing moderate values. Of
the 33 photos, 48.5 percent expressed moderate values and 24 percent had no value.
W and W also published a relatively high percentage of
photographs with moderate values. Chinaﬂaily published a greater percentage of
photographs expressing radical values than any other newspaper (23 percent of 43
photographs). Eujianﬂaily and Xinminﬁyeningﬂeiys published the greatest percentage
of photographs without values. The relationship between newspapers and type of values is
relatively weak as indicated by a lambda asymmetric value of .07 3.

Photojournalists know that posed action photographs are not as desirable as candid

photographs, yet in this sample of 269 pictures, 44 percent were posed action and another

123

10 percent were posed portraits. Table 9 shows that only 41 percent of the pictures were

candids.

 

Table 9
Style of Photographs in Nine Newspapers

 

Style:
Posed portrait 9.7%
Posed action 44.0
Candid 40.7
Ambiguous 5.6

100% = (268)

 

Differences between newspapers are also apparent in their style of photographing.
Table 10 shows that Fujian Daily and China Daily are more likely to make candid
photographs than other newspapers. W and W are more

likely to publish "posed action" photographs than other newspapers. W
published more "posed portrait" photographs than other newspapers.
A stronger relationship, however, exists between the subject and the style of

photographs. If the photograph concerns "violence, sports news," or "life and people,"
then it is likely to be a candid. If the photograph concerns "political affairs," "travel and
culture and art," or "education and indoctrination," then it is probably a posed action

picture.

124

 

Table 10

Relationship Between Newspapers and Style, in Percent

 

BDEDXD

Posed portrait 6.3
Posed action 46.9
Candid 43.7
Ambiguous 3.1

100% = (32)
Chi-square < .001

0.0 8.7
28.6 47.8
64.3 30.4

7.1 13.1
(14) (23)

Lambda asymmetric = .037

NOTE: PD=EecnleLaDailx;FD=EuiianDailx;XD=X_im2m;LAD=_hgauo_xLi 'nAI'm

mWD=§YQIKQELDﬂ1$CYN=W§BEN=W§XEN=

Lﬂ
11.1

25.9
48.2
14.8

(27)

ﬁrmn’n Evenin g News; and CD = China Daily.

_W_D
12.0
58.0
24.0

6.0

(50)

LYN
18.2
36.4
36.4
9.0

(22)

BEN

14.8
51.9
33.3

0.0

(27)

813.1! SD
9.5 3.2
42.2 35.5
42.9 61.3
2.4 0.0
(42) (31)

 

125

W

According to (Hla): subjects that support the dominant ideology will appear more
ﬂequently than subjects that challenge the dominant ideology. An operational indicator of
subjects that support the dominant ideology was the "non-negative" direction category
because these photographs indirectly showed the success of socialism under the direction
of the Chinese Communist Party. All operational indicator of subjects that challenge the
dominant ideology was the "negative" direction category because negative photos showed
something wrong with the economic, social or political status quo. Table 3 shows that
only 3 percent of photographs in the February sample showed any type of problem or
anything negative. These small percentages are much less than the 20 percent
recommended by Hu Yaobang in his 1985 speech about journalism.71 Although Hu was
addressing reporters more than photojournalists, the lack of negative photographs gives
some support to the hegemony theory.

According to (Hlb): people who support the dominant ideology will be depicted more
favorably than people who challenge it. An operational indicator of people who support the
dominant ideology was the "public ofﬁcials" and "soldiers and police" occupation
categories. The "intellectuals" occupation category was used as an operational indicator of
people who challenge the dominant ideology.

After the photographs were coded, the author discovered that the "intellectual" category
was not a good way of measuring the theoretical concept. None of the intellectuals who
appeared in photographs challenged the dominant ideology. In fact, few people belonging
to any occupational group spoke against the status quo or the power elite. Moreover, the
issue of whether supporters were depicted more favorably than challengers is moot because
almost everyone shown in photographs was portrayed in a favorable or neutral manner.
Despite the operationalization problem, results for this hypothesis seem to support the

hegemony hypothesis. No one is depicted unfavorably because no one presents a serious

126

challenge to the dominant ideology.

According to (H 1c): values that support the dominant ideology will appear more
ﬂequently than values that challenge it. Operational indicators of values that support the
dominant ideology were the "conservative" and "moderate" value positions. Operational
indicators of values that challenge the dominant ideology were the "radical" value positions.
Table 7 indicates that 49 percent of the photographs published in February expressed
conservative or moderate values and 10.5 percent expressed radical values. Photographs
published in September followed the same pattern. This pattern, therefore, gives some
support to the hegemony theory.

According to (Hld): presentation of news will be more controlled than spontaneous.
An operational indicator of controlled news was the "posed action" style category. An
operational indicator of spontaneous news was the "candid photo" style category. Table 9
shows that the percentages of posed action and candid photographs were approximately the
same; therefore, this hypothesis was NOT supported.

According to (HZa): subjects that challenge the dominant ideology will appear more
frequently during periods of reform than in periods of stability. This hypothesis was tested
by comparing the subjects and direction of 289 photographs published in W,
Ch'maﬂaily and W1 during September 1986 and February 1987. Table 11
indicates that the changing political situation had a signiﬁcant effect on the subject of
photographs. When the reform movement was active in September, newspapers published
more political photographs of "political affairs" and "violence." They also published more
entertainment photographs of "travel and culture and art" and "sports news." When
conservatives and reformers struggled to achieve political stability, newspapers published

more cognitive photographs of subjects such as "economic news" and "world news."

127

 

Table 11
Subject of Photographs in Two Time Periods

 

Subject: September: February:
Travel &culture& art 18.2% 13.3%
Economic news 17 .5 22.2
Political affairs 13.6 5.2
World news 12.4 20.0
Education & indoctrination 12.3 13.4
Sport news 8.5 4.4
Life & people 7.1 8.1
Science & animals 6.5 10.4
Violence 3.9 0.7
Other 0.0 2.3
100% = (154) (135)

Chi-square < .02
Lambda asymmetric = .133

 

 

Table 12
Direction of Photographs in Two Time Periods

 

Direction:
Negative 5.2 3.7
Non-negative 94.8 96.3
100% = (135) (198)
Chi-square < .58

Lambda asymmetric = .000

 

128

The political situation also had an effect on the direction of photographs. Table 12
shows that during a period of reform, newspapers published more "negative" photographs
than during a period of stability, although the difference was not statistically signiﬁcant.

The amount of investigative reporting that appeared in 2eep_le's_l;ai_ly during the seven
sample days seems remarkable for a Chinese newspaper. On September 6, three small
photographs were published showing problems with a reconstruction project at Dayong
City Food Factory. One showed shabby workshops "where sweating laborers still operate
decades-old machines." Another showed an expensive, imported piece of machinery for
producing bread lying uncovered behind the factory. The third showed an empty lot
overrun by weeds, where the new factory was supposed to be built. Although the
government has paid 300,000 yuan to lease the lot, and the project began three years ago,
construction has not yet begun.72

In the same issue is a picture of a peasant's house built in the shadow of Jiangzhou
Boat Factory in J iangxi province. The caption complains that peasants living close to the
factory create problems for the factory's managers. For example, the potential for
accidents increases, and maintaining security is difﬁcult. Neighboring peasants stole more
than 600 meters of copper wire and more than two tons of steel during a year-and-a-half
period. The caption asks local government ofﬁcials to help solve the problem.73

W also published a picture about the successful implementation of the
government's household responsibility policy, yet it implies problems frequently occur
elsewhere. The picture shows irrigated land surrounded by forest in Hebei province. A
nearby village delegates responsibility of the trees to households, which also have speciﬁed
rights to proﬁts ﬂom the sale of these trees. As a result, the forest ﬂourishes and
indiscriminate chopping of trees is avoided.74 The caption implies that in other areas,
individuals cut trees in order to "get rich." They don't view trees as a natural, public
resource to be enjoyed and used by the entire community.

QnmaBaily also published some photographs that suggest negative events. One

129

showed a Chinese expedition rafting down the Yangtze River. The caption said that three
explorers were still missing after their boats capsized July 27. Rescue teams were also sent
to help a Sino-American Yangtze River expedition after an August 25 accident. All
members of the joint expedition were reported safe.75 Another photograph was coded
non-negative, but the article accompanying the photograph was clearly negative. The
picture showed a group of school teachers, and the caption said they looked forward to
retirement. The article, however, concerned the poor health of over-worked middle school
teachers.76

Publication of increased frequencies of violence and negative photographs in September
newspapers supports the hegemony theory because such photographs challenge the
dominant ideology. Increased frequencies of "travel and culture and art" photographs
would also be expected as journalists valued service to readers above politics. The
increased percentages of "sports news" and "political affairs" photographs, however, were
probably due to the dates sampled more than any other factor. During September 1986, the
Asian Games in Seoul, Korea, received a lot of press coverage in Chinese newspapers, so
there were more sports photographs than usual. On September 10, Chinese newspapers
published several photographs commemorating the tenth anniversary of the death of Mao
Zedong, so there were more photographs of political leaders.

According to (HZb): values that challenge the dominant ideology will appear more
frequently during periods of reform than in periods of stability. This hypothesis was tested
by comparing the types of values expressed by 243 photographs published in P l '
Daily, Ch'maﬂaily and Mullah dtning September 1986 and February 1987. Table
13 indicates that the changing political situation had a signiﬁcant effect on the types of
values expressed by photographs. When the reform movement was active in September,
newspapers published more photographs without values. In February, newspapers
published more photographs expressing conservative values and more expressing radical

values. In the next chapter, these results will be interpreted and shown to support the

hegemony theory.

130

 

Table 13

Type of Values in Photographs in Two Time Periods

 

Type of Value:
Conservative
Moderate
Radical
No value

Chi-square < .01

September:

11.1%
29.6
6.0
53.3
100% = (135)

Lambda asymmetric = .167

February:

18.5%
27.8
19.4
34.3
(108)

 

1 3 l
Weld

According to (113a): fewer photographs will appear in "ofﬁcial" newspapers than in
other types of newspapers. This hypothesis was NOT supported because both "ofﬁcial"
and "ofﬁcial-interest" types of newspapers published approximately 30 percent of the
photos.

According to (H3b): subjects of concern to state and Party leaders will appear more
frequently in "ofﬁcial" newspapers than in other newspapers. The best operational
indicator of subjects of concern to state and Party leaders was "political affairs" subject
matter. Table 14 shows that for the February newspapers, more "political affairs"
photographs were published in "ofﬁcial" newspapers than other types of newspapers.
"Ofﬁcial" newspapers also published more "cognitive" type of subjects such as
"economic news" and "world news" than other newspapers. These results support
Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's hypothesis. On the other hand, a much larger percentage of
"education and indoctrination" photographs, which are also subjects of concern to state
and Party leaders, appeared in "ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers than in "ofﬁcial"
newspapers. The relationship between type of newspapers and subjects of photographs
is strong.

According to (H3c): values of ofﬁcials will appear more frequently in "ofﬁcial"
newspapers than in other types of newspapers. An operational indicator of values of
ofﬁcials was photographs expressing "conservative" and "moderate" type of values. Table
15 shows that this hypothesis is NOT conﬁrmed "Ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers publish
the greatest percentage of photographs expressing conservative values. "Ofﬁcial-
comrnercial" newspapers publish the greatest percentage of photographs expressing
moderate values. All three types of newspapers publish approximately the same percentage
of photographs will no values. The relationship between type of newspapers and type of

values is not strong.

132

 

Table 14
Relationship Between Type of Newspapers and Subjects of Photos

 

World news 20.9% 9.2% 10.6%
Economic news 30.4 13.4 18.8
Science & animals 7.0 2.5 8.1
Violence 0.0 1.7 1.3
Political affairs 7.0 0.0 0.6
Education & indoctrination 12.2 39.5 8.1
Travel & culture & art 11.3 18.6 28.8
Sports news 3.5 3.4 12.5
Life & people 4.3 6.7 8.7
Other 3.4 5.0 2.5

100% = (115) (119) (160)
Chi-square < .001

Lambda asymmetric = .235

 

 

Table 15
Relationship Between Type of Newspapers and Type of Values

 

"DEE .1" "DEE i l_. ,, "DE .1 i 1,,
Conservative 19.8% 26.9% 8.4%
Moderate 27.5 29.6 35.7
Radical 13.2 4.6 13.3
No value 39.5 38.9 42.6

100% = (91) (108) (143)

Chi-square < .003
Lambda asymmetric = .085

 

133

According to (H3d): presentation of news in "ofﬁcial newspapers" will be more
controlled than spontaneous. This hypotheses was NOT confirmed. Table 16 shows that
"ofﬁcial" newspapers published an equal percentage of "posed action" and "candid" photos.

 

Table 16
Relationship Between Type of Newspapers and Style of Photographs

 

Posed portrait 5.8% 13.1% 9.0%
Posed action 43.5 43.4 45.0
Candid 43.5 33.3 46.0
Ambiguous 7.2 10.2 0.0
100% = (70) (99) (100)

Chi-square < .03
Lambda asymmetric = .083

 

According to (H4a): more photographs will appear in "official-commercial"
newspapers than in other newspapers. This hypothesis was supported because 40 percent
of the photographs were published in "ofﬁcial-commercial" newspapers and only 30
percent were published in the other types of newspapers.

According to (H4b): subjects of concern to readers and advertisers will appear more
frequently in "ofﬁcial-commercial" newspapers than in other types of newspapers. An
operational indicator of subjects of concern to readers and advertisers was the
"entertainment-aesthetics" type of subjects. This hypothesis was supported. Table 17
shows that a far greater percentage of "entertainment-aesthetic" photographs were

published in "ofﬁcial-commercial" newspapers than in other types of newspapers.

134

"Ofﬁcial-commercial" newspapers publish more photos of "travel & culture & art" than
those of other subjects. Of the 160 photographs, 29 percent concerned "travel & culture &
art." They also publish more "sports news" photographs than other types of newspapers.
More than 71 percent of the "sports news" photographs appeared in "ofﬁcial-commercial"
newspapers. The relationship between type of newspapers and type of subjects was

moderately strong.

 

Table 17
Relationship Between Type of Newspapers and Type of Subjects

 

Cognitive 48.3% 17.6% 32.9%

Political-educational 24.2 45.4 9.8

Entertainment-aesthetic 27.5 37.0 57.3
100% = (91) (108) (143)

Chi-square < .001
Lambda asymmetric = .176

 

According to (H4c): values of readers and advertisers will appear more frequently in
"official-commercial" newspapers than in other types of newspapers. An operational
indicator of values of readers and advertisers was the "moderate" type of values. This
hypothesis was supported. Table 15 shows that a greater percentage of "moderate" type of
values were expressed in "ofﬁcial-commercial" newspapers than in other types of papers.

According to (H4d): presentation of news will be more spontaneous in "ofﬁcial-
comrnercial" newspapers than in other types of newspapers. This hypothesis was NOT
supported. Table 16 shows that "ofﬁcial" newspapers and "ofﬁcial-commercial"

135

newspapers published approximately the same percentage of candid photographs.

According to (HSa): more specialized content will appear in "ofﬁcial-interest"
newspapers than in other types of newspapers. An operational indicator of specialized
content was the distribution of subjects and main actor(s)' occupations in photos. Table 14
shows that "ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers publish photographs about all different types of
subjects, just like newspapers for a more general audience. Newspapers owned by
military, workers or youth organizations did not specialize in a few subject areas.

Table 18 shows that a moderately strong relationship exists between type of newspaper
and the occupation of main actors who appear in photographs. The Wily,
fenesainnle. is more likely to publish photographs of soldiers and police than other
newspapers. W is more likely to publish photographs of laborers. Except for

 

Table 18
Relationship Between Type of Newspapers and Occupation of Main Actors

 

Public ofﬁcials 7.1% 0.0% 2.0%
Soldiers and police 8.6 23.2 3.0
Professionals 7.1 5.1 9.0
Laborers 30.0 32.3 15.0
Entrepreneurs 2.9 1.0 1.0
Intellectuals 0.0 1.0 3.0
Farmers 7.1 7 .1 4.0
Entertainers 15.7 20.2 39.0
No occupation 21.5 10.1 24.0
100% = (70) (99) (100)

Chi-square < .001

Lambda asymmetric = .260

 

136

the special situation with these two newspapers, however, an unusual distribution of main
actors of photographs does NOT appear in "ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers. This
hypothesis, therefore, is NOT conﬁrmed.

According to (HSb): "ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers will more favorably depict the
speciﬁc special interests that ﬁnance the publications than other types of newspapers.
According to this hypothesis, journalists should favorably depict soldiers in Li9eratien
mnaily; they should favorably depict laborers in Wgnkei's' Daily; and they should
favorably depict youth in China XQIIIII News. Quantitative evidence is not available to
support or reject this hypothesis. An in-depth examination of the photographs in these
three newspapers conﬁrms that soldiers, workers and youth are favorably depicted in
newspapers that ﬁnance the interests of those groups. The hypothesis can NOT be
conﬁrmed, however, because equally favorable treatment is given to these groups in all
newspapers that were investigated.

According to (HSc): presentation of news in "ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers will be
more controlled than spontaneous. This hypotheses was supported. Table 16 shows that
"ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers published a greater percentage of "posed action" than
"candi " photographs.

In summary, interviews indicated a split between younger photojournalists who seek
greater ﬂeedom to report news in an objective manner and older ones who continue to
believe political policies should shape the news. Economic factors such as the quality of
paper stock, use of letterpress printing, ownership of a newspaper, and lack of transmitters
and private transportation affected photographic content. The ways picture assignments are
made, the quantity of ﬁlm used to complete assignments and the evaluation of staff
photographers' work are photojournalists' routines that affect the type of pictures that
appear in newspapers. Finally, editors' selection, sizing and placement of photographs
affected content.

Content analysis results indicated differences in the type of photographic subject matter

137

published at newspapers. Differences in both the type of values expressed in photographs
and the style of photographs were also apparent at newspapers. No differences, however,
were found in the way newspapers treated people in photographs.

Content analysis supported ﬁve of the six hypotheses used to test the hegemony theory.
On the other hand, of the 11 hypotheses used to test Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's economic
theory of news content, three hypotheses related to "ofﬁcial-commercial" newspapers were

supported and almost all of the other hypotheses were rejected.

138

We:

1 Interview with Jiang Shigao, chief photographer at Wily,
Shenzhen, China, 4 February 1987.

2 Ibid
3 Interview with Jiang Duo, chief photographer at W, Beijing, China, 26
January 1987.

4 Interview with He Yanguang, chief photographer at China Yenm News, Beijing,
China, 27 January 1987.

5 Ibid.

6 Interview with Feng Xiliang, former editor-in-chief at China Daily, Beijing, China,
26 January 1987.

7 Interview with Chang Zuling, photographer at Xinmin Evening News, Shanghai,
China, 20 January 1987.

8 Inteview with Jiang Shigao.

9 Interview with Jiang Shigao.

10 Interview with Hu Qi, photographer at BeijingﬂeningNesys, Beijing, China, 27
January 1987.

11 Interview with Hu Shuli, journalist at Weakers' Daily, Xiamen, China, 14 January
1987.

12 Interview with Cai Jinhe, photographer at W9rkei's' Baily, Beijing, China, 27
January 1987.

13 Interview with Li Di, photographer at QilinaBaily, Beijing, China, 27 January
1987.

14 Interview with Jiang Duo.

15 Interview with Hu Shuli.

16 Interview with Jiang Shigao.

17 Ibid.

18 Interviews with several photographers.

19 Interview with Zhao Lichun, photographer at Biber;ati9n_Daily, Shanghai, China, 20
January 1987.

20 Interview with Zhang Hong, photographer at Wen Hill News, Shanghai, China, 21
January 1987.

21 Interview with Jiang Duo.

22 Interview with Yang Putao, Xinhua news agency editor, Shanghai, China, 20
January 1987.

23 Interview with Li Caichong, chief photographer at XiamenDaBy, Xiamen, China, 4
September _1986.

139

24 Interview with Wang Wenlan.

25 Ibid.

26 Interview with Jiang Shigao.

27 Interview with Li Caichong.

28 Interviews with chief photographers at each newspaper.
29 Interview with Zhang Hong.

30 Interview with Jiang Duo.

31 Interview with Jiang Shigao.

37- Ibid.

33 Interview with Zhang Hong.

34 Interview with Jiang Shigao.

35 Ibid.

36 Interview with Li Shiping, photographer at Emmy, Xiamen, China, 7

November 1986.

37 Interview with He Yanguang.

33 Ibid.

39 Interview with Jiang Shigao.

40 Ibid.

41 Ibid.

42 Interview with Wang Wenlan, chief photographer at ginseng, Beijing China, 27

January 1987.

43 Interview with Chang Zuling.
44 Interview with Xia Daoling, Xinhua news agency editor, Shanghai, China, 20

January 1987.

44 Interview with Jiang Shigao.

45 Interviews with several photographers.

46 Interview with Jiang Shigao

47 Interview with Xue Yifeng, editor-in-chief at W,

Shenzhen, China, 5 February 1987.

48 Interview with Zhang Zulin.

49 Interview with Zhang Hong.

50 Interview with Feng Xiliang.

51 Ibid.

52 Interview with Xu Yifeng.

53 Ibid.

54 Interview with Hu Q1.

55 Interview with Feng Xiliang.

56 Interview with Jiang Duo.

57 Xiamenﬂaily, 23 February 1987, p. 2.

140

58 Xinminlileninalleils. 11 February 1987, p. 5.
59 Immunity, 27 February 1987, p.4.

6° W. 27 February 1987, p. 2.
61 W, 5 February 1987, p. 4.

62 EuiiaaDailx,1 February 1987, p. 1.

63 Itinrrmrlmnrilma. 27 February 1937, p. 2.
64 Chinalnuthilms. 27 February 1987, p. 4.
65 W, 23 February 1987, p. 2.

66 Kimmy, 5 February 1987, p. 2.

67 zinnnrilmcnnrglsms. 11 February 1987, p. 5.
68 mammal 24 February 1987, p. 3.
69 Willi, 5 February 1987, p. 5.
7° W. 5 February 1987, p. 4.
71 Xinnunjmeninulms 24 February 1987, p. 4.
72 W, 6 September 1986, p. 5.
73 Ibid.

74 Baptismal, 25 September 1986, p. 2.
75 W, 5 September 1986, p. 5.

76 ChinaDaibr 6 September 1986, p. 6.

CHAPTERS

CONCLUSION

This chapter interprets highlights of the ﬁndings concerning the agenda of photographic
coverage and the presence of photographic bias and ideology. Interview data are used to
help interpret the patterns of photographic content. This chapter also shows how results
ﬂom the hypotheses contribute to both theories of news content. Implications of the
coding instrument for future studies of photographic content are discussed. Finally,
limitations of the study are examined, and additional research questions that might be
pursued are suggested.

This study sought to add to the store of knowledge of scholars of China by providing
an understanding of newspaper photography in China. One ﬁnding from the content
analysis was that most Chinese newspapers published a Single photograph on their front
pages. Another ﬁnding was that news articles accompanied 40 percent of all photographs.
(To put these ﬁndings in perspective, American newspapers publish twice as many
photographs on their front pages, and news articles are twice as likely to accompany
photographs. 1)

These ﬁndings are not surprising when one considers Chinese editors' attitude towards
photojournalism and the way newspaper pages are designed. According to the interviews,
there were no photography editors, and most page editors came from a reporting
background, so there was no one in news budget meetings to argue for the use of several
photographs. Editors did not think photographs were important because they viewed

photographs as an more than as journalism. At most papers, important editorials, speeches

141

142

and news articles were placed on the page ﬁrst. Photographs were placed later and were
primarily used to break up gray areas of type. Poor reproduction also lessened
photographs' importance. After all, editors could ask, why publish several photographs if
people cannot "read" them well? Photojoumalists' dissatisfactions with editors' selection
of photographs and with newspapers' poor reproduction hurt morale on the photo staff.

Photographs frequently were not accompanied by articles because Chinese newspapers
used pictm'es with extended captions in lieu of a brief story. At XinminﬁyeningNeyys,
which frequently published 15 stories and a photograph on page one, there was little
difference between an extended caption and a brief story. Chinese broadsheets frequently
published a dozen stories without jumps and a photo on their front pages. Beii_ing_Eyening
Neyys, a tabloid, might run eight stories and a photograph.

Another explanation for the high frequency of "stand-alone" photographs is that
photojournalists had greater self-respect when their images were not used to illustrate
stories. There was less need to create stereotyped photographs serving a political function
when photojournalists found people and events to photograph, than when assignments
were suggested by amateur correspondents or made by newspaper editors. Because
photojournalists enjoyed working independently, more photographs were published
without articles.

A rationale for this study was to learn the agenda of photographic coverage because
photographs can structure the public's perceptions of reality. Two of the most frequently
appearing subjects of Chinese photographs were "economic news" and "education &
indoctrination." The high ﬂequency of economics photographs is understandable given
China's drive for economic reform and modernization. In the 1980s, economic
development was emphasized more than ideology, and some photojournalists placed a
higher value on facts. Opposing the tendency to serve politics, they stressed the
"newsworthy" and "truthful" qualities of photographs.

143

The relatively high frequency of education and indoctrination photographs is also
understandable because two of the functions of photojournalism are education and politics.
Photojournalists sometimes pose people to create images with unambiguous educational
value or to Show Party policies.

Interviews with journalists indicated that political pressure is indirect, not direct.
Photojournalists said they internalize Party policies and practice self-censorship when
taking pictures. A generation gap exists on photojournalism staffs, however, concerning
the Strictness of advocating Party policies in photographic content. Older photojournalists
are political conformists, yet younger ones are seeking greater freedom to report in a
professional, objective manner. Younger photojournalists want to photograph all the
news--good and bad. Most pictures that Show problems in Chinese society, however, are
still taken by amateur correspondents, who are insulated from potential retribution.

Low frequencies of violence photographs and of negative photographs are expected
given China's system of news values. Although it was not formally investigated, coders
noticed that articles and cartoons were much more likely than photographs to concern
problems in China. This would support the literature ﬂom China, which States that
photojournalists are more inhibited than reporters when investigating social problems.

An important ﬁnding is that human interest photographs, which would include "travel
& culture & art," "sports news" and "life & people," together represented 43 percent of all
photographs in the February newspapers. (This number is similar to the frequency of
human interest photographs found by researchers studying American newspapers?)
Human interest photographs can serve both educational and aesthetic functions, yet they are
not political. Such a high percentage non-political photographs was not expected. One
possible explanation, however, is that amateur correspondents supply a relatively high
percentage of photographs to Chinese newspapers. Editors like to use their photographs to

"serve the people," to supplement images from their staff photographers, and to avoid

144

using the dull, serious images provided by Xinhua news agency. These local "freelance"
photographers are more interested in scenic spots, cultural festivals, art, and everyday life
than they are interested in political affairs. Therefore, a relatively high percentage of human
interest photographs are published.

Another surprise is that so few photographs, only 2.3 percent, directly concern political
affairs. (In the United States, the number is likely to be more than 30 percent.” This does
not mean that Chinese newspapers are not political or not concerned about political matters.
It indicates that pictures of political leaders appear infrequently. A few years after the death
of Mao Zedong, in the summer of 1980, the Central Committee issued a directive requiring
that less publicity be given leading cadres by the media. The directive was issued to inhibit
the building of future personality cults. According to Mac, history is not created by
individuals, but by the people, so commemoration of individuals fosters incorrect views.4
Perhaps as a reaction to this directive, Chinese publications avoid showing the faces of
political leaders every day.

Agenda of photographic coverage was also Studied to understand differences among
Chinese newspapers. Results Show that Chinaﬂaily and Emple'sﬂaily publish more
"cognitive" photographs than other newspapers, probably because they are national-level
newspapers of record. The two evening tabloids publish more "entertainment"
photographs than other newspapers, probably because they make greater efforts to provide
news desired by readers. Newspapers targeted to soldiers, workers and youth publish the
greatest percentage of "political-educational" photographs. These newspapers are
somewhat similar to trade jomnals in the United States except they are compelled to
motivate their audience, to encourage "model" behavior and to discourage behavior that
deviates from the interests of the group or the Party. The only surprise was the high
frequency of "cognitive" photographs published in Enjianﬂaily. This ﬁnding is

understandable, however, because the newspaper primarily serves rural areas of a poor

145

province, where news of economic developments would be important.

Differences among newspapers were apparent not only for agenda of photographs, but
also for values expressed in photographs. W1! and Libeiamnmnaily were
the most conservative. These newspapers are the ofﬁcial voices of the two most powerful
groups on Chinese society, the Party and the military, so they would be expected to
support the status quo. Chinaﬂaily was the most likely to publish photographs expressing
radical values. This newspaper is targeted to Western readers, so it was expected to
publish photographs expressing values more agreeable to people from capitalistic societies.
Eujianﬂaily and W published the most photographs without values.
This ﬁnding was expected for the evening tabloid because it must appeal to people in order
to maintain a high circulation and survive. XinminﬁymingNeiys can compete with other
media, which are provided free to work places, because it offers something different, and
photographs without values are part of that difference.

The main actors who appear in photographs were studied to learn who makes the news
and who is overlooked. As expected, results Show that male adults predominate in Chinese
photographs. One surprise concerning main actors is that youth seldom appeared in
photographs published by W. This ﬁnding might be different, however,
if the deﬁnition of "youth" was expanded to include anyone between the ages of 10 and 35.
Such a deﬁnition might be appropriate when studying the Chinese press.5 Another
surprise was that prominent people such as public ofﬁcials only appeared in 2.6 percent of
photographs. This is probably because the media is prohibited ﬂom giving much publicity
to Party leaders. A third surprise was that the majority of the population are farmers, yet
they appeared in only 6 percent of photographs. Farmers may be under-represented
because newspapers are targeted to urban readers. The Beijing Audience Study found that
twice as many newspapers readers live in urban areas than rural areas.6

Another rationale of this Study was to learn if a photographic bias existed that could

hmt the credibility of Chinese newspapers. Results indicated that no gender, age group or

146

occupation group was treated better than another. Moreover, all newspapers treated people
the same way. It appears, therefore, that newspapers are not biased in their coverage of
people. On the other hand, demographic characteristics of people in photographs did not
match demographic characteristics of the population. In addition, no group of people
appeared in an unfavorable light. This lack of balance could hurt newspapers' credibility.

Photographic coverage in nine newspapers published in February 1987 also appeared
somewhat ideological because it was framed to suit the needs of the Chinese Communist
Party. A substantial number of "education and indoctrination" photographs, for example,
were published to encourage people by showing a positive example, or, sometimes, to
warn people by showing a negative example. Almost no photographs, on the other hand,
Showed "violence" or any problems. Although only 17 percent of photographs expressed a
conservative value, another 42 percent expressed moderate or radical values. In addition,
44 percent of the photographs were posed, yet they were intended to appear natural.
Another 10 percent were posed without pretense. It is possible, therefore, that more than
50 percent of the photographs were manipulated by photojournalists to educate readers or
express a value.

One reason for the relatively high percentage of posed photographs may be that Chinese
journalists serve as intelligence gatherers for the Party elite. In the public mass media,
news must be overwhelmingly positive, but journalists can criticize and report serious
matters when making internal reports. These internal reports are important because they
inﬂuence government and Party policy-making. It is unclear whether or not the general
public is aware of the intelligence-gathering role of journalists. Lower-level Party cadres
certainly are aware, however, because they seek to sway journalists toward favorable
reporting by offering gifts.7 If people know that photojournalists are submitting
photographs and reports to the power elite, and that the information may convince someone

in a government or Party ofﬁce to take action, then they will undoubtedly seek to showcase

147

their strengths and obscure their weaknesses. Whenever a photojournalist appears, they
probably become very sensitive and automatically pose for the camera. Obtaining candid
photographs relating to economic or political news must be almost impossible for
photojournalists.

A second reason for the high percentage of posed images is that photojournalists use a
small amount of ﬁlm to complete assignments. Less ﬁlm may be used because their work
in a Spirit of cooperation with the people they photograph. Chinese photojournalists are
generally "invit " by people to take pictures and are willing to go along with people in
order to take pictures desired by editors. Chinese photojournalists may also use less ﬁlm
because they work together in a spirit of cooperation, not competition. Although some
competition between newspaper photojournalism staffs occurs in large Chinese cities,
individual photojournalists are not pushing themselves in order to get stronger portfolios
that can be used to obtain better jobs.

A third reason for posing subjects, of course, is to create technically superior images
that can be easily read without much "noise." Given the poor quality reproduction,
photographs must be well lit, and subjects must appear in the foreground or middle ground
without distracting background elements. Photographers might also pose subjects in order
to create unmistakable visual messages without ambiguities.

When examining individual newspapers, W appears to be more
ideological than the other newspapers. Of the 55 photographs published in W
in February, 44 percent concerned "education and indoctrination." A majority of its
photographs expressed a value, especially moderate values, and 70 percent of the
photographs were posed action or posed portraits.

In contrast, Chinaﬂaily seems the least ideological. The newspaper published more
photographs of economic news and world news than other subjects. When values were

expressed, they were as likely to be radical values as moderate or conservative values.

148

More than 61 percent of the photographs were judged to be candids. ChinaDaily,
therefore, seems more intent upon showing events inside and outside China, and it has
more leeway to publish photographs with radical values.

Another paper that avoids ideology is XimninﬂeningNesys, Almost two-thirds of its
pictures served an entertainment function, and half were candid pictures. Although a
substantial percentage of photographs expressed moderate values, they generally concerned
one particular value position. Because the newspaper published many pictures of actresses
and athletes, its pictures expressed the value, "individual intellectual or artistic achievement
is emphasized." Only 10 percent of W photographs expressed
conservative or radical value positions.

The main purpose of this investigation was to test two different theories of news
content. Six hypotheses were used to test the hegemony theory. Four of the hypotheses
were tested by determining the direction of photographs, journalists' treatment of people in
photographs, the values expressed in photographs and the style of photographs published
by nine newspapers in February 1987, a period of relative political stability. Two of the
hypotheses were tested by comparing photographs published by three newspapers during a
period of great reform and during a period of relative Stability.

Hla supported the hegemony theory. With only 3 percent of photographs showing
any type of problem or anything negative, readers undoubtedly received an upbeat (visual)
view of Chinese society. If the articles and cartoons communicated a similar positive view,
then newspaper readers might be persuaded that China's power elite are guiding the
country to happiness and prosperity. Of course, this message is part of the dominant
ideology. The power elite ensure that the media communicate this positive view through
direct and indirect control over journalists. Photojournalists practice self-censorship and
only take pictures of positive events.

Hlb also supported the hegemony theory. All people shown in photographs were

149

portrayed by journalists in a favorable or neutral manner. The dominant ideology was
supported not only because an upbeat view was created, but also because photojournalists
did not photograph anyone who challenged the power elite or their policies. Only people
who represent ideologically acceptable principles and who inspire others through their
positive example can be included within the ideological framework. From their political
training, photojournalists understand where to aim their cameras, and editors ensure that
only politically acceptable images are selected.

H 1c also supported the hegemony theory. Almost half the photographs expressed
values of conservative state and Party leaders or of moderate reformers. Again, this result
is supported by both the literature and by interviews with photojournalists. In China, news
is deﬁned as information that advances the goals and policies of the state and Party leaders.
Photographs are supposed to reﬂect ideological values. Photographs are not supposed to
challenge the status quo.

Perhaps of even greater signiﬁcance is that H2a and H2b supported the hegemony
theory. Although there was only ﬁve months difference between the sample of
photographs, the changing political situation had a signiﬁcant effect on the subject matter
and direction of photographs. During the reform period, newspapers published more
"political affairs" and "violence" pictures, and when the conservatives were regaining
control, they published more "economic news" and "world news" pictures. Newspapers
also published more "negative" pictures during the reform period. This indicates that
newspapers were more likely to take risks when the dominant ideology was changing than
when the dominant ideology was being reinforced.

The changing political situation also had an effect on the values expressed in
photographs. Newspapers published more photographs without values during the reform
period, and they published more photographs expressing conservative or radical values in
February 1987. Newspapers were expected to challenge the dominant ideology in a period

150

of reform by publishing photographs expressing radical values. Instead, they indirectly
challenged the power elite by serving readers more than politics. Readers were served by
publishing photographs without values instead of photographs with conservative values.

Newspapers were also expected to publish more photographs expressing conservative
values in February, which was supposed to be a period of stability. Instead, they
published photographs that reﬂected both conservative and radical values. A post-hoe
explanation for this ﬁnding is that February 1987 was a time of great instability rather than
stability, and news content reﬂected the ideological struggle. Struggles between reformers
and conservatives throughout 1987 and 1988 support this explanation.8

In order to assert hegemonic control, news was expected to be more controlled than
spontaneous, yet this did not occur, and Hld was rejected. This ﬁnding can be explained,
however, by examining why photographs were posed or not. Pictures concerning "sports
new" or "life and people" need not be controlled because they seldom yield a political or
educational message. Photographs of "political affairs" and "education and indoctrination"
were ﬂequently posed because they served a political or educational function. Whenever
necessary, therefore, presentation of news was controlled.

Although photographic news was not as controlled as expected, results of ﬁve of the
six hypotheses supported the hegemony theory. At the time of this study, the power elites'
authority was great enough to control the media. The ideology of the political system was
circulated by newspapers in order to win the consent of the population. Newspaper
photographs were part of the dominant ideology.

Eleven hypotheses were used to test the economic theory of Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld.
Four of the hypotheses concerned newspapers ﬁnanced by "ofﬁcial" sources, four
concerned papers ﬁnanced by a combination of "ofﬁcial" and "commercial" sources, and
three concerned newspapers ﬁnanced by both "ofﬁcial" and "interest" sources.

Results generally indicated that content of newspapers ﬁnanced by "ofﬁcial" sources

did not reﬂect the ideologies of governmental bodies signiﬁcantly more than content of

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newspapers with other sources of ﬁnancing. According to H3a, fewer photographs were
expected to appear in "ofﬁcial" newspapers. The reasoning was that "ofﬁcial" newspapers
would not need to publish photographs because they would not seek to attract readers.
Moreover, "ofﬁcal" newspapers would be more concerned with communicating issues than
showing events. As expected, fewer photographs were published in "ofﬁcial" newspapers
than in "ofﬁcial-commercial" papers. On the other hand, the same number of photographs
were published in "ofﬁcial" and "ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers. This result is somewhat
consistent with Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's theory because both "ofﬁcial" and "ofﬁcial-
interest" newspapers appeal to a narrow, captive audience concerned more with issues than
events. In China, both types of newspapers reﬂect similar ideologies; therefore, they
published similar numbers of photos.

H3b supported the economic theory. More subjects of concern to state and Party
leaders were published in "ofﬁcial" newspapers. For example, almost all the "political
affairs" photographs appeared in these papers.

According to H3c, more photographs expressing values of ofﬁcials were expected to
appear in "ofﬁcial" newspapers. The reasoning was that journalists working for "ofﬁcial"
newspapers would cooperate with ofﬁcials to educate the public by taking photographs
expressing ofﬁcial values. Ofﬁcial values would be either "conservative" or "moderate"
because these values underlay the political, economic and social status quo. The ﬁndings,
however, did not support this line of reasoning. Instead, "ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers
expressed the greatest percentage of "conservative" values. Photographs in newspapers
such as Wildly and mm were more likely than other papers to
preach that people should help others and suppress selﬁsh inclinations. Photographs in
these two newspapers also emphasized political or military achievements, and they showed
that government would take care of people. The conservative nature of these papers was

supported by interviews with photojournalists, who said they acted under editors'

152

restrictions.

The hypothesis was also rejected because "ofﬁcial" newspapers published a relatively
high percentage of photographs with "radical" values. This ﬁnding occurred because 24
percent of the photographs in Xiamenﬂaily expressed "radical" values. While it is true that
Xiamenﬂaily is an "ofﬁcial" newspaper, it is also a local newspaper, which may mean
there is less ideological control by the power elite at the national level. In addition, Xiamen
Daily is published in a special economic zone, which is an area designated by the
government for experimenting with the market system of economics rather than the socialist
system. It is reasonable to expect that a newspaper published in a special economic zone
would publish photographs expressing "radical" economic values.

According to H3d, more posed photographs were expected in "ofﬁcial" newspapers.
The reasoning was that news would be controlled because journalistic objectivity would be
less important at "ofﬁci " newspapers. Photojournalists would manipulate situations in
order to clearly present an ofﬁcial point of view. Results, however, showed that all three
types of newspapers published relatively the same percentages of posed photographs.
From the literature and interviews, it is clearly established that photojournalists pose
people, so the coding instrument has validity. Moreover, reliability for coding the "style of
presentation" category was high. The implication of this ﬁnding, therefore, is that the
ﬁnancing of newspapers is unrelated to the degree of control photojournalists exercise over
their subjects.

The hypotheses related to "ofﬁcial" newspapers may have received mixed support
because "ofﬁcial" and "ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers were more similar than different. The
Chinese Communist Youth League, which owns W, is part of the Chinese
Communist Party. It could be considered an "ofﬁcial" newspaper supporting the dominant
ideology rather than an "interest" newspaper supporting youth. The ideas and values in

W, an organ of the All China Federation of Trade Unions, are so consonant

153

with the dominant ideology, that it also could be considered an "ofﬁcial" newspaper. Even
the We which is an organ of the People's Liberation Army, could be
considered an "official" newspaper because at the time of this study, the military and
government elites were cooperating closely, and they shared the same ideas and values.

Results generally indicated that content of newspapers ﬁnanced by "ofﬁcial-
commercial" sources reﬂected the ideologies of audiences and advertisers. These
newspapers published more photographs than newspapers with other sources of ﬁnancing.
They also published more photographs of subjects and values that would be of interest to
readers and advertisers. Because H4a, H4b and H4c were supported, the economic
theory of Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld became credible. "Ofﬁcial-commercial" newspapers did
not, however, publish more candid photographs, so H4d was not supported. Again, this
ﬁnding indicates that the ﬁnancing of newspapers is unrelated to the degree of control
photojournalists exercise over their subjects.

Results generally indicated that content of newspapers ﬁnanced by "ofﬁcial-interest"
sources did not reﬂect the ideologies of the interest groups. According to HSa, more
specialized photographic content was expected to appear in "ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers.
These newspapers would be targeted to a speciﬁc group rather than a general audience, and
editors would tailor content to appeal to the group. The ﬁndings, however, did not support
this line of reasoning. Instead, "ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers published photographs with
a broad range of subject matter. They also published photographs showing a broad range
of people. WDaily showed more laborers than other papers, and My
Daily showed more soldiers, yet overall these newspapers provided a relatively balanced
view of society. Perhaps the three "ofﬁcial-interest" papers, with their circulations near
one million apiece, are not good examples of "interest" papers. Photographically, they
served their "ofﬁcial" sponsors (the power elite), more than their special interests (laborers,

soldiers or youth). They sought a broad consensus within Chinese society rather than

154

pursuing narrow goals of special interest groups.

According to HSb, speciﬁc special interests were expected to be depicted more
favorably in "ofﬁcial-interest" papers than in other types of newspapers. Objectivity at
"special-interest" papers would be less important than journalists' personal attitudes
towards people and events. According to the ﬁndings, however, all Chinese newspapers
published photographs that depicted people in a neutral or favorable manner. The
implication is that the ﬁnancing of newspapers is unrelated to the depiction of Speciﬁc
groups of people. "Ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers can serve their speciﬁc groups, but not at
the expense of other groups, or in contradiction to the ideas and values of the power elite.
They cannot deviate too far from the mainstream "ofﬁcial" press.

HSc supported the economic theory. More "posed action" than "candid" photographs
were published, yet the difference was not great.

Overall, results concerning "official-interest" newspapers did NOT support Shoemaker
and Mayﬁeld's theory. Again, the reason may be due to the similarities among "ofﬁcial"
and "ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers.

The hegemony theory better explained the results of the content analysis because
political control of the media was so strong in the late 1980s. Both political ideology and
the news media could be studied as system-wide variables. In the future, however, broad-
scale sociological theories such as hegemony may not adequately explain news content in a
country like China, where more than 2,500 newspapers are published. As the Party's _
political and economic control wanes, media will gain increased autonomy. Variations in
news content will follow. To explain the variations, researchers will need to adopt
Altschull's economic model and study within-country variation in media ﬁnancing and
content. Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's theory is useful because the ideology of media
ﬁnanciers can be measm'ed on a variety of levels, including the inﬂuences of advertisers,

audiences and owners. Because individual ideological inﬂuences of any and all ﬁnanciers

155

of the mass media are included, their theory will better explain news content.

The literature review, interviews and content analysis clearly Showed the increasing
importance of economic forces on the news media in China. Journalists' desires for
professionalism and for providing readers with objective accounts of the news also
increased, at least until June 1989. As a result, the evening tabloids and W
published photographs with more entertainment and less ideology. If elites' grip upon the
media lessens, then diversity of content and values should increase, and differences
between types of newspapers should become clearer.

In addition to providing a general understanding of newspaper photography in China
and testing two theories of news content, this study is signiﬁcant because it provides a new
method for analyzing the meaning of photographs. Previous studies had coded
photographs using subject matter categories and direction categories. Previous studies had
also examined the gender and occupation of people who appear in photographs. This
study, however, participates in the development of a scale for measuring journalists'
treatment (representation) of people. Several subject, form and context elements, each with
potential connotative meaning, were described Coders were then asked NOT to weigh
each element equally, but to use their judgment to code each photograph as favorable,
neutral or unfavorable. It seems reasonable that relying upon coders' judgment of the
overall connotational meaning is more valid than summing scale scores for each subject,
form and context element. Proving this assumption, however, will have to wait for future
studies.

Attempting to measure ideological meaning of newspaper photographs was considered
important by the author, and existing methods for analyzing photographs were not
considered adequate. The most important contribution of this Study may be development of
instruments and procedures for determining both the values and style of photographs. This
methodology was developed to infer whether or not photographs were ﬂamed out of

ideologicalconsiderations.

156

Nine value categories, each with three value positions, were used to infer the values of
people who determine news content. One could argue against the validity of any of the 27
different value positions coded for this study, but when these 27 positions were collapsed
into four type of value categories, a valid coding instrument was created. By comparing
photographic values in one publication with values in another publication, and by comparing
photographic values in one time period with values of another period, more solid inferences
can be made about the people who produce and select news content. The ability to code
photographic values should also help researchers who seek to measure the effects of
photographs. I

Four style categories were used to infer whether or not photojournalists controlled the
subject matter in ﬂont of their camera lenses. Coders were asked to judge a photograph as a
"posed portrait," "posed action," "candid," or "ambiguous photo." Of course, all
photographs taken by photojournalists (in contrast to "authorless" photographs taken by
automatic cameras) are controlled to some extent. Photojournalists decide upon the ﬁlm,
lens, aperture, shutter speed, camera position, camera angle, etc. These categories were
developed, however, to determine whether photojournalists went beyond standard,
"objective" news reporting practices. The ability to code photojournalists' style of
presentation should help researchers infer whether or not photojournalists intentionally
manipulated a scene in order to make a point. Researchers may also wish to compare the
effectiveness of "posed action" and "candi " photographs.

As noted in the introduction chapter, a general understanding of newspaper
photography in China was limited because only nine out of 2,500 newspapers were
studied. On the other hand, this sample is larger than many other investigations of Chinese

newspapers. Few people have been able to study W or local
newspapers such as W.

In the future, other researchers might obtain a random sample of newspapers, including

157

papers targeted at peasants and students, and specialty newspapers, in order to gain a better
understanding of differences among newspapers. The sample of newspapers could also be
improved if newspapers ﬂom special economic zones were excluded. There is some doubt
whether XiamenDaily was characteristic of city-level "official" newspapers. With more
information about the ﬁnancial support of Chinese newspapers, and with more newspapers
achieving ﬁnancial independence, the selection of "commercial" newspapers could be
improved. ChinaDaily may not be characteristic of the "ofﬁcial-commercial" category
because it is targeted to Western readers. Finally, more information about the ownership
and ﬁnancing of "interest" newspapers such as W is needed in order to
more effectively test Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's economic theory of news content.

This study was also limited by the author's inability to speak Chinese and the changing
political climate. Although a year was spent studying Chinese, the amount of time was
inadequate. Researchers who Speak Chinese could interview photojomnalists and editors
directly and perhaps obtain more detailed, meaningful responses. Researchers who have
more time and who work during a period of "openness" may be able to observe Chinese
photojournalists and editors at work in order to better determine inﬂuences on the
production and selection of photographs. Further professional and academic exchanges
between China and the United States might beneﬁt photojournalists from both countries as
the advantages and disadvantages of different journalistic routines are understood.

The author's lack of applicable theory, hypotheses or method before arriving in China
and collecting data was also a handicap. A "general understanding" was sought rather than
answers to speciﬁc questions because too little was known about photography in China to
ask appropriate questions. Coding categories to measure the agenda, depiction and
ideology of photographic coverage were established upon the author's return ﬂom China.

In the future, researchers may improve the subject matter categories, especially the

"education and indoctrination," and "violence" categories, which upon hindsight appear too

158

vague. "Type of picture" categories may also be improved as researchers learn more about
photojournalism in China. "Violence" subject matter, for example, may not serve a
cognitive function in China. Researchers may improve the depiction categories by
specifying why a person in a photograph was treated in a favorable, neutral or unfavorable
manner. The value and style categories can also be improved with further validity and
reliability testing. Understanding of meaning will greatly improve when researchers ask
Chinese newspaper readers what photographs mean. Such work is underway with many
types of texts and audiences, but it was impossible to conduct for this investigation.

Another limitation was that theories of news content were tested using only newspaper
photographs. This was done because the author's primary interest is photojournalism.
Other researchers, however, may examine the articles as well as photographs of different
types of newspapers in order to determine whether news content is determined by the
dominant ideology or the ideology of those who ﬁnance the media. These researchers may
be able to conﬁrm the interview data that reporters have more freedom than photojournalism
when reporting the news. If so, then researchers may ask why the power elite have greater
control over photojournalists.

As noted in the introduction, another limitation was that only three newspapers were
used to test the effects of Situation on photographic content, and the situation was not as
dramatic as desired. Future studies could investigate the effects of the June 4 ﬁghting in
Tiananmen Square upon the content of several newspapers in order to better test the
hegemony theory.

In summary, this Study concludes that Chinese newspaper photographic content is
determined by the dominant ideology of the the power elite. Although a substantial
percentage of photographs served an entertainment function, political inﬂuence was
pervasive. Only positive or neutral views of events and people were presented to readers.

Moreover, almost half the photographs expressed values of the power elite. The best

159

evidence to support the hegemony theory was that when the dominant ideology changed,
photographic content reﬂected the changes.

Another important conclusion of this Study was that political control was waning, and
economic forces were having increasing inﬂuence upon Chinese newspaper photographic
content. The hypotheses related to "ofﬁcial-commercial" newspapers explained some of
the variation in photographic content, and therefore supported Shoemaker and Mayﬁeld's
economic theory of news content. The hypotheses related to "ofﬁcial" and "ofﬁcial-
interest" newspapers may not have been supported because the two types of newspapers
received funding from sources with similar ideological positions. The similarities between

the two types of papers may have been greater than the differences.

160

Whittier;

1 Michael W. Singletary, "Newspaper Photographs: A Content Analysis, 1936-1976,"
Jeumalismﬂianeﬂy 55 (Autumn 1978): 585-589.

2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Jacobson. W P- 158-

5 Conversation with Zhan g Kangcong, a graduate student at the University of South
Carolina who coded the photographs, February 1991.

6 Womack, "Media and the Chinese Public," pp. 32-36.

7 Jennifer Grant, "Internal Reporting by Investigative Journalists in China and its
Inﬂuence on Government Policy," Gazene 41 (1988): 53-65.

9 See Polumbaum, "Of the Party, By the Party and For the Party."

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A
INSTRUCTIONS TO CODERS

l. Recoding the newspaper categories.
8. "Ofﬁcial" newspapers include W1! Eujianllaill and Xiamerlllaill

b. "Ofﬁcial-interest" newspapers include Bilgran'en Army Daily, W9rker's Daily,
and W-

c. "Ofﬁcial-commercial" newspapers include Beijing Evening News, Xinmin
EleninaNcm, and Chinallailx.
2. Coding the context of photographs.

Examine each photograph and the surrounding articles to determine the context of the
photograph.

a. The "stand alone" category includes photographs that are not directly related
to written articles on the page.

b. The "accompanied" category includes photographs that are related to an article
about the same subject. .

3. Coding the subject matter of photographs.

Reexamine each photograph and read the caption to learn what the photo is about
Answers to the following questions should help you categorize the subject matter of the
photographs: What is the theme of the photo? Why is the photo newsworthy? Do
NOT look at headlines or articles surrounding photographs in order to determine the
appropriate subject category.

a. A "world news" category includes all photos taken outside of the People's
Republic of China other than photographs of Chinese people who have temporarily
traveled abroad. It includes photos of PLA soldiers serving outside of China.

If the photograph was coded as "world news," then you should stop coding and
proceed to the next photograph.

161

162

b. An "economic news" category includes all photos showing production,
distribution and sale of goods as well as the people and infrastructure involved in
routine economic activity. In includes photos of agriculture, husbandry, forestry, rural
‘ or urban industry, factories, or markets in China. It also includes pictures of farmers,
laborers, and businessmen. It also includes photos of new highways, bridges,
buildings, factories and shipyards.

c. A "science and animals" category includes all photos showing Chinese
advances in science and medicine. Pictures of new technological or medical equipment,
new procedures and other advances in efﬁciency, skill and knowledge belong in this
category rather than "economic news." It includes pictures of space, and intermediate
users of energy and communications. It includes portraits of scientists, doctors and
nurses. It also includes photos of animals in China.

(1. A " violence" category includes all photographs Showing social and political
conﬂicts such as demonstrations, protests, terrorism, scandals, court actions, strikes
and riots. It includes pictures of armed conflicts such as military operations, guerrilla
warfare, and terrorist activities. It also includes pictures of disasters and accidents such
as airplane crashes, earthquakes, ﬁres, refugees and suicides.

e. A "political affairs" category includes all photos of an overtly political
nature. It includes photos related to the public activities of government leaders and
Chinese Communist Party leaders, including government meetings, negotiations and
elections.

f. An " education and indoctrination" category includes all photographs
showing military or civilian people studying in school or training in an organized
manner. It includes pictures of people informally talking about their experiences and
values.

g. A "travel and culture and art" category includes all photos showing
popular tourist destinations in China, including places with natural beauty or historical
Signiﬁcance. It also includes pictures of nature, including landscapes and ﬂowers. It
includes all photos showing scenes from operas, movies or plays. It includes all
erganieen forms of social or cultural entertainment. It includes portraits of musicians,
singers, artists, actors, and entertainers. It also includes photos of the various minority
nationalities of China emphasizing the literature, culture, religion, or dress of
minorities.

h. A "sports news" category includes all photos of competitive sports,
recreational sports, or popular exercise. It also includes pictures of athletes and
athletic teams.

i. A "life and people" category includes all human interest photographs

163

showing Chinese people relaxing, pursuing hobbies, or doing other typical activities of
daily life. It includes photos of people recognized for achievements that are not
political, economic or scientiﬁc. Amateur athletes and amateur artists or entertainers
should be included, but not people whose careers are related to athletics, culture or art.
It also includes portraits if they Show people as individuals.

j. An "other" category includes all photographs that could not ﬁt one of the
previous nine subject categories.

3. Receding the subject matter categories.
a. "Cognitive" subjects include economic news, science & animals and violence.

b. "Political—educational" subjects include political affairs and education &
indoctrination.

c. "Entertainment-aesthetic" subjects include travel & culture & art, sports news
and life & people.

4. Coding direction of the subject matter.

Examine the photograph and read the caption to learn whether the photograph concerns
negative or non-negative news.

a. A "negative" category includes all photos showing negative news, including
imperfections, bad inﬂuences, immorality, or hurtfulness in China. If some venture
was unsuccessful, or if an accident occurred, code it as "negative." Even if the
photograph shows how people help others after a disaster, or it is has some other type
of positive "spin," the picture is still negative because something negative happened
before the improvements, corrections or help began.

b. A "non-negative" category includes all photos showing neutral or positive
news.

5. Coding values that are reflected in photographs.

Nine different values are listed below. Please study all nine values and then examine
each photograph to determine whether or not one of these values is expressed by the
photograph or caption. If none of the values is expressed, then code (4) for each value
category. If one of the values is expressed, then decide which of the three value
positions is most appropriate and code (1), (2), or (3). You should code a value if it
could be inferred by viewing the image, AND the inference is conﬁrmed in the
accompanying caption. A value is also coded if it is explicitly Stated in a caption. Do
NOT look at headlines or articles surrounding photos in order to determine the

164

appropriate value position. If two or more of the values are expressed by a single
photograph (an unlikely occurrence), then choose the most important value and decide
which of the value positions is most appropriate.

a. The category "ownership of property" has three value positions:
(1) Public ownership of the means of production is encouraged (2) A mixed system
of private and public ownership is encouraged, although public ownership should
remain dominant. (3) Private ownership and the sanctity of private property rights is
encouraged. Individual and private enterprises should ﬂourish, and experiments with
the sale of stocks Should be conducted.

b. The category " role of the market" has three value positions: (1) Central
planning in all sectors of the economy is necessary. (2) The market is an important, if
limited, supplementary mechanism to state planning. Operation of the market is
restricted to agricultural goods and a few small manufactured products. (3) The market
is the most important mechanism for the allocation of goods and services and the
determination of prices. Even land and labor are exchangeable commodities on the
marketplace.

c. The category " incentive to work" has three value positions: ( 1) No material
reward is needed when serving society--helping others and suppression of selﬁsh
inclinations are most important People are asked to recall the communist ideals of self-
sacriﬁce, ﬂ'ugality, hard work, and plain living as practiced by veteran comrades and
the Red Army in order to achieve collective progress. (2) Some wage different-iation is
needed as reﬂected in the slogan "to each according to his work." (3) Big bonuses and
big spending will stimulate worker enthusiasm. "To get rich is good." Material
beneﬁts, competition and self-interest are emphasized

d. The category of " criteria for sOcial status" has three value positions:
(1) Political achievement or military distinction is emphasized. The achievements of
Party cadres and soldiers are spotlighted as positive examples for others. (2) Individual
intellectual, artistic or athletic achievement is emphasized The achievements of
educators, artists and others who serve the country, but not in a political, military or
economic manner, are spotlighted. (3) Productive output or accumulation of wealth in
the private sector is emphasized. The ﬁnancial successes of entrepreneurs and families
are spotlighted.

e. The category " degree of reliance" has three value positions: (1) Government
will take care of people who cannot care for themselves. (2) People rely upon others in
their community, rather than government or family. (3) People rely on their family for
help--they use their own initiative and capacities to accomplish tasks.

f. The category " culture" has three value positions: (1) Chinese culture should
serve socialism and avoid bourgeois ideas and values. In the arts, there should be
greater fealty to principles of socialist realism. There is a fear of "total Westemization"

165

and "bourgeois liberalization." (2) Some ideological constraints on culture should be
relaxed, but general guidelines must remain. Ideology should not stiﬂe Chinese art, or
distort scientiﬁc inquiry or hamper the objective consideration of policy questions, but
political education is still needed (3) Chinese culture must be allowed to ﬂourish
without ideological considerations, and cultural contacts with capitalist countries should
be encomaged. China's culture can be modernized only if it rejects most of its past
"feudal" and "small peasant" traditions and absorbs Western values and institutions.

g. The category of "indoctrination of youth" has three value positions:
(1) Political or military leaders should be responsible for transmitting China's ideals to
young people. (2) Nonpolitical institutions should take chief responsibility for
transmitting ideals to youth. (3) Indoctrination of young people may be overdone and
limit independent and creative thinking.

h. The category "freedom of thought" has three value positions: (1) There is
only one truth, political in character, needed to shape public opinion. Freedom of
speech, literary creation and publication must adhere to the "four cardinal principles."
(2) Freedom of thought should be limited to literary, scientiﬁc and technical questions.
These questions should be addressed on their merits, without regard to ideological
considerations. (3) Even political matters and previously forbidden subjects should be
discussed freely. A second "blooming and contending" is not possible if academic and
literary subjects are separated from political subjects.

i. The category "political power" has three value positions: (1) everyone
should uphold the "four cardinal principles" and not challenge Party authority.
National unity, obedience to the Party, and Party discipline are required. (2) The
power of the Party must be reduced--Party leaders should consult more with others and
interfere less in day-to-day operations. Party secretaries should relinquish power to
give managers more freedom to run their operations. (3) Political pluralization is
needed Multiple parties and direct, contested elections are needed so that political
legitimacy is derived from consent of the governed.

6. Receding the value categories.
a. "Conservative" values include all of the (1) value positions.
b. "Moderate" values include all of the (2) value positions.
c. "Radical" values include all of the (3) value positions.

(I. "No value" photographs include all pictures that were coded (4) and that do not
reﬂect any value positions.

166

7. Coding the main actor(s) in photographs.

Examine each photograph and read the caption to identify the main actor(s). A main
actor(s) is either the person(s) performing an activity, or the person(s) most prominent
in the photograph. If there are no people in the photograph, or they are irrelevant to the
meaning, then stop coding and proceed to the next photograph.

a. First code the gender of the main actor(s). If the main actor(s) are males, then
code "male." If they are females, then code "female." If the photograph has two or
more people who are considered main actors, and if the main actors include males and
females, then code "both genders." If the genders cannot be recognized by viewing
the photographs, and the genders cannot be determined by reading the caption, then
code "unrecognized gender."

b. Second code the approximate age of the main actor(s). If the main actor(s)
appear to be 1-12 years old, then code as "children." If the main actor(s) appear to
be 13-25 years old, then code as "youth." If they appear to be 26-60, then code as
"adults." If they appear to be older than 60, then code as "elderly." If the ages of
the main actors cannot ﬁt one of these four categories, then code " mixed age
groups." If the approximate ages cannot be determined, then code " unrecognized
ageSJ'

c. Third code the occupation of the main actor(s). " Public ofﬁcials" include
government leaders or Party employees at all levels. "Soldiers and police" include
military troops and officers. "Professionals" include biologists, chemists,
physicists, engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists, doctors, nurses, and cther
white-collar workers employed by the state. " Laborers" include factory workers,
machine operators, foremen, mine workers, and other blue-collar workers employed by
the state in rural or urban industry. " Entrepreneurs" include all people who are self-
employed except farmers. "Intellectuals" include educators, students and social
scientists who work in the ﬁelds of anthropology, economics, history, psychology,
and sociology. " Farmers" include people who live and work in the countryside
unless they are involved in rural industry. "Entertainers" include artists, sports
ﬁgures, singers, actors, and acrobats. "No occupation" include children, youth and
elderly who are too young or too old to have an occupation. It also includes people
whose picture was taken in order to create a human interest photograph rather than to
emphasize his or her occupation. It also includes people with unrecognized
occupations or occupations that do not ﬁt the above categories.

8. Coding journalists' treatment of the main actor(s).

Examine the "subject," "form" and "context" connotations of each photograph to
evaluate journalists' treatment of main actor(s). "Subject" connotations are based upon
a main actor(s)' facial expressions, gestures and bodily posture, as well as main
actor(s)' behavior, any symbolic objects, and the setting. "Form" connotations are

167

based upon the lighting, camera angle and scale used to photograph the main actor(s).
"Context" connotations are based upon the caption that accompanies most every photo.

a. Examine the main actor(s)' facial expressions, gestures, and bodily
posture to determine if the connotations are favorable, neutral or unfavorable. For
example, a cheerful conﬁdent facial expression is likely to be evaluated more favorably
than an unhappy or worried one. Vivacious hand and arm movements may be
evaluated more favorably than hands and arms at rest. An erect posture is more
favorable than a bowed torso, which tends to communicate feelings of defeat or
dejection.

b. Examine the main actor(s)' behavior for positive, neutral or negative
connotations. For example, depending upon the context, people helping others, talking
with others, playing, or studying may be evaluated favorably. On the other hand,
pictures of ﬁghting, arguing, working (too hard) and suffering may be evaluated
unfavorably.

c. Examine the objects in a photograph and the setting of a photograph for
positive, neutral or negative connotations about the main actor(s). For example,
harvested crops and new machinery are symbolic of success and indicate favorable
evaluations. Guns and barbed wire are symbolic of problems and indicate unfavorable
evaluations. Parks and schools are more favorable settings than courtrooms and
prisons.

(1. Examine the form of the content to see if it conveys positive, neutral or
negative connotations about the main actor(s). For example, light can be used to ﬂatter
a person or make them look ominous. People photographed from a high camera angle
appear less important than people photographed from a low camera angle. Long shots
may convey a colder, more aloof mood about people than close-ups of their faces.

e. Finally read each captions to learn if positive, neutral or negative connotations
are expressed about the main actor(s). Adjectives and adverbs describing a person or a
person's actions may indicate bias.

f. After considering the "subject," "form" and "context" connotations, decide
whether the overall treatment of the main actor(s) was favorable, neutral, or
unfavorable. The subject, form and context elements need not be weighted equally.
You should be sensitive to the meaning of a photograph and use your judgment to code
it on a three-point scale.

9. Coding the style of presentation.

Again examine each photograph to determine whether the style of presentation is posed
or candid. '

168

a. If the photo shows people staring directly into the camera, and if there is no
pretense about posing for the camera, then the style of presentation is " posed portrait."

b. If the photograph Shows people who are not Staring into the camera, but they
seemed engaged in an activity arranged by the photographer or the main actor(s), then it is a
"posed action" photograph. In "posed action" photographs, people are smiling, the
arrangement of the people is "perfect," and the lighting, composition and camera angle

appear "perfect"

c. If the photograph shows people who appear completely unaware of the camera,
and if the lighting, composition and camera angle do not appear "perfect," then it is a
" candid photo."

d. If the coder cannot determine which of the above categories best applies, then it
is an "ambiguous photo."

APPENDDI B
CODING FORM
. In which month did the newspaper photograph appear?
1. September 1986 2. February 1987
. In which newspaper did the photo appear?
1. People's Daily 4. Liberation Army Daily 7. Beijing Evening News
2. Fujian Daily 5. Worker's Daily 8. Xinmin Evening News
3. Xiamen Daily 6. China Youth News 9. China Daily

. Recode the newspaper categories to create a type of newspaper variable.
1. "Ofﬁcial" 2. "Ofﬁcial-interest" 3. "Ofﬁcial-commercial"

. What is the context of the photograph?
1. Stand alone 2. Accompanied

. What is the subject of the photograph?

1. World news 4. Violence 7. Travel & culture & art
2. Economic news 5. Political affairs 8. Sports news
3. Science & animals 6. Education & indoctrination 9. Life & people

10. Other

. Recode the subject categories to create a type of subject variable.
1. Cognitive 2. Political-educational 3. Entertainment-aesthetic

. What is the direction of the subject matter?
1. Negative 2. Non-negative

. If a value is expressed about ownership of property, then what is the value position?
1. Public ownership of the means of production is encouraged.

2. A mixed system of private and public ownership is encouraged.

3. Private ownership and the sanctity of private property rights is encouraged.

4. No value position concerning ownership of property is expressed in the photo.

I. If a value is expressed about role of the market, then what is the value position?

1. Central planning in all sectors of the economy is necessary.

2. The market is an important, if limited, supplementary mechanism to state planning.
3. The market should be the most important mechanism controlling the economy.

4. No value position concerning role of the market is expressed in the photo.

169

170

J. If a value is expressed about incentive to work, then what is the value position?
1. No material reward is needed when serving society.
2. Some wage differentiation is needed as in the slogan "to each according to his work."
3. Big bonuses and big spending will stimulate worker enthusiasm; "to get rich is good'
4. No value position concerning incentive to work is expressed in the photo.

K. If a value is expressed about criteria for social status, then what is the position?
1. Political achievement or military distinction is emphasized
2. Individual intellectual, artistic or athletic achievement is emphasized
3. Productive output or accumulation of wealth in the private sector is emphasized
4. No value position concerning criteria for social status is expressed in the photo.

L. If a value is expressed about degree of reliance, then what is the value position?
1. Government will take care of people who cannot care for themselves.
2. People will rely upon others in their community, rather than on government or family.
3. People rely on their family for help; they use their own initiative capacities.
4. No value position concerning degree of reliance is expressed in the photo.

M. If a value is expressed about culture, then what is the value position?
1. Chinese culture should serve socialism and avoid bourgeois ideas and values.
2. Some ideological constraints should be relaxed, but general guidelines must remain.
3. Chinese culture must be allowed to ﬂourish without ideological considerations.
4. No value position concerning culture is expressed in the photo.

N. If a value is expressed about indoctrination of youth, then what is the position?
1. Political or military leaders are responsible for transmitting China's ideals to youth.
2. Nonpolitical institutions Should take chief responsibility for transmitting ideals to
youth.
3. Indoctrination of young people may be overdone and limit independent thinking.
4. No value position concerning indoctrination of youth is expressed in the photo.

0. If a value is expressed about freedom of thought, then what is the value position?
1. There is only one truth, political in character, needed to Shape public opinion.
2. Freedom of thought should be limited to literary, scientiﬁc and technical questions.
3. Even political matters and previously forbidden subjects should be discussed freely.
4. No value position concerning freedom of thought is expressed in the photo.

P. If a value is expressed about political power, then what is the value position?
1. Everyone Should uphold the "four cardinal principles" & not challenge Party
authority.
2. The power of the Party must be reduced.
3. Political pluralization is needed.
4. No value position concerning political power is expressed in the photo.

171

Q. Recode the value categories to create a type of value variable.
1. Conservative 2. Moderate 3. Radical 4. No value

R. What is the gender of the main actor(s) appearing in the photo?
1. Male 2. Female 3. Both gender 4. Unrecognized gender

S. What is the age group of the main actor(s) appearing in the photo?
1. Children 3. Adults 5. Mixed age groups
2. Youth 4. Elderly 6. Unrecognized ages

T. What is the occupation of the main actor(s) appearing in the photo?
1. Public ofﬁcials 4. Laborers 7. Farmers
2. Soldiers and police 5. Entrepreneurs 8. Entertainers
3. Professionals 6. Intellectuals 9. No occupation

U. How would you describe journalists' treatment of the main actor(s) in the photo?
1. Favorable 2. Neutral 3. Unfavorable

V. What is the style of the photograph?
1. Posed portrait 2. Posed action 3. Candid photo 4. Ambiguous photo

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Bacterium 6 (1986): 7-9.

HIGH 6 IES

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