Description: In most liberal democracies commercialized media is taken for granted, but in many authoritarian regimes the introduction of market forces in the media represents a radical break from the past with uncertain political and social implications. In Media Commercialization and Authoritarian Rule in China, Daniela Stockmann argues that the consequences of media marketization depend on the institutional design of the state. In one-party regimes such as China, market-based media promote regime stability rather than destabilizing authoritarianism or bringing about democracy. By analyzing the Chinese media, Stockmann ties trends of market liberalism in China to other authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and the post-Soviet region. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Chinese journalists and propaganda officials as well as more than 2,000 newspaper articles, experiments, and public opinion data sets, this book links censorship among journalists with patterns of media consumption and media's effects on public opinion.
Brief description: Daniela Stockmann is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Leiden University. She received a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and an M.A. in Chinese Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London. Her research on political communication and public opinion in China has been published in Comparative Political Studies, Political Communication, The China Quarterly, and the Chinese Journal of Communication, among others. Her 2006 conference paper on the Chinese media and public opinion received an award in Political Communication from the American Political Science Association.
Review Quotes: "Daniela Stockmann's Media Commercialization and Authoritarian Rule in China is a superb, comprehensive, and multi-method analysis of the introduction of market forces in Chinese media. By communicating from the bottom up as well as from the top down, Stockmann argues that market-based media provide regime stability rather than simply a democratizing force for change in China. She enriches our understanding of China's dynamic media environment by making cogent comparisons to trends in other authoritarian regimes. These comparisons reveal the importance of institutional factors in determining the impact of media commercialization."
Ann N. Crigler, University of Southern California