City Research Online

Abstract

With the aim to investigate the predicaments of Chinese investigative journalism in the social media age, this dissertation has examined the potential forces influencing the production of investigative journalism between 2014 and 2018 when the environment and conditions for producing investigative journalism had become much tougher in China in this period. To achieve this aim, the dissertation adopted the hierarchy of influences model to identify those potential forces influencing the production of investigative journalism. Those identified forces were then tested in the Chinese context by a mixed method: content analysis was conducted to examine the production trend of investigative journalism and the dynamic of how news sources were used in reporting over the five years between 2014 and 2018; and then semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 investigative journalists who have produced investigative reporting between 2014 and 2018, bringing more understanding of the mechanisms driving the trend and the forces behind the news production in the social media age. The dissertation has two outstanding findings: the mapping of the changing practice of investigative journalism between 2014 and 2018, and the forces influencing the production of investigative journalism over the period. In terms of the changing practice, the dissertation mapped out how Chinese investigative journalists utilised social media between 2014 and 2018 in detail, which is absent in the existing research. It is significant because it offers the backgrounds and contexts for discussing the specific journalistic practice and it is the basis for discussing how social media could exert its influence. Another finding showed that forces from the five levels of the hierarchy of influences model all have different degrees of impact on the production of investigative journalism. The forces ranging from macro to micro level converge together in the news production process, influencing the whole process. Among them, forces at the social-institutional level are the most prominent ones and have gone through the whole production process, including the political influences and the interactions with sources. While the forces at the individual level are closely tied to the forces at the rest of the levels because it is hard to have individualism in the Chinese context, where values more collectivism. Therefore, this dissertation has developed the hierarchy of influences model by conceptualising it in the Chinese context, also it contributed to journalism studies by drawing on a holistic analysis of the forces on the production of Chinese investigative journalism.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1990 Broadcasting
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity > Department of Journalism School of Communication & Creativity > School of Communication & Creativity Doctoral Theses Doctoral Theses

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