The Three-fold Media Commemorative Narratives of Yang Weiguang: Boundary Work, Professional Nostalgia, and Cultural Authority

CHEN Chujie

Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication ›› 2015, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (12) : 26-45.

PDF(2148 KB)
PDF(2148 KB)
Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication ›› 2015, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (12) : 26-45.

The Three-fold Media Commemorative Narratives of Yang Weiguang: Boundary Work, Professional Nostalgia, and Cultural Authority

  • Chen Chujie is a PhD candidate in the Department of Media and Communication at City University of Hong Kong. E-mail: chujiechen@163.com.
Author information +
History +

Abstract

Commemoration of a deceased prominent media professional offers the journalistic community a symbolic opportunity to reiterate or reshape their preferred role identity, professional ideals, and cultural authority. This paper takes Chinese journalists’ commemoration of Yang Weiguang, former head of China Central Television, as a case to examine the interrelations between media memories, the boundary of journalism, and journalistic authority. It identifies the threefold-intertwined memorializing narratives on personal, organizational and professional levels. Unlike Western media memories of deceased prominent journalists aiming at defining the boundaries of “good journalist” in line with professional norms, Chinese journalists’ commemoration of Yang Weiguang primarily serve to define a “good media leader”. Media memories also communicate journalists’ nostalgic feelings of the past “golden age” of television and legitimize journalists’ authority in using the past to critique the present and to map out television journalism’s future. Chinese journalists achieve high-degree consensus in the boundary-work of a “good leader”, but diverge in using memories of the “golden age”.

Key words

media memory / boundary work / journalistic authority / cultural authority / nostalgia

Cite this article

Download Citations
CHEN Chujie. The Three-fold Media Commemorative Narratives of Yang Weiguang: Boundary Work, Professional Nostalgia, and Cultural Authority[J]. Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication. 2015, 37(12): 26-45
PDF(2148 KB)

Accesses

Citation

Detail

Sections
Recommended

/