Ying cites the stabbing of an American at the Drum Tower in Beijing during the Olympics. Instead of covering up the incident, state-run media led coverage, forcing market-driven media to follow with pick-ups.

This evolution is just one of the developments in China’s media highlighted in a collection of fifteen essays from some of China’s top journalists recently published by Hong Kong University. (Chinese-language only for now, but more of the trends in the below video.)

The essayists, all guest speakers at the HKU China Media Project, write on topics ranging from from the launch of Southern Weekend to the rise of the Chinese weblog.

From David Bandurski:

Chapters in the book include: “Launching Southern Weekend,” by Zuo Fang; “Ten Years at Caijing,” an account of one of China’s leading business and current affairs magazines by its founder and editor in chief, Hu Shuli; “Libel Law in China,” and account by lawyer Pu Zhiqiang of the history of libel in China and his observations based on defendants he has represented; “Rebuilding and Renewal in China,” an essay by political reform activist and scholar Chen Ziming; “Gradual Reform in China’s Media,” observations on changes in China’s media by veteran journalist Yang Jisheng.

Chan’s honours include a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, a George Polk Award for journalistic excellence and an International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists. She taught
at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and was on the board of the Asian American Journalists Association. Chan has a bachelor’s degree (social sciences) from HKU and a Masters from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Source: Journalism and Media Studies Centre, The University of Hong Kong