Contextualization: A Path to Chinese Traditional News Media’s Integration Into Social Media

Difan Guo, Haiyan Wang and Jinghong Xu
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Difan Guo: School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing Normal University, China
Haiyan Wang: Department of Communication, University of Macau, Macao SAR, China
Jinghong Xu: School of Journalism and Communication, Beijing Normal University, China

Media and Communication, 2024, vol. 12

Abstract: Meyrowitz’s media context theory proposes that new media and their contexts will lead to new behaviors. This article adopts media context theory as a framework and utilizes a textual analysis approach to analyze what Meyrowitz termed middle region behaviors and the contextualization strategies of the traditional Chinese news media ( People’s Daily ) on the social media platform Weibo. The findings reveal three of People’s Daily ’s Weibo news’ innovation strategies: the middle regionalization of news contexts (live news, vlog news, chatbox news); personalized production of important news (Weibo commentary, user-produced news); and equal dialogue with the public (daily greetings, holiday greetings, popularizing science). The study also indicates that traditional news media can utilize social media to consolidate communication effectiveness and reconstruct their credibility while actively participating in social governance. In light of these findings, we think that the “contextualization” strategies employed by People’s Daily on the Weibo platform offer meaningful possibilities for traditional news organizations’ integration into social media, such as exploring innovative approaches to news presentation, emphasizing audience interaction, appropriately providing “non-news content” for the audience, and maintaining a commitment to objectivity and fairness in news reporting.

Keywords: China; innovation strategy; news organizations; People’s Daily; social media; traditional media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cog:meanco:v12:y:2024:a:7429

DOI: 10.17645/mac.7429

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