中国における記者に対する褒賞の制度と実践

授賞作品の内容分析を中心に

抄録

This study explores the journalism award system and award-giving practices at both national and provincial levels in China. Since the 1990s, an established award system has existed in China, through which the Chinese Communist Party and government have tended to define “good quality news” to control journalists and news production. The central argument of this study, however, is that even under an authoritarian regime, differences in award-giving practices are evident at the provincial level. Due to their diverse political economies, provincial governments have various interpretations of “good quality news” and thus attitudes toward media control. Following an empirical content analysis comparing article winners of the national and three provincial―Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong―journalism awards between 1997 and 2017, two conclusions were reached. First, the findings reveal that although the official award system is designed as a top-down structure, there are remarkable differences in the content of award-winning articles at the provincial (horizontal) level; thus, a variance in media control between national and provincial government is demonstrated in authoritarian China. Second, drastic changes can be seen in the award-giving practice of Guangdong and Beijing since Xi Jinping became China’s president in 2013: between 2013 and 2017, significantly fewer award-winning articles exhibit watchdog journalism. It is evident, therefore, that the Chinese Communist Party and government exercise less tolerance toward criticism of their power in the media under Xi Jinping.