Media reform in China since 1978: Background factors, problems and future trends

In 1978 China initiated economic and political reforms and implemented various new policies including policies which affected China's mass media to a degree unprece dented in China's media history. Drawing on a variety of primary sources, including 14 years of experience of the first author in Shanghai Television Station (STV), this study examines the relationship between media reform and economic and political reforms by means of analyzing the factors generating the changes, problems caused by and facing the changes, and the trends of the changes in the 1990s. The study concludes that media reform will continue in the 1990s, but in a more cautious way, and will be focused more on practice than on systems or policies.