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  • 2025 Volume 47 Issue 3
    Published: 21 March 2025
      
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  • From Constructing Imagination to Guiding Practice: The Knowledge Dimension of the Early Dissemination of the Concept of Leninism in China
    DING Liqiong
    2025, 47(3): 6-25.
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    The expression of the early dissemination of the concept of Leninism in China generally experienced the process of subordinate phrase of Lenin's/extremist's ism, the word translated from English and Japanese, and the borrowing of the original English word "Bolshevism" and its transliteration and free translation. and then consciously interpreting and finally shaping into a special concept of “Leninism”. Before and after the appearance of “Leninism”, its acceptance and stereotype showed that Leninism gradually changed from “acquaintance with” to “knowledge about” and then became a guide to action.This process reveals the media bias, power relations and even accidental factors in the early dissemination of Leninism as knowledge in China. Among them, it not only comes from the insight into the knowledge source of “Leninism” and the struggle for meaning in the process of Leninism from thought to practice, but also is influenced by specific events, mobility of staff, even translation and writing, which suggests the process of historical choice.
  • The Mediated Logic of Rural Governance: Based on a Field Study of an Agri-tourism Project in M Village, Jiangsu Province
    SHA Yao YANG Fengyun
    2025, 47(3): 26-45.
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    In the context of rural revitalization, discussing mediated governance requires going beyond media logic and delving into deeper social structural layers. A field study of an agri-tourism project in M Village, Jiangsu Province, reveals that the logic of intermediary rural governance is a more fundamental and structural logic beyond the technology and content of mediated governance. As an intermediary medium, the agri-tourism project not only connects the urban and rural economies and values’ but also actively reproduces urban-rural relationships, thereby creating a new rural village that integrates urban and rural areas. This holistic process reflects the mediated logic of rural governance, which contains three levels. First, it emphasizes connection and the resolution of contradictions; second, it stresses linkage, focusing on the capacity, process and changes brought to both ends by the medium’s active reproduction; finally, it highlights regeneration, shifting from process to outcome, and focusing on the new things that emerge from the collision of the both ends, which reflects the era and future potential.
  • Governance of Intermediation in the State’s Digital Platform Expansion to Rural Areas: An Empirical Study of Village Cadres’ Use of Government Platforms in Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture
    XIANG Qingping
    2025, 47(3): 46-66.
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    Village cadres are intermediaries in the interaction between the state and rural society. The implementation of national government platforms in rural areas often relies on village leaders for coordination and execution. Based on field research on the implementation of government service platforms in rural areas in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, this study found that village cadres are tasked with handling state’s digital tasks, such as national information collection and platform downloading, and there is a trend towards screen-based approaches for village cadres. The platform interface fixes the identity of village cadres as state agents, and the state’s standardized digital formats are embedded in the rural governance system, enhancing governance clarity. The essence of the interaction between the state and village cadres is the interaction between the state and rural society, which is mediated by national platforms. The state interacts with village cadres through platforms to form a more structured rural social interaction order. However, during the process of platforms reaching rural areas, there have also been issues such as “digital formalism” and “digital suspension” in rural society. This study aims to investigate the experience of using village cadre platforms and promote the theory and practice of national rural governance in the digital age.
  • “Lost Connections” and “Overloaded Media”: A Study of Family Communication and Problematic Smartphone Use among Rural Junior High School Students in Western China
    ZHANG Wen LV Zhuoru XIAO Linrui
    2025, 47(3): 67-88.
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    Adolescents in rural Western China, who are influenced by the developmental characteristics of adolescence and regional constraints, are prone to problematic mobile phone use. As the primary socialization setting for adolescents, understanding family communication patterns and their impact on adolescent behavior is essential for addressing and alleviating problematic mobile phone use among junior high school students. Based on psychological and behavioral data from 601 rural junior high school students in Western China, this study reveals that: (1) Among approximately 8.59 million rural junior high school students in Western China, the prevalence of problematic mobile phone use ranges from 31.6% to 39.2%, which is higher than that of their peers at home and abroad, with boys being particularly affected; (2) Influenced by both western Confucian traditions and modern educational values, family communication patterns in rural Western China can be categorized into three types: “authority- conformity”, “guidance-conformity” and “respect-conversation”; (3) Family communication patterns significantly impact problematic mobile phone use of rural junior high school students in Western China, among which the “guidance-conformity” pattern is more likely to induce their loneliness, and thus positively predicts problematic mobile phone use. This mediating effect is further strengthened when there is a high level of school connectedness. Thus, addressing the challenge of “overloaded media” hinges on restoring “lost connections” within the family.
  • “Bridge” as a Medium: A Discussion Based on the Experience Materials of “Qianle Bridge”
    GUO Jianbin WANG Lina
    2025, 47(3): 89-108.
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    From the perspective of media studies, this paper first presents a comprehensive overview of the experience materials related to the “Qianle Bridge,” including its historical evolution and current status, as well as various local rituals held at the bridgehead. Following this, the article explores the connotations of “bridge” in Chinese, elucidating why “bridge” can be considered a “medium” within the Chinese context. Building upon this foundation, the paper reconnects with the experience materials from the “Qianle Bridge” to enrich and refine the specific meaning of “bridge” as a “medium” - that is, connectivity and separation. Furthermore, based on these empirical materials, the paper uncovers another layer of the specific significance of “bridge” as a medium, namely that its role in connecting and separating also manifests between yin and yang, giving it the meaning of a “spirit medium”. Engaging in such dialogues holds great importance for enhancing the theoretical framework of media studies. It facilitates the academic convergence of Chinese and Western theories, transforms certain abstract concepts of media studies into more tangible discussions, and embodies the efforts towards localizing and theorizing Chinese communication research.
  • Cognitive Social Capital and Subjective Well-Being: The Crux to Digital Inequality in the Artificial Intelligent Era—Evidence from CGSS Data
    YANG Ya SU Fang YU Guoming
    2025, 47(3): 109-130.
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    The study aimed to explore the impact of relatively objective and subjective dimensions on digital inequality, considering both structural and agency factors. Based on data from the China General Social Survey (CGSS 2017), the study analyzed the degree, pathways, and group discrepancies of how structural social capital, cognitive social capital, relative deprivation, and subjective well-being affect digital inequality. It revealed that cognitive social capital and subjective well-being were elemental factors affecting perceived digital inequality, among which cognitive social capital significantly negatively predicted digital inequality, particularly in male or youth groups; and subjective well-being also significantly negatively predicted digital inequality, particularly among women or young people; while the relative deprivation and structural social capital had no significant impact. Therefore, it suggests that digital inequality should be a multi-perspective, multi-dimensional, and multi- stage issue. When determining intervention measures to enhance digital equality, it is necessary to take a long-term perspective, combine social and technological development prospects and predictions, and consider integrated factors as a whole, such as subjective and objective social capital, psychological capital, and adopt comprehensive measures with multiple subjects, levels, and dimensions.
  • “Knowledge Ferryman”: A Study on Knowledge Mediation and Translation of Medical Companions
    LEI Ziwen LIU Zhanwei ZHANG Meifang
    2025, 47(3): 131-149.
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    Digital and intelligent technology is deeply embedded in the society, which makes the knowledge circulation and communication network in the social technology system more complicated. The existing researches mainly focus on the mediating role of platform and technology in knowledge transmission, but neglect the function of knowledge translation and transmission of human in knowledge transmission network. Through participatory observation and interviews, this study further expands the relevant discussion by taking the knowledge mediation and translation practice of medical companions in the medical health system as the entry point. The study finds that medical companions play the roles of “knowledge expert”, “knowledge navigator” and “knowledge tinker” in transferring patients’ disease experience and medical expertise, the tacit knowledge of medical organization system and the knowledge of digital medical technology system, and become human patches embedded in the medical health system through the intermediary and translation of relevant knowledge of the medical system. The inclusion of human as an important intermediary in the analytical framework of knowledge transmission is helpful to reveal the cognitive regulating role of human in the complex knowledge transmission network and the bridging and complementing role of human in supporting knowledge flow.
  • The Educational Function of Chinese Communist Party’s Press during the Yan’an Period:An Investigation Centered on Newspapers are Textbooks
    WANG Qi ZHOU Guangming
    2025, 47(3): 150-166.
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    During the Yan'an period, the educational function of the CCP’s press developed to a mature stage, which was particularly shown in the fact that the educational function was greatly enhanced vis-à-vis the propaganda and organizational functions and became an extremely important function. Hu Qiaomu’s Newspapers are Textbooks written in early 1943 provided a vivid historical grounding for this. This article explores the specific connotations, logical foundations, theoretical significance, and the relationship between the educational function and other press functions of the CCP during the Yan’an period.As an extension of the central metaphor “Newspapers as Textbooks”, the elements in the “education” domain and the “journalism” domain naturally formed a mapping relationship, constructing a conceptual framework around the educational function of the press, including the role and characteristics of the party newspaper and the responsibilities and ethics of newspaper workers.It provides a powerful interpretation for the redesign of party newspaper.Concepts such as “the party nature and people’s nature of newspapers,” “propaganda,” “organization,” “CCP characteristic journalism,” and “learning for education” constituted a network of meanings that help understand the connotations and positioning of the press's educational function, making it an important part of the CCP’s party press theory.
  • Seeing the Beauty of Diversity: Communication as Translation—Interview with Professor Guobin Yang, University of Pennsylvania
    LIU Zhaopu YANG Guobin ZHOU Haiyan
    2025, 47(3): 167-176.
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    While the field of Communication Studies has evolved through perspectives such as the “communication as transmission” and the “communication as culture”, it is in need of developing new epistemological orientations. With the development of new technologies, the media landscape has undergone profound transformations and the emotional tone of society has shifted dramatically, yet the epistemology of communication studies has remained stagnant. This stagnation not only reflects but also exacerbates the ongoing predicament of communication research and the discipline’ s development. How communication studies should develop and what stance it should adopt to conduct research that is social, public, and powerful is a matter of common concern among communication scholars. This paper presents an interview with Professor Yang Guobin on his concept of “communication as translation”. Professor Yang discusses a translation-oriented view of communication from the perspective of stance and methods. He emphasizes the importance of respecting differences and approaching the subject with a humble, learning-oriented mindset. By reflecting on and correcting existing biases, he advocates for conducting academic research that is not only rigorous but also compassionate and hopeful.