Home Linguistics & Semiotics 5. Party journalism vs. market journalism: The coverage of SARS by the People's Daily and Beijing Youth News
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5. Party journalism vs. market journalism: The coverage of SARS by the People's Daily and Beijing Youth News

  • Huang Xiaoyan and Hao Xiaoming
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The Social Construction of SARS
This chapter is in the book The Social Construction of SARS

Abstract

This study examines how People’s Daily, an organ of the Chinese Communist Party, and Beijing Youth News, a market-oriented newspaper, covered the SARS crisis in 2003. A qualitative analysis of the SARS-related stories shows that the two newspapers basically followed the Party’s overall policy towards information management regarding the epidemic. The newspapers’ censorship and publicity of information about the epidemic were based on the Party’s strategies rather than their own editorial decisions. However, the two newspapers also had some important differences in handling news about the Party leaders, the medical workers and the public. While People’s Daily tended to follow the Party line in its daily reports about the epidemic, Beijing Youth News was more likely to follow its bottom line by presenting stories of greater relevance to the public.

Abstract

This study examines how People’s Daily, an organ of the Chinese Communist Party, and Beijing Youth News, a market-oriented newspaper, covered the SARS crisis in 2003. A qualitative analysis of the SARS-related stories shows that the two newspapers basically followed the Party’s overall policy towards information management regarding the epidemic. The newspapers’ censorship and publicity of information about the epidemic were based on the Party’s strategies rather than their own editorial decisions. However, the two newspapers also had some important differences in handling news about the Party leaders, the medical workers and the public. While People’s Daily tended to follow the Party line in its daily reports about the epidemic, Beijing Youth News was more likely to follow its bottom line by presenting stories of greater relevance to the public.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. Constructions of SARS in Hong Kong
  5. 1. Hong Kong's multiple constructions of SARS 17
  6. 2. A hero story without heroes: The Hong Kong government's narratives on SARS 33
  7. 3. "SARS" versus "atypical pneumonia": Inconsistencies in Hong Kong's public health warnings and disease-prevention campaign 53
  8. 4. Internet press freedom and online crisis reporting: The role of news web sites in the SARS epidemic 69
  9. Part II. Constructions of SARS on the Chinese mainland
  10. 5. Party journalism vs. market journalism: The coverage of SARS by the People's Daily and Beijing Youth News 93
  11. 6. Construction of nationalism and political legitimacy through rhetoric of the anti-SARS campaign: A fantasy theme analysis 109
  12. 7. SARS discourse as an anti-SARS ideology: The case of Beijing 125
  13. Part III. Constructions of SARS in Singapore and Taiwan
  14. 8. "Triumph over adversity": Singapore mobilizes Confucian values to combat SARS 145
  15. 9. Singapore at war: SARS and its metaphors 163
  16. 10. Reporting an emerging epidemic in Taiwan: Journalists' experiences of SARS coverage 181
  17. Part IV. Cross national constructions of SARS
  18. 11. Newspaper coverage of the 2003 SARS outbreak 203
  19. 12. Effects of rationality and story attributes on perceptions of SARS perception 223
  20. Index 241
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.30.08xia

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I. Constructions of SARS in Hong Kong
  5. 1. Hong Kong's multiple constructions of SARS 17
  6. 2. A hero story without heroes: The Hong Kong government's narratives on SARS 33
  7. 3. "SARS" versus "atypical pneumonia": Inconsistencies in Hong Kong's public health warnings and disease-prevention campaign 53
  8. 4. Internet press freedom and online crisis reporting: The role of news web sites in the SARS epidemic 69
  9. Part II. Constructions of SARS on the Chinese mainland
  10. 5. Party journalism vs. market journalism: The coverage of SARS by the People's Daily and Beijing Youth News 93
  11. 6. Construction of nationalism and political legitimacy through rhetoric of the anti-SARS campaign: A fantasy theme analysis 109
  12. 7. SARS discourse as an anti-SARS ideology: The case of Beijing 125
  13. Part III. Constructions of SARS in Singapore and Taiwan
  14. 8. "Triumph over adversity": Singapore mobilizes Confucian values to combat SARS 145
  15. 9. Singapore at war: SARS and its metaphors 163
  16. 10. Reporting an emerging epidemic in Taiwan: Journalists' experiences of SARS coverage 181
  17. Part IV. Cross national constructions of SARS
  18. 11. Newspaper coverage of the 2003 SARS outbreak 203
  19. 12. Effects of rationality and story attributes on perceptions of SARS perception 223
  20. Index 241
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