Document Type

Journal Article

Department/Unit

Department of Journalism

Title

Embedded journalism: Constructing romanticized images of China by US journalists in the 1970s

Language

English

Abstract

This case study examines the memoirs of American correspondents who were "embedded" within official delegations during the course of the US-China rapprochement in the early and mid-1970s. We seek to analyze how short-term visiting journalists arrived at their romanticized portrayals of Maoist China - when it was going through the chaos of the Cultural Revolution - and how the embedding journalistic practice served to facilitate foreign policy ventures orchestrated by both governments. We conclude that this romantic wave of media portrayal was entwined with journalistic preconceptions and a high level of dependency upon local fixers. Furthermore, we use discourse analysis to identify three "ideological packages" in their interpretation of the "new China" and its Cultural Revolution: material progress through self-reliance; a sense of purpose and morality; and equality. © 2013 The Centre for Chinese Media and Comparative Communication Research, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Keywords

embedded journalism, foreign correspondence, frame, ideological packages, journalistic preconception

Publication Date

2014

Source Publication Title

Chinese Journal of Communication

Volume

7

Issue

2

Start Page

174

End Page

190

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

DOI

10.1080/17544750.2013.854819

Link to Publisher's Edition

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17544750.2013.854819

ISSN (print)

17544750

ISSN (electronic)

17544769

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