Shifts of Journalism and Communication Education in China and the Political and Ideological Contributing Factors

Journalism and communication education boasts a history of more than a hundred years including three stages in China. In the early years of Chinese journalism education, great emphasis was attached to skills training rather than theoretical teaching. Then the introduction of western communication science changed the situation. During this period, journalism and communication education in China was featured with the all-round learning from the western world. In the second stage, the Chinese academia rethought their fanatical attitude of “all-out westernized” learning and began to carry out localization exploration and reconstruction of communication based on the western communication theories. In the twenty-first century, Chinese journalism and communication research did not blindly follow the western theories. Influenced by the government’s policies, journalism and communication education and research tended to be re-politicized. In the history of journalism and communication education in China, policy and technology had been two significant driven forces for its development.