Innovations of China’s Mainstream Media Convergence 9811691452, 9789811691454

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Peng Duan

Innovations of China’s Mainstream Media Convergence

Innovations of China’s Mainstream Media Convergence

Peng Duan

Innovations of China’s Mainstream Media Convergence

Peng Duan Communication University of China Beijing, China

ISBN 978-981-16-9145-4 ISBN 978-981-16-9146-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9146-1 Translation from the Chinese language edition: 《中国主流媒体融合创新研究》 by Peng Duan, © Communication University of China Press 2018. Published by Communication University of China Press. All Rights Reserved. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Contents

1 Innovative Development of Mainstream Media Against the Background of Media Convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Origin and Evolution of Media Convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Origin of Media Convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Media Convergence in a Broader Sense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Exploration and Development of Theories of Media Convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Technological Advancements as Drivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Evolution of the Media Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Changes in Audience Demands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Prospects for Theories of Media Convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Development and Extension of Media Convergence . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Outlook for the Development of Media Technology . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Outlook for the Convergence of Media Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Innovative Development of Mainstream Media During Media Convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.1 Positioning of China’s Mainstream Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2 Research on the Convergence of Chinese Mainstream Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 Direction of China’s Mainstream Media Convergence and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Convergence Course and Experience of Foreign Mainstream Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Convergence Course of Foreign Mainstream Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Convergence Course of Mainstream Media in the U.S. . . . . . . . . 1.2 Convergence Course of Mainstream Media in Europe . . . . . . . . . 1.3 Convergence Course of Mainstream Media in Asia . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Innovation and Convergence Experience of Foreign Mainstream Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1 2 2 6 8 8 12 17 21 21 23 27 30 30 34 35 40 43 43 43 58 61 66

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2.1 Concepts and Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Organisational Structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Content Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.4 Terminal Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.5 Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

66 67 68 69 70 71

3 Exploring the Issues and Causes of Convergence and Innovation of Mainstream Chinese Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 1 Issues Facing the Convergence and Innovation of Mainstream Chinese Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 1.1 Macroscopic Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 1.2 Mesoscopic Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 1.3 Microscopic Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 2 Analysis of the Causes of Inadequate Convergence and Innovation of Mainstream Chinese Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 2.1 Idea-Wise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 2.2 System- and Mechanism-Wise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 2.3 Content-Wise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 2.4 Channel-Wise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99 2.5 Technology-Wise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 4 Status Quo of Convergence and Innovation of Mainstream Chinese Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Content-Wise: Specialisation and Diversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Television-Media Group of Guangdong Province . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 RBC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.3 Diversity and Personalisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Channel-Wise: Variety and Interconnection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Channel Variety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Interconnection Among Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Platform-Wise: Technicality and Interactivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Operation-Wise: Capital Integration and Model Innovation . . . . . . . . . 5 Management-Wise: Optimised Systems and Restructured Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Suggestions and Strategies for Promoting Convergence and Innovation of Mainstream Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Macroscopic Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.1 Thorough Execution of the Omnimedia Concept and Establishment of the True Concept of Media Convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.2 Maintenance of the Dominant Position and Establishment of an Open Development Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

105 106 106 108 109 110 111 113 114 117 120 124 127 128

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1.3 Change Existing Systems and Mechanisms and Drive Media Convergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Mesoscopic Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Change Regional Development Strategies and Integrate Regions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Create a Mainstream-Media Brand and Develop User Stickiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Build Cloud Platforms to Achieve Resource Sharing . . . . . . . . . 3 Microscopic Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 Technological Support for Media Convergence and Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Transformation of News Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Transformation of the Communicators: Talent Cultivation . . . . . 3.4 Strengthen User Guidance and Enhance Media Literacy . . . . . . 4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Chapter 1

Innovative Development of Mainstream Media Against the Background of Media Convergence

The world in the 21st century is a changing one. In a transformation that touched almost every aspect of human society, the media industry also underwent major upheavals that blurred the boundary between conventional and emerging media. Such phenomenon of media convergence has been particularly evident in a continuously developing and advancing China, where new communication technologies are being rapidly introduced and applied, especially those of the Internet. Conventional media such as newspapers and periodicals, radio and television face major challenges and opportunities and have each undergone major changes. An unprecedented trend is emerging between these old media and the rapidly developing new media that are supported by Internet technologies. In other words, the traditional boundaries among media are slowly disappearing as they begin to converge, and such change to the overall media form is known as media convergence. Today, media convergence has become a topic that the media industry and researchers may no longer avoid. Media workers and researchers are beginning to realise that to re-develop and innovate the media industry in the twenty-first century, it is necessary to figure out how to connect the transformation of conventional media with the convergence of emerging media, which is of immense significance to the tackling of this issue in an unprecedented, historic period. The research on new forms of communication and the prediction of new media trends will help media workers and related government departments understand the changes brought about by media convergence, so as to accurately grasp the direction of media development. This will also benefit the practice of the media industry and help those involved accept the changes and take part in the transformation of the means of information communication and content production. Mainstream media has always borne the key tasks during China’s media convergence, and the promotion of the convergence of conventional and emerging media comes at precisely the right time for mainstream media that desperately needs to innovate. For the Chinese Mainstream Media, the decision to converge as it innovates is not merely a means to turn challenges and predicaments into opportunities

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 P. Duan, Innovations of China’s Mainstream Media Convergence, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9146-1_1

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in the face of the onslaught of the Internet, but more of a major political task that the Chinese Communist Party and people have bestowed upon it. The Chinese President Xi Jinping has always placed great emphasis on the ideology and publicity of the Chinese Communist Party. On the one hand, he has repeatedly encouraged journalists to understand the communication patterns in the information age while acting in accordance with the principles of the party. On the other hand, at the meetings of the Central Leading Team for Comprehensively Deepening Reform, President Xi has repeatedly focused on discussing the development blueprint for the media industry with senior officials. For instance, in the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Convergence of Conventional and Emerging Media, which were carried in 2014, President Xi stressed that the focus of China’s media industry was on promoting the convergence of conventional and emerging media. While introducing the concept of the Internet, the understanding of the patterns of news communication and media development was necessary. Both the Communist Party and the state would, over the next few years, “focus on creating a group of new mainstream media that is diverse, advanced and competitive, in addition to founding emerging media groups with enormous strength, communication capacity, credibility and influence, so as to build a modern communication system that is allencompassing, diverse and integrated”. At a symposium of the Chinese Communist Party for press and public opinion in February 2016, President Xi also pointed out the importance of press and public opinion concerning the Chinese Communist Party. He stated that press and public opinion were matters of great importance to the longterm national security, particularly against the background of media convergence. How to competently handle press and public opinion, how to consolidate the party’s leadership, how to maintain the correct political orientation and how to follow the mass-line tactics are the general missions and responsibilities of mainstream media. To converge and innovate, mainstream media must persevere in the patterns of news communication and innovate the means of communication, so as to realistically enhance its communication capacity.

1 Origin and Evolution of Media Convergence 1.1 Origin of Media Convergence 1.1.1

Proposal and Introduction of Relevant Concepts

Media convergence is a rather sophisticated concept proposed by Western scholars. The current consensus in the academic circle is that it was first proposed by Ithiel de Sola Pool, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who formally coined the term “convergence” in 1983 and defined it as a trend of integrating features of different media. In his book Technologies of Freedom, de Sola Pool wrote that an established physical network could provide any type of media facilities,

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whereas media facilities that were once limited to a certain technology could be sent to any physically separated network. He pointed out the two possible forms of media convergence: first is a single medium that could provide services that were previously provided by different media; second is service content that, due to previous media restrictions, was provided solely by a single medium could be presented through different media having shaken off the restrictions. Today we see that de Sola Pool’s predications have come true. We may access media content from around the world through the Internet or watch the same television programme via a network, television or mobile phone. Although the concepts of media convergence have changed, the essence remains unchanged as described above. In addition to the above view, many other scholars and media workers from after the 70 s and 80 s have devoted themselves to the research and practice of media convergence. With their academic background, knowledge and research results, they have driven the development of media convergence. It is common knowledge that the term “convergence” first emerged in natural science. It was not until the late 70 s that the term was slowly introduced to journalism and communications and applied to the concept of “media convergence”. From an interdisciplinary perspective, the first person who had the foresight to suggest that different industries would and were integrating was Nicholas Negroponte, a scholar at the MIT. He proposed a convergence model based on three intersecting circles at the end of the 70 s, which represent the computer, publishing and printing and radio and film industries, and their intersection symbolised the gradual overlapping of their technology. Negroponte also explained that the intersection of the three circles would become an area with the most rapid development and innovation in the future. Roger Fidler later restressed in his book Mediamorphosis: Understanding New Media that the three industries would slowly converge. In addition to being an early advocate of Negroponte’s view, his book provided an early clarification of the widely discussed media-convergence theory, and has inspired no small number of subsequent research in the journalism and communications field [1]. Over the last two decades of the twentieth century, the development of digital technology guided the progress of media convergence and continued to advance rapidly. In terms of hardware, the swiftly progressing and changing technology provided the technological support necessary for the convergence of media industries. Naturally, technological innovation has encouraged major leaps in management means and information communication, and a large number of research emerged. Following the convergence and expansion of the research field, to reflect the trend of digital convergence, many scholars coined new terms to describe the emerging research field, including “compunication” and “telematics”. Take “compunication” for example, which Harvard professor Anthony Oettinger coined to describe the combination of computer and electronic information communication. He believed the combination would eventually happen and was the inevitable result of digital technological advancement. With the application of related terms, we are better able to connect existing concepts with terms such as data-transmission methods, information-processing technology and security protocol, in addition to building

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a comprehensive knowledge system. The research by American scholars Greenstein and Khanna in the late 90 s has prompted the development of the theory of industrial convergence. Based on their earlier theory and research results, Greenstein and Khanna attempted to define convergence from a new perspective. They believed convergence was the tightening or diminishing of industrial boundary in response to industrial growth [2]. Meanwhile, their research objective has returned from Negroponte’s early prediction of the entire industry to the convergence of computer, communication and radio and television as symbolised by the Internet. The Council of Europe has in the same year produced a green paper on related industries, in which it touched on the concept of convergence of the telecommunications, media and information-technology industries. In his paper The Meanings and Implications of Convergence from 2003, Rich Gordon, a professor at Northwestern University in the U.S., continued to explore the meanings of media convergence. He believed, depending on the contexts, the concept could have six definitions, namely media and technological convergence, media ownership convergence, strategic media unification, convergence of media organisation structures, convergence of news-interview skills and convergence of new narratives [3]. Such detailed classification is a further development of convergence forms such as media formats and media operations. Despite being widely research, it is worth mentioning that although the concept “media convergence” emerged in the 80 s, the academic circle has yet to agree on its definition. On the one hand, this is due to “media convergence” being a diachronic concept, whose understanding is often closely connected to the development and practice of media at different stages. The longitudinal development of time has led to different understanding of the concept. On the other hand, due to the dissimilar disciplinary backgrounds of Western scholars researching media convergence— with some approaching from a media-history perspective and some from a cultural perspective—they also understood the concept differently. For instance, media historians Staiger and Hake defined media convergence as the combination of conventional media with new technology [4]. Political economist Tim Dwyer considered media convergence as a process, in which new technologies were incorporated into existing media and the mass communication and cultural industry [5]. It is well known that communications is a relatively young discipline in China and research in related fields began rather late, so, to a certain extent, China’s research on media convergence lagged behind that of the West for an extended period of time. Due to the lack of a broad view of the media industry when China’s research on media convergence got under way, it was also often difficult to produce valuable results and achieve breakthroughs. The predicament of a lack of stimulation from new questions and the inability to achieve theoretical breakthroughs in the field of communications studies remained until the early twenty-first century. As the wave of Internet-technology transformation swept across the globe, for the first time China promptly joined the technological revolution, and a nationwide transformation took place. When Internet technology emerged as a form of media technology, the media field also underwent tremendous changes. In a new historic period, how to deal with the opportunities and challenges brought about

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by media convergence became an urgent issue facing China’s news industry. The rapidly developing Internet has completely overturned the relatively stable form of news communication in China. Supported by digital technology, new-media applications boomed. The “terminators” of old media as well as the “pioneers” of new media quickly entered fields previously occupied by or unknown to conventional news and communication industries. Cai Wen, a professor at Renmin University of China, was one of the first scholars to carry out research on media convergence. She has published many papers on media convergence around 2005 and indicated the possibility of “different media truly coming together and converging through a new medium as driven by digital technology and online communication” [6]. She went on to summarise viewpoints on media convergence in 2009, which she argued was the convergence of content, channels and terminals. Furthermore, she believed “media convergence refers to—driven by economic benefits and social demands and prompted by scientific technologies such as digital, network and electroniccommunication technologies—individual industrial bodies that made up the major media enterprises resort to means such as collaboration, mergers and acquisitions and reorganisation to achieve the convergence of the content, communication channels and media terminals of different media” [7]. Furthermore, many scholars in China have also begun researching media convergence. For example, professor Xiong Chengyu from Tsinghua University argued that media convergence referred to “all the media moving towards digitisation—a trend that is driven by digital technology and made possible by network technology”. Professor Gao Gang from Renmin University of China maintained that media convergence essentially referred to “boundary change and energy exchange of technological means, functional structures and formats of information communication as driven by modern information technology” [8]. Meanwhile, professor Yu Guoming from Renmin University of China was of the opinion that media convergence “means the sharing of resources among different digitised media, which is an effective strategy of television media to boost market competitiveness” [9]. In summary, it is not hard to see that during early research on media convergence, be it the Western scholars who proposed and preliminarily consolidated the concept, or the Chinese scholars who introduced it into the Chinese context, most elaborated on the concept based on the perspective of communication technology and form. Building upon such foundation, the focus of media convergence fell mostly on the media—that is, the use of different communication tools and the latest digital information technology to achieve the multichannel and all-directional communication of media content such as news and information. The key difference from the previous monotonous form of communication remains what de Sola Pool’s had predicated as stated earlier: two new forms of communication, whereby content such as texts, pictures and audiovisual files is integrated and turned into multiple or a single text and communicated to the audience. In recent year, research in China on media convergence primarily focused on the following areas: first, the definition of the concept of media convergence, which the academic circle has yet to reach a conclusion. Some scholars argued that media convergence was the integration of different forms of communication media [10].

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While some maintained the concept should be examined from a macro-perspective. For example, Huang and Li considered media convergence as the convergence of social forms, whose process was based on digital technology. Different media were converged to form a whole that in turn gave rise to a new “network society”, in which media played a critical role. Second, research on the models and processes of media convergence. As Peng detailed in her article Enclosure—Product Revolution—Pivot Establishment: an Analysis of the Trilogy of Media Convergence, the inter-media expansion of China’s media since 2009 reflected their common understanding of media convergence. However, that was just the beginning of media convergence. The next stage should be committed to rebuilding the relationship between media and audiences, so as to achieve the rapid development of the media industry and find a larger market. Moving on to the next stage, media workers should focus on the dynamic role that mobile-terminal technology played in society. Attention should be paid to how to select and use mobile-terminal technology to find new industrial pivots in the megatrend of media convergence [11]. Third, research on the rules and policies of media convergence. Representative scholars of the area include Xiao Zanjun, Xiao Yefei and Huang Yubo, who analysed the media-convergence rules of both the West and China and discussed issues facing China’s media convergence from the policy and regulation perspectives. Fourth, research on the status quo and issues of media convergence. In her article Media Convergence: Opportunities and Issues Facing the National Strategic Plans, Cai maintained that although conventional media had long begun attempts at media convergence, it had not been able to reverse its waning influence. The cruxes of the matter primarily included the urgent need to change the concepts, improve rule formulation and intensify system and mechanism reforms; the management of media operations and news production; the fostering of journalism and communication talent; and the improvement of the quality of those working in the news industry [12]. Fifth, issues that accompany media convergence. Despite most scholars and industry writers being optimistic about the outlook of media convergence, some scholars also reflected rationally on the social effects of media convergence and the negative influence on the news industry.

1.2 Media Convergence in a Broader Sense It is evident that from the perspectives of communication technology and forms, many contemporary scholars have put forward different concepts of media convergence and improved them accordingly in different fields. However, by placing it in the long history of media-technology development, it becomes clear that media convergence is not simply a new concept that emerged with the arrival of digital technology—it is a necessary choice for media development. Just like radio to newspaper and television to radio and newspaper, the birth of any new medium will collide with the existing ones. Very often the collision does not end in obliteration, but rather the mutual learning among media as old and new media confront each other. The subsequent capital is also integrated, and media may seek out more suitable markets based on

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their characteristics. Meanwhile, different media may collaborate and complement one another at different levels. The advent of radio saw the co-existence of two media forms for the first time in mass communication, which also ended the monopoly of “mass newspaper” in mass communication since the end of the nineteenth century. In the West, the emergence of newspapers once made the industrialisation of news media a possibility. Newspapers were able to become independent of subsidies from political parties and turn into a social instrument for free publication and operation. People from all walks of life were able to practice freedom of speech with the help of newspapers, while the media also assumed the role of “the fourth estate” and began monitoring public opinion as a result of the extensive circulation of newspapers [13]. The emergence of radio has ended the monopoly of newspapers and for the first time mass communication was carried out auditorily, offering a strong sense of presence and making it highly compelling. Furthermore, radio outperformed newspapers in terms of timeliness and companionship. As time advanced, people began to recognise the many shortcomings of radio. For instance, the impermanence of its content, its inability to recount complex topics compared to newspapers or that it could not be folded and carried around like newspapers. Under such circumstances, radio and newspapers found their respective markets and realised their advantages. The former began focusing on increasing its market increment in addition to the pressure it exerted on newspapers, while the latter began focusing on recording facts and providing in-depth reports. Meanwhile, they also learned from each other and prompted mutual development. In 1920, KDKA, the world’s first radio station, broadcast its first news item from the local paper the Pittsburgh Post [14]. It has thus become evident that radio and newspapers had begun collaborating and complementing each other. The subsequent emergence of television saw similar convergence. As an emerging medium, television was very powerful as it is able to freely combine texts, sounds and images to achieve the best display effect. When television first emerged, it possessed almost all the best qualities of the media at the time, which helped it to quickly integrate into the daily life of the people after the World War II. Suddenly, people stopped finding entertainment and distraction from other channels. Television had become the centre of family life, and people would often spend hours watching television at home. As television news gained prominence, the number of Americans getting their news from television exceeded that of newspapers for the first time in 1963, marking the true arrival of the age of television news. As a result of the fierce competition, the survival of both newspapers and radio was severely threatened, and television had become the primary channels through which people receive entertainment and news [15]. However, a known phenomenon reappeared. As the three media competed, they also began complementing and learning from one another. They eventually found their respective advantages and footings. During the process, radio gave up programmes that were seriously encroached by television and adjusted its programme formats and content. It turned to music and blazed a new trail with classic and country music, which eventually allowed it to give full play to its features through the more

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suitable audio content. Meanwhile, radio took full advantage of its companionship and won over car drivers as its audience, as it continued to break into special markets with strong consumption power. Similarly, newspapers found its own positioning through transition. Taking advantage of their textual features, they turned to exclusives and in-depth reports, in addition to introducing news commentaries. The precise and unrivalled advantage of newspapers was that their development was based on the composed and serious thinking of their readers. The readily available and strong sense of presence of television actually worked against it in this respect. It may thus be gathered that the relationships of media are not simply those of substitution but rather those of complement and mutual learning, which have given rise to early media convergence. No new medium will ever obliterate old media. In other words, in the history of media development, the conflict among different media has never led to the extinction of any media. To the contrary, the competition, penetration and adaptation have given rise to new arrangements among media that help them to advance. To sum up, long before the concept of media convergence was proposed, its rudimentary form was already taking shape quietly. However, before the advent of the Internet, such convergence often manifested itself as competition-based collaboration. Evidently, the competition and collaboration among media were only regarded as preliminary attempts at media convergence, because distinct differences still existed among different media forms. Undoubtedly, with the emergence of new Internet-based media comes more complex forms of media convergence.

2 Exploration and Development of Theories of Media Convergence 2.1 Technological Advancements as Drivers The role that technological advancements play in socioeconomic development remains a topic of great interest in the academic circle. Generally, factors such as improved production efficiency may have contributed to technological progress, which often include technological improvement and enhanced technological efficiency, quality of invested key elements and resource distribution. In relation to the media industry, technological development is regarded as a key driver of the continuous evolution of communication media and even the entire media industry. Particularly after the emergence of digital-communication technology, new media based on Internet technology have continued to spring up, breaking the boundaries previously separating different media. With its powerful capacity and adaptability, computer technology has become a phenomenal technology that processes every media form. As a result, the relationship between old and new media that accompanies the evolution of communication technology has become a popular topic of research.

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Before delving into how the development of modern communication technology promotes communication media, it is particularly important to quickly go through the development of communication technology. Alvin Toffler once divided human society into three “waves” from an economic-development perspective: the first was a settled agricultural society, followed by an industrial-age society and then a postindustrial society (or the information age) [16]. Today, we experience more than ever the information society as predicted by Toffler. Modern humanity faces the onslaughts brought about by frequent changes, which inevitably gives rise to social conflict and tension but also means rebirth and turnarounds. The activities of human communication have, exactly like the three waves that Toffler suggested, undergone three historical changes. If we liberate communication activities from movement and visual limitations, it would be like regarding the transcendence of the previous physical and visual distance as the first revolution of human communication. When communication went from sporadic individual activities to large-scale mass social communication, and from where it developed rapidly, it may be regarded as the second revolution of human communication, which was driven by communication technology and industrial revolution. The former has freed humanity from physical limitations and made wider social communication possible, while the latter has extensively replaced manual labour with machines and greatly improved productivity. Technological advancements as a result of the two industrial revolutions have indeed propelled the development of human communication. However, the intensity and extent of the previous two revolutions paled in comparison with the third communication revolution—the Internet-communication revolution currently in full swing as driven by digital-technology revolution. Even rapid changes would be an understatement of the speed with which communication technology has developed and advanced since the beginning of twentieth century, and this has naturally prompted the brisk development of communication media. Particularly in the latter half of the twentieth century, over a century after the tremendous changes to information communication as a result of the industrial revolutions, new communication technologies with digital technology at its centre have triggered another communication revolution in the media industry. The new-media revolution as represented by the Internet previously frequently featured in the predictions of futurists such as Negroponte and Toffler, and its advent has generated wide attention and discussion in the academic circle and the industry. Among the predictions of the effects that the emergence and development of new media have on existing media, as well as those predicting the development means of new media and the directions of technological advancement, Canadian communication scholar Marshall McLuhan was no doubt the earliest researcher. He turned the focus of communication research to media, and, under his influence, scholars began paying attention to the effect that media-technology renovation has on communication. McLuhan had a broader interpretation of media technology. In his book Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, McLuhan proposed 26 “panmedia”, including roads and paper routes [17]. His descriptions corresponded to a certain extent to the two waves led by transport and industry as proposed by Toffler

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and reflected the characteristics of his “pan-media theory”. Media in a broad sense refers to media tools that communicate man, objects and information. Re-examining media based on the viewpoint of McLuhan, who suggested that media were extensions of man and they were the functional development of human organs, which means any technology may be regarded as a medium, when it is the functional development of human organs and is able to extend human thinking and abilities. Such media extensions are essentially the reinforcement and expansion of human organs, senses and functions [18]. Although scholars at home and abroad have entirely dissimilar understanding of communication technology, it is generally recognised that any technology that promotes human communication may be regarded as communication technology in a broad sense. In the field of communications, the terms communication science and communication technology are often used interchangeably. It is worth noting that although the etymology of technology may be closely connected to science, technology often specifically refers to science that may be applied to actual production and living. Technology is thus more practical, leading to communication technology being regarded as the main research subject of communication studies. For a long time, developments in communication technology drive the evolution of communication media. Today, the development of mainstream media technology has undergone the following stages: verbal media, written media, print media, electronic media and network-technology media. During the stage of network-technology media, which is also the stage we are currently in, the concept of media convergence was born. Professor Joseph R. Dominick from the University of Georgia in the U.S. once described the development speed of media technology using a media timeline. Language has developed from verbal to written over the course of millennia in human history, and nearly another five millennia passed before print media emerged. However, over the sequent couple of centuries, electronic media such as telegram and telephone emerged, followed by imaging technology such as photography. Radio broadcast also developed by leaps and bounds in the 20 s, then the emergence of television in the 30 s completely changed people’s life. Following the advent of personal computers at the end of the twentieth century and at the beginning of the twenty-first century, new media as represented by the Internet grew rapidly. They are widely applied to every aspect of human society, including government administration, scientific research, public education, social activities and business. In fact, those born in 1900 and have lived for 100 years have experienced three milestones, namely film, radio, television and computer. Every advancement in communication has increased human capacity to transmit and record information, in addition to playing a role that drives major cultural and social changes [19]. Having looked at the development of media technology adopted throughout the tens of thousands of years of human history from a time perspective, it is not hard to recognise the relationship between communication technology and media development. In other words, media convergence to a large extent relies on technological support, which means media convergence is in fact the convergence of media technologies. Evidently, communication technology has and will continue to affect the advancement of media development. On the one hand, new technology will drive the

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emergence and development of new media. On the other hand, old media has not been completely left behind. To the contrary, it has, based on the existing structure, through interaction with and superposition on new media achieved its rebirth in the new social environment. From a technological perspective, the following views on the relationship between old and new media are widely recognised in the academic circle: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

The development of media technology is incremental and not substitutional; The development of media technology is a process through which old and new technologies integrate; The development of communication media also reflects the integration of old and new media; The content, service and operation of communication media also show characteristics of integration; and Future communication media will be an assemblage of different communication networks [20].

Currently, the rapid development of digital-communication technology has become a critical driver behind the continuous advancement of communication technology. In the age of new media, the extensive application of computer and Internet technologies has helped digital-communication technology breaking through the transmission means and terminal modes of conventional media. The new means of communication have no doubt greatly changed people’s way of thinking. Furthermore, they blur the boundaries among media and lead to society-wide media convergence. To understand digital-communication technology, it is necessary to clarify the concepts of digital technology first. Digital technology is the technology that stores, transmits and processes information using binary codes via equipment such as computers, optical cables and satellites. Earlier information carriers, such as texts, sounds and images, all face the same problems, which are chiefly reflected in the insufficient information capacity and the lack of interaction. Following the introduction of digital technology, the two problems are also solved. Any information may be represented by 0 and 1, the two digits of binary codes, which are decoded when they reach a user terminal and converted back to the original information. Digitalcommunication technology may therefore be regarded as digital-media technology. The digital-media technology that we normally use includes stages such as expression, recording, processing, storage, transmission, display and management. Consequently, digital-media technology may be referred to as the technological branch that corresponds to these stages. Network media is the first new media to be recognised as well as the most expansive and widely accepted new media to date. Along the course of development of new media, the emergence of digital-network technology may be regarded as the true starting point of new-media development. The basis for the widespread acceptance and application of network media includes the popularisation of certain key technologies, including those of communication network and personal computer, as well as network document-service and -storage systems. Research on network communication began relatively early, and under the tremendous social influence

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and technological drive of the Internet, many academic and industrial researchers have committed themselves to research on Internet communication. Consequently, the preliminary consensus reached based on these research results is that network communication generally possesses the basic characteristics necessary for Internet technology, the foundation of its technology. In other words, such communication emphasises interactivity and decentralisation. Network-communication technology has subsequently overcome the unilateral nature of the channels of conventional media communication and given rise to interactive communication, which brings greater equality between the communicators and the communicated. The communicated may shake free of their passive status as they await and receive information and are given more choices and greater initiative. In addition to receiving information from conventional media, the communicated may even try to actively extract information. New media, whose existence is built upon technology, are developing positively. Whether it is a conventional computer, tablet or mobile phone, no new media exist alone today. The digital homologous of their technological foundation keeps them closely connected. In other words, the diversity, universality and integration of their representations may be attributed to the homologue of their supporting technology. Observing the course of media development throughout history, it is clear that old and new media co-exist as a result of the continuous development and advancement of media technology. All through the development of media technology, there has been no long-term interruptions or complete remaking. Each conflict between old and new media has in fact been a process of new-media technology continuously infiltrating the technology of old media. That is to say, old media is usually able to preserve its original technological characteristics that are still applicable, as it elevates the technology it shares with new media to the standard of new media, so as to integrate with the new characteristics and features of new media. An example is when conventional media introduces digital-communication technology and achieves digitisation. Despite the distinct technological gaps among conventional media and the seemingly weak connectivity, once they enter the age of rapid digital-communication technology development, the technological boundaries among media inevitably disappear; this provides powerful technological support for the infiltration and convergence of old and new media.

2.2 Evolution of the Media Industry Although the infiltration and convergence of old and new media have always been taking place, the changes between the two continue to quietly decompose the ecological structure of conventional media. Following the vigorous growth of new media such as the Internet and mobile phones, the living space of conventional media such as newspapers, radio and television has been encroached. Regardless of the definition of new media—that is, whether new media is defined as media forms that emerged in the twenty-first century, including the Internet, smart phones and digital television,

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which differ from conventional media such as newspapers, radio and television; or it is broadly defined as communication forms that provide information using new communication technology through new communication channels supported by new terminals—it is significantly affecting the overall structure of the media industry and social forms. Based on the speed of audience growth, “it took radio broadcast 38 years to reach 50 million users. Television might have greatly reduced the time span, but it still took 13 years to achieve the same level. The Internet, however, took only 4 years to reach the same number of users” [21]. Even taking into consideration the growth of the global population and economy, this is still an astonishing rate. At the 3rd World Internet Conference at the end of 2016, the senior-expert consultation committee of the organising committee published the Wuzhen Report on World Internet Development 2016. The report stated the number of global netizens had reached 3.5 billion by the end of 2016, while the penetration rate of the Internet reached 47.1% [22]. Take mobile networks in China for example, according to the Report on the Development of the Mobile Internet Industry 2016 published by TalkingData, an independent third-party data intelligence solution provider, the number of smart mobile terminals exceeded 1.37 billion in China by December 2016. Networks, regardless of the terminals used for connection, have become the main medium through which people obtain information and connect to the world. That the Internet is able to enter people’s life so quickly has to do with the fiercely competitive and fast-paced social reality. People of modern society often do not have a great amount of completely free time. Meanwhile, the diversity of leisure and entertainment means monotonous media forms are no longer compatible with the increasingly diverse demands of audiences for information and entertainment. The emergence of new media at precisely this moment quickly won it a large number of audiences—thanks to its more tolerant, interactive, spontaneous and open features as well as hyperconnectivity. Not only does it cater and adapt to the new lifestyle of its audiences, it has re-shaped their habits of information acquisition. Take the age-old reading habit for instance, the reading vessels of new media differ drastically from those of conventional media. In addition to paper, digital devices have sprung up, such as computers, mobile phones and even dedicated e-book reading terminals, which have completely revamped reading formats. Furthermore, the audiences’ reading habits have changed—from perusing to skimming, from “in-depth reading” to “shallow reading”. The openness, diversity and entertainment that such “fragmented” reading habit bring have become increasingly evident. Some people inevitably are concerned that reading has gone from the measures words of the authors and the diligent pursuit of readers to the superficial words of the authors and the cursory looks of readers. Such concern arising out of the gradual decline of old media may to a certain extent be somewhat pessimistic and negative, but it also reflects the social reality of people’s growing dependence on the communication means of new media. The Internet has not only changed the structure of information communication, but has also reshaped people’s lifestyle and means of production. Old media, which has been left behind during this renovation, has undoubtedly been dealt a fatal blow.

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Facing the onslaughts of online media, old media feels gravely threatened. Readers of physical media and audiences of radio and television are gradually changing their habits of information acquisition and turning to online media, which is a major blow to conventional media that depends on selling audience attention to generate advertising income. State of the News Media 2016 released by Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan fact tank based in the U.S., showed that sales of newspapers continued to drop in 2015, with the decline of physical newspapers and periodicals reaching 9%. In the early years of the foundation of the U.S., the postal system that Benjamin Franklin established and presided over and newspapers were responsible for information communication among the 13 colonies. In the 60 s, four-fifth of the Americans read newspapers daily, a number that has dropped to 50% today. Simiarly, in the advertising market, the rapid expansion of online media is plainly evident. Key data on China’s online advertising from 2015 released by iRearch Consulting showed that China’s online advertising market reached 209.37 billion yuan in 2015, a like-for-like increase of 36%. The growth would, however, stabilise over the next few years [23]. In the second quarter of the following year, the scale reached 67.16 billion yuan and the link relative ratio increased by 27.2%, showing a like-for-like rise of 34.5% while maintaining a relatively rapid growth. Advertising has always been the main source of capital for conventional media. Should the trend continues, conventional media would face tougher challenges. Consequently, the active promotion of the development of the media industry through ideological transformation and practical renovation has become the choice of many media workers who attempt to adapt to and even exploit the trend of media convergence. An overview of the global media market reveals that the industrialisation and institutionalisation of media have become increasingly advanced. It is recognised that the development of the media industry is, to a large extent, driven by the industrialisation and institutionalisation of media, and its development often prompts related enterprises and individuals to devote more efforts to media convergence, which in a way also encourages media convergence. Media convergence that is based on the media industry may be divided into four stages, which may overlap but do in general take place successively, and they are: organisational convergence, capital convergence, channel convergence and structural convergence. During the first stage, convergence primarily relies on external administrative policies and power, whereby different media are integrated into one, which is also the commonest form of the institutionalisation of media. During the second stage, the capital convergence, the driver is changed from political to commercial, which is manifested in the active mergers and acquisitions of other media organisations by strong media organisations in the capital market; it is sometimes also manifested in the merger of two companies through capital operations. Compared with the enforcement of convergence through external policies, the two means of convergence during this stage place greater emphasis on the operations strategy and behavioural choice of the media industry during market convergence, and this is reflected in the different embedment combinations of media products created by different media groups. Such convergence is deeper and more expansive, covering the different stages of the media industry, including information gathering and editing and release. During the third

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stage, the media begin to converge communication means. Take the BBC’s multiplatform for example, the different media-communication means within the large media group are integrated on a major platform, where the media content is shared. One team is responsible for radio and television as well as mobile Internet, and the multimedia editors organise the material and news collected by omnimedia reporters before distributing them to the different media within the group. The ultimate form of media convergence, which is also the final stage that people hypothesised would be entirely different from contemporary media forms, will be true media convergence that extends to the entire media industry. It is thus evident that the eventual convergence of the entire media industry is simply a natural and key strategy adopted as media development reaches a certain stage. As stated earlier, as communication technology continues to evolve, the entire media industry is caught up in pursuing economic benefits and boosting competitiveness. Both old and new media attempt to move towards intensification, and the media ecological environment consequently continues to evolve. To better respond to the strong impact and survival pressure brought about by new media, conventional media must change its thinking and continue its theoretical and practical exploration. It needs to strive to develop its own media-convergence ideology, so as to respond to the trend of media convergence of the times. Some economically powerful media organisations have begun amalgamating and buying out smaller organisation and growing into media giants. As a result of a government’s role and driven by capital, the institutionalisation of media is more frequently seen in Europe and the U.S. This essentially is how major media groups with abundant funds monopolise informationcommunication channels: by amalgamating and buying out media around the globe, with the objective of promoting the strategic objective of globalisation. In comparison, China’s exploration in the institutionalisation of media began in around the 80 s [24]. In China, news media is regarded as the mouthpiece of the political party, and news is not seen as an industry. Due to the policies and laws and regulations, the barriers among media are formidable, making integration difficult. However, since the introduction of the Chinese economic reform, China’s cultural industry began to develop and corresponding changes have been seen in the communication industry. In June 1992, the State Council of the People’s Republic of China published the Decisions on Expediting the Development of the Tertiary Sector, which is deemed as formal recognition of the industrial status of journalism and communication in China, because the same year China’s media industry began developing systematically guided and regulated by policies, marking the beginning of China’s media reforms. Another landmark event was the official foundation of Guangzhou Daily Group in 1996—China’s first newspaper group. China’s first radio and television group, Wuxi Radio and Television Group, was founded three summers later. These landmark events represent the industrialisation and institutionalisation of China’s media. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China have subsequently published documents calling for the industrialisation of media. The Notification of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the General Office of the State Council on Adjusting the Newspaper and Periodical

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Structures of Central State Organs and Provincial, Regional and Direct-Controlled Municipal Departments and Bureaus (No. 30 issued by the General Office of CCCPC (1999)), which was published in August 1999, clearly stated the basic trend of the gradual separation of politics and newspapers in China’s newspaper and periodical industry. The notification demanded newspapers and periodicals to transform their thinking, operate independently and assume sole responsibility for their profits or losses. In the same year, the Notification on Strengthening the Building and Management of Wired Networks of Radio and Television (No. 82 of the General Office of the State Council (1999)) was published, which, along with the Opinions on Intensifying the Reform of Press, Publication, Radio and Film and Television Industries (No. 17 issued by the General Office of CCCPC (2001)) published by the National Radio and Television Administration, Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party and General Administration of Press and Publication in 2001, defined the creation of major trans-regional and -media groups as the objective and direction of the next stage of China’s media development. In addition, Document No. 17 explicitly stated the guiding principles for the institutionalisation of media and the institutional reform of capital and financing. This made the entry of foreign capital into China’s media industry possible and laid the foundation for the industrialisation and institutionalisation of the media industry. Chinese media’s institutionalisation formally began at this point [25]. The Opinions on the Pilot Projects for Cultural System Reform (No. 21 issued by the General Office of CCCPC (2003)), published by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party; Ministry of Culture and Tourism; State Administration of Radio, Film and Television; and General Administration of Press and Publication in 2003, further confirmed the standards differentiating the media industry. Based on its resources and attributes, the media industry was classified as public undertakings and a commercial industry. China’s State Council carried the Opinions of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China on Intensifying the Cultural System Reform (No. 14 issued by the State Council (2005)) in 2005, which further divided the media industry and provided a classification guide. The opinions also stated the necessity to increase investment in the development of public undertakings to enhance their communication capacity. For commercial industries, focus should be placed on institutional innovation, so industrial strength may grow rapidly. China’s General Administration of Press and Publication published the Guiding Opinions on Further Promoting the Institutional Reform of Press and Publication in spring 2009, whose objective was to end the phenomenon of regional, media and industrial division within the current press and publication system. The opinions encouraged regions and industries to collaborate and create media groups, so as to expedite the structural adjustment of the media industry and the transformation of the structural adjustment. As technology develops in recent years, the advantages of emerging media are also foregrounded. The ideological transformation of conventional media and its convergence with emerging media have become inevitable. However, the question of “how” faces the authorities and media workers. Liu Qibao, the then head of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party, published an article titled

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Expediting the Convergence and Development of Conventional and Emerging Media in the People’s Daily in April 2016. The 4th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms, chaired by Chinese President Xi Jinping, on 18 August 2014, reviewed and carried the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Convergence and Development of Conventional and Emerging Media, which were major measures for the thorough implementation of “news- and media-resource integration and the promotion of the convergence and development of conventional and emerging media” as proposed at the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Advancements in the technological field will break down technological barriers that conventional media faces as it moves towards convergence. When national policies turn and even lean towards related fields, the final policy barriers will also be removed. Previously, different media were irreplaceable as a result of their different product positioning. Today, however, they are forced to join the fierce market competition for their survival. The division between industries has since then ceased to exist, and competition within the media field has become increasingly white-hot. Integration with other businesses through means such as mergers, buyouts, shareholding and collaboration have become the natural choices of businesses seeking to develop themselves and fulfilling social obligation. The business strategies of media groups have naturally turned to the diversified business strategies in an omnimedia age as ushered in by television, mobile phones and computers. Meanwhile, the integration of media groups has peaked. Industrialisation and institutionalisation are, driven by the market mechanism and in search of maximum profits, the choice of industry workers and capital spontaneously seeking business alliances. On the one hand, the effects of economies of scale may help media groups avoid financial risks. On the other hand, concentrated resources allow businesses to focus their human and material resources on new areas with development potential, so they may go a long way in the greater environment of media convergence. That is why media convergence is not simply a future destination of development for the entire media industry, but also a development path that businesses have freely chosen. In an environment of media convergence, the development of the entire media industry may reach an unprecedented height.

2.3 Changes in Audience Demands Concerning the media industry, the mutual influence between the audience and the media industry has been briefly mentioned. However, in the new age of media convergence, the definition of the audience is somewhat outdated. According to A Dictionary of Modern Journalism, the audience is a collective term for readers, listeners and viewers. The term without doubt symbolises a disadvantaged group in a passive position of information reception. It must be recognised that in the age of conventional media, the audience at the end of the unilateral communication terminal was indeed passive. In the age of new media, however, the status and function

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of the audience have changed tremendously. This is not simply reflected in the greater subjective initiative in terms of the audience’s choice of media content, but all the more so in the audience’s use of new media to break free of unilateral communication patterns. The audience may strengthen their communication with the communicators, as well as be the communicators themselves sometimes. Consequently, in the current context of media convergence and innovation, it will be outdated to regard users of new media according to the limitations placed on the audience by communication research from the times of old media. Research subjects of old media did not include new audience types that emerged with new media technology and the corresponding media terminals in the new-media age, among them are netizens who use personal computers and users who use electronic devices such as mobile phones to log on to mobile networks. To date, the understanding of many media workers of the audience still remains in the times of old media. According to classic theory from that period, the audience was regarded as “the rabble”, as “a target” that could be reached a single shot; they were known for being large, motley, scattered and hidden. Large refers to their large number; an influential media firm would have an audience that numbers in the tens of thousand, millions and even hundreds of million. Motley refers to the constitution of the audience; a large media audience often comprised social members of different ages, genders, races, occupations, educational levels, income brackets and postcodes, and such expansiveness and diversity fully reflected the motely character. Scattered refers to the audience being scattered about the society; they came from different industries and usually did not know or connect to one another, making them a disorganised group. Lastly, hidden refers to that to the communicators on the other end of the communication channel, the audience of mass communication was often hidden and invisible. However, this does not mean the communicators knew nothing about their audience. In fact, communicators could easily find out about the overall characteristics of the audience of their media products, but were unable to know the specific conditions of individual audience members, which is also a reflection of the hidden nature. Unfortunately, as audience identity and demands change, research on the audience from related fields rarely has with new theoretical support. Kang, a Chinese scholar, remarked that while analysing the audience, many researchers still adopt the uses and gratifications theory that emerged in the 70 s. The spectacle/performance paradigm, also frequently referred to, was proposed at the end of the 90 s. It is thus evident that over the dozen years, despite being the period with the most rapid media technological development that also changed audience’s concepts and media use, no important theories have been put forward [26]. The audience has chosen a more diverse path. This is on the one hand reflected in the further fragmentation of the audience, who prefers more personalised content rather than passively receiving information. On the other hand, the development of Internet technology has further lowered the threshold for the independent creation and communication of content by users. The traditional relationship of the communicators and the communicated has become very blurred, and anyone may be the receiver as well as the communicator of information. The new communication form

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is point to point, while the new audience has become the prosumer in the age of new media. In the age of omnimedia, the phenomenon of audience fragmentation is essentially the bilateral interaction between and satisfaction of the diversity of media communication and the differentiated information demands of the audience. Communication in the age of new media has provided many channels to meet the information demands of the people. The emergence of omnimedia has diversified the means of how people acquire information. People no longer have to obtain information from a single media source, but may freely choose the media based on their work or entertainment demands. Looking at it from another perspective, as communication becomes more frequent in modern society and people become more tolerant and civilised, when people from different cultural backgrounds with different behavioural habits communicate, variations emerge in their values and behaviours. During this process, the demands for information are naturally multifarious. Such audience fragmentation—or personalisation—is in fact what Negroponte said: “In being digital I am me, not a statistical subset”. Regarding satisfying the personalisation demand of the audience. Negroponte once remarked that “[w]hat if a newspaper company were willing to put its entire staff at your beck and call for one edition? It would mix headline news with ‘less important’ stories relating to acquaintances, people you will see tomorrow, and places you are about to go to or have just come from. It would report on companies you know…You would consume every bit (so to speak). Call it The Daily Me” [27]. When resources of media content were limited two decades ago, the audience was unable to choose media content that met their preferences, and it was not uncommon that tens of thousand of people watched the same television programme. For example, the Chinese TV series “Yearning” or the Spring Festival Gala of China Central Television in the 90 s were highly popular among the audiences across the country [28]. However, this did not mean such homogenous programmes responded to the social-development demands at the times. Audiences of different social strata, occupations, genders, ages and educational levels should be able to enjoy programmes that satisfy their specific needs. The expansion of the scale and field of the media industry as well as the diversification of media products have doubtlessly given audiences the decision-making power to freely choose from the many options. This means users may individually choose or even customise media content based on their information demands. As people’s living standard improves and social culture becomes richer today, the disparity in people’s consumption power grows and cultural interests become more diverse, and people from different groups are beginning to choose and consume different media products. For instance, the demand of television viewers for diverse programmes is very clear. They are no longer satisfied with the previous monotonous programme formats and prefer to watch programmes that are closely related to their interests. This drives the continuous specialisation of television channels, which have branched off from the previous general channels to news, sports, music and movie channels. In Western countries, where the media industry is more developed, special channels for series and reality shows have even emerged. Today, users are no longer satisfied to receive content of mass communication that

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contains highly homogenous information; they have turned towards refined content and personalised information services. Apart from individual topics that are followed closely by the public, the age of conventional media extensively showing universal programmes and achieving positive results is gone forever. In the new media environment, the audience continues to become fragmented, and only “narrowcasting” that adapts to different user habits is the way forward. It is thus evident that the development of communication technology and social stratification have led to audience fragmentation. In the new media ecology, no single medium may single-handedly win the attention of the audience. Any medium wanting to attract enough attention to sustain its survival and development must rely on multimedia [29]. When segmentation occurs, unlike the conventional audience, media audience of the network age is not satisfied to simply being a receiver and bystander. Compared with those in the same position in the twentieth century, audience of the network age has more opportunities and stronger wishes to express themselves. They are also better at accurately positioning their information demands, so they are able to select information from the large number of choices provided by an expanded communication system. After that, they organise and feed back the communication content and are even able to communicate what they believe to be valuable information via communication channels. Consequently, in the communication system of new media, the identities of the communicator and the communicated are often blurred and hard to distinguish. That is why the academic circle refers to this phenomenon or trend as the transition of the audience to prosumers. It is worth mentioning that the concept of prosumers was proposed by Toffler in The Third Wave. Toffler combined the terms “producer” and “consumer” to create “prosumer”. As the term suggests, it emphasises not only the now blurred roles of producers and consumers, but is also a bold prediction that the two may very well converge in the future. The term reflects the changes in conventional communication topics as a result of the development of the Internet, and this in a certain way prompts the convergence of production and consumption in the convergence era that we are experiencing. In other words, the so-called “prosumption” stresses the use of refreshing interactive means of contemporary media convergence, in order to fully uncover the hidden values of audiences of conventional media and stimulate their agency. Users may consequently take part in information production and communication in a more active stance. Using another current concept that complements “prosumer” as the entry point, how platform-based media develop with prosumers in the age of media convergence is explored. Chinese scholar Li once summed up the following: Firstly, prosumers are the “blood-forming stem cells” of the operation of platformbased media; Secondly, prosumers may determine the ecological development platform-based media; Thirdly, prosumers’ behavioural habits reflect the communication content of platform-based media; and. Fourthly, prosumers may help turn platform-based media into a special profitgenerating model [30].

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It may thus be gathered that the identity change of the audience to prosumers has become a critical driving force for the self-transformation of media in the age of media convergence. It may even be said that due to such spontaneous change in users, the media industry concerned has to change accordingly, so as to find its footing in the age of media convergence led by Internet technology. The new production means introduced by prosumers is a unique means of mass production. Prosumers usually use the Internet as groups to collaborate and take part in production. They consequently engage in “mass production”, whose concept refers to outsourcing work traditionally undertaken by staff or external contractors to a large group with no clear boundaries. It emphasises overcoming the resource specificity of businesses and sharing information and resources across organisations. Furthermore, it stresses the agency and creativity of network nodes to achieve the effective interconnection of platforms and nodes [31]. It has therefore become evident that the communication link of any newspaper, radio or television media is unable to satisfy the demand of prosumers for reasonable participation. The communication of online media may achieve new forms such as a large geographic span, massive content storage and the interconnection of information networks at each node. Evidently, media features also affect the features of the associated audience groups, and users in the network age possess many distinguishing characteristics. Online-media technology has transformed information communication and introduced new means of information consumption. The transition from conventional media to online media has aided the transition of segmented information consumption to collective consumption. In response, the following general characteristics also emerged among audiences of the network age: individuality, sociality, virtuality, autonomy and participation [32]. However, regardless of the means of summary and interpretation, the continuous personalisation and diversification of audience needs are a clear trend, and increased participation and initiative mean the audience is more actively involved in media communication. Media convergence consequently satisfies user needs with the diverse media-integration capacity and the massive amounts of information. Doubtlessly, technological developments will always have to adapt to human needs, and the development of the media industry will inevitably comply with human characteristics. However, the audience in a changing media environment also has yet to assume a distinct form. Under such circumstances, the developing audience and their characteristics will unavoidably counteract the development of media convergence.

3 Prospects for Theories of Media Convergence 3.1 Development and Extension of Media Convergence Before discussing the prospects of media convergence, it is necessary to briefly analyse the concept of media convergence. The concept emerged as a result of the

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development of modern science and technology and changes in the media ecological environment. It subsequently demonstrates strong life force and potential to become a powerful trend and reality of global media development. Scholars at home and abroad have all committed themselves to this widely discussed global topic and attempted to explain it from the perspective of different fields. As the starting point behind the thinking of this chapter, it is absolutely necessary to clearly define the core concept that is media convergence as well as understand its implications. Although research on the concept and the implications of media convergence began a long time age, a worldwide consensus has yet to be reached. As earlier stated, the concept of convergence originated in natural science, and it was not until the 70 s the concept was introduced to the research in journalism and communications. Negroponte pioneered the research on media convergence and, with a model based on three intersecting circles, he explained the gradual overlap of the technological boundaries of the computer, publishing and printing and radio and film industries. He also identified the intersection of the three circles to be the industry with the most promising prospects and rapid development. It is evident that Negroponte’s prediction of media convergence is actually just a forecast from outside the media-research field that happened to involve media content. Nevertheless, even though the convergence concept was simply understood as the meeting of different technologies in a certain field that removes existing technological boundaries and produces new industrial fields, it has inspired subsequent researchers from the journalism and communications field. Since then, the media-convergence definition proposed by de Sola Pool has guided the research direction of media convergence for nearly two decades. Although research on media convergence still focused on the technological level, research and reports that defined convergence as the “convergence of industrial alliances, technological network platforms and markets” have emerged. During this period, people have begun looking at and defining media convergence from a broader perspective [33]. In his paper The Meanings and Implications of Convergence from 2003, Rich Gordon, a professor at Northwestern University in the U.S., summarised the six meanings of convergence in communication, helping the academic circle to reach a preliminary consensus. The gradual blurring of the boundaries of the nature of conventional media in the new technological environment has inspired researchers at the time, who believed the disappearance of media boundaries should be the subject of the research on media convergence. The expansiveness, intensity and rapidness of media convergence are unrivalled in the history of the entire communication and media development. To become complacent and conservative at this stage, the promotion of media advancement would be a daydream, not to mention the efforts that have been devoted to defining the concept of media convergence would have been of little avail. With regard to the research by Chinese scholars, professor Yu once mentioned that media convergence as represented by the Internet was in reality the creation of a high-dimensional medium with new social, operational and value spaces. Any attempt to manage such high dimension with low-dimensional means would be futile [34]. That is why the attempt to

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participate in, guide and even manage media convergence must face up to changes in the media ecology, which correspond to the logic of the Internet age. The development of media convergence may only be looked at from different perspectives, when participation in media convergence is based on a stance that is integrated, open, multilayered and all-inclusive, so the inclusiveness and openness of media convergence may be understood.

3.2 Outlook for the Development of Media Technology Regardless of how the definition of media convergence may change in the future, an information industry such as the media in the end is built upon the cornerstone that is media technology. If media technology is able to maintain the development speed seen in the last two decades, it may even be optimistically stated that media convergence will never stop. The convergence of media technologies is directly dependent on the progress of information and communication technology. As long as information and communication technology still has space for continuous improvement in the foreseeable future, it will carry on driving media technology. The most critical prerequisite for the development of new media is that of communication technology. McQuail, a famous British communication theorist, once stated that a true communication revolution required not only changes in the communication media or the diverted attention of the audience among different communication media; technology was always the only and the most direct driver [35]. The evolution of communication media has always been based on the development of communication technology. Computer, Internet and mobile-terminal technologies have all become the iconic technologies that prompted media development. Specifically, the convergence of media technologies is reflected in the convergence of media-network technologies and that of media-terminal technologies.

3.2.1

Convergence of Media-Network Technologies

The convergence of media-network technologies refers to the transition of the network for the transmission of digital media products from a single dedicated network to an integrated complex and multipurpose transmission network. The convergence of media-network technology first began in the U.S. The National Information Infrastructure initiative was implemented by the then VicePresident Al Gore in September 1993; it was the product of the High-Performance Computing Act of 1991, when Gore was a senator from Tennessee. The initiative aimed to build a communication network with interoperable computer hardware and software that provides interactive services, including computers, data bases and consumer electronics, which would satisfy public and personal demand for large information. The U.S. overhauled its telecommunications law in 1996, and

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the Telecommunications Act of 1996 clearly stipulated that cable-television operators and their affiliates might directly engage in telecommunication services without applying for a franchise. Franchise regulators might not prohibit or limit the provision of telecommunication services by cable-television operators and their affiliates, nor might they impose any limitations on the services. Telecommunication enterprises might provide radio and television services through wireless communication, cabletelevision systems and open video systems. The act has “broken down the barriers among the telecommunications, media and other industries and allowed them to infiltrate one another” [36]. It has also completely removed the limitations on the mixed operation of the American information industry, turning telecommunications and radio and television networks from single and specialised networks to integrated multipurpose networks. Such tradition of media-technology development continues in the U.S. The current course of media convergence in the U.S. is closely connected to media technology, and the two promote each other. Mainstream radio and television media place great emphasis on the research and development and the use of new-media technology. They employ every means on their own websites and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter to make television news more competitive. Google + is a new means of technological support that aids media operations through features such information flows, social circles and group video chats. The U-NEWS programme of KOMU, an affiliate of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in the U.S., is a successful example of the application of the Google + technology in media. NBC realised that not only do modern users want the platform provided by Google + to satisfy their desire to understand, uncover and communicate news, but media needs such a prompt means to uncover and produce news all the more [37]. China has, against related background, put forward the concept of the convergence of the three networks. The three networks in the concept refer to the traditional telecommunications network as represented by the telephone network, the radio and television network as represented by cable television and digital-communication network as represented by the Internet. According to the Notification of the State Council Concerning the Publishing and Launching of the Overall Convergence Plan for the Three Networks (No. 5 issued by the State Council (2010)) published by China’s State Council on 21 January 2010, which defines the convergence of three networks as unifying the technical features and business scopes of the telecommunication, radio and television and the Internet networks through technological renovation, as they evolve into broadband-communication, digital-television and nextgeneration Internet networks. The networks will be interconnected and resources shared to provide users with services such as voice, data and radio and television. The prerequisite of which includes the advancement of information-communication technology in the following four areas, namely digital technology, optical-communication technology, software technology and a unified TCP/IP environment [38]. It may be said that the basic technology of the above information communication has reached to a certain level, and the technical foundation for the convergence of the three networks in China is also ready. However, due to organisational structures and policies and regulations, the current convergence is having difficulty moving forward.

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In recent years, as China puts the convergence of the three networks back on the reform agenda, relevant policies have begun to give technology the free rein. China’s General Office of the State Council released the Promotional Plan for the Convergence of the Three Networks in summer 2015, which details the promotion of the convergence. It proposes the bilateral promotion of radio and television and telecommunications undertakings across the country; the acceleration of broadbandnetwork building, renovation and coordination; the strengthening of the supervision of network information and cultural security; and the thorough implementation of related industries [39]. The convergence of the three networks is a technological development. Consequently, building upon the earlier convergence of the three networks, the continuously renovating technology has added new content to the convergence. Currently, the convergence of the three networks in China is still in its preliminary stage and continues to develop. Its dynamic changes depend on taking advantage of the positive features of other new-media technologies such as the Internet, the Internet of Things, cloud computing and social media. That is why the convergence of the three networks should be regarded as an initial concept. It is simply a new and revolutionary starting point in the long process of media evolution and is by no means the final destination. In the future, building upon the new convergence of the three networks, a whole-new ubiquitous network will be created [40].

3.2.2

Convergence of Media-Terminal Technologies

As media-network technology continues to improve, the convergence of mediaterminal technologies has pointed out the path for further development. The convergence of media terminals that contain media content is reflected in the use of the software and hardware of a media terminal to integrate the features of other terminals, so as to create media content that may receive and display different formats. In modern society, the convergence of media-terminal technologies includes the convergence of computers, communication and consumer electronics (3Cs). The convergence and development of the 3Cs have directly promoted the invention of new and smart mobile-Internet terminals such as smartphones and tablets. Thanks to their portability and multifunctionality, smart mobile-Internet terminals have quickly found its niche in the media industry. Particularly following the popularisation of 4G-communication technology, smartphone terminals quickly become the first choice of users to obtain information with the help of features such as the breakthrough speed, stability and computability. Furthermore, their prompt and allround information services have changed the overall structure of the media industry. According to the survey of Nielsen, a market research firm, the amount of time people spent on the Internet using computers has dropped below that of people using mobile networks in the U.S. and some European countries, and certain media industries have reacted and adapted to the trend accordingly. The New York Times introduced The New York Times Minute, an online video service, in November 2013, which dispatches to the users the latest news in a one-minute video each morning, noon and

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evening. The objective of its transitioning towards a mobile media is rather clear, and is also one of the attempts by many conventional media as they try to draw the mobile audience of fast-moving consumption in the age of mobile Internet. Producers of smartphones have also attempted to change the positioning of traditional mobile phones through technological advancements, as they create a media terminal with a smooth operating system, interactive operating experience and fullpage display; iPhones from Apple are no doubt one of the best. The official App Store has—in addition to helping iPhones perfecting their features—witnessed continuous rise of smartphones as a new media terminal to new heights. At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in 2016, Apple showcased the accomplishments of its App Store over the past decade after the launch of its first-generation iPhone. The total number of applications in the App Store reached 20 million at the time, with an overall download of over 130 billion times. In comparison, Apple’s macOS X had only about 30,000 applications. The number of applications found in the App Store is thus astonishing. Supported by software and hardware development, smartphones are no longer simply a basic communication tool, but has become the most representative integrated terminals. However, as smartphones and tablets rapidly take over the globe, another group of new-media forms have quietly emerged in the megatrend of media convergence, and the best has to be virtual reality/ augmented reality (VR/AR) technology. VR, proposed by Jaron Lanier, founder of VPL Research in the U.S., in the early 80 s, refers to a computer-simulation system that can create and allows users to experience the virtual world. The system allows the creation of a virtual environment through computing; it is an interactive three-dimensional view of multi-source information fusion and a system simulation of entity behaviour that allow user immersion [41]. The difference between VR and AR is: when placed in a VR, users may only see the environment it shows, such as being in an assembly hall without personally experiencing it, or walking in space. AR, in contrast, is more like the fusion of reality and virtuality. Through simulations based on computer technology and the superposition of virtual information, experience that is previously hard to have in the temporal and spatial space of the real world may be perceived by the sensory organs. The “hiding the e-red envelope” event of Alipay during the Chinese New Year holidays in 2017 may be regarded as a simple application of the AR technology. To date, AR technology has not yet fully developed, and businesses remain its main users and purchasers. In comparison, embryonic forms of VR technology have entered people’s life and gained momentum in entertainment and gaming. The New York Times attempted to introduce VR technology into the media industry in October 2015 and invested over 1 million dollars in researching and developing its VR-content release platform, NYT VR, which was launched on both the Android and Apple platforms. Today, after two years of development, NYT VR has become the most downloaded app of The New York Times since the launch of the NYTimes app in 2008. To where will VR technology eventually head? Perhaps as Mark Zuckerberg remarked: children learning to walk could be seen through VR, playing sport or going on an excursion with friends could be seen through VR and even the social

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experience of watching a football match or a concert could be shared. Zuckerberg may be biased towards such an emphasis on the social perspective, but VR technology has no doubt brought a better and exciting future for the convergence of media-terminal technologies.

3.3 Outlook for the Convergence of Media Industries Media development is a long-term process. Despite the rapidly developing new media has in recent years captured the market with the help of breakthrough technologies, innovative concepts and surprising content, the unrivalled brand, resource and channel advantages that conventional media such as radio, television and newspapers have accumulated over the centuries will not simply disappear. Consequently, the current situation is that old and new media possess their respective advantages and attract each other. New media continues to strengthen its own attributes, while old media attempts to develop media products using production means of the new media, so as to maintain its status. During such process, the convergence of the media industries includes the convergence of organisations, production and industries at different levels and of different formats. First is the attempt of media companies to converge department set-up and work division, which is generally referred to as the convergence of organisational structures, whose objective is to adapt to the diverse demands for media products brought about by different media terminals. As a result, departments in media companies, including administration, gathering and editing, channels and business departments divided by conventional and new media, must form a tight link to ensure smoother communication, so as to adapt to the demands of media convergence. During this process, an integrated media-production department is born to more effectively mobilise resources within media companies for media production. The department may centrally coordinate resources within a company, including manpower, financial and information. The production process for media content is simplified, the production period shortened and the cost of production material and manpower reduced, thus comprehensively lowering the production cost of media products. Many successful cases are seen internationally. Take the century-old British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for example; as a government-subsidised but independently run media organisation, the BBC is widely recognised and highly authoritative around the globe. Faced with the waves of the new media under the influence of the Internet, it did not wallow in the advantages of conventional media, but was among the first to join the wave of transformation of editorial departments. Back on 12 November 2007, the BBC already opened a new office building for the multimedia editorial department, and its three major departments—radio news, online news and television news—began moving in. Since then, the three major organisations that were radio stations, networks and television stations ceased to exist and were replaced by two major “super editorial departments” that were reorganised and restructured, namely Multimedia News Editing Department and Multimedia

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Programme Department. The arrangements and formats of the BBC’s new location also became the focus of many scholars. The centre of the editorial department is a central work area consisting of two U-shaped workstations, from where the work areas of different media radiated. The central area is generally where senior editors, the mainstays of the news centre, are located, so they may coordinate reporters from different departments, platforms and areas. Staff from media platforms such as radio, television and networks work in the same space around the central area, where they may receive directions at any time [42]. The new structure of the editorial department helps achieve resource sharing, enhance work efficiency, improve news quality, save production costs and accomplish the effective reuse of news resources. Following the integration of the organisations, BBC One O’Clock News, BBC Six O’Clock News, BBC Ten O’Clock News and BBC NEWS 24 share the same production team, and news material may be shared and shown repeatedly among different channels once processed by the production team. Such production means has greatly reduced the production cost of television programmes and effectively decreased the time of content production. As organisational structures change, the content-production means of conventional media have also changed. Going back to the example of the BBC; in terms of the production of news content, to satisfy the demands of standardised news material of the new departments, a multimedia newsgathering team is formed, comprising expert reporters from different platforms and reporters from the BBC’s interactive television. The BBC has also set up a unified gathering and editing system to ensure that all news material is uploaded in a unified form and may be shared. Sounds, images and information that front-line reporters obtained via different equipment on site are uploaded to a single database. During the process of gathering, regardless of where the reporters and editors are, the system will automatically record the time, content and users, so all reporters and editors at the BBC may share all the content. The abolishing of the branched-out editorial departments during the stage of production and the introduction of an integrated gathering and editing process have become the development direction for many media. Allowing the audience to take part in information production has become the means to innovate media-content production, which in an environment of media convergence is no longer the privilege of reporters and editors. The audience who used to be the simple receiver of information now has the capacity to express and communicate their views with the help of new information-communication technology, and such is the new form of citizen journalism in the age of new media. The diverse interactive means that come with new-media technology allow users to upload original content based on their personal preferences (user-generated content, UGC) onto media-production platforms and become one of the content producers. Cable News Network’s (CNN) iReport and the American Broadcasting Company’s (ABC) iCaught are without exception cases of conventional media opening new channels to encourage users to contribute to the content. Apart from media companies taking the initiative to make attempts based on their own circumstances, the media industry, as a larger body, has also carried out changes during the process of convergence. Unlike the convergence of technologies

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and production at a microscopic level, the convergence of the industries and rules has brought greater influence on the upper structure and driven the convergence of media and society. The conventional-media industry includes content production in the upstream, communication channels in the downstream and the information-communication networks upon which the industry is based, and they are also the areas in which radio and television institutions often involved over the last few centuries. Today, however, following the changes in the media ecological environment, development in technology and promotion of the convergence of the three networks, conventionalmedia industry has become a “general media industry” in the process and context of media convergence. The convergence of the media industries generally comprises horizontal and vertical integration. The former usually refers to the industrial integration of media organisations at a certain stage of the industry chain, which includes that within the same media, such as subsidiary newspapers, as well as the expansion among different media undertakings like the new omnimedia integration of the BBC. Vertical integration refers to media companies expanding along the upstream and downstream of the industry to broaden their business scope, so as to cover the entire industry value chain, from the supply of raw materials to the purchase of media products by users. Take general media groups such as News Corporation and Time Warner for example, whose business covers many fields, including film and television studios, television networks, newspapers and periodicals and the Internet. The convergence of the media industries has given rise to many favourable conditions for the development of media organisations, allowing them to mobilise more resources, produce more content and reduce production costs. Through the convergence of the media industries, general media groups may simultaneously own highly competitive media products, create a comprehensive industry chain and organically integrate organisational structures. The new competition brought about by the convergence of the media industries urgently requires control through the convergence of rules, which means the establishment of departments with converged rules, development of concepts for convergence rules and elimination of policy barriers to media convergence. The converged competition among different media industries should be promoted through different regulatory means, so as to provide quality information services and satisfy the divers information needs of the audience [43]. In terms of rule convergence, Europe began the attempt relatively early. The European Union passed a comprehensive reform plan for the telecommunications regulatory framework in November 2009, and the highlights of the plan are seen in four areas: first, the establishment of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications to replace the loosely organised European Regulators Group, while regulatory bodies in member states have become more independent; second, the passing of the most simplified rules for the quality of network transmission to promote network neutrality; third, operators are functionally divided to promote fair competition; and fourth, the establishment of rules for next-generation access networks to enhance competition standard and stimulate investment [44]. In China, although media organisations are still limited by the model

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of “one newspaper group and one radio and television group per province”, rules have been adjusted accordingly. China’s General Administration of Press and Publication and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television merged to become the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television in 2013. The merge of the two media regulatory organisations created favourable conditions for the overlapping and convergence of undertakings of the two major industries and even the amalgamation and restructuring of property rights. According to the stipulations of the State Council Institutional Reform Proposal carried at the 5th Plenary Session of the First Meeting of the 13th National People’s Congress in March 2018, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, previously responsible for press, publication, radio, film and television, shall cease to exist, and the National Radio and Television Administration shall be formed and take over its responsibilities. Meanwhile, the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party shall become responsible for the management of film and press and publication. Furthermore, the proposal stipulates the creation of China Media Group and the abolishing of the organisational system of China Global Television Network of China Central Television (CCTV), China National Radio and China Radio International, whereby the names shall continue to be used internally but uniformally referred to as The Voice of China externally. In the age of media convergence, media of all forms have truly achieved convergence and the barriers among different media from the age of conventional media have been broken down. A broader and continuously expanding information platform has emerged. Such social prospect as created by media has become increasingly integrated into people’s daily life. The convergence of media and society has changed and affected everyone in society as they corroborate each other. The society in which media workers find themselves also continues to change during the process of convergence before eventually forming a new social format.

4 Innovative Development of Mainstream Media During Media Convergence 4.1 Positioning of China’s Mainstream Media 4.1.1

Concept of Mainstream Media

Research on mainstream media is common and numerous, but a fact that may not be overlooked is that due to the extensiveness of the concept of mainstream media, different conclusions may be drawn based on different angles. Consequently, the academic circle has yet to arrive at an accepted, authoritative definition of mainstream media. Even though the definition differs greatly depending the scholars proposing it, a general concept may still be formulated.

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Strictly speaking, mainstream media was a term foreign to China. However, after being introduced and practiced in China, it has adapted to China’s media environment. In fact, the earliest application of the concept “mainstream” in Western countries was to mainstream newspapers, that is, serious newspapers such as The New York Times and The Times, which are comparatively superior than tabloids such as The Sun. Noam Chomsky, professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the U.S., proposed the concept of mainstream media. He argued that the concept—or the elite media and the agenda-setting media often possess in comparison sufficient news resources in the media industry, which allows them to become the designer and operator of the news framework of the overall society. Other media usually are forced to operate by choosing news from within the framework set up by mainstream media [45]. As a result, mainstream media not only affect the establishment of the social media framework through agenda setting among the media, but are able to take advantage of such influence to sway public opinion. Their leadership status in the media industry naturally sets their readership apart from those of other media. Readers of mainstream media such as The New York Times and The Times often assume the role of managers in society and possess a certain influence in the political, business and academic circles. As society develops in China, the concept of mainstream media also changes. Historically, China’s media was created by the leadership of the Communist Party and was consequently being led by the party and bestowed the key role as the official propaganda media, inevitably making it seen as China’s mainstream media. However, as the market opened up and the media reformed in the 90 s, lively media content began to gain popularity among the audience, while the reserved official media slowly became marginalised and lost its mainstream status due to the strong political undertone. Meanwhile, certain non-party newspapers and periodicals such as Southern Weekly and Beijing Youth Daily dominated the media market. They emerged via main means through which the audience obtained information and extensively influenced the decisions of their readers. As a result, they were often regarded as the mainstream media. All of these changes have given rise to different definitions of mainstream media depending on the viewpoint. Zhou Shenglin, professor at China’s Fudan University, reasoned that in a traditional sense, China’s mainstream media, “in comparison to non-mainstream media, possess a certain political undertone. In other words, the media are known as mainstream media, if they are above provincial level, influential, leading and can represent or sway public opinion. They primarily refer to newspapers of party committees and radio and television stations of regions, municipalities, provinces and the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, as well as other major stations and newspapers” [46]. Professor Yu saw it from the perspective of media economy and maintained “mainstream media pay close attention to mainstream issues in social development, and have thus become the senior media upon which the mainstream crowd of society relies for information and ideas” [47]. To understand mainstream media requires understanding the opinions of media users. Relevant research has also shown that users generally agreed on the features

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of mainstream media: 71.9% of those interviewed believed “mainstream newspapers should be what most people like to read, and not just what the middle- and upper-class (in terms of level of education, income and occupation) read; 81.5% of the interviewed believed mainstream newspapers should “focus on the public and on people’s livelihood”; 80.5% of the interviewed believed mainstream newspapers should communicate and interpret the national and party policies; and 79% of the interviewed believed the content of mainstream newspapers should reflect the directions of national and social development [48]. As a result, a more open stance is needed to accept the definition of mainstream media.

4.1.2

Status of Mainstream Media

The concept of mainstream media has seen many changes after its introduction to China, and many scholars and industry workers have defined it based on different fields. Relatively speaking, mainstream media is responsible for communicating mainstream social ideology and values, as well as guiding the task and mission of the active and sound development of social culture. For a long time, the news perspective based on the “mouthpiece theory” remains a critical component of Marxist’s view of journalism. Marx believed newspapers and periodicals should be the eyes and ears of the people. While criticising the accusation made by the opposition party against the Neue Rheinische Zeitung (New Rhenish Newspaper) in 1849, Marx remarked that according to their mission, newspapers and periodicals were the social defenders, the tireless exposers targeting those in power, the omnipresent eyes and ears, the mouthpieces of the spirit of the people who passionately defended their freedom after repeated calls [49]. In the Announcement (Neue Rheinische Zeitung, Politisch-Ökonomische Revue, December 1849), Marx and Engels wrote: “The greatest interest of a newspaper, its daily intervention in the movement and speaking directly from the heart of the movement, its reflecting day-to-day history in all its amplitude, the continuous and impassioned interaction between the people and its daily press” [50]. China’s press theory was also guided by Marxist press theory and slowly took shape in the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat. Back in 1942, an editorial of Jiefang Daily from Yan’an in China’s northern Shaanxi Province did mention “making the paper a true newspaper for the struggling party, as well as a shared mouthpiece for the people who will annihilate any national enemy and build a people’s nation”. In “A Talk to the North China Press Corps” on 2 October 1948, Liu Shaoqi specifically mentioned: “You are the eyes and ears of the party and the people”, and “the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party depends on instruments such as you to connect the masses, to guide the people and to supervise the work of local parties and governments.” China’s mainstream media often appear among the masses as news undertakings. Xinhua News Agency once conducted related research and determined six criteria for mainstream media, which are also six features that mainstream media must possess [51].

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First, the feature as the mouthpiece of the party, government and the people, in addition to the authoritative status and special influence that general press media cannot rival. Being regarded as an authoritative representative of the will, voice and position of the party, government and the masses by the national and international communities; Second, reflects and communicates mainstream social ideology and values, which means socialist ideology and core socialist values in China, while persevering in and guiding the main social development trend and direction, in addition to being relatively influential; Third, has strong credibility, with reports and review that are widely followed by the majority of the public and serve as the basis of the ideas and actions of many, and being frequently shared, quoted, analysed and reviewed by the media at home and abroad; Fourth, focuses on reporting major trends in fields such as politics, economy, society and culture at home and abroad and being a recorder of key historical developments; Fifth, the representative groups of different sectors of society are the basic audience; and. Sixth, maintains a relatively large circulation or influential frequent audiences. Without doubt, following the evolution of communication technology and driven by market forces, the trend of media convergence has emerged and is irreversible, and such technological progress will break down existing systems and production and communication means. Media from different regions and industries have previously demarcated their spheres of influence. Today, however, media convergence that has spread to every area has ended media monopoly, and conventional media may no longer face the power decentralisation of the media industry using strategies and structures from when it monopolised the right to speak. Nowadays, new digital-information technology as represented by the Internet is influencing people’s means of communication, which will further affect the entire social informationcommunication system profoundly and in turn change the social structure over time. The current top priority of mainstream media is to find its positioning. Its status may be untouchable, but this does not mean it should become complacent and conservative. To maintain or develop their current communication capacity, mainstream media whose forms based primarily on conventional media must adapt to the new information-communication structure against the background of new communication technology. They need to change how they manage the right to speak they already have and achieve modernised transitions.

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4.2 Research on the Convergence of Chinese Mainstream Media While the new media are developing by leaps and bounds, China’s mainstream media have already begun their convergence attempts. Converged Coordinates— Annual Report on Media Convergence and Development in China (2015) compiled by People’s Daily recorded and organised convergence projects of major media groups and attempts at media convergence by different media from the time, and maintained convergence had reached a critical period in 2015 [52]. Against such background, academic research on the convergence of Chinese Mainstream Media gained popularity. Three main research angles may be established after going through related research results: First, the direction and characteristics of the convergence of conventional mainstream media. The trend and direction of the convergence of conventional mainstream media is a key research point, and from this perspective, Gao put forward five transitions of conventional mainstream media: from “public news media” to “mass news media”, “news producers” to “news prosumers”, “high-tech news” to “emotional news”, “monotonous news” to “complex news” and “objective news” to “immersive news” [53]. Second, predicaments and solutions of conventional mainstream media against the background of media convergence. Gao and Luo conducted research from this perspective. In her article Predicaments and Solutions of Public-Opinion Swaying by Conventional Media When Media Convergence Becomes the New Norm, Gao listed new characteristics of the focus of public opinion given the current diverse voices and new issues facing the content management of contemporary conventional mainstream media. She then summarised the predicaments facing contemporary conventional mainstream media in swaying the public opinion and put forward some ideas on how to get out of such predicaments [54]. Third, comparative research on the convergence of mainstream media. As media convergence first took place in the U.S. and Europe and China only began extensively exploring it in recent years, comparison of different media-convergence practices at home and abroad has become a common research angle. For example, Liang Zhiyong, a doctoral student at Fudan University in China, compared the industry chains and new-media structures and strategies of CCTV, Shanghai Media Group, Phoenix Media and Xinhua News Agency [55]. Another example is the master’s thesis of Zou Tan, A Comparative Study of the Strategies of Converged Chinese and English Newspaper Media in the New-Media Environment—a Case Study of The Daily Telegraph and China Daily, which compared the media-convergence strategies of two famous Chinese and English newspapers. The study provided beneficial reference for the convergence of China’s mainstream media and their “going global” with the help of new media [56]. Furthermore, China’s contemporary academic circle has produced some research results from the perspective of “predicaments facing the convergence of China’s mainstream media”. Analysing Gao’s Predicaments and Solutions of Public-Opinion

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Swaying by Conventional Media When Media Convergence Becomes the New Norm, Luo’s Predicaments and Responses of the Conventional Newspaper Industry against the Background of Media Convergence and Zhu and Hu’s Innovators are the Sole Winners—on the Development Bottlenecks and Path Dependence of Media Convergence, the author discovers these studies have the following characteristics: First, in terms of methodology, many studies adopted literature analysis, logical analysis and case studies. To a certain extent, it may be said that existing papers mostly focus on reasoning than concrete evidence, emphasise case quantity rather than quality and lack in-depth analysis of specific cases of media convergence. Second, current studies mainly combine industrial practice and are based on how to promote media convergence. In a way, the studies are more like strategy studies and lack scientific principles, which may lead to related studies being simply based on the media’s perspective while neglecting the audience’s perspective.

4.3 Direction of China’s Mainstream Media Convergence and Development Analysis of the understanding of mainstream media shows clearly that mainstream media still dominates the current market competition and maintains a certain huge advantage. Meanwhile, its historical mission of reflecting and communication mainstream social ideological and values remains unchanged. Mainstream media was, is and will be for a long time the major media power, as China perseveres in and guides mainstream social development and advancement direction. However, in a new media ecological environment, conventional media faces the issue of an all-round transition, and new mainstream media with enormous communication power and sharpened competitive edge may only be formed when conventional and emerging media converge and develop.

4.3.1

Value the Driving Role of Technology

The promotion of the convergence and innovation of mainstream media requires focusing on the key driving role that technology plays. In the chapter of media convergence, it has been extensively discussed the changes that progress in the technological field has brought to media convergence, as well as the development directions it offers media convergence. Whether it is the building of a multimedia-communication platform or the building of a unified digital management process, both are dependent on technological support. Digitisation has given rise to a “speed culture” in which information is stored, transmitted and applied digitally, which has greatly increased the information load in every aspect of social life and driven up demand for information in production, distribution and consumption. As technological upgrades become faster, information

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also reaches communication channels more frequently and rapidly [57]. Doubtlessly, the speed culture that is brought about by technology is precisely one of the reasons why conventional media feels out of place in a rapidly developing society. Whether it is the whole-new spatial concept, control idea or social understanding, all of them are brought about by digital technology and are products of the speed culture. Meanwhile, visualisation may also be regarded as another representation of the speed culture. Imagery is considered as symbols that are consumed faster than language, words and figures [58]. From traditional typesetting (text communication) up until the entry of images into the journalism and communication fields, and from the assertion of “image-reading era” to the omnipresence of the concept of modern digital news, keywords related to digital technologies such as big data and cloud computing have become common in people’s daily life. Nevertheless, many changes caused by the emergence and development of new media have damaged certain parts of social operation. For instance, would comprehension fostered based on such speed lead to a superficial cultural understanding? Would production built upon such speed create poor and rigid content? If mainstream media is penny-wise and pound-foolish or selfdeceiving to claim the existing media ecology may be under threat, then the hope of working for the greater good and changing the media condition of the society in general would only be empty talk. Different means of driving media convergence via technological progress have been mentioned. In China, to a large extent, “technological empowerment” is the only most critical change that technology can bring to the social and cultural fields in the age of media convergence. As a result of technology and technological advancements, many users will experience “the ability to speak”, “the courage to speak” and “making a difference through speaking”. Technological empowerment brought about by newmedia developments will irreversibly change the society and the public. The masses who have attempted “to speak” will not and cannot return to the time of conventional media, and this will prompt mainstream media as a whole to change, even if such change to a large extent is a tough decision for those based on conventional media. It should also be recognised that it is neither realistic nor necessarily a responsible demand to expect conventional media, particularly mainstream content of conventional mainstream media, to radically change and fully adopt the ideas of media convergence and new Internet media in the current social reality in China. What may, however, be expected is the gradual change of conventional mainstream media, and such gradual change in response to media convergence is precisely the social influence that technological empowerment hopes to bring. Liu Jun, a youth scholar, conducted research on the formal innovation of Xinwen Lianbo, a daily news programme of CCTV, as a result of technological empowerment: (i) (ii)

The use of open or quasi-open cut in or ending; The breaking free of the limitations of safe broadcast and the gradual adoption of live coverage, such as the live coverage of passenger transport on the first day of the Spring Festival and the AFC Champions League final of Guangzhou Football Club;

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(iii) (iv)

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The showing of news clips taken by mobile phones and the introduction of a “public selfies” section specifically for the Spring Festival; and The attempts to adopt big data, such as “Data of Spring Festival Passenger Transport” and “Data of Spring Festival” [59].

The formal and content innovation as a result of media changes brought about by technological empowerment is well received among the users, and this leads to the thought of whether better news content and innovation means may be applied to media convergence. Quite often, the audience understands the role of mainstream media in expressing the national will, assisting government administration and shaping social morals. From a certain perspective, users are also willing to recognise that the work of mainstream media is necessary given China’s actual conditions. However, the social and cultural changes brought about by media convergence continue, and the existence of technological empowerment is not merely the pressure and driver for media convergence, but should also promote the development of mainstream media.

4.3.2

Value Interaction and the Stance Change

Back in the early twenty-first century, Thomas L. Friedman predicted future social developments in The World is Flat. According to him, the trend of a “flattened world” began long ago. With landmarks such as the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 and the development of the Window’s system at almost the same time, people have entered the grandest innovation era, which has continued to today. The book has enumerated ten factors of a flattening world, which now seem all to be built upon the interconnection of information. One of the key conditions of achieving a flattened world is interconnectivity, which is made possible by Internet technology. Information sharing and efficiency enhancement are the shared objectives of individuals, organisations and nations, as vertical organisations often have poor adaptability and efficiency. Cross-regional, -department, -industry and -field collaboration has already proven it. Today, the all-popular social networks reflect the importance of speed and convenience to interpersonal communication. That is why modern formulators of converged-communication strategies must change their ways of thinking; they need to minimise layers in organisations and pay attention to increase connection among nodes from the same level. Today, the Internet has become an indispensible part of people’s life, and with it people obtain information, connect with others or engage in entertainment. The continuous advancement of Internet technology brings tremendous changes in the means of information communication of the entire society. The influence of information communication is omnipresent in society, be it releasing and handling social information, maintaining and improving interpersonal relationships or guiding and changing social structures. The structures and models of information communication have also quietly changed following the introduction of new technologies. First of all, the convergence of different communication networks continues to intensify. The

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connection has become increasingly tight for previously independent communication networks such as the Internet, communication networks and radio and television networks, giving rise to distinctly different information-communication systems. Second, the importance of personal communication is significantly foregrounded. In a network structure that is connected by the Internet and transcends temporal and spatial limitations, each of its nodes has acquired almost equal status and importance. The energy of each node, or information unit, becomes a critical and indispensible component of the general social-communication system, after being transmitted and magnified by countless nodes and travelling through the expansive space of the network structure. Third, the advent of the pan-connection age. Previously, interpersonal social connections relied on the close social connections in real life, and such old social connections are quickly being deconstructed following the arrival of the new age of network-information communication. As an information unit in the information-communication networks, individuals to a certain extent are able to rewire social connections with the help of the Internet, which has undoubtedly overcome the temporal and spatial limitations in the traditional sense. Based on such premise, a large number of conventional media face the challenge of transition. However, such challenge to a large extent arises from the inability to assume a lower stance and a superficial understanding of the Internet. The inability to assume a lower stance is reflected in the outdated concepts and habitual thinking, which overlook the tremendous changes of the times. The number of news-website visitors was high in 2017, about 2.45/min on average. Meanwhile, newspaper circulation across the U.S. dropped significantly, almost down to the level in the 40 s [60]. However, conventional media continues to regard audience ratings and circulation as the key data to gauge their operational results, which has led to a large number of conventional media to become overly focused on producing printed matters while overlooking other means of content presentation, such as webpage news and online videos. Jakob Nielsen once predicted in The End of Legacy Media: “Most current media formats will die and be replaced with an integrated Web medium in five to ten years.” Social development is irreversible, and if the media still believe in focusing solely on communicating general news and information, they are destined to lose their market competitiveness. The lack of Internet thinking is more often than ever reflected in the outdated thinking of conventional media. Today, the strategy formulation of many still focuses on how to respond to the impact of the Internet. In the age of Internet trends being led by technology, and when many media workers arm themselves with convergence media, such thinking is fatal. While Internet companies are winning over users and expanding channels, conventional media, as a defender, is still confined to the “convergence” of news products, unilateral audience and internal undertakings. The tremendous gap in thinking no doubt makes it hard for such media to truly achieve the convergence of old and new media. Consequently, modern-day conventional media must change its stance, shake off the limitations of the current system and carry out in-depth convergence. The previous business strategies targeting unilateral users are no longer suitable, and the focus of the entire organisation should change from production to user development. The

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convergence and innovation of conventional media in the end depends on stance change. It needs to focus on the development of interactions, launch user-oriented new services and attract users through new platform-based undertakings, so as to provide the critical guarantees to satisfy user demands.

4.3.3

Develop Innovative and Logical Multidimensional Compensation Mechanisms

Indeed, during the transition of mainstream media, growing pains are inevitable. It has to leave behind the fields to which it has committed years of efforts and move into the Internet environment, where it faces new competition in terms of content production and communication means. This on the one hand is extremely costly, while on the other hand comes with a high capital risk. However, such attempts are most certainly not futile, and the many advantages that mainstream media has gained over the past few decades through conscientious work may by no means be easily destroyed by emerging media technology such as the Internet. With the help of these resources, mainstream media may create a new means for value compensation, as it actively enters the field of media convergence and begins transformation. It will then be able to ensure the steady and sustainable development of its operations while further innovating. Below are some suggestions for the transformation of mainstream media. First, copyright income. For a long time, mainstream media has invested in or purchased a large number of television series, films, documentaries and animations, and the copyright to such content is the development advantage of China’s mainstream media. Today, China’s copyright laws and regulations have become increasingly strengthened, and emerging-media platforms are becoming more aware of copyright and are willing to purchase content and product copyright according to the price set. For instance, many television series and documentaries are able to draw no small number of viewers even after having been shown a few times, so video platforms are usually willing to pay for such copyright. Mainstream media should always focus on improving its copyright-protection awareness, strengthening the standardisation of copyright management and increasing the socioeconomic benefits of its copyright. Second, scale benefits. Currently, the popularity of series produced by online video platforms has drawn a large number of viewers. However, on second thoughts, it may be seen that behind the thriving online series, conventional media still has the upper hand in terms of production and broadcasting. The returns to scale are often the key factor of how television series invested by conventional television stations are able to outperform current online series. From their conception and shooting to the later-stage distribution, television series must consider each step and achieve the returns to scale. Conventional media currently faces the major impact brought about by emerging media, and the appropriate audience-superposition strategy will help it respond to the new competition and achieve the returns to scale. The key lies in the deletability and editability of video content. Television series may be deleted or

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edited according to the characteristics of different media platforms, which aids their distribution and communication among the platforms and generates more income for mainstream media with lower capital investment. Third, the redevelopment of audience resources. The accumulation of audience resources is a long-term process and the core competitiveness that mainstream media has built up over the years. The media often regards audiences with higher purchasing power as its target audience, whom it attracts to generate advertising income that will be its main financial source. In the new media environment, mainstream media should not settle for such traditional means to generate income, but should attempt to research the target audience once again to uncover their interests. They should then introduce value-added services based on audience interests, so as to satisfy the objective of the audience’s media use.

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Chapter 2

Convergence Course and Experience of Foreign Mainstream Media

Against the background of digitisation and convergence, global radio and television industries are undergoing a profound transition and major changes, and media convergence has become a subject that conventional mainstream media may no longer avoid. The inevitable rift caused by the maintenance of conventional media and the evolution of new media is not a challenge facing the communication industry in China alone. Globally, how to better remove the boundaries between technology and industries and achieve better media convergence are subjects that demand reflection. Media industrialisation began rather early in Western countries, and therefore has a stronger reference value. With globalisation further continuing, connections among countries also grow closer. More commonalities are seen among societies, and the convergence and innovation of media industries are no doubt one of them. Discussing the successful experience in the convergence of mainstream media in the U.S., Europe and even countries in Asia will undoubtedly help guide the convergence of media industries in China.

1 Convergence Course of Foreign Mainstream Media 1.1 Convergence Course of Mainstream Media in the U.S. Media from the U.S., a top media nation in the world, is highly influential globally, and the strong communication power of the country means it possesses a distinct advantage in terms of the international discourse power. CNN and NBC, major mainstream media in the U.S., hold an eminent position among global media companies. That is why analyses of their innovation will greatly benefit the development of China’s mainstream media.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 P. Duan, Innovations of China’s Mainstream Media Convergence, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9146-1_2

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The Media-Convergence Practice of CNN

Founded in the 80s, CNN is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, of the U.S. and provides continuous news programmes to global users around the clock. As the world’s first television channel to broadcast non-stop news programmes, CNN has explored extensively the live coverage of news events, which greatly improved the timeliness of news. Furthermore, its prompt on-site coverage of the Gulf War and 9/11 has consolidated its incontestable status in the world of international journalism, with the audience regarding it as “the most trustworthy journalism brand”. Since then, whenever a major news event occurs, the first choice of most viewers is usually the live coverage of CNN. However, as the business scope of the Internet, particularly the mobile Internet that is based on terminals such as smartphones, expands, social media such as Twitter and Facebook have become people’s new favourites thanks to its advantages. People are more willing to send and share information on social networks and become citizen journalists. The large number of social-media users is often able to bring first-hand report from news sites, which is something that conventional news television stations cannot easily achieve. CNN was finding itself under attack from all quarters, and, specifically, the background of and reasons for its transition may primarily be divided into the following areas: First of all, the international news market is highly competitive, which has greatly undermined CNN’s influence. Since Al Jazeera built its discourse power during the Iraq War, Russia, France, Japan and China have been attempting to create their own international television media, and the complete dominance of CNN became a thing of the past. To maintain its influence, transition was imperative. Secondly, the falling audience rating at home was becoming more noticeable, and many users were drawn to other stations or media. The stagnation in coverage formats and innovation was also a highly critical reason. Impacted by new media, television indeed faces declining appeal. Although rapid development of global digitisation, networks and information has negatively impacted the television industry, it also brings brand-new development opportunities. Against such background, CNN began launching media-convergence strategies and achieved striking results. Its transition was carried out through the following means: (1)

Channel transition to complete the development of multidimensional information communication

Against the background of media convergence, CNN’s reform took place on the premise of consolidating its existing advantages. While ensuring its advantages such as live and international coverage of major news events remain unchanged, CNN vigorously established its own multidimensional information-communication framework through means such as building a portal and mobile terminals, which primarily include the following areas: Firstly, the building of a portal. CNN has invested heavily in the development of online media, so as to meet the new communication means in the network age. While building its portal, it has

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renovated the model of conventional media and used the resource advantages of its communication channels and sites across the globe, achieving the integrated distribution of prompt and comprehensive content. Since the middle 90s, CNN began the attempts at converging networks and the television station, and has developed many online platforms, including business and sport. Its website CNN.com has become its key source of income. According to official statement, CNN.com has 38 million unique visitors, 1.7 billion page views and about 100 million video views per month, while the total page view is 121 billion [1]. Research by Nielsen revealed that CNN.com has an average of about 38.2 million monthly users. According to a report by Heather Hopkins, an analyst at market research company Hitwise, from March 2010, based on user views on Facebook and Google News, CNN ranked second and fifth. Meanwhile, CNN.com was chosen as one of the most popular websites on Twitter. The number of independent users of its official website reached 73 million by 2011, placing it second among American news websites, just behind Yahoo, which built itself up as an Internet company. The overall global ranking of CNN’s website is 62nd, and it is ranked just behind the BBC in terms of top international media websites. CNN’s audience accounts for 1.741% of the netizens worldwide, among which 67.6% are domestic users and 32.4% are foreign. Its foreign users basically come from major countries around the globe and are highly internationalised. Secondly, the expansion of the business of mobile terminals. CNN already began expanding its mobile business back in 1992. It launched CNN Mobile in February 1992, and building upon the WAP and Java software, it promptly launched terminals for iPhone and iPad in 2010. Furthermore, it worked closely with many new-media companies via flexible means such as capital operations and business collaboration, and entered the new-media mobile business through joined forces. For instance, Samsung from South Korea and CNN International co-launched CNN multimedia news services in 2008, covering Europe, the Middle East, the Asia– Pacific and Latin America. Samsung has even specially developed mobile phones with a “one-touch access” to CNN multimedia news services. Using the quick access button, users may directly visit the web page and immediately browse thousands of news items and pictures. Meanwhile, CNN shows an hourly online video programme CNN World News Now, and the income for this service primarily comes from sharing profits from sales of related Samsung mobile phones and fees for advertising featured in the news service [2]. Lastly, the building of a “three-pointed, multifaceted and omnipresent” communication media. Meanwhile, through media convergence, CNN has created a “three-pointed, multifaceted” communication network that combines online interaction, televisionnetwork broadcast and offline services. Against the background of the clear advantages of new media and the impacted development of conventional media, CNN began working on positive interactions with online social media such as Facebook and YouTube. For instance, it encouraged its television hosts to open accounts on these platforms, post programme information and interact with platform users, so as to allow them to efficiently collect feedback on the programmes. In the meantime, understanding the preferences of the audience has tremendously helped CNN

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to adjust its programmes in a more targeted manner and further increase its user stickiness. Take CNN’s coverage of the Boston Marathon Bombings for example, the analysis of which may specifically focus on the interactivity and the complementary nature of its online and offline communication. The bombings near the finishing line of the Boston Marathon in spring 2013 had caused multiple casualties. During the coverage of this unexpected event, CNN’s “three-pointed, multifaceted” communication network played an enormous role and ensured the timeliness of information communication. When the bombings happened, CNN’s report team provided on-site television coverage, providing the audience with instant information and images with a strong sense of presence. It subsequently broadcast rotatory casualty information and rescue images on television and online platforms, providing users on different platforms with live information. (2)

Transform gathering and editing, revamp procedures and achieve resource sharing through a “central kitchen”

Today, CNN has built a relatively scientific and comprehensive international newsgathering and -editing network, which has over 4,000 staff members and 800 reporters, among them about 170 are on-camera reporters. These reporters are spread across 24 reporter stations abroad and 9 domestic reporting branches or reporter stations. Meanwhile, CNN has established an enormous international-news supply system in dozens of countries across the globe, covering over 150 television bodies, over half of which are in developing countries. Due to its powerful international-news gathering and editing capacity and outstanding performance in the foreign market, CNN collaborated with American newspapers and launched the CNN news agency in 2008 to seize the news-dispatch market with minimal costs. With the Abu Dhabi news centre as its base, CNN coordinated the gathering and editing tasks of reporter stations in seven regions, namely Baghdad, Beirut, Cairo, Dubai, Jerusalem, Kabul and Istanbul, in 2009. The Abu Dhabi news centre consolidated the investment of CNN International in global news gathering and editing, in addition to prompting the launch of telegraphic dispatch of CNN’s business news, new edition of CNN.com and new prime-time programmes. CNN’s gathering and editing system is comparable to a huge yet highly efficient central kitchen. Reporters from different stations divide the obtained content into three categories, namely “refined”, “rough” and “extra material”, before sending them directly back to the “central kitchen” at the Atlanta headquarters, where it will turn the “ingredients” into “dishes” of distinctive styles. In the end, the headquarters will place all the raw material and processed products centrally in a resource-sharing database, which is readily available to channels and production centres. Two points are worth mentioning here: first is that editors from every channel and production centre all have the right to access the resource-sharing database and select and use the news material according to their needs; second is that CNN has developed an excellent international information-retrieval system, which even allows the retrieval of keywords from a single news frame. These two points greatly enhanced the work efficiency of CNN’s editors. Furthermore, CNN has formed dedicated task teams

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that are responsible for coordinating different channels and platforms, and the heads of these teams are responsible for coordinating the collaboration among the teams. Meanwhile, CNN has a production group and emergency-news response group: a newly built CNN Share team, which is responsible for creating an early-warning system for major news and collecting the material and content, and the content is shared via websites, mobile phones and television. It is precisely due to its advanced gathering and editing process that the massive amounts of basic content in CNN’s resource database may be maximally developed and exploited. The process has in particular continuously nurtured the development of CNN’s new-media undertakings, placing them in an advantageous position right from the beginning as they compete against other new media. It is worth mentioning that against the background of media convergence, CNN believes that reporters and editors should transition into omnimedia reporters, who will be better able to complete the tasks of news communication with the media-convergence thinking and the ability to command different media. (3)

Content transformation to combine in-depth analysis with citizen journalism

From the perspective of information gathering and in-depth analysis, in its coverage of the Boston Bombings, CNN has displayed the specialised angle and professionalism that are necessary for news channels. Its “Morning Express” programme in the morning and “The Situation Room” programme in the afternoon provided all-day coverage to timeously communicate live information and show the progress of the event. Meanwhile, CNN’s news-interview and commentary programmes, such as “Anderson Cooper 360°”, “Fareed Zakaria GPS”, “State of the Union” and “Piers Morgan Live”, have all analysed the subsequent impact of and the compensation for victims of the Boston Bombings, as well the psychological intervention and psychotherapy for the public after the terrorist attacks. They have also discussed the motives of the suspects, the use of the Miranda warning following the arrest of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and the upcoming legal proceedings. Meanwhile, CNN has objectively shown interviews of the suspects’ family and extensively uncovered the international political and cultural conflicts behind the bombings and the dominance of the U.S. in international dealings. It has presented the complex background of the tragedy relatively comprehensively, allowing viewers to have a better understanding of the entire event. By showing documentaries during prime time, CNN has on the one hand differentiated itself from its rivals, while on the other hand developing its news content in greater depth. CNN announced the establishment of a documentary department CNN Films on 19 October 2012, as well as the showing of documentaries on CNN and CNN International during prime time from spring 2013. On the one hand, CNN will promote the development of its documentaries aided by the advantages of news coverage in terms of discourse, topics and brand. On the other hand, the documentary programmes will help make up for the lack of depth of normal news coverage, providing news coverage with more long-term topics of discussion. Additionally, the documentaries offer more extensive, in-depth and professional views [2]. CNN has always been known for live news and its content also focuses more on the coverage

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intensity of hard news, thus establishing the brand image of being “news focused and commentary supplemented”. However, the multimedia coverage approaches of new media provide a greater sense of presence, which is why CNN had to adjust the content of its new channels. While ensuring the amount of hard news, CNN has increased the proportion of commentary and focused more on digging deeper, which reflect the professionalism, consideration and seriousness of news media. In terms of citizen journalism, CNN’s iReport shows remarkable value. As media technology continues to development and the initiative of the audience grows, the UGC production model has become the norm. The model is the best reflection of the convergence of contemporary new media and citizen journalism. As event witnesses, users may share what they have seen, heard and thought on mass-media platforms via instant communication tools, including mobile phones, iPads or small digital video cameras, achieving to a certain extent news communication. CNN has promptly responded to modern trends and placed strong emphasis on the use of “self-media”. Among CNN’s many self-media systems, the most famous is its iReport, which was first used in the coverage of Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. in 2005. The general public uploaded texts and shared their audiovisual files to cover the event as citizen journalists. CNN formally launched iReport on its official home page on 1 August 2006. As a news-sharing platform that advocates mass participation, it encourages the general public from around the globe to upload and share self-produced images and audiovisual information onto the CNN website as long as they observe agreements such as copyright protection. It also promises that the information will not be edited in any form. Furthermore, following reviews by CNN’s editors, the content uploaded by the general public may be shown on CNN’s platforms such as website and television programmes, and other users may also comment on or share the content. In addition to being repeatedly shown on the official website, information promoting iReport is seen on CNN’s television channels every half hour, so as to encourage greater public participation [3]. Meanwhile, iReport stays at the heels of the latest media technology and innovates. CNN and Google made a highly creative attempt in 2014 as they announced that users of Google Glass could upload the videos shot onto the iReport news platform. The move has once again pushed public news coverage to a new height. The launch of iReport is seen as an exceptional innovative attempt by CNN as a pacemaker of the global news industry in the age of media convergence. It is an attempt of mainstream media truly lowering its stance and accepting public voices as an equal. This foretells the arrival of springtime for citizen journalism.

1.1.2

Course of Convergence of NBC

NBC, the Columbia Broadcasting System and ABC are known as the top three commercial broadcasting companies in the U.S. As a highly representative American broadcasting company, NBC has an extensive audience base. By the end of March 2015, the company has 10 independently owned stations and 221 member stations,

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covering 48 American states; Washington, D.C.; six foreign domains; and two nonU.S. territories (Aruba and Bermuda), as well as 95.92% American families [4]. In recent years, however, like other conventional American broadcasting media, NBC also encounters a tense situation: the tremendous competition pressure brought about by emerging media. Faced with the ferocious onslaughts of the Internet media, NBC also began learning from the actively transitioning BBC and CNN. It attempted media convergence and transitioning and created a set of new-media systems that includes the Internet and mobile clients. It has also given full play to the strategy of communication platforms, which powerfully supplement conventional broadcasting platforms. The active and spontaneous international transition and external collaboration have gradually turned NBC’s platforms into a positive and mutually promoting community. Compare with other conventional broadcasters, the most distinctive feature of NBC during media convergence is the active advancement towards the Internet. It has joined other companies and created integrated information-communication platforms such as MSNBC and Hulu, which greatly enhanced its influence. (1)

Early attempts at media convergence: MSNBC

Following the introduction of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, limitations on operations within the information industry in the U.S. were removed, which intangibly boosted competition in the field of basic telecommunications. The business of local and long-distance phone calls was integrated; radio, cable television and film and television services infiltrated one another; while telecommunications operators purchased shares in fellow businesses. Policy relaxation has consequently created a market environment that encouraged free competition, which saw the telecommunications market in the U.S. ushered in a revolutionary change in granting market access. In 1996, Microsoft invested 250 million dollars and established MSNBC with NBC. The channel broadcasts on both cable television and the Internet and quickly rose to power to become the major competitor of Fox and CNN. By early 2015, MSNBC owned 9 reporter stations in the U.S. and 11 abroad. Today, it has over 95 million users in the U.S. and has many programmes showing on Orbit TV and the Consumer News and Business Channel. Thanks to the powerful technical support from Microsoft, MSNBC has gained enormous advantages in Internet business. Its website has achieved effective information integration through clear content and structure arrangements. Instead of transferring material from television networks in its entirety online, MSNBC has “broken down” the news based on the editorial needs of the website before labelling it with different keywords. In terms of web-page layout, its home page displays chunks of major news dominated by images. For pages such as economy, society, education, election and health, MSNBC has continued with the simple design, with four to 15 key news items recommended by the editors, while breaking news is placed in the dominant headline position. In addition to providing different choices and the best solution for webpage design and interface display, Microsoft’s technology offered stable network-access services unmatched by rivals. “On the last day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, almost all news networks, particularly video

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communication, were seriously jammed. CNN’s website, which once innovatively joined YouTube in the live coverage of the primary debate, lost over 7 million visitors on the day. MSNBC’s website, however, still had over 84.20 million visitors” [5]. The fact that MSNBC was able to stand out among the many websites that have transitioned from conventional television must be attributed to the strong emphasis on and the extensive use of Internet technology. Microsoft and NBC formally announced the end of their Internet collaboration in July 2012, but the two still maintain a friendly relationship of mutual aid, with NBC providing MSN with news information and MSN driving traffic to NBC, while MSNBC is independently run by NBC. As a cable-television news channel with strong online-media support, MSNBC is very active in new-media transition against the background of media convergence. The most representative example would be when MSNBC launched the morning breaking-news and evening news-review programmes on Facebook in 2015; the professional gathering and editing process combined with the social network has helped MSNBC attract more young viewers. (2)

Hulu’s model of media convergence

Due to the rapid rise of online video platforms, the market of conventional radio and television media has been dramatically impacted. The main audience of each media group in modern society has gradually become the so-called “Internet generation”. The viewing habit of these young people has quietly changed, and they prefer watching online programmes rather than conventional broadcasts. NBCUniversal, the Fox Broadcasting Company and ABC negotiated from 2007 to 2009 and invested in the development of the website of Hulu’s online video services, in addition to granting it the exclusive right for the many popular series and shows. Some new television programmes are available to Hulu users a few hours after airing on television. Apart from acquiring exclusive content from the parent companies, Hulu also focuses on collaboration with content producers such as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and distributors such as MSN. It has uncovered new structures of media convergence from the aspects of content production and introduction and communication channels. In addition to the conventional American series and films, series from Japan, South Korea and China are also being shown on Hulu in the U.S. Hulu’s job to a large extent is the effective resource integration of global media content and classification of media products, so as to facilitate audience choice and viewing. It also provides one-stop services for online video browsing. Although NBC’s attempt did not come too late in the conventional media industry, by the time Hulu was founded many online video platforms have mushroomed in the U.S. Websites such as YouTube, Yahoo! and MSN have been running for years and have a considerable number of audiences and partners. Apparently, as a cross-field product of news media, Hulu did not enjoy a positive outlook in the industry initially. Many media workers even immediately predicted its failure, believing the attempt by conventional media changing its business thinking and structure to enter the field of new media in the Internet age is often futile. However, after its launch in March 2008, Hulu generated 175 million dollars in revenue from the U.S. market, making a profit of 12 million dollars [6]. Hulu became the fourth-largest video platform in

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the U.S. at the beginning of 2009. According to Nielsen’s survey from January 2009, the number of Hulu’s video view reached 230 million and the number of unique visitors reached 4.5 million. The number of its video view reached an astonishing 960 million in 2014, just behind that of YouTube. Hulu is now regarded as the most successful case of connecting the conventional television and film industries with the Internet to date, because it has successfully challenged the online video-platform giant YouTube. Against the background of media convergence, the rapid development of online videos has seriously encroached on the living space of conventional television. The reason for Hulu’s swift success lies in its complying with the “free-consumption” habit of netizens. Furthermore, it has fully exploited its strong background in television media and the advantage of collections of original content to create a new profit model, winning it popularity among online users and advertisers. Unlike YouTube’s UGC model, Hulu focused on the clear profit model of “copyright content + video advertising” right from the beginning. When YouTube was dealing with copyright disputes and business bottlenecks, Hulu was successfully generating profits. Upon its formal launch Hulu only had a web page, and visitors to hulu.com could freely watch programmes that were shown the day before on television, after watching an advertising clip that lasted between 15 and 30 s. The quality content resources, low use cost and high accessibility guaranteed the rapid development of Hulu. In terms of terminal choice, after generating handsome profits with its network platform, Hulu immediately turned to multimedia terminals and actively upgraded user experience on the cross-terminal platform. Hulu Plus, the video-subscription service software developed and designed by Hulu, was launched in June 2010. In addition to covering Internet televisions, personal computers, tablets and handheld terminals, allowing users to watch and request original television-programme content via different network terminals, it provided online movies with 7.2 megapixels to users for under 10 dollars. It later also launched multi-terminal subscription services, whereby users only had to pay once to enjoy the professional content provided by Hulu on different media platforms. To enhance the experience of subscribers, Hulu launched more applications for different devices. Today, users may access Hulu’s rich media content using almost any media, be it the Internet, mobile Internet, smart televisions or game consoles. In terms of content resources, Hulu has on the one hand insisted on original copyright content, while on the other hand insisted on creating a one-stop website for streaming-media services. The biggest problem plaguing the many Internet video platforms is being mired in copyright lawsuits. Such problem, however, does not face Hulu, which focuses on original copyright content. Not only does it earn Hulu a good reputation in the industry and keep negative news at bay, it also ensures more loyal audiences. Unlike the front-runner for Internet videos YouTube, which focuses on the sharing nature of the Internet and on running a platform instead of producing content, Hulu has confirmed its strategic objective upon its establishment. It gave play to its advantages and focused on television-programme content to build a one-stop website for video services. Hulu’s media-content collaborators include NBC, Fox, ABC, the BBC, MGM and Warner Bros. In addition, to cater to the increasingly diverse needs

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of the audiences, Hulu and many niche-content providers reached agreements to selfproduce media products. It has hired professional teams and independently produced a series of animated comedies, sitcoms and documentaries, such as “The Awesomes”, “Quick Draw”, “The Wrong Mans” and “Behind the Mask”, all of these original programmes have been placed on Hulu’s platform. Meanwhile, to enhance userconsumption experience, Hulu provides users with services such as online requests and search for interested products, which allow users to watch, save and discover new television programmes anytime, anywhere. Even with programmes that are currently unavailable on Hulu, users may still use its search feature and find them on other websites. Hulu emphasises the optimisation of user experience and tries to offer users value for money. To make it easier for users to share content, Hulu has developed an online video-editing feature, which allows sharing via e-mails and social networks. In terms of operating model, Hulu has adopted that of advertising-profit sharing. As for the choice of advertisements, Hulu has attempted to combine advertisements and videos and gained user acceptance. Compared with the traditional direct and rigid display of advertisements, Hulu has regarded this step as its responsibility and a part of content production. It is highly adept at creating original advertising content, and the many witty and humour story-based advertisements combined entertainment and gaming. While generating substantial revenue for businesses from the large volume of advertisement delivery, they brought advertisers the expected delivery results. Furthermore, the audience is drawn by the fun advertisement content and is rarely lost due to the insertion of advertisements in the middle of a video. It is also worth mentioning that Hulu’s emphasis on user experience is reflected in the choice available to users when viewing advertisements. Users may choose how advertisements are shown based on their preferences, such as watching a longer advertisement at the beginning of a programme or watching multiple shorter advertisements during a programme. In addition, Hulu offers users the right to evaluate the advertising content. Users may vote for the advertisements they like, and the results will positively guide Hulu as it formulates future advertising strategies. This also helps Hulu screen advertisements based on user preferences and strike the optimal balance between positive user experience and considerable advertising revenue. Hulu does not monopolise the advertising revenue generated from quality video resources, but divides it into three portions instead: 70% of which goes to providers of core content, such as Fox, NBC, ABC and Sony; 10% of which goes to content promoters, including portals and Internet companies such as AOL, Yahoo!, MSN and Comcast Corporation; while Hulu takes between 20 and 30% of the advertising revenue from audiovisual-service fees from users and from profits generated by the platforms of peripheral content collaborators [7]. The remarkable profit-sharing model further encourages content providers to supply Hulu with a larger amount of better quality audiovisual content, leading to a positive cycle. The greatest significance of the “Hulu model” lies in it being the bellwether of the media convergence of conventional radio and television media while, relying on its own advantages, standing up to new Internet media. Compared with the U.S., media convergence began relatively late in China, and a large difference exists between the media environments. However, Hulu’s exploration of media convergence still

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serves as good reference for the convergence of China’s radio and television media. In terms of the profit model, Hulu has a distinct model of “copyright content + video advertising”. In terms of terminal coverage, Hulu has invested heavily in research and development to provide users with a seamless viewing experience that covers almost every multimedia terminal. In terms of content resources, Hulu has insisted on using original versions. It has given full play to the abundant content resources that NBC has accumulated in the broadcasting field, while attracting a large number of quality-content providers with handsome profits and a sound audience base. In terms of advertising choice, Hulu has improved advertising quality and creativity, focused extensively on user experience and accepted user feedback. All of the above features have helped Hulu rapidly draw a large number of Internet users upon its launch and achieved tremendous business success, generating handsome profits for NBCUniversal. The “Hulu model” also shows that in a rapidly changing media industry, innovation is the only way forward for conventional broadcasting media. For China’s broadcasting media, as media changes during media convergence, it may be a viable innovation model to continuously consolidate and exploit the content and brand advantages its has accumulated over time by focusing on the development of emerging online content-distribution channels.

1.1.3

Media Convergence of National Public Radio

National Public Radio (NPR) of the U.S. was founded on 24 February 1970 and began broadcasting in April 1971. It is a non-state subsidised, completely independent radio organisation. Apart from the conventional radio operations, it has carried out a series of attempts related to broadcasting channels, including networks, mobile clients and car stereos. According to statistics from March 2016, NPR has 950 member stations in the U.S. and 828 employees, among them 356 are in the news department. It has 16 local branches, including in New York, Boston and Dallas, and 17 foreign branches, including in Beijing, Berlin and London. It has about 33.6 million weekly listeners, while its official website has about 35.2 million weekly visitors; its podcasts are downloaded about 3.1 million times per week. Today, NPR has developed into a national public radio network, whose programmes focus primarily on special news reports and interviews, while art and sports programmes also account for a certain percentage. It broadcasts to about 10% of the U.S. population, making it the most listened-to radio station of the country. According to statistics, over 60% of its listeners are university educated and 75% come from middle- and high-income households [8]. Radio industries across the world primarily adopt one of the three systems today: state-run, public and commercial. On the commercial-radio dominated market in the U.S., NPR has developed its own style and come to represent public radio in the U.S. Compared with public radio stations in countries such as the U.K., Canada, France, Japan, Germany, Italy and Australia, NPR has different funding means. Public radio in other countries mostly rely on listening fees, licence charges or income from limited advertising as funding sources, whereas NPR does not rely on

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advertising but rather voluntary public donations and revenue from the sales of the intellectual-property rights for their programmes. In the age of media convergence, NPR also faces fierce competition from other radio stations, conventional media and new media. Consequently, it must improve the quality of its media content and the listening rate of conventional radio. While running conventional radio operations, NPR also needs to develop the new-media field, so as to increase its user number on digital platforms. As a result, it has carried out media convergence in the following areas: (1)

Digital-transformation strategy

Although NPR’s conventional radio operations continue to dominant in the U.S., its annual profits have been less promising as a result of the competition from new Internet media. Concerned about the radio industry will experience a downward spiral in terms of audience number and profits that previously faced the newspaper industry, NPR has always remained firm in its attempt at media convergence and transformation. Its presidents have always been committed to driving the transformation of NPR in the age of new media. They have firmly insisted on the tremendous value the period before the dramatic loss of listeners had on the transformation of NPR, and it was absolutely necessary to uncover and research new audience, that is, the media-use habits of news-service receivers, such as the use of computers, mobile phones and car stereos [9]. The most important measure of NPR is the driving of its digitisation. It has fully focused on and exploited the development of technologies, such as the Internet and the Internet of Vehicles, to create new media-content products and customise multimedia content such as audio content for users of different media. Such attempts have helped NPR transformed itself from a simple radio platform to an omnimedia company. In recent years, NPR has made different attempts at digitisation, including upgrading its media web pages, developing mobile clients and providing its staff with omnimedia training. It has invested over 18.83 million dollars in digital media by 2014 [10]. (2)

Podcasts

After Apple launched the iTunes software in 2005, NPR also launched podcast services. Initially, NPR would upload audio files of over 170 conventional radio programmes it and its member stations have produced based on broadcasting dates onto the online-release platforms of Apple and Yahoo!. Listeners could only find the entire programmes and could not search or select specific programme content based on personal preferences. Later, to help users find the audio content more easily, NPR editorial staff listened to audience advice and divided the audio content according to issues and areas of programme coverage. They have also introduced keywords for the divided audio content, which is often short and comes with corresponding texts, images or videos, so users may search specific programme sections based on their preferences. With the help of podcast services, listeners may search, listen online or subscribe to current or past programmes they like. When the programmes are updated, listeners

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will receive a download reminder or the programmes will automatically be downloaded to electronic devices capable of playing digital files, such as computers, mobile phones and iPods, allowing listeners to enjoy them anytime, anywhere. NPR’s most representative podcasts Fresh Air and TED Radio Hour were ranked top among the podcasts on iTunes. Even against the background of the strong impact that emerging media has on conventional media in recent years, NPR still managed to achieve the record of having over 30 million podcast downloads in a single month in 2013. (3)

Web programmes and application-programming interfaces

NPR has set up a dedicated programming team that is responsible for developing network tools and application programmes based on news coverage, survey data and media resources. The objective of the team is to integrate the communication channels of multimedia, boost the benefit output of news resources and expand the coverage of public services, so as to comprehensively increase the social influence and media-market share of the organisation. Take for example the web programme that NPR Music website created in December 2013: In Memoriam: Musicians And Entertainers Who Died In 2013, which contains music, texts, images and links. People could browse image files and reports of the artists, listen to their representative works and click on the links to browse more, which nicely reflected the characteristics of web programmes as converged media [11]. Furthermore, NPR is trying out the use of application-programming interfaces (APIs)—specific systems or programmes provided to third-party developers—to enhance the competitiveness of its member stations. NPR’s member stations may, following authorisation from NPR, access news content produced by NPR via an API and release it on their own news websites to attract local listeners. Such approach allows member stations to enhance the content of their websites more rapidly with higher quality. The use of NPR’s content is not a simple copy and paste, it actually shares the feature and style of news content on the websites of member stations. When visitors to the websites of member stations click on the API to access news, the web page will automatically redirect to NPR’s news website. In addition to enhancing the news-content quality of the websites of member stations, the competitiveness of their websites is boosted while traffic to NPR’s website increased, which in the end is mutually beneficial. (4)

Mobile clients

NPR has customised different clients according to the features of different mobile terminals. “For iPads, the search feature for radio stations has been strengthened based on the iPhone version. In addition to searching by postcode, new features such as search by city, state and dialling code are added”. “Although the basic features and content of the Android version are identical to those of iPhone, labels such as ‘news’, ‘programme’ and ‘station’ have been removed and are replaced by a dropdown menu” [12]. NPR has also took the lead to join hands with Ford Motor Company and launched an in-vehicle client voice-control button in 2012, making it the first radio organisation to launch an in-vehicle client and allowing it to gain early access to

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in-vehicle mobile Internet. With the help of this multimedia interactive voice-control system, NPR’s news clients are connected to in-vehicle smart platforms, allowing drivers to search, select and control the broadcast content with voice control while driving. The implementation of NPR’s digitisation strategy took advantage of the content resources of conventional radio. It has tried out different new-media operations and has been at the vanguard of media convergence and transformation of conventional American media. In addition to implementing the digitisation strategy, NPR has readjusted its organisational structure to adapt to media convergence. (5)

Integration of news editorial departments

In July 2014, Jarl Mohn, the then newly appointed CEO of NPR, remarked: “Digital is our present. It is also our future. We must be where our audiences are. I’m deeply committed to digital” [12]. While stressing the strategic importance of digitisation to NPR, Mohn also adjusted its organisational structure. In terms of group operations and management, subordinate to its president, NPR has four vice presidents responsible for macro-strategies, audience development, news and programmes, who respectively take charge of the company’s business in four major areas: strategies and the research and development of digital media and digitisation; brand marketing, public relations and platform users; news-production and -editing departments; and programme purchase, evaluation and research and development. Based on the adjustment of the group’s management structure, it is evident that NPR has promoted digital media to its top priority, while linking its research and development to business strategies. It has also placed digital media on the same management level as business marketing and programme-content production, fully illustrating the importance that NPR attaches to digitisation strategies. Furthermore, NPR restructured its news editorial department in April 2014, creating a department with a digital radio platform that integrates production and distributes content on multiple platforms. Positions subordinate to its vice president responsible for news were set up, including a managing editor for the news department, editing supervisor for digital media and managing supervisor for news programmes. The editor and supervisors work closely to decide the report content, reporters and launch platforms, in addition to coordinating the collaboration among staff from related news-gathering and -editing departments. Six content hubs subordinate to the editor and supervisors have also been created, namely science and technology, art, business, international, domestic and Washington, D.C. They are able to coordinate across platforms and bring together reporters and editors responsible for similar content. In addition to the six content hubs, NPR has formed four dedicated digital-content teams, namely social media, visual, homepage and web applications. They work closely with the six content hubs and present the content collected and processed by each hub on different digital platforms via multimedia based on platform features.

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Digital training for employees

To better accomplish media convergence and transformation requires front-line employees understanding the transition objective of the media company, so as to comply with the adjustments in work procedures and the organisational structure. It also requires employees to voluntarily improve their professional skills and review the news-production processes from the perspective of converged and transformed media. They need to adopt new news-narrative means to attract new audiences. In this regard, NPR chiefly resorts to foundations to sponsor the large-scale, systematic digital training of its employees throughout the years, so as to enhance the overall quality of its employees and propel business transformation. In recent years, NPR has repeatedly received financial sponsorship from Knight Foundation, which it has used to support many projects, including digital training for employees. After a series of successful training, although not every employee has turned into an “all-round reporter”, NPR’s news-gathering and -editing team has acquired the basic skills necessary for coverage based on digital media and media convergence. Not only is employees’ knowledge of conventional radio in the digital age broadened, but the gathering and editing team is also able to consider the collection, editing and presentation of coverage content based on the features of different media. Furthermore, members with different responsibilities on the team are able to work together to produce media content. As a representative of public radio in the U.S. and due to the need to focus on the benefits that the media bring to the public, NPR is characterised by being non-state subsidised and -commercial. This means it may not rely on the government or advertising revenue of conventional media as its funding sources. As a result, given the impact on conventional radio operations brought about by new Internet media, NPR is easily plagued by funding shortages. It is precisely due to such funding pressure, however, that NPR realised early on the changes that new Internet media might cause in the media industry, and has begun attempts at media convergence and transformation ahead of time. The many predicaments that faced NPR prior to its transformation also face China’s conventional broadcasting media: reduced advertising revenue as a result of the impact of emerging media and insufficient government fiscal support, while having to serve as a propaganda mouthpiece and sway public opinion to safeguard the interests of the party and the people. Under such circumstances, NPR has launched digitisation strategies, integrated news editorial departments and provided the employees with digital training. It has thus successfully transformed itself from a public-media organisation with conventional radio operations to a general publicmedia with conventional-radio networks, an official website, podcasts, apps, APIs, social media and in-vehicle media, placing it ahead of the convergence and transformation of conventional radio media in the U.S. The media convergence of NPR therefore serves as an invaluable lesson for the convergence and reform of China’s conventional broadcasting media.

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1.2 Convergence Course of Mainstream Media in Europe 1.2.1

Convergence and Innovation of the BBC

Founded in 1922 and headquartered in London, the U.K., the BBC is the longeststanding national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcasting body in the world. Established under a Royal Charter, the BBC operates within the agreed framework of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport of the U.K. It is primarily funded by the annual television-licence fees, which are paid by British families, companies and organisations that use any devices to receive television programmes. The fees are set by the British government and approved by the parliament; they fund the national and regional radio, television and online services within the British Commonwealth as covered by the BBC. As of 1 April 2014, the fees also fund the global broadcasting of the BBC in 28 languages. Since the 80 s, the development of cable television and communications satellites has impacted public television in the U.K, and the BBC’s audience began to drop. Following the advent of the twenty-first century and influenced by new media represented by Internet technology, the BBC proposed the “create the future” plan in 2006, which stated the objective of media convergence. In the plan, the proposed objective is not the development of conventional broadcasting media with a new-media platform, but rather a new broadcasting model that automatically adapts to user needs and closely follows the development of communication technology, so as to become a new communication platform that principally provides audiovisual programmes and information services. This required the BBC to remove any barrier among different broadcasting channels and converge and establish a shared communication platform and a content-production mechanism for cross-channel communication; the mechanism may be explored in depth from different aspects. The BBC set up an information-system and -technology department in 2010, which is responsible for providing technical support to the launch of the BBC’s new-media strategies while researching and developing new technologies such as analogue-to-digital converters for televisions, live digital coverage and wired broadband networks. The BBC today has become a broadcasting platform with multiple digital models, including satellite, cable, Internet-protocol television (IPTV) and mobile networks, making it a force to be reckoned with in the field of new media. The production process of the BBC’s media content has undergone tremendous changes. A conventional content-production model is a unilateral chain that consists of production, transmission and eventually user consumption. However, following the advent of the age of new media, audience feedback has become a key factor that the media industry may not overlook when producing content. As a result, the BBC has introduced user feedback into its production and promptly adjusts its content production based on user experience, so as to provide users with content products that better meet their preferences. Given its original channel-based organisational structure, information communication among departments was ineffective and work efficiency low. Consequently,

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the BBC has drastically restructured. Interdepartmental boundaries were broken after the restructuring and internal resources extensively integrated to create a major omnimedia news centre. Under the “system of a major editorial department”, the BBC has centrally coordinated and shared news resources and achieved the integrated and coordinated operations of new and conventional media. The finished newscontent products may simultaneously be used by different media formats, while the efficiency of manpower and other resources has dramatically improved. Some of BBC1’s top news programmes, including One O’Clock News, Six O’Clock News and Ten O’Clock News, now share the same production team with BBC News 24. This prevents excessive consumption as a result of “internal strife” and leads to the recycling of news material from the day. Meanwhile, the BBC has invested heavily in the development of social media. From BBC Online to BBC iPlayer and BBC News mobile clients, the BBC has launched many highly interactive platforms that promote users to share its content products. Its iPlayer is one of the best examples of the BBC’s successful media convergence. BBC iPlayer is a video-programme distribution platform that provides media content to different terminals, including smart televisions, personal computers and mobile phones. The exploration and development of iPlayer reflect the efforts the BBC has committed to expanding distribution channels in the age of media convergence. It was initially launched as a temporary online-video storage service in December 2007, and allowed the replay of BBC programmes from the past week. The BBC introduced an iPlayer version that was based on user feedback in 2008, which combined the television and radio versions and was known as “iPlayer 2.0”. The launch of “iPlayer 3.0” in 2010 integrated social media such as Facebook and Twitter and greatly expanded the coverage of iPlayer. BBC iPlayer adopted HTML5 standards in 2015, which further strengthened the compatibility of iPlayer with online media and improved user experience. BBC iPlayer today is not simply the software for delayed playback, but a tangible platform that connects conventional broadcasting with new media. Currently, most of the BBC’s broadcasts from the past month may be requested online or downloaded for offline listening or viewing using the software [13]. How should well-established conventional media think and act in the greater environment of media convergence? Just like what the BBC has done over the past century, the series of moves it has made unquestionably serve as examples for other mainstream media lost and struggling during the transition period. Amid the increasingly fierce competition of the media market, the BBC has, in addition to maintaining a consistent standard of news credibility, taken part in the restructuring of the audiences’ concept of time and successfully adapted to modern lifestyle with the help of its iPlayer, making it an indispensible part of the life of its many users once again.

1.2.2

Convergence and Innovation of Russia Today

Russia Today (RT) is a state-funded international television network of Russia and runs both cable- and satellite-television channels. Its target audience are viewers

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outside of Russia, and it offers Internet content in languages such as English, Spanish and Russian. Headquartered in Moscow, it offers all-day news communiqué, documentaries, talk shows, debates, sports news and cultural programmes with the objective of providing “Russia’s views on major global events”. RT primarily broadcasts in three languages: it launched an English channel in 2005, an Arabic channel in 2007 and a Spanish channel in 2009. RT America (since 2010) and RT UK (since 2014) provide localised content to these countries and regions. In recent years, RT has even firmly regarded omnimedia as its direction of development. The completely digitised production and broadcasting system of RT has provided it with the favourable conditions for strategic expansion, and it has become the largest news-video provider on YouTube. It has over 1 billion views on YouTube by 2013, and has generated over 500,000 dollars in advertising revenue. RT announced its collaboration with YouTube in 2014, whereby special broadcast windows for news, documentaries and television programmes become available on the platform. The digitised production and broadcasting system has greatly facilitated the content switch and multichannel broadcasting of RT on different platforms. Once its video products are placed on social platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, RT has a far greater number of followers than mainstream Western media, while its brand influence has tremendously improved qualitatively. In the eye of the management of RT, the young generation that are keen users of social media will be the backbone of the future society. Consequently, many of RT’s brand strategies also target youth who are active on social media. The first time that RT helped Russia beating the West in the fierce media competition was when reporting the War in Donbass in Ukraine. It is widely known that with Western media dictating the global communication initiative, whether it is the colour revolutions, the Chechen Wars or the Russo-Georgian War, the overall national image of Russia has been severely damaged. However, RT’s news coverage has without doubt to a certain extent helped Russia turn the situation around in communication. During the War in Donbass, RT has outdone Western media to become the most critical information source, and its news coverage was widely shared by global media. Since its foundation in 2005, RT has won itself a place in the global communication competition with its professional production and broadcasting capacities. Its has drawn considerable attention in Asia and Europe with its unique news angles and refusal to blindly follow the political stances of Europe and the U.S., winning it greater discourse power amid international communication. Today, RT has over 600 million viewers in over 100 countries, and enjoys impressive audience ratings in Europe and North America. After achieving remarkable results with conventional broadcasting channels, RT’s new-media transformation has drawn global attention. For the media that began later than RT, the changing global media environment offers them the opportunity to surpass conventional major international communication media. This is because emerging media has provided them the unprecedented opportunity to reach out to audiences across the globe, so they no longer have to rely on localisation and spend an extensive amount of time to draw audiences to boost their audience ratings. Through collaboration with social media such as YouTube,

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Facebook and Twitter, RT is able to interact and communicate directly with its audiences, which provides the foundation for its building of a diverse communication system [14]. Today, RT is at the forefront of media transformation against the background of media convergence. From conventional television media to mobile clients and social networks, RT has concurrently enhanced its product quality and brand influence as well as expanded its communications channels and promoted its communication content. Furthermore, RT’s FreeVideo website provides free video-download services to over 16,000 television channels and news agencies in 185 countries, including CNN, Fox News, The Associated Press and Reuters. Building upon it, RT has founded Ruptly, a short-video news agency, which provides paid real-time and saved news-video content from popular areas across the globe [15]. RT also provides Facebook and Myspace services on its official website, offering technical support to online users in terms of promotion and sharing. Meanwhile, it has created its own channels on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Today, not only is RT the largest news provider on Twitter, it also generates over 1.5 million dollars form it in revenue annually.

1.3 Convergence Course of Mainstream Media in Asia Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK; Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Japan’s first national broadcasting body, is a merger of three large broadcasting stations in Japan in 1926, namely Tokyo Broadcasting Station, Osaka Broadcasting Station and Nagoya Broadcasting Station. As a state-owned public television station, its operating expenses rely almost entirely on the television-licence fees collected from viewers, which also ensured its independence to a certain extent when faced with commercial forces. Unlike other commercial channels that have to yield to business capital in exchange for advertising revenue to maintain their operations, it is also able to better protect public interests as a public television station. Currently, NHK runs two terrestrial-television services (NHK General TV and NHK Educational TV), two satellite-television services (NHK BS 1 and NHK BS Premium) and three radio stations (NHK Radio 1, NHK Radio 2 and NHK FM Broadcast). It also provides international broadcasting services with NHK World, which consists of NHK World, NHK World Premium and the shortwave radio service Radio Japan. The many media forms and the positioning of the public television stations of NHK have helped it to better take part in media convergence. Today, many of NHK’s programmes may be easily found on the Internet. NHK has many convergence options and few issues concerning the division of business profits, which have ensured its media convergence and greatly enhanced its communication efficiency. With the help of government-promoted media convergence, NHK began the convergence of conventional and new media very early. A notable example is the convergence of mobile phones in Japan. Soon after mobile phones became a necessity in life, conventional media attempted to expand into the field of mobile phones

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and deliver television programmes on the platforms of mobile phones to prevent its users from been diverted to new-media content from the Internet. Furthermore, the rapid and steady development of Japan’s mobile networks has provided a critical guarantee for the convergence. Personalised communication of information must be based on a large amount of raw material, in addition to needing information output formats that are compatible with different information-reception terminals. Focusing on the above two points, NHK has carried out extensive technological development. In terms of content production, NHK has taken advantage of the technology related to information-content databases and communication technology that connects individual networks. In terms of information-reception terminals, NHK has developed mobile television targeting mobile-phone users, special broadcasters targeting the visually- and hearing-impaired and a multilingual website targeting foreign users. The “u-Japan policy” was proposed by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications in 2004, whose object was to focus on the development a newmedia industry supported by the information and communication industries, so as to turn Japan into a “ubiquitous network society”. To achieve such key objective of building a network society, Japan has stepped up the comprehensive upgrade of its information-network equipment and facilities, and has promoted the organic convergence of old and new media through digitisation, networks and intellectual property. During this process, the trend of “integrated media and features” became increasingly marked, giving rise to platforms offering different services.

1.3.1

Attract Mobile-Phone Users and Develop the One-Seg Platform

The foundation of Japan’s One-Seg project grants its telecommunications operators considerable discourse power over mobile-terminal manufacturers. Inside the customised mobile phones of the telecommunications operators, manufacturers of mobile terminals such as mobile phones are required to have the One-Seg module built in. This has allowed One-Seg to cover the majority of mobile phones within a very short amount of time and cultivate the habits of mobile-phone users. In addition to becoming an essential feature of mobile phones in Japan, One-Seg strongly emphasises the development of multi-terminal receivers, which provides users with a wide range of choices and positively encourages popularisation among new users. Initially mobile phones could only play the same content as that on televisions, but the Broadcast Act, which was revised and executed in April 2008, relaxed the regulations on universal content, allowing the mass production and broadcasting of information content that is better suited to the features of One-Seg. NHK began producing media content based on the broadcasting characteristics of mobile televisions, which differ from those of conventional television channels, in 2009. It created a series of educational programmes and variety shows especially for OneSeg broadcasting, adding unique appeal to the existing portability feature among the large number of users while significantly encouraging the popularisation of One-Seg. The key feature of One-Seg is the integration of television-programme viewing with mobile portability, which offered a possibility for NHK’s transformation.

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The broadcasts of One-Seg are primarily text-based content, which includes news, weather and live traffic that may easily be presented in the text form. In addition to such unique content, content supplementary to television programmes is available. Although the data broadcasts for mobile terminals are to a certain extent connected to conventional television programmes, they are largely specially designed for mobile terminals, thus distinguishing their content from that for home viewing. Telecommunications operators and television stations have collaborated to introduce a series of interactive services, which took full advantage of the media characteristics of mobile terminals. The many programmes such as raffles, questions and answers and hotlines have to a certain extent satisfied user wishes.

1.3.2

Focus on Networks and Create an Omnimedia Platform

The simple replication of content among platforms often cannot satisfy the demands of media convergence, while blindly giving up conventional-media operations and turning to a new field is also not a responsible choice. The strategic choice of NHK to take advantage of networks may serve as reference for latecomers. NHK uses its website to stream some of the broadcasts and publish programme guides, so most of the time it serves as a catalogue that guides the audience to listen to or view programmes of conventional media. To ensure the inclusiveness of the “catalogue”, NHK has actively integrated its information resources and turned the website into a gigantic database, which guarantees users’ search experience and reinforces their recognition of and dependence on the website. The journalism and communications academic circle and industry of Japan widely believe the “TV Everywhere strategy” is a necessary path of development for future television, which NHK World TV has put into action. The strategy was proposed by Comcast and Time Warner in 2009, which refers to in addition to watching television programmes via conventional televisions, users may do so via the Internet and mobile clients. It is regarded as an effective strategy of conventional television media in response to the impact of new media in the age of media convergence. The “TV Everywhere strategy” implemented by NHK World TV included “diverse broadcasting means” and “diverse reception means”. The channel broadcasts via cable television, IPTV and the Internet, and users may receive information using terminals such as computers, smartphones and tablets. The development of NHK World TV on the Internet has primarily been based on NHK World. NHK began collaborating with NHK World in 2009, and users may watch programmes showing on television also on NHK World. The collaboration has provided NHK World TV with additional broadcasting channels and rapidly increased its viewer number. During the coverage of the 2011 Japan earthquake, NHK World became the gateway of the people around the world to information related to the disaster. The development of mobile clients is one of the keys of the “TV Everywhere strategy”. Since the introduction of the slogan “Closer to you, anywhere, anytime!”

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by NHK World TV in 2010, the apps developed by NHK now cover mobile terminals that include Apple and Android. The “TV Everywhere strategy” is critical to the development of NHK World TV. During its earlier exploration, NHK realised the development of new media is reshaping the entire media ecology. Meanwhile, new media technology has eliminated the different standards in the audiences’ information-reception channels and removed the regional barriers in international communication. It is a necessary path for the transformation of conventional broadcasting media, as new-media communication channels are being created. Currently, the new-media development of NHK World TV is slowly taking shape, and future attempts at creating an omnimedia platform based on such foundation is foreseeable.

1.3.3

Emphasise User Participation and Adjust Content-Production Means

In Japan, the media convergence of the conventional television industry and social networks basically refers to the use of social networks to effectively send, share and spread related television information content and promote programmes, in addition to using audience feedback from social networks to explore programme targets. Following the successful bid for the Olympic Games in 2020, to ensure the live coverage of the Games is recognised worldwide, Japan’s television industry has accelerated its media convergence and transformation. It began its transformation using social networks and made attempts in different fields [16]. With smartphones enjoying strong market dominance in Japan and the heavy reliance of the Japanese audience on them, the Japanese television industry places great emphasis on the thinking of combining television audience ratings with the sharing and expansion of social networks. In 2012, the industry integrated data broadcasting with Facebook and launched a “Join TV” service, which converged television and social networks. Using the second screen that is smartphones, audiences may take part with their friends in all kinds of activities on television, including winning giveaways, as well as the sending, sharing and spreading of information related to television. For the television industry, the integration of audience feedback on social networks has brought sponsors unexpected business opportunities. Furthermore, it serves as the basis for improvement in the exploration of the programme targets of television [17]. Currently, Japan’s television industry is actively building a “diary platform” for the audience feedback and is able to collect the data through technical means. However, questions such as how to process these data and turn them into economic benefits, as well as what business value may be generated from data mining using big-data analysis, remain unanswered to date. Furthermore, when the results are applied to the development of Japan’s television industry, it remains unpredictable whether people are able to accept such change in the television industry. To promote the convergence of the television industry and social networks and derive economic benefits from it require a large amount of audience feedback, and the building of a platform

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is therefore necessary. The building of such platform, however, will pose enormous challenges to Japan’s television industry, as it involves issues such as the distribution and adjustment of economic benefits. Meanwhile, focus must also be placed on the protection of the audiences’ personal information, and the process of such information may only take place in conjunction with related personal-information protection laws. In addition, Japan’s television industry has launched a “Sync Cast” app for television programmes across the country in February 2014. After downloading this app, audiences may receive information on products and shops seen on television programmes on their smartphones. They may also use the search engine from the map to directly locate the shops, which sometimes also offer reservation services. Actually, the general public in Japan may use Yahoo! and Google Japan to carry out searches after seeing the television advertisements, but this means television media does not get to enjoy the economic benefits. With “Sync Cast”, audiences do not have to take any active steps and may simply complete searches when advertisements pop up on their smartphones [18]. Using “Sync Cast”, information on television programmes and their advertisements may be stored on smartphones, so even after the programmes are over the audiences may still find and use the information. This also facilitates the storage of original data of television programmes, which are now being used by some famous media-research companies to develop new business. The future economic benefits in this area are currently unpredictable. With the help of “Sync Cast”, the viewing history from the audiences’ smartphones may help predict the viewing attitude, tendency and the characteristics of the audience of a certain programme. When applied to the development and launch of advertisements, this will allow television stations to manage more systematically the direction of programme production from a market perspective. It is thus evident that the media convergence of Japan’s television industry and social networks has adopted a more novel reception approach. Since 2012, Japan’s television industry has begun conducting empirical research on audience participation and satisfaction. Meanwhile, social networks will slowly enter the field of audience analysis. From the index-based exploration of television-programme production to the establishment of indices for the assessment of television-programme quality, such efforts are achieving tangible results as the television industry converges with social networks. Japan’s television industry will continue to pursue the latest trends of development and intensify such media convergence. For a long time, the audience remains a critical part of media communication. Following the advent of networks, the audience has taken on considerable initiative and has thus come to be referred to as users. While increasing the number of programmes focusing on users, such as concerts, NHK has also increased the number of programmes created by users, such as texts, images and audiovisual information that users released using One-Seg. NHK World’s Chinese web page has specially set up a user-participation column that invites Chinese netizens to join discussions on international affairs. In addition to ensuring user participation, this has increased the “stickiness” between users and the media while providing the production of media programmes with infinite possibilities. “Where there are users, there are potential

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content producers” is a revolutionary change in content-production means that serves as an invaluable lesson.

2 Innovation and Convergence Experience of Foreign Mainstream Media After going through the history and status quo of a few classic convergence and innovation examples of Foreign Mainstream Media, the section will summarise their experience from five specific areas, namely concepts and strategies, organisational structures, content resources, terminal coverage and channels.

2.1 Concepts and Strategies After going through a large number of examples of mainstream international media actively adapting to the new environment of media convergence, it becomes evident that it is highly necessary to adjust the concepts and strategies of media operations, both fundamentally and generally. To change the original operational concepts is to thoroughly implement the new convergence and innovation strategies of mainstream media. Impacted by the megatrend of converged media, mainstream media may not rely on luck and muddle along just to survive in a media environment. The status and influence of China’s mainstream media remain, but to better accomplish the mission given by the party and the people, mainstream media should leave behind the old concepts of conventional media and actively join the “Internet+” environment. It should take up media concepts developed based on emerging technologies and implement strategies to transform conventional mainstream media into new media, so as to take advantage of the new technological achievements. It is clearly unrealistic for mainstream media to give up its accomplishments and success over time in existing fields. The extensive and rapid move to new media by some mainstream media is no doubt writing off the achievements of news media over the decades. However, to strengthen the communication capacity of media and to better match the basic habits of users, it is imperative to adjust the communication strategies. In the environment of media convergence, broadcasting media around the globe face the tremendous impact of emerging media and are actively or passively adopting the practice of media convergence. At the height of media convergence, the production and communication mechanisms of news content have undergone fundamental changes. While practicing news coverage, issues that demand prompt attention and solutions from modern news communication include: how to overcome the situation in which conventional and new media operate independently; and how to adopt the Internet thinking and integrate content production, terminal reception and feedback, in order to generate coverage of deep convergence and maintain and safeguard the

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value system of news. Faced with the fierce competition of new media, conventional mainstream media must change its original operational concepts, and the implementation of development strategies of convergence and innovation has become a highly critical step. An overview of the convergence and innovation of Foreign Mainstream Media reveals distinctive features of leaving behind traditional ideas and turning conventional mainstream media towards new media. Under the traditional operational concepts, conventional mainstream media played the role of a communicator who communicated unilaterally to the communicated, which is a communication model dominated by the communicator. Meanwhile, information communication relied primarily on relatively conventional and monotonous platforms and channels such as radio and television, and audience participation and experience were greatly limited. As a result, in the age of rapid network-technological advancements, conventional mainstream media that fail to revamp their concepts and thoroughly implement the development strategies of convergence and innovation will fall behind the modern trend. A look at developing countries shows that during the convergence and innovation of their mainstream media, cases of conventional and new media closely converging abound. Whether it is the BBC, CNN or NHK, they have all integrated the key element that is network, which they have converged extensively with new or social media to eventually strengthen the internationalisation and communication capacity of their brands.

2.2 Organisational Structures The optimisation of the organisational structures of conventional mainstream media refers to restructuring, breaking existing boundaries and integrating internal resources. The organisational features of the media affect their operational efficiency, which has profound influence on the effect of information communication. Against the background of media convergence, conventional mainstream media need to focus on the adjustment and restructuring of their organisational structures, so as to integrate their internal resources and maximise efficiency. As stated earlier, CNN adjusted its organisational structure primarily by creating a “central kitchen”, and content obtained by reporters at different stations is divided into “refined”, “rough” and “extra material”, before being sent directly back to the “central kitchen” at the Atlanta headquarters. The “central kitchen” then turns the “ingredients” into “dishes” of distinctive styles that are available to individual channels and production centres, thus optimising the gathering and editing system. Meanwhile, CNN has formed dedicated task teams for coordinating different channels and platforms, and full-time directors are responsible for coordinating the collaboration among these teams. Furthermore, CNN has a production team and an emergency-news response team that are specifically responsible for gathering material for major news events. Overall, against the background of media convergence, CNN places great emphasis

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on cultivating the gathering and editing skills of its reporters and editors in omnimedia, and is committed to building a gathering and editing team capable of taking on the tasks of omnimedia communication. The BBC also serves an invaluable reference for the convergence and innovation of mainstream media. Previously, like other mainstream media, in terms of organisation, the BBC was divided into different work departments that were based on channels; each department worked independently and had clear work division. However, this has led to each department doing things its own way, lack of communication and low work efficiency. Later, against the background of the global trend of media convergence, the BBC restructured individual departments based on converged-media coverage needs to create departments such as technology, content, operations, marketing and human resources and encouraged their communication and collaboration. The most important structural reform was the reorganisation of the news-gathering and -editing team. To achieve the target, the BBC integrated platforms such as radio, television and the Internet to create a multimedia news centre of a remarkable scale that consists of only multimedia-news and -programme departments. The drastic change has allowed better integration and allocation of the BBC’s internal resources while bringing together its communication power. That is why to achieve the convergence and innovation of conventional mainstream media, the execution of the best restructuring plans is a critical step.

2.3 Content Resources In terms of content resources, those that conventional mainstream media have accumulated in the broadcasting field should be fully exploited while attracting a large number of providers of quality content. Meanwhile, conventional mainstream media needs to take advantage of technological innovations to provide users with more unique content and experience. The current ever-changing media technology does not mean downplaying key content elements. Unique and quality content still holds great importance against the background of media convergence, without which technology is just an empty shell that cannot justify the value of its existence. While achieving convergence and innovation, Foreign Mainstream Media has continuously stressed the importance of content. Hulu, an online video platform jointly invested by NBC, Fox and ABC, has created a “Hulu model” of media convergence. In addition to using resources from NBC, Fox and ABC, Hulu actively collaborates with content producers such as Sony and MGM to obtain diverse and quality content resources. All these content strategies have no doubt served as key guarantees for Hulu’s rapid development. During the course of convergence, NHK has improved content uniqueness by changing the content-production means to maintain the appeal of television stations. So how do Japanese television stations change their content production? Primarily through the launch of the “Join TV” service, which integrates television and social

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networks and, with the help of smartphones, allows users to interact with television programmes. For the television industry, the integration of audience feedback on social networks has brought sponsors unexpected business opportunities while providing the basis for improvement of the target-based exploration of television programmes. Through increased interaction with the audience and audience participation in the production of programme content, television stations in Japan enhanced the level of media content and user experience, which is profoundly inspirational for conventional mainstream media excavating content resources during convergence and innovation.

2.4 Terminal Coverage In terms of terminal coverage, investment should be made into research and development to provide users with seamless reception on almost every multimedia terminal. As technology advances, the research and development of terminals has become the new means to win users. Consequently, when enhancing their communication influence, contemporary mainstream media face major questions such as: how to use the accessible terminals to communicate programmes and information to a greater crowd, and how to use terminals to provide users with new and more unique experience. The practice of certain Foreign Mainstream Media related to terminal coverage provides creative inspirations. For example, after developing clients for its official website, the BBC focused on promoting its social media and iPlayer platform to create a multidimensional communication network. Today, its iPlayer is able to provide codec services for 14 video formats on different terminals, including personal computers, mobile phones, iPads and smart set-top boxes. It has greatly satisfied the diverse programme and information demands of the audiences, while its communication is able to reach larger crowds in a more engaged manner, thus achieving seamless reception. Similarly, Hulu’s online video platform has achieved extensive terminal coverage during media convergence. Hulu Plus, the video-subscription service software designed and developed by Hulu, in addition to covering Internet televisions, personal computers, tablets and handheld terminals and allowing users to view and request original television programmes using different network terminals, it provides users with online viewing services for high-definition films. Hulu has also introduced subscription services, and users only have to pay small fees each month to watch more professional videos on devices such as personal computers, iPhones, iPads, Samsung Blu-ray players and PlayStations. Regardless of the devices, whether they are conventional Internet pages, mobile terminals such as phones and tablets or devices found in living rooms such as set-top boxes and smart televisions, Hulu provides customised video services and users may access Hulu’s enormous video database. Hulu has thus successfully achieved high communication coverage.

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After studying the BBC and NBC’s media convergence, it is evident that the strengthened research and development of terminal technology and the creation of multimedia terminal products are highly significant for enhancing the communication power and influence of mainstream media.

2.5 Channels Mainstream media should actively expand their communication channels and enhance their technological level. They should focus on the development of emerging content-distribution channels based on the Internet and take advantage of new media and social networks to achieve interactive communication. According to Harold Lasswell’s “5 W” model of communication, communication channel is a critical component of information communication. In the modern information society, the speed of information communication is closely connected to the openness of channels. Only with diverse and open communication channels can information surge forward like water out of a sluice gate and reach far and wide. In terms of channel expansion, Foreign Mainstream Media have had a number of successes. For instance, RT from Russia began close collaboration with new media in the recent media convergence. By expanding the programme communication channels through media such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, RT has created a social atmosphere of active audience interaction and built a diverse communication system that no longer depends on the initial conventional television operations. The perfectly combined use of new media and social media has significantly expanded RT’s communication channels and strengthened connection with the audience. Consequently, RT no longer has to rely solely on conventional televisions and audience ratings to enhance its influence. CNN’s efforts in channel expansion are also worth noting, and it has developed an integrated information-communication channel. In addition to setting up its own portal, online sub-platforms and information-release points across the globe, it emphasises close collaboration with new-media companies through flexible means such as capital operations and business collaboration. For example, CNN International and Samsung from South Korea have co-launched the CNN multimedia news services, covering areas such as Europe, the Middle East, the Asia–Pacific and Latin America. CNN has also collaborated with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and video platforms such as YouTube, thus massively expanding its communication channels and boosting its communication influence. It is evident from the convergence and innovation of some of the Foreign Mainstream Media that the convergence and innovation of mainstream media are complex and enormous tasks but also an inevitable trend. Under the dramatic impact of new media, China’s mainstream media may only take on a new development path and enhance its communication capacity and influence through the continuous revamp of concepts; prompt adjustment and improvement of organisational structures; extensive and simultaneous innovation in content, terminals and channels; and uncovering the potential of new technologies.

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References 1. Kong Z. Multidimensional transition of coverage and communication of unexpected events in the age of media convergence—Revelation of CNN’s Coverage of the Boston Marathon Bombings. Huaxia Wenhua Luntan. 2013 (2). 2. Chen Y. Omniprsent—Case analysis of CNN’s transition [J]. China Journalist, 2013(11). 3. Ma L, Ma X. Exploring and analysing content production amid the convergence of mainstream and new media—A case study of network platform-based operations of CNN [J]. MediaTime, 2015(8). 4. http://www.stationinclex.com/tv/by-net/nbc. 5. Wang X, Zhang L. The information-Integration model and consideration of MSNBC’s website [J]. Modern Commun. 2009(6). 6. Lyons D. Old media strikes back [J]. Newsweek, Mar 2, 2009. 7. Yang Z. Status Quo of the development of the new audiovisual-media industry in the U.S. [J]. Broadcasting Realm. 2015(1). 8. Zhao Y. This is how American media converge [J]. Science & Technology for China’s Mass Media. 2017(5). 9. Folkenflik, D. ‘New York Times’ hires former NPR executive to lead digital push [EB/OL]. (2014–11–25) [2018–05–07]. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/11/25/366546 456/new-york-times-hires-former-npr-executive-to-lead-digital-news-push?t=161476839 1784. 10. Public Radio Finances [EB/OL]. (2018–04–08) [2018–05–07]. https://www.npr.org/about-npr/ 178660742/public-radio-finances. 11. Zhong M. New media breathes new life into radio—A study of new-media application by NPR [J]. China Radio & TV Acad J. 2014(5). 12. Folkenflik D. In Forcing Out Senior Executive, New CEO Mohn Puts Stamp On NPR [EB/OL]. (2014–10–17) [2018–05–07]. http://www.npr.org/2014/10/17/356998435/in-forcing-out-sen ior-executive-new-ceo-mohn-puts-stamp-on-npr. 13. Taylor-Watt D. Rolling out 30 Day programme availability on BBC iPlayer [EB/ OL]. (2014-1005) [2018-05-07]. https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/8518caee-e777-3780-ad36606d9a1d4be7. 14. Xie X, Chen C. New media and national soft-power strategies—The development and revelation of Russia today [J]. Think Tank: Theory & Practice. 2016(1). 15. Su X. The latest development and revelation of Russia today [J]. TV Res. 2015(6) 16. Piao Y. Preliminary analysis of the differences between media convergence and converged media—A case study based on the media in Japan [J]. J News Res. 2013(10). 17. Long Y. Changes in NHK’s development strategies after the 90s [J]. Modern Commun. 2006(1). 18. Fan Y, Liang Y. Status quo of media convergence of Japan’s television industry and social networks [J]. Contemporary TV, 2015(6).

Chapter 3

Exploring the Issues and Causes of Convergence and Innovation of Mainstream Chinese Media

1 Issues Facing the Convergence and Innovation of Mainstream Chinese Media 1.1 Macroscopic Level 1. The overall operational standard of China’s mainstream media is less than desirable and the overall scale still lags behind the U.S. and Europe Following the Chinese economic reform, related policies also relaxed limitations on access to the broadcasting field, and conventional media no longer dominates. Meanwhile, after the advent of the Internet, previous broadcasting channels are no longer the only communication channels. The Internet offers private capital enormous opportunities, and network platforms mushroomed. Conventional media is also no longer the only content provider, and general service providers of news and videos such as Tencent and iQIYI continue to grow, attracting a large number of audiences. Compared with these Internet companies, the business turnover of China’s mainstream media also falls behind. Similarly, the market share of mainstream media is less than promising in the new Internet media field. Research group of Annual Report on Media Development of Shanghai (2016) studied the influence of many mainstream-media companies in Shanghai and discovered that compared with emerging media, the common phenomena of dropping profits and talent drain facing conventional media make it hard for conventional business models to continue operating. CCTV, one of China’s most important media bodies, used to top other domestic media bodies with its business revenue, which has, however, been overtaken by Baidu, a Chinese search engine, while lagging far behind Alibaba since 2013. Compared with media groups in the U.S. and Europe, the gap is all the more substantial. According to the financial reports of WarnerMedia, the annual business revenue of the group was 28.1 billion dollars in 2016, whereas China’s media industry as a whole generated © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 P. Duan, Innovations of China’s Mainstream Media Convergence, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9146-1_3

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a mere 168.6 billion dollars in 2015. An American media giant alone generated one-sixth of the revenue of the entire media industry in China, fully illustrating the inadequacy of the business standard and overall scale of China’s mainstream media. Although China has made enormous efforts to establish new media groups, individual media bodies have to date yet to truly converge and connect. Consequently, the overall scale of China’s media groups may seem to have grown, but they have not been working together and have therefore not created a gigantic American-style media group. The aggregate assets of major global media in 2016 are as follows: 63.8 billion dollars for WarnerMedia, 18.2 billion dollars for Viacom and 15 billion dollars for News Corporation. The data reveal the major gap in capital between Chinese media and global media giants as well as the necessity to and the difficulty in creating new media groups. 2. Inadequate Talent Mechanisms Leading to a Serious Talent Drain Hu Yuan, an educator from the Northern Song Dynasty, wrote in the Book of Education of Songzi County that the governance of the state depended on the talent. At a symposium on learning and fully implementing the Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Talent-Development System in 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping stated the talent mechanisms were key to deepening institutional reforms. If intellects were unable to give full play to all their energy and talent, this would not benefit the formation of a favourable system and mechanisms [1]. China’s media undertakings need to constantly bring in new blood, so the industry may keep on innovating and developing. Under existing conditions, the talent mechanisms of businesses may increase productive forces from a talent perspective. However, talent mechanisms are not a stand-alone aspect. It is interconnected with many other aspects that are mutually promoting, including education, screening and incentive. That is why the causes need to be explored from the perspectives of education and current talent drain in the media industry. (1) Lack of models for the fostering of omnimedia talent According to statistics from China Journalism and Communication Yearbook (2015), China has over 600 tertiary institutions offering journalism and communications programmes by 2015, covering seven major directions, including communications, journalism and advertising, and over 140,000 undergraduates studying programmes related to journalism and communications. Despite the large number of journalism and communications students in China, few general educational models exist between different programmes, resulting in communications students possessing inadequate journalism skills and journalism students knowing little about research methods of communications. The divide among programmes and even directions leads to specialised knowledge and skills but is unfavourable to fostering all-round talent in the age of converged media. Unlike subjects such as law and economics, journalism and communications focuses on the development of its own logic system and is based on the social environment and audiences. As a result, journalism and communications students are unable to satisfy the requirements for omnimedia talent with special knowledge alone.

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Furthermore, the talent-fostering models of journalism and communications programmes at China’s tertiary institutes are divorced from social needs and the theory is also divorced from practice. Against the social background of modern omnimedia, reporters are not simply writers but also omnimedia editors who must be proficient in video cameras, cameras, recording pens and virtual-reality recording equipment. They need to adapt to different writing modes, including microblogs, public social-media posts and press release. These skills require actual practice and cannot be acquired simply through learning inside an ivory tower. Also, market operations of media demand students possessing in addition to journalism and communication knowledge, certain knowledge of media operations and new-media technology, which is inadequately covered at educational institutions, leading to the dissociation between actual needs and ideal talent. In addition, despite the sheer number of journalism and communications institutions in China, many are merely set up as a result of the trend, leading to a converged and identical teaching objective. Some of the educational institutions fall short of the necessary academic standard, resulting in the lack of characters in China’s tertiary education, which goes against the social demand for complex and diverse talent. (2) Serious talent drain for the media industry Apart from facing stalled talent cultivation, China also suffers from serious talent drain. Media convergence, in the end, is the convergence of media content and channels by talent, who therefore plays a fundamental role during the process. However, a look at the status quo of media convergence in China reveals the predicaments of contemporary mainstream media have led to serious talent drain. The gap between the education and application of media talent has led to shortages in new-media talent. Meanwhile, the accelerated loss of quality personnel in the media industry has further exacerbated shortages of workers in mainstream media. The majority of China’s conventional media is set up as public institutions, and some personnel in broadcasting media are managed accordingly. However, after the reforms, the salaries of most employees at television stations came from business revenue independently generated by the stations instead of financial allocations. Should their advertising revenue drop sharply, they might even struggle to pay salaries. As a result, the government had to add them to its list of subsidised public institutions. This way, the marketisation of the media is regressing rather than progressing. Disheartened, workers in mainstream media began to resign while online-media talent also turned to starting their own businesses. The exodus of top talent to other fields has lead to the talent drain in the media field. 3. Unbalanced media convergence and regional development Although media convergence is a national development strategy, the regional differences in economic and media-development levels mean different mainstream regional media have different convergence levels. Mainstream state media such as CCTV, Xinhua News Agency, China National Radio and People’s Daily have been the pacesetters of the converged development. Supported by political advantages and brand value, mainstream state media were the first to begin the reforms related

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media convergence. They converged and innovated in areas such as organisational structures, gathering and editing models and media operations, and have achieved remarkable results. For instance, People’s Daily has created a “central kitchen” that promotes in-depth convergence, while Xinhua News Agency has specially created a new-media column. Guangming Daily has also established a converged-media centre, whereas The Paper has launched its clients. The state media have overhauled their organisational structures and media matrices as well as systems and mechanisms and processes of gathering and editing. Certain state newspapers and periodicals and dedicated industry journals have also introduced reforms via integrating converged-media platforms. The media in developed provinces and municipalities such as Shanghai and Zhejiang were among the first to institutionalise their media and put media convergence into practice. Take Shanghai United Media Group for example, which focused on the creation of quality content and developed different client forms, its most famous The Paper app is an Internet news client that combines serious, quality and in-depth news content, and has gained a certain social influence. However, inhibited by conditions and limitations such as capital, technology, concepts and media mechanisms, media convergence in certain economically underdeveloped provinces has been progressing slowly. New broadcasting media in economically backward provinces in central west China are underdeveloped and unable to share resources, making it hard to form a complete industry chain or win promotional opportunities on different platforms [2]. Unlike radio and television stations that used to build their own channels and owe their platforms, new media requires the coordination of social forces. The fact that everyone has a voice and everyone may communicate information in the environment of new media has placed mainstream media under tremendous pressure. However, with challenges come opportunities, helped by the different online platforms, conventional media may be reborn. The Internet does not divide regional markets, so the emergence of commercial media on the Internet may pose a threat to all mainstream media across the country. Nevertheless, backward areas have limited Internet resources. In such environment, the differences in the regional development of China’s mainstream media are very striking. The Report on the Communication Indices of China’s Media Convergence 2016 showed CCTV and People’s Daily to be among the top tier of media convergence. Whether it is the new-media platforms or terminal coverage, CCTV possesses distinct advantages. In terms of regional distribution, a marked difference is seen in media convergence in different regions. Beijing, Guangdong Province, Zhejiang Province and Shanghai are far more influential than other regions, be it television, radio or paper-media communication. Take for Beijing for example, the municipality alone accounts for 25% of the top 100 newspapers and 53% of the top 100 magazines in China, which no doubt foregrounds the huge advantage of developed areas and the imbalance in media convergence. The report stated that although the media in central west China had achieved positive progress and the speed of media convergence had clearly picked up, it remained far behind the developed provinces in eastern China.

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4. Inadequate international-communication capacity and weak international influence In Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, McLuhan first proposed the concept of a global village. The advent of new media has turned the assumption of a global village into reality. However, the earth is no way as peaceful as a village. Samir Amin, a neo-Marxist, suggested in his PhD thesis in 1957 that globalisation was not the equal development of individual country, but rather a global re-division of labour led by Western capitalist power. Such re-division was also not equal and was dominated by exploitation and unfair exchanges. To truly develop, developing countries must “cut their ties”. However, against the background of globalisation, no country is able to completely “cut its ties” with the world. As a result, to consolidate their positions amid the wave of globalisation, countries must enhance their communication capacity, strengthen their soft power and actively respond to international risks and challenges. However, China’s mainstream media currently has limited internationalcommunication capacity and relatively weak international influence. With the global discourse system still centred around the U.S. and the U.K. these days, China’s media lacks the international discourse power and the capacity to set the global agenda. News from China’s media is rarely quoted by Western media, making it hard for China express itself and for the West to correctly understand and communicate China’s culture. Chinese media’s lack of international influence is reflected in many aspects. Firstly, the overall number of China’s international-communication talent is still clearly inadequate, and the number of news-agency branches and the number of countries in which correspondents are posted lag far behind the three top international news agencies. Secondly, the development of national-communication instruments in China trails behind developed countries. Lastly, China’s available international-communication resources are also at a disadvantage [3]. Not only does China’s mainstream media bears the responsibility of guiding public opinion at home, it is also responsible for creating a positive international image and external communication, so as to accomplish the mission of promoting international communication. To achieve this, China’s must enhance the international-communication capacity of its mainstream media above all else and bolster the confidence of the international community in China’s mainstream media. It is evident that it is not merely the inadequacy of China’s mainstream media and international-communication bodies that has resulted in the limited internationalcommunication capacity of China’s mainstream media. The ideological differences between the West and China also mean that Western media often views China’s mainstream media with subjectivity and even prejudice. However, the current international discourse system is West-centred, and consequently China is, as the EgyptianFrench economist Amin put it, marginalised. To overturn the situation, enhancing the communication influence by the media alone is insufficient, the government needs to step up and establish a fair and equal international-communication system, so as to help China’s mainstream media create a favourable and equal internationalcommunication environment and enhance China’s foreign-communication capacity.

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5. Unsound legal and management systems for new media and the online space demands urgent management (1) Unsound legal and management systems with multilateral management Media convergence does not only require the media and related administrative departments to assume the corresponding responsibilities, but also needs up-to-date political, legal and regulatory guarantees from government administrative departments. However, as new media advances, Chinese government’s media management has failed to keep up with technological developments. China often adopts the system of previewing and subsequent punishment when it comes to media production. However, previewing has impacted the timeliness of news, a requirement of new media. Meanwhile, rapid Internet communication has made it difficult to eliminate the negative impact subsequently. The Internet is upgrading rapidly, and, on the one hand, whether it is the self-management or government supervision of websites, both are hard to be extensively enforced; on the other hand, the promulgation of laws and regulations cannot keep up with the swift upgrade. All of these factors have led to the management of media content falling behind media development. The previous multilateral-management approach to conventional media such as broadcasting, telecommunications and news no longer meets the management requirements for the development of new media [4]. Meanwhile, since most of China’s mainstream media are operating as public institutions, the regulatory departments serve as an “umpire”, a “coach” and an “athlete”. This has led to overlapping and opacity in the management of China’s conventional media and turned it into a competition for dominance, which goes against the original intention of the marketised operations of China’s media. The adoption of a dual-management approach involving the state and regions towards China’s media industry has a distinctive administrative characteristic. Following the introduction of marketisation in China after the 90 s, the media began engaging in economic activities, but management issues concerning the blurred boundary between governments and enterprises still abound. This has given rise to pitfalls such as the lack of innovation and low efficiency in China’s conventional media [5]. Regulatory reforms should therefore focus on boosting the vitality of conventional media, so it may regain vigour and motivation in the environment of converged environment. (2) Incomprehensive evaluation and regulation systems for new media and the online space demands urgent management Due to the limitations imposed by the management system, conventional media is unable to give full play to its strength, while the market of new media is full of latent dangers. Conventional broadcasting industry is based on conventional selfestablished channels, making it easy to regulate while ensuring the accuracy and professionalism of the information. However, in the new-media environment, channels monopolised by conventional media have been demolished. With the help of the low operating costs of the Internet, conventional mainstream media seems to be back on the starting line with emerging commercial media. However, since commercial media and self-media do not necessarily possess the same media competency

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and ethics as professional media, it is hard to regulate them. Meanwhile, the lack of a reasonable management model in the new-media environment has given rise to the mess that is clickbaits and fake news, which has negatively impacted the online environment. The chaos on the new-media market may, to a large extent, be attributed to the lack of effective evaluation of the media-communication results. Meanwhile, the improvement of the new-media market is of critical importance to the search of effective evaluation of media effects against the background of media convergence. Overhauling the Internet, particularly issues concerning information security and fake information on mobile networks, is the top priority. The 41st Statistical Report on Internet Development in China revealed that among the devices used to connect to the Internet in December 2017, 97.5% were mobile phones. Against such background, security threats and risks related to mobile Internets also increased. During his speech at the Symposium on Cybersecurity and IT Application, Chinese President Xi Jinping stated: “The network space is the spiritual home of hundreds of millions of people, and a clean network space with favourable ecology is what corresponds to the interests of the people” [6]. The development of a favourable online environment for public opinion requires regulation. In a new-media environment, the increasingly prevalent issues such as information security, personal privacy and fake information demand regulation and control by countries through the formulation of more concrete laws and regulations. To date, China has promulgated laws and regulations that reinforce control of the Internet. For instance, the General Office of China’s State Council published the Opinions on Reinforcing Controls on Right Infringement and Counterfeiting on the Internet (No. 77 of the General Office of the State Council (2015)) in 2015; the Cyberspace Administration of China published the Provisions on Interviewing Entities Providing Online News-Information Services on 28 April 2015; the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published the Online Publishing-Service Management Rules in 2016. The rules and opinions regulate production operations and service providers online and protect the basic rights of netizens. However, these rules and opinions have yet to reach the legal level where a sound and long-term regulatory system for new media is built. They may be concrete and feasible but lack general influence. The rules are widely recognised among online entities and remain almost unknown to most netizens, making it hard to generate a strong force of public opinion to penalise and manage providers of illegal online information or content providers that are operating illegally. 6. Insufficient capital for mainstream media and the conventional-media structure that awaits optimisation restrict the industrial development of omnimedia Against the background of media convergence, markets are no longer limited to a single local market, and local media industries have adapted to the demands of the Internet age, which required capital to drive the transformation of mainstream media and establish new mainstream media and media groups. To establish new media groups no doubt demands a large capital outlay, and capital operations, consequently, are China’s shortcut to strengthen its mainstream media.

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Currently, most conventional media bodies in China still adopt the approach of business management for public institutions; they lack market vigour and have failed to develop both the economies of scale and scope. As a result, they are unable to take part in the fierce market competition, let alone competing against foreign media giants. China’s overall number of mainstream media bodies still lags behind that of the U.S. and Europe—in fact, their business revenue is even lower than that of emerging private Internet companies. Under such circumstances, more capital is urgently needed to establish new-media groups. Stepping up capital operations means relaxing the restrictions on the percentage of state-owned conventional media and speeding up capital investment in mainstream media, while allowing foreign and private capital to invest in conventional media. In addition to bringing in a handsome amount of capital, the entry of foreign capital will introduce advanced management experience and development models, while that of private capital will introduce modern management concepts and respect for talent. Furthermore, conventional media may expand upstream or downstream through buyouts and mergers, thus connecting the industry chain. The strengthened capital operations will speed up the expansion of conventional media, allowing it to capture greater market share and enhance its influence. Successful capital operations may allow mainstream media to rapidly increase its capital and possess the capacity for omnimedia operations. Only through the creation of a group of mainstream media bodies based on omnimedia that collaborate, complement one another’s advantages and share resources, may information resources be optimised and news-communication capacity and information coverage be extensive, before leading to the universal upgrade and development of the media industry [7]. Without mobilising local media, a few national media bodies alone cannot achieve industrial scale effects and will end up running a “one-man show”. The development of mainstream media may only be achieved with media groups leading the enhancement of the core competency of the entire industry and the strengthening of the cross-industry convergence in the omnimedia age. Meanwhile, the creative and cultural industries need to be developed and an all-inclusive industry chain integrated, focusing on content innovation and extensive multi-channel expansion.

1.2 Mesoscopic Level 1. Rigid conventional-media system and media segmentation (1) Rigid management system for conventional media unable to adapt to the needs of new media Most of China’s mainstream media bodies still adopt a binary system of marketbased operations of public institutions. The system is characterised by plannedeconomy and market-economy systems. During the times of a planned economy of

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Chinese unification, such move could help bring together resources to create national media. However, as China’s market and economic status consolidated following the economic reform, the system has come to become a stumbling block that restricts the development of China’s mainstream media. The Opinions on Intensifying the Reform of the Cultural Systems, which was introduced in 2005, demanded “optimising organisational structures, integrating internal resources and changing operating means”. Sections other than main operations, such as printing, advertising, news and network transmission, as well as film and television and network production and sales departments may separate from the system and operate commercially to support the main operations [8]. Although under the binary system, conventional media is responsible for its profits or losses and must operate on advertising and business revenue, it is still a public institution that serves as the mouthpiece and publicist of the party and governments. Meanwhile, it must demonstrate a serious and tasteful style, and is therefore stuck between being a business and public media body. On the one hand, the administrative limitations mean conventional media cannot easily overcome the barriers within public institutions. It is unable to surmount obstacles among different departments in the new-media environment and achieve omnimedia-based operations. On the other hand, conventional media cannot fully rely on market operations and advertising revenue to generate profits through “double sales”. The conflict between the two aspects has led to the predicament of conventional media and even its survival crisis. According to statistics from the National Radio and Television Administration in 2015, China has a total of 1,998 provincial broadcasters and 517 broadcasters at regional level or above. Facilitated by the policy of “station-establishment based on four administrative levels”, China has become the country with the most television stations in the world. However, the large number but small scale mean most television stations are incapable of generating profits. Since 2016, some television channels, programmes and even stations had to shut down. This is precisely the survival crisis facing the media that have failed to transform, and the premise of media transformation is to overcome internal limitations and become a media group with omnimedia-based gathering and editing, operations and distribution. This, to a certain extent, reflects the necessity to cast off the shackles of the binary system. (2) Regional media division preventing regional integration China’s mainstream broadcasters are still regionally established, leading to the characteristic of “station-establishment based on four administrative levels”, which is the product of a particular historical period. However, as broadcasting technology develops and the media industry advances towards marketisation, the pitfalls of such policy began to emerge. Firstly, it frequently leads to the waste of resources and gaps in regional converge. The dramatic increase in the number of television stations has clearly exceeded the original demand, often leading to chaotic competition. Secondly, the policy limits the business scope of television stations, causing them unable to form nationwide media groups. The Internet, in contrast, is naturally unrestricted by geographical barriers, so online audiovisual-programme providers such as iQIYI may compete for markets at home and even abroad. That is why if the limitations

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imposed on China’s mainstream media by the “station-establishment based on four administrative levels” policy are not lifted, it will be hard to foster new media groups. Media convergence has yet to break down the outdated industry barriers in terms of concepts, overcome the limitations of administrative regions in terms of directions and solve the chronic issue of the lack of coordination in terms of management [9]. China introduced the plan for the integration of the three networks in pilot cities in 2010. However, the plan was unable to break away from outdated general and specific policies based on administrative areas, and regional and administrative logic still dominated, leading to growing gaps among regions. Regardless of where the pilot projects take place, new media businesses face the national market, and the Internet stresses user experience and independence rather than regional logic. Consequently, the division of regional media essentially reflects how China responds to new Internet development with antiquated administrative notions against the background of media convergence. To establish powerful new media groups, China must break free of such regional division and thinking. 2. Mainstream media stubbornly clings to existing channels and overlooks the market roles of new media Technological convergence has made media convergence possible, and the subsequent industrial convergence is key to media convergence. Previously, manufacturers only involved in one field, and conventional broadcasters only devoted themselves to their existing channels and did not consider extending and expanding their industry chains. However, in the Internet age and against the background of media convergence, capital, industries and organisations are integrating, and monotonous business scope may no longer satisfy the demands of profit generation and industrial development. Nowadays, any private media company may engage in software, hardware and online business. If conventional media continues to stubbornly cling onto its own monotonous channels, refuses to expand and overlooks the market roles of new media, then it will not be able to survive amid the high tide of the market. The stubborn adherence to existing channels is reflected in the disregard of the role of the Internet and the process of marketisation, as conservative ideas of the industry continue to be practiced and importance is attached to tasks assigned by superiors as in a public institution. Furthermore, against the background of the Internet, the multi-platform and -channel means of presentation are being overlooked, with old models and channels continue to be used and television stations focusing only on television and radio stations only radio. Even if certain media have fully recognised the current pattern of media development, they are limited by deep-rooted thinking and are puzzled by the specific transformation paths. The stubborn adherence to existing channels along with the disregard of the role of new media is reflected in the disregard of characteristics of different media, whereby old models are applied to new-media platforms. As a result, even if Internet platforms are built or used, when user needs, media characteristics and user scenarios are ignored, the product results will be less than desirable. The simple superposition of products or addition of categories is not true media convergence—only the organic combination of products is the real demand of media convergence.

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Professionalism is an advantage of conventional media while content production its strength. However, as a result of the engrained command-based management style of public institutions, conventional media is out of touch with the market economy and is progressing slowly in the new-media field. In addition, the near-zero entry cost to new media means it is a hotchpotch market, and the professionalism of conventional media thus becomes a huge advantage for its entry into the new-media field. That is why the prerequisites for media transformation to achieve media convergence are to maintain an open and pluralistic stance, appreciate the enormous value of new media and overhaul outdated rules and concepts. 3. Rigid organisational structures of mainstream media preventing the development of omnimedia mechanisms Against the background of media convergence, changes in organisational structures plays a leading role in the overall changes in mainstream media. Division still exists in the current organisation of China’s mainstream media, which has yet to truly become converged media. As a result of China’s special historical environment, unique media organisational structures have developed. Take news media for instance, since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China and as the mouthpiece of the party and governments, they have been led by party committees at different levels. During the era of the planned economy, China’s news media were regarded as public institutions and did not engage in business activities; they were primarily responsible for effectively implementing the party policies. Following the economic reform and the establishment of the socialist market economy, China’s news media began introducing new internal mechanisms and management models. Some newspaper groups were consequently formed and introduced editorial boards and boards of directors as guided by the social-development committees Since the 90 s, some newspaper offices have built up economic strength, and the first group of newspaper groups began to emerge. Newspapers were the pioneers in the marketisation reform of China’s media, followed by radio and television. During the second half of the 90 s, the formal foundation of Wuxi Radio & Television Group set in motion the establishment of new operating mechanisms for radio and television [10]. Despite having undergone marketisation, media companies with sufficient funds today still face unreasonable division of labour. They are unable to satisfy the gathering and editing needs of omnimedia or establish the corresponding operating mechanisms. After going through marketisation, China’s conventional media companies have restructured and raised funds to form media groups. In addition to expanding their business content to wider fields and outside the business scope of conventionalmedia departments, they have augmented their functions to provider diverse products. However, the division between new-media and conventional departments prevents resource sharing and work division and coordination. The pattern of one company and two departments remain, leading to the fissure between conventional and newmedia channels. Currently, China’s broadcasting stations are generally divided into radio, television and new-media centres, while newspaper groups are divided into newspaper, periodical publication and new-media departments. The conventional

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media may all seem to have operating departments for new media, but the new-media departments are unable to share information, coordinate resources and collaborate with other television or newspaper departments. As a result, although conventional media have established new-media departments and set up social-media accounts, their new-media departments still operate independently and are unable to take advantage of the enormous resources of the conventional channels of mainstream media. In the end, conventional media reduce themselves to the awkward position of emerging Internet-based commercial media, which struggle to find resources at the beginning. Regarding the operations of new media, the media in Europe and the U.S. were the first to make the attempt. The BBC, a well-established media brand, has always been at the forefront of news practice and research. Back in 2006, it already proposed the concept that the directions of development of future media are cocktail media. The concept is a multidimensional concept covering media ideas, department forms and gathering and editing principles, whose top priority is the creation of a resourcesharing platform that overcomes departmental and team barriers, so resources may be freely chosen, integrated and then released on different platforms. If China’s media groups were to build an omnimedia platform, they would first need to establish a sound omnimedia mechanism and overcome the previous simple thinking of “the addition of a department would grant access to the Internet market”. 4. Inadequate audience research and unclear audience positioning The audiences are the receivers of information communication, who are newspaper and magazine readers, radio listeners, television viewers and Internet users. Macroscopically, the audiences are a collective group, while, microscopically, they are individuals with certain similar yet unique features. The network age has brought tremendous changes to the audiences. The early magic-bullet theory believed that media information was like bullets that could directly knock down the audiences, and when media information reached the audiences, they produced tremendous and direct effects. The subsequent limited-effects theory focused even more on intermediary factors that affect the audiences’ information reception, such as media leadership and pre-existing tendencies, which led to the conclusion of limited effects. The audience theories from this period were without doubt deduced from the “5 W” model of communication. They focused solely on the inevitable effects produced after media information reached the audiences, while the dominant position of information communication remained unchanged, which is particularly evident in the monotonous and inefficient audience feedback and survey. Following the advent of the Internet age, the concept of audiences has been considerably expanded, and the audiences are no longer just passive receivers but may become active communicators. As a result, in the Internet age, the audiences are no longer just audiences. They have become bilateral prosumers, which signifies the dramatic change in the identities of the audiences and reflects the key features of the audiences in the context of the new media. Unlike conventional media, the content of the Internet is not tightly controlled by conventional content providers. From the early bulletin-board systems, web pages to the current public social-media accounts and video-sharing websites and even

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websites with bullet screens, users have become the main producers of fragmented content. Furthermore, the Internet has empowered the general audience, and more professional production is taking place among some of them and has loyal viewers or readers, which in turn boosts influence. It has even elevated the status of interpersonal relationships and allows the easy formation of any kind of connection networks. Social networks and reputation economies that rely on these connection networks have grown increasingly important, and conventional marketing approaches thus need to be upgraded and replaced. While focusing on conventional placement platforms, attention must be paid to the new-media market. Faced with the new-media environment, China’s mainstream media continues to treat its audiences with conventional thinking and overlook the initiative and personal demands of the audiences, leading to the current unclear positioning and inadequate survey of the audiences of mainstream media. Compared with conventional media, the consumer groups and the main audience of the Internet are younger. On the one hand, the positioning of the conventional audience of CCTV is well-educated high earners aged between 19 and 30. On the other hand, according to online surveys, by December 2016, China’s netizens are primarily aged between 10 and 39, accounting for 78.1%, among them those aged between 20 and 29 dominate and account for 30.1% [11]. However, the most active group online is youth aged between 18 and 25. The comparison reveals that although the audiences of conventional media overlap with netizens, due to the personalised demands of the Internet, the age division of 10 to 39 is too broad and fails to consider the defining characteristics of each age group. The age definition may have been too broad, but the media may introduce personalised recommendations and adjustments based on the characteristics of the audiences. For example, although youth aged between 20 and 29 dominate as netizens, paid-video subscribers are predominantly people aged around 30. To advance on the Internet, conventional media must first define the age positioning of their programme products, so they may produce subproducts with content that caters to netizens. To understand the audiences, the most critical step is audience research—particularly in the new-media environment, where old research approaches and means no longer satisfy the demands of the new-media age. The attributes unique to China’s mainstream media require satisfying the spiritual and cultural needs of the masses, which is why specific audience research is necessary. However, simple conventional means of feedback such as letters from readers are outdated. In the age of networks, audience research requires the use of big-data technology. Only by thoroughly capturing user preferences and behaviour patterns, can rich and colour content and services be offered to audiences of different categories and characteristics, so their many demands may be satisfied. The importance of the audiences is obvious, and in the network age they have stepped up their initiative. If attention is not paid to audience demands, then audience number will certainly dwindle over time. 5. Weak profit-generating capacity and unclear profit models for new media In recent years, online advertising has tremendously impacted advertising on conventional channels, leading to the continuously dropping business profits of conventional

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media. Although many businesses have preliminarily discovered a way to media convergence, they have yet to find a new profit model. Conventional businesses rely on conventional advertising as well as fiscal support from the state. Once advertising on conventional channels is impacted by the Internet media, combined with insufficient state fiscal support, serious financial difficulties will arise. Most television channels in China experienced an over 20% drop in advertising revenue in 2016, putting the television industry through an unprecedented crisis in decades. Faced with the challenge, many local governments began offering fiscal support to conventional media. Hebei Province, for instance, launched the Notice on Strengthening the Fiscal Support to News Media at all Levels. Langfang Municipal Government in the province even decided to provide full fiscal support to media at all levels in 2017. Struck by poor revenue and low audience number in 2016, conventional media deeply reflected on the predicament it faced in a conventional system. Advertising on conventional channels is no longer the only option; with the availability of the Internet, network platforms have also become a good option, which significantly undercuts the profits of conventional media and poses new challenges to the convergence and transformation and the profit-model innovation of mainstream media. The weak profit-generating capacity of China’s mainstream media may on the one hand be attributed to the monotonous profit model. For a long time, the profit model of conventional media has followed the pattern of “double sales”, that is, selling media products to the audiences at low prices and then sell the audiences to advertisers, generating profits chiefly from advertising. Advertisers instead of the audiences have become the main clientele of the media. On the other hand, the weak profit-generating capacity of China’s mainstream media may be due to the inadequate exploration of the profit-generating models of the Internet. The Internet has given birth to many new profit models, in which the conventional media only dabbled. The commonest profit models of the Internet include the early pop-up ads and the current increasingly widespread product placements. Online-video companies such as iQIYI and Youku have adopted the direct paid-content model and the number of subscribers has risen in recent years, while some news websites abroad have even introduced a crowdfunding model. New profit models are appearing one after another. In addition to the profit models of the Internet, the foundation of new media groups has provided the organisational structure for diverse operations. The approach of focusing on one industry with diverse operations will also help expand the business space of media companies. 6. Lack of collaboration and innovation Innovation is the driver for media development while collaboration is the springboard and both are indispensible. If conventional media in China were to develop behind closed doors, not only would there be insufficient internal drive, but the direction might easily be lost and no advanced experience could be learned or development impetus gained. In 2014, Liu Qibao, the then head of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party, published an article stating: “The concept of the use of leverage must be reinforced in the convergence of conventional media instead of

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waiting for policies, funds and projects or doing it behind closed doors. Developed technology, platforms, channels and means must be fully exploited through different forms to promote and achieve better and faster development” [12]. Under competitive pressure from all sides, conventional media should innovate boldly as much as possible and expand its thinking. It should continuously learn from past experience, build up industrial alliances, collaborate with media and more social enterprises and focus more on business strategies. Collaborating with other businesses is a springboard for the development of mainstream media. The cases of some mainstream media collaborating and innovating with social capital and Internet companies in recent years are worth learning from. For example, Nanfang Media Group once received an investment of 500 million yuan from Alibaba. Investment such as this strengthens the capital of media companies and refines the industry chain, leading to cross subsidisation and achieving positive policy choices. Meanwhile, some conventional businesses collaborate with Internet giants to take advantage of the resources, so as to achieve digital and platform transformation and perfect the mainstream ecological chain [13]. With the help of such strategy, mainstream media may vastly expand on different Internet platforms and in major fields within a short amount of time, and conventional media may rapidly enhance operations and business capacity in new-media fields. Furthermore, system effect may be achieved via different platforms to generate greater profit drive. 7. Weakened capacity of public-opinion guiding, while reinforcement of media professionalism is needed New media as represented by the Internet has profoundly influenced contemporary communication ecology, and new media plays a pivotal role in generating and guiding public opinion. As Michel Foucault said: “Discourse is power.” Prior to the rise of the Internet, mainstream media were the few bodies with national and regional discourse power in a country, and people’s communication space was limited. Mainstream media could easily set up a topic for discussion and create an opinion climate that generate and guide public opinion. As the mouthpiece of political parties and governments, the strong sway that mainstream media has over public opinion is its key means of bringing people together. However, in an Internet environment, the public may relatively freely express their views on media platforms. The new media with diverse opinions has formed a new network space that places a certain pressure on the swaying of public opinion by mainstream media. On the one hand, the anonymity of networks and the zero access cost have led to a deluge of information, and due to the interconnected nature of networks and their rapid transmission speed, fake information spreads rather easily and wildly. The unexpected development of public opinion catches mainstream media off guard, leaving it unable to respond promptly and making the subsequently guiding of public opinion challenging. On the other hand, to draw audiences and generate higher advertising revenue, commercial media on the Internet would resort to fake headings or create fake news that pollute the network-information environment, which further compounds the challenge to guide public opinion.

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Mainstream media is widely trusted because of its professionalism and credibility. According to surveys on information obtained via networks, despite business portals being the primary channel through which people obtain information online, conventional mainstream media remains their most trusted information source. The institutionalisation of conventional media has placed central and regional media on the same starting line with commercial media. The drive for profits by mainstream media may easily lead to the blind pursuit of audience ratings or viewer number to generate popularity and advertising revenue. Consequently, mainstream media may overlook or go against its professional ethics and become solely guided by profits; it may also neglect its mission as party and state media to guide public opinion and provide popular programmes. Mainstream media should not dwell on side issues while developing but should focus on content development. It should exercise good taste, strengthen the concepts of media ethics and improve its professionalism, so as to dominate the market, bring people together and give better play to its role as a news and public opinion body in generating and guiding public opinion. Meanwhile, mainstream media should also take advantage of public opinion to give play to and expand its social influence, so as to consolidate its social status.

1.3 Microscopic Level 1. Inadequate use of new technology and failure to adapt to the information demands of the big-data age Technology has both triggered media convergence and pained conventional media. It has always driven the development of history, and human application of technology is also becoming faster than ever. The third technological revolution is marked by computers, spatial technology and bioengineering, which in addition to enhancing social productivity, inevitably caused tremendous changes in the journalism and communication industry. Technology has not only changed people’s way of life, but also fundamentally overhauled the models of news production and communication. However, against such background, conventional media has yet to widely adopt new-media technology, which is primarily reflected in the following two areas: First, the infrequent use of the underlying Internet technology. In recent years, new media has become a field that may no longer be overlooked, and mainstream media have also launched their own social-media accounts and clients, so as to expand the forms of content expression. The use of social-media accounts is simply to communicate content with the help of online platforms and does not involve the underlying Internet technology. Taking advantage of available platforms may be a good method, but does not allow the independent acquisition of first-hand user information and data analysis. Mainstream media have to rely on data, statistics and APIs provided by platforms, which come with additional charges and are inevitably limited. Clients are pieces of software that provide clients with local services, which, compared with social-media accounts, offer greater freedom and users may customise

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data, statistics and analysis features. However, conventional media generally resort to outsourcing, making it challenging to integrate different products based on their needs. Second, technological convergence of mainstream media is clearly still inadequate, and a connected system cannot be developed across platforms. The use of technology in media convergence is not limited to supporting superior content or projects, but should converge the latest and most suitable information technology and media resources and capabilities. Not only have modern mainstream businesses failed to converge conventional-broadcasting and new-media channels, they have also failed to converge new-media platforms. This is reflected in either the lack of coordination between them or the simple grafting of content and form, which does not satisfy the demands of technological convergence. Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, is referred to as the first persona to have commercially applied big data. He has conducted thorough analysis of the entire sample characteristics of big data. The collection, application and expression of big data all require new-media technology, particularly the support of underlying computer technology. Driven by such impetus, cloud technology, virtualisation processing and distributed computing began to emerge, providing the technical support to the application of big data. Big-data technology has a direct guiding role in the similar data mining, which is also critical to media’s mining of user information. Furthermore, such underlying technology may be applied to platforms across the Internet and even be extended to conventional broadcasting channels, which is highly beneficial to reshaping the conventional channels of mainstream media. Physically, technology is the layer that is the easiest to improve. However, regarding the in-depth technological mining and application by conventional media, further expansion and reinforcement are still needed. 2. Lack of outstanding omnimedia talent Online media is reshaping the system of news gathering and editing, which in turn means changes in the skills needed for reporters and editors The editing and production of news programmes have completely entered the network age, whereby online media that uses modern communication technology have become the main channels of information collection, communication and consumption. Today, conventional talent suitable only for conventional broadcasting is no longer able to satisfy the needs of omnimedia communication. Consequently, a training and management system for omnimedia talent is about to emerge. The profession web editor actually emerged back in 2005 and may be regarded as the harbinger of omnimedia talent. 11 years later, the Chinese city of Hefei revoked the qualification certification for the profession, which indirectly reflected the prevalence of multimedia talent. The skill tests for professional qualification certification previously involved Word processing, Excel spreadsheets, Photoshop, Flash animation, Dreamweaver and Adobe Premiere [14]. The cancellation of the tests for professional qualification today signifies such skills have become necessary for every news worker and not just one profession. It also reflects the growing demand for quantity and quality of the profession in the context of mobile media. Web editors may

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be deemed as the predecessor of omnimedia talent, who must be proficient both in content and technology, which reflects the exacting demand for technological skills and knowledge. Naturally, all-round talent is impossible, but the most important thing about the fostering of omnimedia talent is the cultivation of talent with Internet thinking who are suited for media convergence. For the omnimedia talent, the key is to possess insight and sensibility for news gathering and editing in the new-media environment. However, China’s omnimedia talent is still a minority and can hardly satisfy the demands of businesses for media transformation. The challenge facing mainstream media in the fostering of omnimedia talent lies in the barriers among departments, which create gaps between workers in new and conventional media and even lead to mutual contempt. Conventional-media workers view their new-media counterparts as inferior, because they do not belong to the public institutions, whereas the latter views the former as conservative and outdated productive forces. This also reflects the ideological differences between new and old talent. That is why only by developing the Internet thinking and paying attention to the collective effects of old and new media can true and in-depth convergence of new media be achieved. As the Internet thrives, social demand for talent in the new-media field also grows, and the demand exceeds the supply. Internet companies such as Tencent and iQIYI possess a strong profit-generating capacity and are able to offer outstanding employees and top talent higher salaries; they also have a good talent-flow mechanism. It is precisely these features that help them draw a large number of outstanding talent and poach those from conventional media. To form teams with outstanding talent, mainstream media must first attract talent and keep outstanding omnimedia talent. Meanwhile, a reasonable evaluation system must be set up to assess the employees and promote the growth of omnimedia talent [15]. Only through the introduction of a set of systems of talent introduction, motivation and cultivation can new-media talent be retained and their growth promoted. A solid talent foundation may thus be established for the management of media convergence and the gathering and editing of mainstream media, in addition to business development. A favourable situation in which people of talent emerge in large numbers and their talent fully exploited may then be formed, allowing new omnimedia talent to become the driver and pacesetter of innovative business development. 3. The monotonous news-production processes unable to satisfy the demand of converged media production According to the conventional media-production model, businesses only needed to focus on the production of one type of media product. In the age of media convergence, however, different media forms need to extensively refine their content to satisfy the demands of different crowds and media platforms. Conventional contentproduction model can no longer satisfy this demand, which means businesses must rediscover their content positioning and recast the content-production model.

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(1) Predicament of content selection in the Internet age The phrase “content is king” first emerged when Sumner Redstone, the executive chairman of the U.S. mass-media company Viacom, defined the future positioning of the company as the world’s most important content provider in 1990. It profoundly reflects the importance of the production of quality content. For news media, content will always be the root that critically determines its survival and development. As a result, the news that mainstream media collects and selects from the Internet is of great importance. Conventional media in China were created based on different levels—from central to regional—each having different audiences and consequently relatively clear positioning. However, in the age of the Internet, media companies have upgrade and transformed into new media groups that face the national market, which makes their content positioning very important. The enormous and disorderly Internet market also makes it hard for media companies to find their target audiences, while the content turns into a hotchpotch. In addition to failing to foreground their features and audience positioning, conventional media may even source unreliable information and become the spreader of fake news. The media should always bear in mind that only appropriate positioning and higher content standards are the absolute standards of mainstream media. (2) Mainstream media needs to urgently revamp its production processes Professor Hu Zhenrong argued that editing reporters should transform into product managers. Product managers are teams that introduce the work processes of Internet products into conventional media, including development, design, testing and operations, and achieve cross-field collaboration among positions such as content production, technological development and integrated marketing, thus overhauling the monotonous work model of conventional media that centres around content production. Take CCTV’s existing production processes for example: a news item needs to go through steps including topic-selection planning, interview, production, layout, review and broadcasting. Although it has reasonably arranged and managed the creation, communication, editing and transmission of content products, the precise processes can only create monotonous media products that may only be consumed once [16]. In the new-media age, the production and use of “one-off” news have led to tremendous waste of resources. Content resources should be repeatedly used, which requires breaking free of the previous standards of departmental division based on media categories and building a resource-sharing database. Every image, text and video produced by conventional media will then be centrally stored in the database available to every department instead of belonging to a single department. Resource sharing and work collaboration may consequently be accomplished, while resource organisation and use as well as work efficiency enhanced. The internal business processes of a new media group should comprise the collection and production of omnimedia content, followed by multi-platform integration,

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distribution and operations and multi-network transmission and distribution, before eventually reaching different user terminals and forming a complete chain of business processes. However, a large number of mainstream media today still rely on conventional content-production processes, leading to new-media departments being just a name and unable to achieve converged-media production with distinctive characteristics. (3) Disregard of the role of prosumers in content production Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist, proposed the five hierarchies of human needs, and the top three were love and belonging needs, esteem needs and selfactualisation needs, which are all related to self-expression. After the Internet provided the audiences with more opportunities for expression, they are no longer willing to just passively receive information but want to more actively express themselves and participate in content production. The audiences have become the new information sources and news creators in the new-media age. According to the latest survey data from Pew Research Center, although the objective of social-network users is not to spread news, over half of them share news stories and related images and videos, and 46% of them discuss news events on social media. The growing use of mobile phones and portable electronic devices has reinforced the feature of mobile Internets. For the coverage of breaking news, the omnipresent prosumers then become the chief channel of information sources. Such information is close to the daily life of the masses, so mainstream media must not overlook such news sources. To use the news material published online by users require adjusting existing work processes and constant collection, verification and broadcasting of online information. Attention must be paid to verify the authenticity of information, as online information is a hotchpotch and may not be used without verification. Meanwhile, the rising status of the audiences means the use of audience information has become more important, which also requires the information-technology support of the Internet. 4. Inadequate focus on the rapidly developing mobile-Internet market 2012 is referred to as the “first year of mobile Internets”. The technology and services of mobile Internets have been set up, and mobile phones and devices have become a part of people’s daily life, which signifies the advent of the age of mobile Internets. The media referred to 2016 as the “first year of smart media”, in which smart devices appeared in succession. Smartphones, smart homes and wearables are introducing mobile Internets into every aspect of our life, while the main buttresses of development and communication of social ideological trends have shifted from personalcomputer networks to mobile Internets. Although mobile Internets share the same protocol and framework with the World Wide Web, changes in user scenarios have given birth to many new features. Firstly, on the traditional Internet, people and information are separated. Despite the advent of computers has greatly reduced the distances of the world and diversified the information channels of the people, their bulkiness means they are not portable and people could only access the Internet when at home, school or specific places such as the Internet café. In the age of mobile Internets, real-time information relay and resource sharing may be achieved

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via a single mobile phone in an instant, thus greatly expanding user scenarios [17]. Mobile Internets allow a myriad of user scenarios, which provide many possibilities for the formal expansion of news expression. Secondly, the emergence of portable devices such as mobile phones has greatly facilitated the gathering and distribution of breaking news. The images and videos of many major unexpected news events were initially taken by netizens using mobile phones before being uploaded onto social media, where they generated profound effects and were eventually picked up by mainstream media. For instance, during the series of explosions in Tianjin in 2015, netizens showed the power of the explosions to audiences across the country with clips taken using their mobile phones, which quickly drove up the level of interest in the incident. As a result, despite its recent emergence, mobile Internets have been developing by leaps and bounds. The 41st Statistical Report on Internet Development in China released by China Internet Network Information Center in January 2018 revealed that “China has 753 million mobile-Internet users, the percentage has risen from 95.1% in 2016 to 97.5%”. It is worth noting that unlike the users of the conventional Internet, those of mobile-Internet are younger and increasingly from lower levels of society. That mainstream media has placed insufficient emphasis on mobile Internets is on the one hand reflected in the failure to develop mobile-phone clients or the inadequate client features, and on the other hand the incomplete data collected. Topics of discussion in the age of mobile Internets are closely linked to data, and although the media must hold on to what they used to be good at, if it cannot expand its thinking to other information dimensions and use, its future structure will certainly be restricted [18].

2 Analysis of the Causes of Inadequate Convergence and Innovation of Mainstream Chinese Media 2.1 Idea-Wise Thinking guides action. Media convergence did not begin with technology but rather thinking. An information society requires new work models, and simple technological changes cannot satisfy the demands of new media for information communication. Advanced thinking is most critical to the convergence of mainstream media and key to a good start. If conventional media cannot break inertial thinking, then innovation and reform of the convergence of mainstream media cannot be understood in depth and manipulated. To date, most mainstream media have begun convergence. However, blinded by existing interests and profits and ideas, they lack confidence in the environment of media convergence or are complacent about their dominant position, thus developing a passive attitude of inaction. To change the situation around first requires

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thought liberation, that is, abandon as guiding principles the traditional plannedeconomy thinking and the administrative thinking of public institutions should regard completing tasks from superior units and supervisors as their objective. Meanwhile, the positive thinking of “must do” should be developed to actively drive media convergence. In other words, China’s mainstream media should be determined to make progress instead of being stubbornly conservative and dragging its heels. Secondly, the sectionalist and inertial thinking of conventional media needs to be broken. Despite its extensive experience and professional standard in content production, editing, communication and expression on its own channels, conventional mainstream media has little experience in new-media operations. As a result, it is used to applying its inertial thinking to the opening of public social-media accounts as if running television stations and newspapers, which clearly does not work. The lack of courage to act has led to mainstream media not adopting new thinking and business models to run Internet media, and it is thus stuck and unable to effectively perform operations related to new media. That is why the sectionalist and inertial thinking needs to be overhauled, and conventional media needs to stop applying its thinking to Internet media, but rather should learn and create media products and communication forms that are adapted to the Internet. Thirdly, conventional media must recognise the major crisis it faces and be determined to change. The swift development of the Internet and Internet media have shaken the dominant position of conventional media and powerfully impacted mainstream media, which may no longer ignore the Internet and new media. If it is already satisfied to become the workshop that produces Internet content, then mainstream media may slowly be marginalised in the next round of smart-media development. Not only will it be unable to seize the dominant position in guiding public opinion, its market space may be encroached upon in the competition. Furthermore, it may even exit the market and regress to a public institution relying on financial allocations. That is why, for conventional media, the firm determination to converge media and the seizing of opportunities arising from the convergence will be critical. Lastly, mainstream media must develop new concepts of media convergence. The transformation of conventional media should not take place rashly and recklessly, but should be supported by scientific thinking, which will be the foundation for the “cando” attitude. Just like the four new concepts put forward in the article Expediting the Convergence and Development of Conventional and Emerging Media in the People’s Daily in 2014 by Liu Qibao, the then head of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party, namely developing integrated concepts, strengthening the Internet thinking, enhancing the appreciation for leverage and encouraging the spirit to overcome challenges. Mainstream media must possess the attitude of “dare to do” combined with the adoption of scientific methods, so as to eventually forge a path among the trend of media convergence and achieve media transformation [19]. Conventional media previously relied primarily on a single medium and depended chiefly on advertising revenue to sustain its business operations. In the new-media environment, ideological changes are not just about changing the monotonous content of media production, but rather about changing the entire chain—from production,

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platforms to the audiences. Changes have taken place at all levels in the newmedia environment, which demands mainstream media to revolutionise its thinking concerning its complete industry chain. Only by innovating at different levels can mainstream media, against the background of media convergence, achieve all-round development and general transformation and boost its competitiveness on the market.

2.2 System- and Mechanism-Wise 1. Barriers of organisational structures Business innovation does not only require innovative ideas, but also the corresponding production support. The old systems and mechanisms of conventional media are unable to adapt to the development of new media and have become one of the key factors restricting media convergence. Against the background of media convergence, the development of broadcasters requires appropriate systems and mechanisms. The reform and innovation of the systems and mechanisms of mainstream media are therefore imperative. Currently, the management of mainstream media still follows that of conventional public institutions, and supervisory bodies typically manage the media via administrative orders; the management results are dependent on the will of the supervisors. Under such system, it is hard for mainstream media to develop a “market-based” thinking and break free of the existing rules and regulations. It is still guided by the supervisory departments instead of the market and the audiences, thus limiting its content choice and creation. For new mainstream media, a systematic, regulated and scientific legal model should be adopted as soon as possible [20]. Meanwhile, administrative barriers exist among departments within organisations. Each department operates independently with little connection and communication, making it even more challenging to integrate resources and collaborate. Not only are new-media departments entirely separated from conventional departments, they are also administratively managed by conventional media-channels, which further inhibits the vigour of new media. At the end of the 90 s, CCTV created cctv.com, which is independent of CCTV, based on the rules of conventional television stations. The approach of branching out new-media departments is identical to the present approach of establishing new-media departments, both of which go against the convergence of conventional media. An independent new-media department does not facilitate the digitisation of conventional departments and the introduction of platforms. Meanwhile, the introduction of new-media personnel into different departments is futile due to the conventional approach of administrative management, which drains the vitality out of Internet media. Only by breaking down administrative barriers, building omnimedia news centres and adopting the deployment of one team to different departments may efficiency be maximised and resource waste prevented.

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2. Inconsistent personnel-deployment mechanisms and inadequate talent-motivation mechanisms Not only do present talent mechanisms fail to adapt to the demands of the Internet environment, they also prevent the transformation of new media of businesses. For example, A Bite of China, a documentary series on Chinese delicacies and local customs and practices, was well received despite the low production costs. It became an instant public phenomenon upon airing and dominated the screens. The mention rate of season one of A Bite of China among unique users reached an astonishing 49.6%, while business returns of the second season increased by 20-fold. However, Chen Xiaoqing, the director of the series, was unwilling to film the sequel and attributed it to the unmitigated pressure that was weighing him down. But the truth is the highly influential and popular documentary series provided Chen with little incentive. This indirectly reflects that the present motivation mechanism of mainstream media no longer satisfies the demands for talent under the market conditions [21]. In the end, in 2017, Chen left CCTV and became an independent documentary producer and a food critic. Furthermore, the systems and mechanisms of conventional media have led to unequal treatment among employees. For instance, employees of CCTV are divided into various grades and ranks, and those receiving the worst treatment could not even enter the CCTV building. The treatment of conventional and new-media employees differs drastically in some businesses and a large gap also exists in their evaluation and remuneration. The negligence of new-media talent has led to talent drain in mainstream media. If mainstream media does not achieve the free flow and uniform deployment of personnel and establish systems that place equal emphasis on both new- and conventional-media talent, it will not be able to satisfy the talent and humanresource management demands of recreated-production processes and omnimediaplatform development. 3. Conventional business processes unable to achieve integrated communication of omnimedia Today, the restructuring of the gathering and editing processes of conventional media is still based on how conventional media perceives media transformation. Many workers of conventional media still simply regard new media as a newly emerged communication medium and dismiss the role it plays in revamping conventional business processes. Little do they know, the enormous power of new media is even able to completely overhaul the business formats of conventional media from the bottom up. Firstly, against the background of media convergence, business processes need to be uniformly planned. Conventional media usually have only one medium or two media with very dissimilar processes (such as television and radio), so departmental division has not led to a noticeable drop in efficiency. In contrast, the channels and platforms of converged media are rather diverse and a single department alone cannot satisfy the dramatically rising demand for information production, which may also

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frequently result in the waste of manpower and content resources. Only by committing to omnimedia communication can the demand of different platforms for diverse media products be met. As a result, the gathering processes of omnimedia are showing signs of integration: first, based on the features and demands of different media, the shared plans for topic selection is clarified and the gathering tasks confirmed; second, the omnimedia team collects different material and information, which are stored in a database where different media may access and use based on their needs. Secondly, the business processes of omnimedia production need to satisfy the demand of the Internet for expression, and the gathering stage consequently needs different vessels such as texts, sounds, images and videos. To adapt to the gathering needs of omnimedia while reducing costs, all-round reporters who are capable of gathering for different media are necessary. Thirdly, media convergence is not simply the convergence of media; the content produced by different media will also being to converge. As a result, media convergence needs talent who are proficient in converged media to produce content that is adapted to such media, as well as keeping a check on and selecting UGC. Lastly, media convergence leads to audience segmentation in media. Different media products offer different user experience and unique content inclination, resulting in segmented audiences due to the segmented media content. This means that when facing different media, news media needs to create content products with distinctive features based on user needs and media features [22]. 4. Inadequate marketisation of business management The development of the business-management systems of China’s mainstream media has gone from focusing solely on ideological promotion to emphasising both ideological promotion and economic development. The business format has also gone from being a public institution to being both a public and business institution. During such transformation, the key factor is advertising operations. China’s mainstream media has extensive experience in advertising operations in the traditional fields. However, following the advent of new media and the diversification of business formats due to marketisation, issues plaguing mainstream media began to emerge. Taking advantage of the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, CCTV launched mobile-television operations. Despite being granted the licence very early, its IPTV development remains sluggish [23]. Major cross-regional and -industry media groups continue to grow in the U.S., whereas China barely has on media group with international influence and competitiveness [24]. This fully reflects the current international influence of China’s mainstream media. During the recreation of business processes, the media must connect the production departments and chains to achieve the coordinated omnimedia production. Similarly, in terms of the business management of the media, merely relying advertising revenue will not solve the financial issues plaguing the media. Instead, a cross-media and multi-business operating model should be developed during media convergence. Mainstream media possesses a large user group and enormous economic strength, and the new resources it has generated may be sold as goods. The database of The New York Times offers paid enquiry services, thus

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achieving the online extension of its brand and the expansion of new business. It also generated handsome profits and provides an example for the digital profit generation of the media [25]. Meanwhile, mainstream media may innovate the charging models. Conventional media has always relied on advertising charges, but customisation and high-end services may be developed in the Internet environment. Paid services may be introduced to high-end audiences—an approach that could not be adopted in a conventional-media environment due to the limited channels and resources.

2.3 Content-Wise The two most critical points in media convergence and innovation are content and technology. Despite technological issues being constantly raised, content is primary to the survival of the media. Regardless of how media technology and forms evolve, content remains the core of the media industry. Consequently, focusing solely on technology and organisational structures in media convergence and innovation is inadequate. Paying attention to the production of quality content and winning user trust with it is the only way to eventually achieve the dual objectives of guiding public opinion and generating profits. Firstly, media content needs to satisfy the demand of the Internet for expression. McLuhan suggested: “Media is information”, which emphasised the importance of media. The profound social influence produced by the use of a medium is far more important than what an individual actually does with the medium; the statement reflects the significance of the features of different media. For example, newspaper media is suited for publishing long texts and thus in-depth content; radio resorts to the sense of hearing and offers a sense of presence; and television is able to rapidly communicate audiovisual information. The Internet, which integrates different media forms such as texts, sounds and images, offers the audiences new media experience. This has placed mainstream media under a certain pressure, and how to produce Internet content based on the features of different media has become a question that mainstream media must consider. It may easily be predicted that convergence journalism exhibits features such as multimedia, instant and interactive. However, if convergence journalism wants to truly become a highly operational and mainstream news form, it needs to continuously explore and innovate during the convergence of conventional media. Secondly, the Internet environment has posed new challenges to content innovation by mainstream media. In the omnimedia age, communication content is turning from being channel-based to being programme-oriented and emphasising professionalisms [26]. Supported by the converged omnimedia channels, integrated and all-round communication may be achieved. For instance, the production team of CCTV’s Xinwen Lianbo, a daily news programme, has launched online videos and set up social-media accounts. The introduction of characterisation has generated diverse new-media content that is then delivered via omnimedia. Since online commercial media in China does not possess the rights in newsgathering, original content is not

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the primary means of content production for online media, which may only share reports by mainstream media. As a result, the release of information on the Internet will frequently see competing media following suit, leading to lost golden market opportunities. Furthermore, being unable to produce original content, online media need to attract users with content editing, so they resort to click baits to play to the gallery. Such unhealthy competition has posed higher demands and challenges to conventional media. Thirdly, the convergence of new media has led to the convergence of professionally generated content and UGC. Mainstream media should not only focus on the production of its own professional content, but should also provide accessible platforms to UGC. It needs to ensure the comprehensiveness, diversity and professionalism of the content while systematically organising and integrating user content. Mainstream media should give full play to the advantage of user-data mining and resource integration on new-media platforms, so as to produce popular online content that is professional and satisfies the demands of the masses. Finally, mainstream media needs to pay attention to its own policy requirements. Due to its rapid and easy-access features, the Internet is deluged with commercial media and self-media. To generate more profits, Internet companies engage in cutthroat competition, giving rise to behaviour that goes against the professional ethics, including click baits, quotes taken out of context and even fake news. Meanwhile, to capture the new-media market share, some conventional media also engage in cutthroat competition, leading to rogue behaviour that affects the authority and reputation of mainstream media. As China’s key promotional body, mainstream media must adhere to the guiding principles of solidarity, stability, encouragement and positive promotion. This means mainstream media may not purposely cater to the preference of the Internet for vulgar information, but should act as an active voice that guides public opinion. While offering accessible narrations, it needs to remain mainstream; while producing good conventional content, it needs to produce more quality online content. Mainstream media needs to firmly adhere to the party principles and guide the public opinion. Furthermore, it needs to create a positive image that matches the core socialist values while strengthening the guidance of public opinion. Meanwhile, it should satisfy the spiritual demands of the masses and create popular media products. It should be borne in mind that truly good media products are a combination of these two points. The anti-corruption Chinese television series “In the Name of the People” is well received precisely because it has taken into consideration both of the above-stated points, making it an outstanding example of media product.

2.4 Channel-Wise As technology evolves, the channels through which people receive information have also greatly expanded. In addition to the conventional television, radio and newspapers, news websites, mobile clients and social media have become key channels of information acquisition. With channels playing an increasingly important role, the

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debate between “channel is king” and “content is king” also becomes increasingly frequent. Meanwhile, mainstream media is facing channel crises. Platforms such as mobile phones and social media are diverting the audiences of mainstream media, while business clients and public social-media accounts are helping online business media “intercepting” large amounts of audience resources. Without good, open channels, mainstream media will not be able to reach the audiences despite the creation of a large amount of quality information, not to mention anything else. The first group of new-media companies that emerged on the Internet in China was Sohu, NetEase and TOM, which mostly focused on content production during the initial stage of development. Today, however, these veteran websites have been replaced by new market leaders such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, and it should be mentioned that these new-generation Internet giants do not focus on content. Baidu’s search engine serves as a bridge between netizens and information; Tencent’s QQ and WeChat serve as channels of interpersonal communication on the Internet; and Alibaba has created a platform on which businesses and customers may engage in market transactions [27]. None of these businesses directly produces content; rather, they build channels that allow other businesses, entities and individuals to produce information. The more users the platforms have, the more valuable the platforms and channels. All of which illustrate the rise of the channel industry, and conventional media also needs to pay attention to communication channels. The rapid development of new channels is both a challenge and an opportunity. On the one hand, new-media channels have indeed ended the monopoly of conventional media and provide information channels for the rise and expansion of commercial media. On the other hand, new-media channels provide suitable platforms for conventional media turning to new Internet media and lower both the access and development costs. As the Internet rose to prominence, it primarily focused on content production. However, as the audiences showed increased initiative and datamining technologies developed, content production could no longer merely rely on professional producers. Information gathering and mining have become all the more necessary, which is why platforms and channels are receiving increased emphasis. The capturing of users and their attention has become key to the rise of the channel industry, which should catch the attention of conventional media. Although conventional media has made attempts at channel convergence, such as the setting up of social-media accounts and clients, and enhanced its communication capacity on newmedia platforms, it has yet to overcome the bottleneck in convergence and is still far from thorough convergence. Not only should channel convergence involve socialmedia accounts and clients, it should also strive for resource sharing and coordinated development between new-media platforms and conventional media. In addition to the resource sharing and coordinated development between newmedia platforms and conventional media, it is important to innovate. The innovation of communication channels and platforms is critical to the rapid development of emerging media. Innovations that are recognised by the capital market may obtain higher valuations, which is why innovation is the key driver for Internet development. To dominate in future development requires breaking free from the thinking of conventional channels while focusing on the frontier of new media and audience

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needs, so more personalised and user-friendly services are provided via new communication channels complemented by the superior content production of conventional media. Innovation also demands an open vision that is not limited by the notion of conventional and emerging media, but focusing rather on providing users with more personalised and user-friendly services through the achievement of cross-industry development [28]. The development of new media is a necessary choice for conventional media, and Internet channels are precisely the weakest link in mainstream media. Only by continuously expanding the Internet channels, can conventional media eventually stand out in the media competition and guide the future development of the media.

2.5 Technology-Wise Each advancement in human communication is closely related to technological developments. Internet technology has profoundly changed the means of media communication and mainstream media itself, and it is not unreasonable to refer to such change as revolution. New digital technology has overhauled the conventional, monotonous media forms and converged different media. Meanwhile, the high accessibility of the Internet has greatly increased audience participation and initiative. Technological developments also provide novel forms of news produced through converged media, making personalised interactive news a reality. Mobile Internets based on cloud technology and portable terminals have made the gathering and editing of news possible anytime, anywhere. GPS location information, in the meantime, has made on-site news a reality and personalised news communication based on user interests and locations possible. All of these are dependent on the in-depth application of new-media technology. Currently, the application of technology by China’s mainstream media remains rather simple and direct, as is seen in the phenomenon in which it copies and pastes television-news scripts in their entirety onto its social-media account. The approach of moving the content of conventional media to new media unedited has been adopted by almost all mainstream media entering the new media. Such simple adoption of technology produces almost no positive effect. The mobile apps of many media groups have failed to gain popularity because they lack distinctive characteristics that appeal to users. The simple grafting of resources cannot compare with the resource-integrated news clients of commercial media. The initial failure facing mainstream media during media convergence lies in the overly simple application of technology. The convergence of media technologies is not simply about moving convention medial online and to mobile phones. The convergence of new media refers to converging new digital technology with independently developed features, which not only leads to information communication in own media, but also extensive communication among media [29]. This leads to more stringent requirements for technological convergence by mainstream media, which is no longer merely

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the grafting of content, but demands customised development based on its needs to develop own characteristics and satisfy audience demands. Mainstream media needs to seize the popular trends of new media instead of being satisfied with social-media accounts and clients alone. China’s Internet companies have always been highly sensitive towards the development trends of the Internet and are no longer limited to satisfying but are “creating” user needs. The future development of new media will be a smart and multidimensional one. For instance, the continuously emerging smart media and the Internet of Things may be a channel for news presentation. Future development of the Internet is no longer merely the demonstration of a few platforms, but more about becoming an omnipresent environment. By focusing solely on content innovation while overlooking technological developments, conventional media will be reduced to media-content producers that are unable to expand and extend their industry chains, thus limiting the diversification and institutionalisation of mainstream media.

References 1. Key Instructions from Xi Jinping on Deepening the Reform of the Talent-Development System and Mechanisms [EB/OL]. (2016–05–06) [2017–12–15]. http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/ 2016-05/06/c_1118820251_2.html. 2. Liu Z. Exploration and analysis of the media-convergence courses of urban television stations in Central West China [J]. West China Broadcasting TV. 2015(22). 3. Wu L. Research on the international communication and influence of chinese media [D]. Beijing: Party School of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party; 2011. 4. Ren X. Consistent public opinion—thoughts on the organisation and management of conventional and emerging media. Hongqi Wengao, 2015(20). 5. Guo H. Research on the government regulations and systems for the media industry [D]. Tianjin: Nankai University; 2013. 6. Extract from President Xi Jinping’s speech at the Symposium on Cybersecurity and IT Application in 2016. 7. Wang Z. Exploring the omnimedia devleopment of media centres [J]. China Newspaper Industry, 2015 (22). 8. Ge W. Media system with chinese characteristics: historical development and improvement [J]. Chin Public Adm. 2011 (6). 9. Li J. Research on the innovation of China’s film and television policies [M]. Beijing: Communication University of China Press; 2014. p. 130–1. 10. Yuan J. General introduction to news media [M]. Beijing: Beijing Broadcasting Institute; 2004. 11. Data from Statistical Report on Internet Development in China from 2016. 12. Liu Q. Expediting the covnergence of conventional and emerging media [N]. People’s Daily; 2014 13. Zhu C et al. Current Issues, Objectives and Paths of the Convergence of China’s Conventional Media [J]. Journalism Lover 2014 (10). 14. Xia Y. Omnimedia talent with technological and content proficiency—on the demand for Wed Editors [J]. News World 2013 (4). 15. Zhou C. Exploration and practice of building teams of omnimedia talent [J]. Young Journalist 2016 (12). 16. Wang J. Innovative research of China’s television news media against the background of new media [D]. Wuhan: Wuhan University; 2014.

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17. Bi H, Li W. Communication features and guiding paths of social ideological trends in the mobile-internet age—a perspective based on the development of mainstream ideology. Stud Ideological Educ. 2016 (5). 18. Yan S, Song X. Peng Lan of Tsinghua University: media producing only content will face restricted development [EB/OL]. (2016–07–06) [2017–12–17]. http://it.people.com.cn/ nl/2016/0706/cl009-28530658.html. 19. Wei W. On expediting media convergence to create new mainstream media [J]. News Res. 2015 (9). 20. Tang Y. Predicaments and countermeasures of the development of new mainstream media [J]. Journalism Lover. 2015; (7). 21. Wu Z, Luo Z. A study of the convergence approaches of local media groups in China [J]. J Cent China Normal Univ (Humanities and Social Sciences). 2015 (6). 22. Zhao S. Research on the recreation of business processes of Yanzhao metropolis daily against the background of media convergence [D]. Baoding: Hebei University; 2015. 23. Wu D. Operation and management of television media against the background of media convergence [J]. News World. 2011; (12). 24. Gu Y. Exploring and analysing the convergence of newspapers and networks agains the background of media convergence [D]. Guangzhou: Jinan University; 2010. 25. Peng Z, Liang Y. Innovation in the operation and management of news production in the age of media covnergence [J]. Mod. Commun. (Journal of Communication University of China). 2010; (1). 26. Wang Y. Research on the omnimedia development of China’s broadcasters against the background of media convergence [D]. Wuhan: Wuhan University; 2013. 27. Chen J. Content or Channel is King?—New media structure in the new-media environment [J]. News Res. 2015; (7). 28. Yan S. Research on the channel convergence of conventional and emerging media in China [J]. Mod. Commun. (Journal of Communication University of China). 2016; (7). 29. Zhou Y. Re-acquainting with new media in the context of media convergence [D]. Beijing: Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications; 2015.

Chapter 4

Status Quo of Convergence and Innovation of Mainstream Chinese Media

Following the rapid development and popularisation of the Internet, digital technology and mobile devices, the highly efficient gathering and sharing of information have become a part of people’s life, and how to search and share information will profoundly impact the development of the media environment. Currently, networks have become the main battleground for public opinion, and cyberspace is not just about the network environment. The public-opinion ecology in cyberspace will directly or indirectly affect the security of the national ideology and social stability. Conventional media has lost its edge in communication, and the promotion of the convergence of conventional and emerging media has become a prevailing trend of great urgency. Faced with new communication formats such as “one person, one media” and “ubiquitous communication”, media formats in the traditional sense are undergoing unprecedented challenges. How to promote the timely transformation of the conventional-media industry has become an issue facing all media workers. Against such background, the media begin actively or passively exploring the paths of media convergence. Media convergence began gradually in China in 2014. The central government released key documents concerning the promotion of the convergence of conventional and emerging media in August 2014, which pointed out a new direction for the convergence of Chinese media. Media convergence has introduced new communication patterns, and the open media market and media-policy support provided conventional media with expansive space for benign reforms. Taking advantage of the situation, conventional media pressed forward, showed off their ability and achieved the initial success. On the one hand, top state-owned media companies such as the People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency and China Central Television (CCTV) are stepping up investment in new-media fields and boosting development, thus acquiring greater space for discourse and development. On the other hand, a number of stateowned media companies and private companies, including Radio and Television Station of Shanghai (RTS), Hunan Broadcasting System (HBS), Nanfang Media Group and Zhejiang Daily Press Group raised funds, leading to the emergence of new models and opportunities. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 P. Duan, Innovations of China’s Mainstream Media Convergence, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9146-1_4

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1 Content-Wise: Specialisation and Diversity In the face of the media-convergence trend, media companies began placing considerable emphasis on content specialisation. Assorted information from all directions continuously overwhelms users daily, and without being able to successfully maintain quantity, the preservation of quality has become the sure-fire plan. Currently, the specialisation and refinement of media-product content are increasingly drawing the attention of conventional media. During the exploration of media convergence, conventional media continuously enhances the news-production skill of multimedia convergence, as it strives to deliver sophisticated content to the right users. As for the newspaper industry, Nanfang Media Group optimised subsidiary media products, which were transformed from monotonous text expression to diverse content presentation, and from simple text narration to in-depth data excavation. A series of specialised forms of content coverage has been introduced, including visualised coverage and accessible-information coverage. As for the radio and television industry, through the technological renovation and upgrade of its internal systems, RTS has integrated the advantages of quality news and video resources within the group and achieved the complete sharing of its content library. It has transformed from a simple television broadcaster to an omnimedia-content provider, and has built a comprehensive content-copyright library of high quality. As a mainstream official platform for information, Xinhua News Agency focused on the clients as its channels of expansion. With the development of professional newsgathering systems globally, it releases multimedia information such as images and texts to users around the clock. The agency’s clients have become the most important think-tank and information aggregators nationally, as well as top platforms for the release of heavyweight news. Below are examples based on the representative cases of the television-media group of Guangdong Province and Radio Beijing Corporation (RBC).

1.1 Television-Media Group of Guangdong Province The television media in Guangdong Province are an exceptional example of content upgrade within the radio and television industry. As the southern gateway to Chinese television, television media in Guangdong Province play a big part in China’s television circle. Given their forward position in the Chinese economic reform and helped by the momentum of rapid economic development in the province over the last three decades, the province’s television media have achieved tremendous development particularly in the production of specialised content, and are fully responsible for providing key content to new-media channels of the province. On the one hand, the content reserve and knowledge in television series accumulated have become the content foundations for the development of converged television media of Guangdong. Over the past three decades, thanks to its powerful television-production capacity, Guangdong Radio and Television (GRT) has amassed

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a large amount of outstanding programme content—with television series being the most representative—which constitutes the most pivotal part of content collaboration of the new media. In addition to pioneering the building of a television-series production centre in China, GRT was a trailblazer in the now highly popular “exclusive series” in China’s television circle back in the 80 s. Around 2010, Nanfang Media Group established Southern Media Programme Marketing Company and Southern Lead Television and Film Company, which are responsible for the planning, production and marketing of television series. The companies have launched around twodozen television series that were well received among the audience and the industry, among them the audience rating of the spy war drama The Defenders was ranked among the top three of the television-series channels of CCTV in the first half of 2013. “Guangdong-style” television series have come to become a model of GRT and the foundation for the development of specialised content of converged media, as television media from the province took part in media convergence. On the other hand, the brand advantages of its television programmes and channels are key components in GRT’s content specialisation. Creating professional brands and developing converged industries are the main development strategies of Nanfang Media Group, for which the group invested heavily and focused on the development and production of local programmes. In addition to working vigorously on expanding the influence of its ten terrestrial-television channels and creating competitive programmes, the group has left people with a unique impression of its media image with means such as visual-image promotion via its programmes and channels, staging variety-show events and training many famous hosts. In terms of news programmes concerning people’s livelihood, 630 News and Today’s Focus of GRT stand out. Other popular news programmes, such as TVS News and Today’s News of Television Southern, and many self-produced legal-education and special-report programmes, including Security Line and Society Panorama, have achieved remarkable audience ratings in Guangdong Province. The contribution of self-produced brand programmes to the overall audience rating of channels has even exceeded that of television series. The specialised programme content has become an efficient instrument of television media in Guangdong Province as they compete with emerging media, in addition to being a kind of successful practice of the converged television-media industry of the province. As the vessel for media and programme brands, the status and role of television channels are highly critical. Over the years, television media in Guangdong Province have persisted in the development strategy of “content is the king”, and have researched the market, competitors and audience in depth. They have spared no effort in creating television channels that reflect their individual characteristics and styles, among them the ten terrestrial-television channels of Nanfang Media Group stand out, and GRT’s Pearl River Channel continues to dominate with its leading audience rating. With its unique channel positioning and the long-term strategy of content refinement, TVS4 has become the most competitive channel with high potential of Guangdong Province. Furthermore, digital television channels of Guangdong Province have become the fresh force for the “renewed undertaking” of television media of the province. Paid professional digital television channels of Guangdong

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Province have always been ahead of the rest of the country and have a tremendous impact on the focus market and the industry chain of media convergence. They have become the focus of the competition between the television industry in Guangdong Province and emerging media in the future. Television media in Guangdong Province will in future rely further on digital television channels as it takes part in the television market, so as to provide greater and more accurate and professional programme content for the convergence of conventional and emerging media [1].

1.2 RBC As the leader in China’s conventional radio and television industry, RBC was also the front runner in media convergence. Lu Yin, the chief editor of RBC, once remarked: “The convergence of the resources of radio and new media is one of the inevitable trends of post-digitisation media development.” [2]. In response, RBC began actively experimenting with media convergence a few years ago, including the specialised and refined content production. Following a series of attempts, RBC may now formally provide digital multimedia broadcasting and has 16 radio programmes and 6 television programmes with 150,000 users. Furthermore, it has improved the construction of radio-transmission points to expand the network coverage of shops such as chain stores. In terms of the use of digital audio-broadcasting (DAB) mobile multimedia broadcasting, the live coverage of the initial torch relay and events of Beijing 2008 have become the masterpieces of the collaboration of RBC and special broadcasts. Moreover, RBC boasts the feature of real-time information update on its publicservice information platform, which promptly publishes practical daily information such as weather and business news to satisfy consumer needs. Today, RBC has also made positive discoveries specifically about content specialisation and refinement during media convergence. Firstly, RBC stepped up content development to achieve content specialisation and delivers better user experience through user interactions. In a new-media environment, the differences between individual and group audiences continue to emerge, and the reinforcement of programme interactivity and specialisation has therefore become a major move of RBC. It is, on the one hand, done through increased interaction between users and hosts and among users with the help of platforms such as networks and texts, while on the other hand through segmented programmes to improve the specialisation and originality of programme content. A successful case is the special traffic report periodically released by Beijing Communication Radio and Beijing Traffic Management Bureau. Secondly, RBC took full advantage of the value of its hosts and quality programmes to expand the market. Against the background of media convergence, emerging media may possess advantages that conventional media do not have, but it also has some shortcomings, which are primarily reflected in the lack of original content resources such as those of conventional media. Furthermore, emerging media

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also falls short in terms of audience base, brand quality programmes and the professional training, qualification and skills of newsgathering teams. RBC has outstanding hosts, extensive experience and widespread popularity, which put it in the role of a leader, while its style and programme characteristics also create a stable brand image. As a result, the media convergence of RBC took advantage of the original brands and professional resources of its hosts and injected new resources, which invigorated the market and produced greater benefits. Smooth Journey of Beijing Communication Radio is a noteworthy example. While promoting DAB for road-navigation systems, Beijing Communication Radio uses the voices of Smooth Journey’s hosts for the navigation prompts, which users may choose according to their preference [3].

1.3 Diversity and Personalisation In the age of media convergence, the content of conventional media is becoming increasingly differentiated and diverse. Against the background of media convergence, new-media platforms have become a free market of opinions, and people express more freely than ever their opinions on platforms, which is why we see media content becoming more diverse. In the colourful world of information, people continuously receive information and express their voices. The media has begun to shake off the conventional unvaried content-production form, and is striving to develop brand uniqueness through differentiation strategies, so as to stand out among the innumerable homogeneous content. The People’s Daily, for example, has fully expanded its new-media business and done exceptionally well in content diversification. People’s Daily Overseas Edition, the editing departments, people.cn and the affiliated media all attach great importance to the development of their WeChat platforms, and have created WeChat accounts such as Xiakedao and Xuexi Xiaozu, which create the resonance among public WeChat accounts and gather the influential power. The news clients of the People’s Daily are committed to producing quality news and divide communication content into “news, comment, listen, ask”. “News” focuses on the presentation of major news, and the key content includes main content from the People’s Daily and major national and international news of the day. “Listen” is a critical breakthrough in the People’s Daily clients against the background of media convergence, with major news of the day being recorded as audio files, offering the audience easier mews access. Meanwhile, conventional media has also begun taking advantage of private power or uncovering its core values. For instance, CCTV’s app focuses on mobilising its audience and is committed to publishing “seeable news”. The People’s Daily clients, with their own authority, built a bridge that connects users with provincial officials, so they may directly communicate with one another. Xinhuanet’s public WeChat account I report and people.cn’s “local senior official’s message board” have achieved the transition from unilateral communication

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to content co-creation. In the field of radio and television, China Network Television (CNTV) takes full advantage of the edge of new media and has performed exceptionally well in content diversification. In the age of media convergence, the acquisition of information that is personally useful is the most fundamental objective of people’s media use. In other words, user demands for information have become more personalised. Currently, CNTV has 22 Chinese-language channels, including news and economic channels, that satisfy the different information needs of users. In addition, it has many foreignlanguage channels, such as English and French, which may satisfy the viewing needs of expatriates in China or foreign-language learners. Meanwhile, CNTV collaborates with many provincial television stations and has launched a provincial satellitetelevision section on its platform, which allows users to directly watch provincial television programmes. The programmes provide new resources for CNTV’s content personalisation. Specifically speaking, News Channel, with audiovisual elements and interaction at its core, is a news-information sharing platform that is multi-terminal, multilingual and geared to global demands. It is able to broadcast Chinese and foreign news around the clock, helping Chinese and foreign viewers understand each other. The platform has many news programmes: in addition to 100 famous news programmes of CCTV, it has 50 famous news programmes from local satellite television stations. Meanwhile, Entertainment Channel has transferred quality variety shows of conventional television media onto network platforms. The use of new-media communication channels has expanded the communication of quality content and allowed user interaction. Discovery Channel primarily uses knowledge such as humanities, nature and science as source materials to create a special discovery channel with rich content that imparts users with abundant knowledge. Sports Channel provides sports enthusiasts with sports information and live games coverage around the clock, in addition to the livestreaming of CNTV5 + . Sports programmes commonly seen on conventional television media may all be viewed on this platform. Kids Channel is dedicated to children and youth, who may directly watch kids programmes from CCTV-14 while browsing content specifically created for them. Furthermore, to cater for youth, Kids Channel offers animation programmes, theatre visits, knowledge learning, gaming and event participation. Meanwhile, Arts Channel is filled with artistic vibes and offers a series of resources popular among art lovers, among which CCTV’s Painting and Calligraphy Gallery gathers together painting and calligraphy enthusiasts in China and serves as CCTV’s gateway that connects China’s painting and calligraphy circle [4].

2 Channel-Wise: Variety and Interconnection Among the achievements of the promotion of converged development by China’s conventional media, the diversification of channels must be mentioned. All along, “content is the king” has been regarded as the truth. However, against the background

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of media convergence, it seems only apt to add that “channel is the king”. Currently, the communication channels of China’s main communication media are changing, and information flows are no longer simply relying on conventional media such as television broadcasting and newspapers. Emerging media allows information to reach all corners of the world, thanks to its real-time communication, massive amounts of information content, diverse information formats, interactive communication process and accessible information search, all of which have become the leverage points for conventional media. Conventional media has adopted the approaches of integrating stations with networks as well as newspapers with networks. With the help of official websites, commercial websites and portable mobile terminals, it is able to satisfy the mobile and diverse needs of users.

2.1 Channel Variety A great number of conventional media have joined the search for more communication channels. Newspaper-wise, Guangzhou Daily chiefly communicates information via new media such as its official Weibo and WeChat accounts, news clients and dayoo.com, as well as its main news pages. Chengdu Media Group, however, has introduced the livestreaming of online videos and wireless-livestreaming technology for special coverage of major events, in addition to coverage involving images and texts. Television-wise, while making use of the communication channels of conventional media, Hunan Television has also set up diverse communication channels based on core resources, including Mango TV’s personal-computer terminals, Internet television, mobile-phone television and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), which enhanced the influence of the brand programmes of channels. Meanwhile, in addition to making use of the communication channels of conventional media, Zhejiang Satellite TV and Dragon TV took advantage of network media and began collaborated marketing with key video websites. They also expanded the mobile channels and got hold of the right to broadcast for videos on mobile clients. Radiowise, China Radio International catered to the Internet and launched the “News Radio + ” app, which is focused on creating mobile-Internet terminal news products that are engaging, fun and practical. The multi-channel communication of China National Radio’s (CNR) programme The Voice of China is one of the most representative examples. CNR’s integrated development and transition to new media accelerated in 2009. Its representative programme The Voice of China has also joined in on media convergence according and is actively engaged in launching the practice. Currently, The Voice of China has the following key communication channels: First is the Internet platform. CNR’s news website is cnr.cn, which still wields considerable influence even as media convergence is now under way, thanks to its competitiveness resources such as 16 broadcast frequencies, including The Voice of China, and nearly 200 member stations and over 1,000 professional reporters.

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Second is the Internet television. China National Radio Television Network Station, which is operated by China National Radio New Media Cultural Communication (Beijing) Co., Ltd., was established in 2010. By the end of 2011, China’s National Radio and Television Administration inspected and approved the integrated operations and content-service platform of China National Radio Internet Television, which is known as Central Galaxy Internet TV. China National Radio New Media subsequently collaborated with Jiangsu Yangtze River Communication Co., Ltd. and iQIYI and founded Galaxy Internet Co., Ltd. in summer 2012. Third is The Voice of China clients. As mobile platforms rapidly develop many media got into action, and CNR was undoubtedly one of them and has developed its own mobile clients. Users may receive news information recommended by The Voice of China on client terminals on the one hand, while listening to live broadcasts on the other hand. Most importantly, they may directly follow the Weibo accounts of the hosts from the terminals and bookmark their favourite programmes. The mobile clients of The Voice of China may be young, but they greatly reinforced interaction between users and the programmes, making them full of potential. Fourth is audiobook software. China National Radio Cultural Communication Co., Ltd., a new-media company subordinate to CNR, is responsible for providing commercial audio content to CNR. The audiobook software from the company is primarily based on mobile terminals such as mobile phones and the Internet, and integrates audio resources from 16 radio frequencies of CNR, including The Voice of China. Meanwhile, quality audio content provided by audio-file producers from home and abroad and copyright content by Chinese and foreign authors as acquired by publishing houses have all improved the audiobook offerings. The communication channel of The Voice of China was once again expanded as it entered the audiobook field. Furthermore, The Voice of China has launched communication channels on a variety of social-media platforms, including Weibo. Its public-information services primarily comprise news information, social culture, fashion and health and programme guides. The relationship development includes interactive content calling for audience participation, prize-giving feedback, greetings and the sharing of nonoriginal content. During the live broadcasting of The Voice of China, hosts also interact with the audience in real time via Weibo. The image creation includes internal exhibitions, such as those of employees and internal events, and external events. The Voice of China formally joined Sina’s Weidiantai on 10 August 2011 and interacted and communicated extensively with the audience on Weibo. It kicked off with a good start, and claimed the top spot in terms of audience ratings on the first day. Among the rankings of Sina’s Weidiantai for audience ratings, bookmarking and station influence for 2015, The Voice of China was ranked 3rd place nationally and for audience ratings, which was also showing a rising trend. The Voice of China is without doubt one of the best radio stations. Furthermore, The Voice of China has opened an official WeChat public account, which frequently joins cnr.cn in the special coverage for major news events. It also allows audience participation in topic discussions through news investigation daily. It interacts with Sunshine News • Late Peak, which greatly encourages interactions with users on its new-media platforms.

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2.2 Interconnection Among Channels The achievements of China’s conventional media during convergence are mostly reflected in the interconnected multi-channel coverage. Different communication channels are united and their respective advantages exploited to boost the power of expression and the interactivity of news coverage. Take for instance Xinhua News Agency’s full-length news report Afforestation in Northern China, which in addition to being circulated via conventional means in 2013, it was presented in a diverse and stereoscopic manner through the agency’s Weibo, public social-media accounts, clients and converged-media platform Xinghuatong, marking a critical step in its digitisation attempts. Another example would be the People’s Daily coverage of the Two Sessions in March 2014, in which apart from the use of conventional media resources also introduced the online coverage known as e-living room of the Two Sessions. The comprehensive use of different approaches to communicate key news from the Two Sessions from different aspects saw reporters of conventional newspapers assuming the role of online news anchors [5]. Meanwhile, CNTV has also changed its previously serious coverage format for political news and reported the Two Sessions to nearly 3.2 billion netizens via Internet television, mobile-phone television, mobile media and IPTV [6]. Media have stopped the one-to-one fight and begun forming alliances, sharing resources from their channels and covering stories together. The most representative case is the foundation of the “Alliance of the Seven Major Media Groups”, including the national alliance of party newspapers above provincial level, national alliance of evening newspapers, national alliance of morning city newspapers and global alliance of Chinese media, which brought together 217 media companies of different communication formats. The “Alliance of the Seven Major Media Groups on the Youth Olympics” was a positive experiment with the model and allowed different media groups to smoothly communicate information by giving full play to their respective advantages. The integrated use of newspapers, networks, Weibo and WeChat groups and mobile clients has maximised the extent of information communication. When it comes to the radio and television field, one of the most representative cases of interconnected multi-channel communication is that of HBS’s broadcasting of the final of I am a Singer. As a highly engaging singing-contest show, I am a Singer, has further enhanced HBS’s influence. For the show’s final, HBS seized the opportunity presented by livestreaming and successfully expanded its communication channels with the allround four-in-one stereoscopic livestreaming via television, computer, mobile phones and cinema screens. Firstly, viewing on conventional television. Like watching a television programme, viewers could watch I am a Singer on Hunan Television and interact with the programmes by scanning the QR code on the television screen using the interactive app Who? Now!. Secondly, viewing on computers. It is unrealistic that audiences such as students carry televisions with them to school, so computers have become the main means of watching the programme. They mostly visit the livestream section of the web-based app of Mango TV to watch the programme, which allows

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them to publish comments as they watch. Thirdly, viewing on mobile phones. As light and portable handheld terminals, mobile phones offer a video-viewing means most favoured by younger groups. After downloading the mobile version of Mango TV onto their phones, viewers may watch and interact with the programme the same way as computer viewers. Fourthly, viewing on cinema screens. Watching television programmes in cinemas may be regarded as yet another new advancement. On the eve of the final of I am a Singer, “Golden Eagle Broadcasting System (GBS) collaborated with Wanda Pictures and livestreamed the final in 12 cinemas in 11 Chinese cities. Viewers could win the tickets using the interactive app Who? Now!. 3,000 viewers watched the livestream in cinemas that night, and a great number got their tickets using the app. 99% of the viewers in Beijing won the tickets through the app, with only three viewers failed to win the tickets, which shows that communication channel is widely accepted among users. The app Who? Now! played a highly critical role in the process. First of all, viewers won the tickets through the app, which brought them from online to offline. In addition, as viewers entered the cinema to watch the final, they could scan the QR code on their tickets using Who? Now? to vote for the winner and take part in popular discussions on the programme, which brought the viewers from offline back online again” [7]. As a result, HBS has successfully expanded its channels during convergence and strengthened user stickiness with increased user interaction.

3 Platform-Wise: Technicality and Interactivity In the age of media convergence, new communication patterns show characteristics of platforms turning into omnimedia, which means that building upon the foundation of “content is the king, channel is the queen”, the principle of “compatibility above all” must be taken into consideration. In other words, a certain content should be communicated to a certain users through a certain channel on a certain platform. That is why Chinese media have made some positive attempts to go beyond the actual conventional media, built small-yet-capable sub-brands and developed diverse communication platforms. Newspaper-wise, the most representative case is the development of the “news + service” user platform of Zhejiang Daily Press Group, which is “an authoritative new-media platform of Zhejiang Province with the following constituting its core circle, namely Zhejiang News’ mobile clients, new Zhejiang mobile paper, zjol.com.cn and video news” [8]. It is also a “mainstream newscommunication platform with the following constituting its inner circle, namely Bianfeng Special News Section and news pop-ups, tablet clients of read.yunduan.cn, Bianfeng Internet Television Box, thehour.cn, Zhejiang news section of qq.com and portals of provincial, municipal and regional domains” [9]. Last but not least, it is “a mainstream value-communication platform with the following constituting its collaboration circle, namely third-party network applications such as over 200 Weibo and WeChat accounts of individually operated media and professional apps” [10]. The three major platforms join hands to extend the user influence of Zhejiang

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Daily. Another example would be Guangming Daily, which developed different communication platforms targeting different user characteristics based on different user needs, including Guangming Metropolis Media for white-collar urbanites and Guangming Campus Media for university students. In terms of satisfying the reading needs of individuals with disabilities, Nanfang Media Group has contributed tremendously with the development of an accessible cloud-service platform. Radio-wise, cnr.cn of CNR joined the trend of technological innovation and developed a series of competitive platforms, including a special online audio platform and a national broadcast-alliance platform for tertiary institutes. Television-wise, HBS is following closely the trend of media convergence, and has turned its subsidiary official website hunantv.com into China’s first “online entertainment and life platform”. The platform combines television, personal computer and mobile terminal into one, while its many services are highly popular among users, including information reading, community communication, online-video viewing and online-gaming experience. The many platforms of cnr.cn may actually be the most representative among them. As a highly influential top international audio-news portal with massive amounts of information, cnr.cn has created a wide variety of information-collection and— distribution platforms for its users with the help of its advanced technology. First is the around-the-clock livestreaming platforms, a top concept of cnr.cn. Driven by the concept, the website has launched a series of special-brand channels such as Listen to Zhongnanhai, whose creation has erected a bridge of communication between netizens and the government. It opens up the communication channel between governmental departments and netizens, who, with the help of the programme, may better understand the roles of senior government officials. As it encourages transparency in government work and better communicates the wishes and demands of netizens to the government, the programme serves as a bridge of democracy. Second is the professional platforms for online audio. The website has launched programmes such as “Cherish Voice, Audio Chart and Today’s Audio Guide with added features such as personalised versions, programme switch and RSS news customisation. It has also stepped up the building of a library of original audio media” [11]. Furthermore, netizens “may, apart from listening to the livestreams and request from over 300 online programmes of CNR and China Broadcasting Union, customise mobile-Internet products of exceptional quality” [12]. In terms of strengthening its interaction with users, cnr.cn has also explored extensively and created an interactive platform for audio commentary and sharing, whereby users may communicate with the website through means such as comments and posts, thus opening up the communication window with CNR. Third is the programme-distribution channels and integrated-transaction platforms. Cnr.cn “actively practices the guiding principles of the International Communication Office of the CPC Central Committee, and has built a global Chineselanguage radio-broadcasting network, which has turned into a Chinese-language communication network that covers 15 countries and regions. Its powerful and professional audio advantage has made it a key learning and communication channel for overseas Chinese and Chinese-language enthusiasts”, and it “plays a pivotal and

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highly influential role in local Chinese-language education and the communication of the Chinese language” [11]. Supported by its rich and quality audio resources, cnr.cn provides users with quality programmes of conventional radio stations. It has also achieved multimedia operations through the development of different content-distribution channels. Furthermore, it has “planed and built an audio-programme database for CNR, radio stations across China and Global Chinese Broadcasting Corporation that offers search and storage services, in addition to developing a domestic and international transaction system for Internet-based audiovisual programmes” [11], which “creates a distribution channel and integrated transaction platform for cnr.cn’s audiovisual programmes” [13]. Platform interaction is another major characteristic emerged among conventional media in the age of media convergence. Social-media platforms play a decisive role in media convergence, while social media has accelerated media convergence and is imperceptibly changing the media ecology. Chinese media has slowly noticed this during the production of converged news, and has begun to pay attention to social-media applications. It tries vigorously to develop related technologies, so social-media platforms and news-communication platforms may better integrate and encourage dependence on the platforms through enhanced user interaction. Newspaper-wise, the Yangtse Evening Post has set up an interactive platform, Yangtse Vigour Forum, which comprises newspaper-network interaction, Yangtse Literary Circle, Nanjing Walkabout, Nanjing Big Mouth and Nanjing City News. Users may take full advantage of the forum to communicate, interact and take part in discussions in chat rooms, and outstanding comments would be quoted in the Yangtse Evening Post, making it a classic example of newspaper-network interaction. The China Youth Daily’s China Youth Community is also an interactive readers’ club set up based on the paper and comprises four major areas, namely topics of discussion, life, education and services. The subordinate interactive platforms targeting youth, including youth topics, youth investigation, Bindian Weekly, China Youth sport, student forum and university practical camp, have become the official platforms that gather reader communication and provide feedback. Radio-wise, CNR uses cnr.cn to interact and communicate with netizens and encourages users to share online their own audio content, which focuses primarily on news and literature and art and occupies a key position among radio and network content. As one of the leaders in network television, CNTV stands out in platform interaction. Network interaction chiefly comprises content, form and human–computer interactions, based on which media and user connection is built. The distinct difference between new and conventional media in terms of communication lies in the effective introduction of interaction. Media wanting to seize the commanding point in competition must allow audiences to take part in all-round interaction. CNTV noticed it and created a video-playing platform that combines features such as video playing and netizen interaction. For the audiences, interactions with the media allow them to better understand media information, while for the media, interactions with users strengthen user stickiness, which is highly significant for the shaping of media brands.

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During the daily gathering, production and distribution of news, CNTV focuses on exploring and exploiting the advantages of conventional television media and new media. It fosters strengths and circumvents weaknesses to create more innovative media content, and adopts more original information-distribution means. On the one hand, regardless of which media, quality content is a key element of media development. Building upon such foundation, CNTV continues to revolutionise its media content. While maintaining its key news-reporting advantages, it remains close to current user preferences to produce content that is more fun and full of sharing potential. On the other hand, CNTV notices the significance of content-distribution channels in attracting more audience attention. As a result, it maximally develops news-reporting channels and uses communication means such as network television, smartphones and IPTV to communicate, while trying its best to provide audiences with interaction opportunities to encourage them to share the media content. In addition to interactive coverage for major events, faced with the rapid development of social networks, CNTV uses extensively social media in its daily operations. For example, it has introduced the feature of “watch and chat” in livestreaming, allowing users to take part in discussions while watching videos. CNTV has also created two major interaction platforms, namely community and Weibo. It plans to introduce more interaction applications with a trial-listening feature on the community platform, and will exploit the powerful media function of Weibo and use it to create a brand-new network coverage model for major stories. With the Weibo user centre as the platform and the goal of extensively improving user experience, CNTV’s interaction research and development centre tightly combines all professional sub-stations while continuously increasing the number of registered netizens and user stickiness. Focusing on user needs and television programmes, it designs, develops and markets products to eventually achieve the shared growth of CNTV’s interactive products, quality content and active users. In addition to the adaptation and production of conventional programmes, CNTV opens up a sharing platform for video programmes based on the development of the Internet. It opened two channels, iXiYou and iBugu, which are respectively for video sharing and livestreaming, thus fulfilling the wish of users to fully access video content [6].

4 Operation-Wise: Capital Integration and Model Innovation Media convergence has prompted the capital integration of conventional media. Many conventional media companies in China have also begun to notice the importance of capital operations, and have set up industrial-investment funds or internal incubation funds to revitalise through the changed funding means. Newspaper-wise, Zhejiang Daily Press Group is the most representative example. In the name of “strengthening media with capital and controlling capital with media”, the group upheld the core investment concept of being steady, efficient and regulated to truly achieve

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the controlling of capital with media. In terms of capital operations, it made longterm arrangements to strengthen media with capital, leading to positive interactions between its main business and capital operations, while laying a solid foundation for the expansion of the group. Radio and television-wise, Mango TV, the outstanding new-media platform of GBS, claimed it had “completed the first around of financing in June 2015, raising a total of over 500 million yuan, and the company’s valuation exceeded 7 billion yuan” [14]. Meanwhile, preparations for the second round of financing are under way with full intensity. As the leader in the radio-broadcasting field, RBC invested and founded Beijing Radio Company. It explored cross-region and -industry operations, and has made positive attempts in fields such as new media and digital broadcasting, print media, digital television and network television, hotel management and other cultural industries [3]. In the meantime, Shanghai’s media integration co-led by Shanghai United Media Group (SUMG) and Shanghai Media Group (SMG, formerly Shanghai Media & Entertainment) last year drew the full attention of the industry. SUMG invested heavily and launched two major projects, namely The Paper and jiemian.com, which were a fresh breeze. At the same time, the merger and acquisition between SMG’s BesTV and Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media are referred to as the largest such deal in the history of China’s media industry. SMG is a famous major radio and television media group in China and has drawn close attention with its reform approaches, including resorting to asset acquisitions to generate profits. BesTV, a new-media company that was founded as a result of the collaboration between SMG and many world-famous new-media companies, “will merge with Shanghai Oriental Pearl Media with the swapping of new shares. Meanwhile, SMG will introduce quality assets to BesTV in four areas, namely ocj.com.cn, SMG Pictures, WingsMedia and Shanghai Interactive Television Co., Ltd. BesTV will raise supporting funds by issuing shares to targeted entities, and the raised amount shall not exceed 10 billion yuan” [15]. In terms of scale, “the restructuring will be the largest merger and acquisition in the history of China’s media industry. As a continuous-existence listed company, the total share capital of BesTV will reach 2.63 billion after the restructuring, whose market value will exceed 130 billion yuan based on the closing price on 25 March 2015” [16]. The major asset reorganisation has set the record of the highest supporting funds raised on China’s A-share market, as well as the highest merger and acquisition value in China’s cultural-media and Internet industries [17]. Media convergence has also changed the business models of conventional media, and the conventional model of generating profits from advertising revenue has been driven into a tight corner. The profit-generating models of China’s conventional media have undergone transformations to become more open and diverse, while focusing on integrated online- and offline-marketing events. The main models included “valueadded services and products, value-added wireless services and products, networkinteraction services and products, terminal products and related markets and digitalproduct copyright revenue” [18], in addition to profit-generating models that arise from other brands. Newspaper-wise, Guangming Daily no longer clings on to profits from the conventional market, such as advertising and marketing and promotion, and

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has carved new paths in value-added mobile products with the introduction of profitgenerating models such as mobile reading, mobile animations, audio magazines, B2C news services, B2B professional-information services and Guangming cloud media. Radio-wise, many stations have begun launching new value-added service models such as life information, travel, traffic, MP3 and video and e-books. Television-wise, Zhejiang Satellite TV has launched a variety of profit-generating models. On the one hand, it actively expands its broadcasting channels by showing on different online platforms. On the other hand, it extensively calls for advertisers and actively markets its own brands. In addition, the copyright of the revised Chinese Dream Show was sold to foreign broadcasters for the first time, while Fashion Day, a programme that is close to people’s daily life, expanded its profit-generating channels through means such as business advertisement. Sing! China, a highly popular variety show, collaborated with Tencent Video and expanded its profit-generating model through means that arise from new media online. Meanwhile, Headlines of Dragon TV perfectly integrated television and mobile-phone terminals to boost the audience rating of the show. As new-media technology rapidly develops and the interaction between users and the media increases in intensity, users have a stronger desire to take part in programmes and are no longer satisfied being the passive recipients in communication—they would rather directly participate in and experience the programmes. Against such background, Tencent Video flies the flag for Sing! China with the help of its large audience base and well-adapted terminals. The collaboration between Zhejiang Satellite TV and Tencent has opened up a new phase in the integration of stations and networks, which, in addition to offering platform users with a better user experience, created a new profit-generating means for Sing! China. The public revelry created by Zhejiang Satellite TV and Tencent allowed viewers/ users to experience the joy of “watching and playing”, which quickly gave birth to the craze of “public mentors”. Over 3,000 mobile-phone users interacted with the programme, and their enthusiasm to take part in the programme also grew. As a result, the mobilegaming app co-developed by the programme crew and Tencent also reaped positive economic benefits. On the one hand, the above-mentioned attempts encouraged the interaction between radio and television media and the audiences, which benefited the positive development of media convergence. On the other hand, they created new profit-generating means for television stations. If Sing! China of Zhejiang Satellite TV represents the diverse profit-generating model of television entertainment programmes, then Headlines of Dragon TV is an example of an innovative business model of television news programmes. The programme combines mobile phones and televisions and “introduces toutiao.com’s hot data to Dragon TV. Meanwhile, to help mobile-phone users better and more thoroughly understand the corporate culture, brand concepts and news-communication methods of Dragon TV, Dragon TV has joined the website and created Toutiao Hao. Toutiao Hao is a professional information-release platform of toutiao.com targeting the media, self-media, national institutions and enterprises. It focuses on an “interestbased model”, whereby content is recommended based on users’ reading preferences. Users of toutiao.com may subscribed to Toutiao Hao of Dragon TV through registration or logging in using their QQ, Blogger or WeChat account. Once logged onto

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Toutiao Hao, users may watch Headlines anytime, anywhere. According to Zhou Wei, the general producer of Headlines, the newly added section on Toutiao Hao has near 60,000 subscribers with over 12 million views. When broadcasting began in May 2015, it was ranked 12th place the same month, 10th place in June and 8th place in July, which dropped slightly in August but rose to 5th or 6th place in terms of the average audience rating during the Golden Week holidays. The performance of Headlines fully illustrates that the Internet did not encroach the television programme as a result of the convergence, but has instead boosted its rating” [19].

5 Management-Wise: Optimised Systems and Restructured Processes Against the background of media convergence, conventional media has begun to optimise the management systems. In 2014, Liu Qibao, the then head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, stressed in Accelerating the Converged Development of Conventional and Emerging Media: “The promotion of media convergence must on the one hand focus on development, while on the other hand focus on management”. This safeguarded the optimisation and innovation of the media’s management systems policy-wise. China’s media industry has to a certain extent innovated in the optimisation of the management systems, which aimed to remove institutional and systematic barriers obstructing converged development, and specific measures included the foundation of companies, the introduction of modern business systems and the merge of media bodies at a policy level. For example, the transformation of key-news websites into enterprises was a beneficial, innovative exploration of China’s conventional mainstream media. To date, a series of statelevel media websites, including people.cn and Xinhuanet, has turned into enterprises and undergone business renovation. These mainstream-media websites transformed their original organisational structures to a primarily centralised organisational structure, which “flattened” the previously bureaucratic structure and encouraged process management. This maximally liberated news productive forces and the optimised allocation of resources, which are better suited for the management needs of modern media. Meanwhile, news-media groups that have already transformed into enterprises further integrated the group-based management and operation system. As Li Ruigang, the then chairperson of SMG, stated: “If the setting up of a group is simply a physical reaction and has no chemical reaction, its members would be trapped in and lack unity to achieve anything in the market. They must be internally organised and teams must be formed, so they have the potential to execute and compete with clear strategies. Meanwhile, each unit must be effectively controlled” [20]. In 2018, the “three central stations”, namely CCTV International (now China Global Television Network), CNR and CRI, integrated as one. Their names remain unchanged domestically, but they are collectively known as The Voice of China abroad. This facilitates multi-layered, diverse knowledge flow within the three stations, thus increasing the

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general-communication skills of reporters and editors and achieving media convergence in a real sense [21]. This also marks a new stage in the converged development of China’s radio and television media. The merge of the “three central stations” is highly significant, but its impact on China’s media ecology remains to be seen. We will only go through and analyse the media convergence of China’s radio networks prior to the merge of the three stations. As a primary central radio-broadcasting body, cnr.cn has made attempts at institutional reforms and optimisation. First is the reform of the management system and the foundation of a cultural company. To date, central media websites such as people.cn and Xinhuanet have successfully transformed into enterprises. They have separated business and industry, founded companies and introduced modernised business-management systems. Cnr.cn was born out of a conventional-media website, and since it shares a certain similarities with people.cn and Xinhuanet, it may refer to their successful transformations. It is slowly undergoing modernised business reforms and hopes to take advantage of its development edge against the background of media convergence. Fostering strengths and circumventing weaknesses, it hopes to introduce drastic reforms in areas such as media content and broadcasting channels, so as to become stronger and bigger amid the competition of the cultural market. Second is the continuous improvement of business capacity, with the production of high-quality audio content as the foundation for developing an online presence. For any media company, the provision of professional and quality media content remains its core task. As the media transform to new media and continue to improve their business capacity, the provision of audio content of greater quality remains the main pursuit of cnr.cn. The improvement of business capacity may be manifested in three areas: firstly, the continuous renewal of communication technology to provide users with high-quality services with greater efficiency; secondly, the continuous improvement of media-content quality to keep close to users and gain popularity; and lastly, the continuous optimisation of management in pursuit of efficient daily media operations. The three areas are the foundations for improving the business capacity of media, and their organic combination will help media get a head start in the age of media convergence. Currently, the renewal and replacement of media technology are guiding the rapid evolution of media formats. Nevertheless, people generally believe that sound, as a key medium in human expression of emotions, communication of information and understanding of the world, has an irreplaceable role in communication. That is why, regardless of how the external media ecology evolves, cnr.cn’s provision of quality audio content remains viable at its core. Having set the objective, cnr.cn focuses on updating its communication technology and strives to create a technological platform with exceptional communication capacity, which will facilitate the rapid and extensive communication of quality audio content. More specifically, the improvement of business capacity will remain the basic demand of cnr.cn, as it continuously improves the quality of its audio content in search of development. With the building of an audio database with exceptional storage capacity and quality and efficient platforms for audio playing and sharing, it strives to become the best in audio communication.

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Lastly is the focus on forming a gathering and editing team proficient in new-media communication. Media competition in the end comes down to talent competition. Against the background of media convergence, how to improve the business capacity of staff and unleash productive forces remain the key demands of cnr.cn for development. To this end, the chief measures of the management are to create a quality environment, in which outstanding talent may thrive and unleash greater innovative capacity. Guided by this objective, cnr.cn acquired and adopted a modern businessmanagement method. On the one hand, it continuously attracts quality talent and combines them with the improvement of the business capacity of senior employees. On the other hand, it continuously innovates the internal business-review mechanism and encourages talent competition, so skilled individuals may replace mediocre ones. Such innovation provides a fertile ground for the development of the business capacity of media workers. Riding the wave of media convergence, cnr.cn vigorously introduces talent reform and innovation, so as to foster a new generation of outstanding Chinese radio broadcasters. As the authoritative radio media of China and supported by its conventional radio resources and talent advantages, cnr.cn fully exploits network technology to foreground its communication characteristics and competitive edge, and its audio content may be broadcast via conventional and new-media listening terminals The diverse communication channels have consequently further expanded its influence. In the context of media convergence, China’s mainstream media began to refer to the news-production experience of certain foreign media convergence, introduce innovation mechanisms and promote the restructuring of the process of news gathering, editing and production. With the building of a common content-production platform and a database and information centre, conventional and emerging media will work collaboratively instead of acting lone. A most noteworthy case is the pilot run of an omnimedia-platform (also known as the central kitchen) work mechanism that the People’s Daily adopted during its coverage of the Two Sessions in 2015. The work mechanism introduced a whole-new news-production process, which is in fact the restructuring and renovation of the conventional gathering and editing model and may be regarded as a major drill for converged coverage. Meanwhile, a great number of mainstream media have also begun focusing on creating a brand-new convergedmedia work form, restructuring the command centre for news coverage and upgrading and reforming news-gathering and -editing processes. Newspaper-wise, Guangzhou Daily Newspaper Group has established a digital omnimedia gathering and editing department, which comprises Guangzhou Daily Night Editing Centre, an omnimedia centre (including a digital news laboratory), audiovisual department and dayoo.com. Sanxiang Huasheng has developed a complete news process with a four-tier platform, also known as the “Complete Library of the Four Treasuries”, comprising a lead library, original library, central library and application library, which comprehensively and stereoscopically illustrates the news-production model of “one gathering, multidimensional release”. Meanwhile, Yantai Daily Media Group restructured and integrated the gathering and editing departments of its three newspaper offices to create a command centre for omnimedia news coverage. The group has also formed a mobile coverage team that may collaborate efficiently in covering

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breaking news to provide immediate and quality coverage [22]. Television-wise, the “Great Editing Department” coordination mechanism of Phoenix TV is an example of process innovation. Regarding the mechanisms, functions and operations of the “Great Editing Department” coordination of Phoenix TV, Liu Lu explained: “They created a “Great Editing Department’ out of main management and creation staff, but it does not have a clear rule or regulation…It has functions in two areas, namely creativity and coordination. In terms of the first area, many creative programme ideas were born amid the casual chat of department members. When an idea is found to be viable, related experts are immediately sought to discuss the advertising based on the rating. If the idea is accepted, advertisers are searched for right away. Once advertising is taken care of, the programme will begin production and broadcasting. In terms of the second area, it is the unified planning of television, networks and weekly magazines, whereby news events are immediately handled with a reasonable response and resources integrated. The department plays the role of an information-provision and -exchange platform and promotes the all-round integration of news-information resource development within the group. The horizontal integration allows different development platforms to understand what other platforms are doing and if mutual support is an option, so as to bring into play all-round operations. The vertical integration allows individual processing platforms to be optimally exploited in terms of resource sharing and use through coordination. Take the working of television programmes for example, the priority is channel-wide operations to prevent consumption brought about by internal competition. Next is collaboration: among programmes and camera crews, and the sharing of topics and source materials. The collaboration is based on two aspects: helping and avoiding. Last but not the least is the unification of broadcasting themes. The broadcasting of programme needs to be uniformly adjusted when a major event takes place” [23]. Phoenix Publishing & Media Inc. has worked tirelessly to turn the potential of media convergence into reality. Another key experience it has gathered is the development of a corporate culture that gives full play to potential. Specifically, “the characteristics of such corporate culture may be summarised as follows: first is the new interpretation of business…having identified such concept, the running of Phoenix allows its management to continuously come up with new ideas, and the same goes for its employees…second is the corporate culture. Phoenix’s corporate culture is the spirit of a phoenix: generous and tolerant, outstanding, fighting relentlessly and never give up, which are precisely how the group brings its employees together” [23]. Normally, the person in charge of a television programme, a weekly-magazine column or a network department will lead the operations of converged news. In addition, departments and programmes will divide up the work based on the functional department, so as to thoroughly exploit the information content. For example, programmes such as News On The Hour, Phoenix Evening Express and Phoenix Morning Express and ifeng.com’s Information Express usually report promptly major news events, while in-depth coverage and analysis are provided based on existing information by programmes such as Newsline, News Talk, Current Affairs Debate and ifeng.com’s Phoenix Broadband, which reuse the information. Sometimes other

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departments of the group would excavate and integrate certain particularly valuable news information for the third time and present it in the form of a book or DVD. News materials and resources are often used differently by different programmes. For instance, they may be used as news sources on News On The Hour, as news backgrounds on News Talk or simply as introductions to topics on programmes such as Behind the Headlines with Wentao and Entertainment Highlights.

References 1. Zhou J. A study of the development of converged television media of Guangdong Province [D]. Wuhan: Wuhan University; 2013. 2. Lu Y. The convergence of resources of radio and new media [J]. China Radio TV Acad J. 2009(1). 3. Ran L. A study of the development strategies of china’s radio industry during media convergence: a case study of radio Beijing corporation [J]. Advert Panor (Theory). 2010(3). 4. Wu G. Thoughts and strategies of CNTV’s media convergence [J]. Press Outpost 2010(6). 5. Wang J. Interpreting the “Media-Convergence Craze” in 2014 [J]. The Press 2015(1). 6. Cai M, Wei W. Winning strategies for media convergence [M]. Beijing: China Book Publishing House; 2012. 7. Wu W. A study of the media convergence of golden eagle broadcasting system [D]. Nanchang: Nanchang University; 2015. 8. Which Classic Cases Serve as Teaching Materials for Media Convergence at Tertiary Journalism Institutes? [EB/OL], (2015-10-30) [2017-08-13]. http://media,people.com.cn/n/2015/1030/cl92370-27758512.html. 9. Chen M. A study of the news production mechanisms of paper media against the background of media convergence [D]. Guangdong: Jinan University; 2015. 10. Xu Y. News + service: the media-convergence approach of Zhejiang daily press group [J]. Media Rev. 2014(12). 11. Wu G. An analysis of the strategic transformation and positioning of the eighth major renovation of cnr.cn [J]. National Webcast Conference. 2009. 12. Zhu J. The building of the interactive platforms of CNR’s cnr.cn [D]. Beijing : Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications; 2009. 13. Chen L, Chen Y, Chu J. A brief discussion of the development of radio in the new-media age [J]. Shenzhou. 2012(29). 14. Mango TV prepares for second round of financing and claims its user number to exceed 400 million next year [EB/OL]. (2015-11-05) [2017-12-03]. http://guba.eastmoney, com/news, 000917, 210902369.html. 15. XBI/PS4 Agent Merger! The Largest Merger and Acquisition in China’s Media Industry [EB/OL]. (2015-04-11) [2017-12-15]. http://news.mydrivers.com/1/412/412778.htm. 16. Wang L. BesTV, China’s first 100-billion-Yuan Media Giant Takes Off after raising funds on the a-share market and restructuring [EB/OL]. (2015-04-07) [2017-12-15]. http://finance.s-ina. com.cn/stock/s/20150407/005521893783.shtml. 17. Zhang H. BesTV merger and acquisition of shanghai oriental pearl media approved with a market value exceeding 130 Billion Yuan [EB/OL], (2015-04-07) [2017-12-15]. http://tech. sina.com.cn/i/2015-04-07/doc-iawzuney2698293.shtml. 18. Feng R. Understanding the positioning of broadcasters [J]. News Window. 2011(6). 19. Luo Q. A study of mobile-phone and television development from the media-convergence perspective [D]. Chongqing: Chongqing University; 2010. 20. Li R. Integration: thoughts on the ready-to-launch development strategies of shanghai media group [J]. Pract JIsm. 2006(5).

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21. The central kitchen of the people’s daily. What is the significance of the integration of three stations? [EB/OL], (2018-03-28) [2017-12-15]. http://www.sohu.com/a/226621552_999 94436. 22. Chen Z. Breakthroughs and predicaments of news coverage amid media convergence – a case study of the Omnimedia operations of Yantai daily media group [J]. Collect Pap JIsm Commun. 2009; 22. 23. Liu L, Kang J. Phoenix TV: integrated marketing strategies of television-media brands [J]. JIsm Commun. 2011(9).

Chapter 5

Suggestions and Strategies for Promoting Convergence and Innovation of Mainstream Media

In recent years, following the rapid popularisation and upgrade of mobile devices, the Internet and digital technology, being able to obtain and communicate information anytime, anywhere has become a norm. With the new forms of omnipresent communication of individual media, the business format of conventional media faces unprecedented, enormous challenges. The driving of conventional mainstream media towards convergence and innovation has consequently become a prevailing and urgent trend. How to steadily and effectively promote media convergence has become a major question that faces all media workers. Against the general background of swift technological development, Chinese President Xi Jinping chaired the 4th meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms on 18 August 2014, and the key document Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Convergence and Development of Conventional and Emerging Media was carried at the meeting. During his address to the meeting, President Xi stated: “The promotion of the convergence of conventional and emerging media must observe the patterns of news communication and emergingmedia development. The Internet thinking needs to be reinforced and the complementary and integrated development of conventional and emerging media sustained. With advanced technology as the scaffolding and content development as the foundation, the thorough convergence of conventional and emerging media must be encouraged in terms of content, channel, platform, operations and management. Efforts should be committed to creating a group of new mainstream media with diverse forms, advanced approaches and competitive edge. New media groups that possess enormous strength, communication capacity, credibility and influence also need to be established, so as to form a modern communication system that is integrated and diverse. Both convergence and management must be simultaneously promoted to ensure convergence progresses along the right path.” The fact the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms held a special meeting and carried related documents, along with the address by President Xi at the meeting (which is not limited to the example given above), reflects the strong emphasis placed on media

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convergence by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Meanwhile, how mainstream media responds to challenges has also become the focus of the government and the public. From a political perspective, for the definition of mainstream media, the view of professor Zhou Shenglin from the School of Journalism at Fudan University in China may be consulted. He defined mainstream media as: compared with nonmainstream media, mainstream media are provincial or higher-level media that play a leading role and are highly influential and able to represent or sway public opinion. They primarily comprise newspapers belonging to party and government bodies at all levels; provincial, municipal and regional broadcasting stations; and other major newspapers and stations [1]. The definition reflects the political attributes of mainstream media and their unique, irreplaceable status. During the significant and profound media transformation, mainstream media, due to its unique status and party-based principles, bears the important mission of gaining the strategic initiative in public opinion and providing powerful support to the party and government’s work. How to promote media convergence and innovation, publicise and consolidate the ideological position and strengthen mainstream ideology and public opinion have become the major challenges that mainstream media must face and tackle. Jiang Zeming, former general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, first put forward the question of “guidance of public opinion” at a national conference on publicity and ideological work in 1994. He remarked at the conference: “The correct guidance of public opinion will bring people together and elevate the spirit. The incorrect guidance of public opinion will lead to grave consequences. Experience, both positive and negative, tells us that the guidance of public opinion is of utmost importance.” [2]. President Xi has also touched on the importance of guiding public opinion when he chaired the symposium on the news and public-opinion work of the party. Consequently, he proposed five “concerns”, that is, “the proper performance of the news and public-opinion work of the party concerns the stand and path; concerns the thorough execution of the party’s theory, line, guiding principles and policies; concerns the steady promotion of party and national undertakings; concerns the cohesiveness of the people, the nation and the party; and concerns the future and destiny of the party and the nation”. That is why mainstream media should continue to consolidate the position of public opinion on new-media platforms without hesitation.

1 Macroscopic Strategies The Internet has deeply infiltrated every aspect of people’s life, whether it is news acquisition or learning and entertainment, networks have become a major, irreplaceable instrument and even a new way of life. Driven by new technology, informationcommunication and -exchange models have changed, and conventional models of news-information communication are unable to adapt to the new needs and habits of the public in the new environment. These changes prompt the media industry to

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continuously innovate the systems and mechanisms and different stages of production and communication, as it implements the reform of conventional systems. To achieve pluralistic media convergence, the industry must combine the strengths of new and conventional media and give full play to its influence. De Sola Pool, a professor at MIT, maintained that media convergence was the integration of different media features, and the concept should comprise narrow and broad interpretations. The narrow interpretation referred to the convergence of different media forms, leading to qualitative changes and in turn a new media form. The broad interpretation was more diverse and, in addition to including the convergence of different media forms, covered the convergence of key elements and features such as content features, communication means, ownership and organisational structures. The communication channels of conventional and emerging media were effectively combined to achieve resource sharing and further promote diverse information products, which were then delivered to users via different communication platforms. To promote media convergence and tackle the challenges of innovative development, mainstream media first needs to develop and establish correct concepts that correspond to current and future media development. Furthermore, the age of omnimedia diverts public opinion and renders it uncontrollable, which requires mainstream media to both persevere and innovate. While persevering in the guiding principle of being news and guidance focused, it needs to vigorously develop emerging media such as the Internet and mobile phones, so as to expand its control over public opinion and publicity. It needs to intensify the reform of internal mechanisms to adapt to the development needs of a multi-screen age in which information travels at high speed. It must be emphasised that media convergence is not the simple addition of channels or the pursuit of the delivery of homogenous content on different platforms, but should rather be powerful reforms and major changes that affect the entire media ecology. From a macro-strategy perspective, the correct understanding of the content and direction of media convergence will help mainstream media establish the correct convergence concepts and the appropriate industrial-development structure, thus achieving the objective of convergence.

1.1 Thorough Execution of the Omnimedia Concept and Establishment of the True Concept of Media Convergence Regardless of the field or industry wanting to push through reforms and changes, the first step should be the overhaul of outdates concepts, guided by the introduction of new ideas and concepts adapted to solving new issues in new environments. Consequently, to adapt to the requirements and trends of media convergence and innovation, mainstream media first should change its conventional concepts. For a long

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time, mainstream media has served as the mouthpiece of the party and the governments. It has given full play to its functions and role and established rigorous and meticulous information-screening mechanisms and checks, in addition to forming authoritative coverage mechanisms for news information. In the current communication environment, it remains the news-content distributor most trusted by the audiences. However, such rigorous and authoritative news-production and -coverage model inevitably gives rise to pitfalls, such as delay due to the complex informationreview and -screening mechanisms, rigid thinking due to set means of news-content production and inefficiency due to the conventional top-down hierarchical management. When technological innovations introduce new media forms and developments, these pitfalls are fully exposed. That is why to continue to dominate the mainstream position and edge in the increasingly fierce market competition and to better represent the party and the governments, mainstream media must promptly overhaul the conventional and rigid management systems and the fixed ideas and concepts. Only by establishing omnimedia concepts that are adapted to the new environment and structure and fully committing to reforms and innovation, can the convergence of mainstream media be truly and promptly achieved. The idea of omnimedia was first proposed by media workers during the exploration of media convergence, while the term already appeared in the article “Do hot spots really not exist in consumption?” in China Economic Times in June 1999. The context back then was not unlike that of the present, as both emphasise the new market space brought about by diverse and personalised needs. However, due to past technological limitations, omnimedia referred only to digital sound and image effects and did not contain any profound meaning. Clearly, differences exist between such limited connotation and the omnimedia concept advocated by the media industry against the background of mobile Internets. Present-day concept of omnimedia is diverse and profound and will continue to expand as theory and practice continue to develop. First of all, omnimedia represents expanded information-communication channels as technology develops, which is also the foundation of media convergence. For a long time, the channel and frequency resources available to mainstream media were limited. As the primary communication media, radio and television once dominated. However, mobile terminals and handheld devices today have brought with them convenience and timeliness that conventional media cannot match. Media convergence is precisely about combining the advantages of emerging media in information communication. In other words, media convergence is taking place as a result of the expanded channels. Meanwhile, it is exactly the diverse communication means and channels that reflect the “omni” feature of omnimedia. Second, omnimedia does not simply refer to the richer content and more diverse means and paths of information access as a result of the mobile Internets, but also represents new possibilities that satisfy the personalised needs of the audiences. Before media and channels reached an “abundant” level, audiences had limited choices, while the initiative and discourse power were in the hands of the media holding rare frequency resources. However, the situation changed in the omnimedia age. The audiences have become more diverse and personalised choices have become a possibility, as the competition on the media market becomes fiercer and increasingly white-hot. Eventually, omnimedia comes

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to include the new requirements for the future development of the media industry. The media is required to promptly admit and apply new technology, adopt and use new ideas and develop new, all-round media ecology. Omnimedia is not a fixed concept, but rather a concept that continuously develop with technological innovation and channel expansion. It will become more diverse, following developments in different areas. The concept of omnimedia not only requires media to expand, but also demand them to converge, which in addition to requiring media to vigorously develop and expand new platforms, places greater emphasis on the organic combination of diverse media means. The general environment of omnimedia brings mainstream media both new development opportunities and tough challenges. Faced with a new media environment, mainstream media should not be converging for the sake of converging, and convergence should not only be the superficial convergence of channels and platforms; convergence should be truly inclusive and cover processes such as media production and distribution. During media convergence, media should not be competing or fighting against one another. The adoption of the latest technology does not necessarily provide the best communication results, while powerful visual communication is not always superior. Different media and technologies have their respective advantages, and the media may not be simply regarded as substitutional in media convergence. The correct approach would be that media collaborate to bring out the strength of individual medium, so as to contribute to the products and even the businesses. To achieve media convergence, mainstream media must focus on the needs of the audiences and combine the communication features of different content and approaches, so as to establish the real concept of media convergence. And one of the key indices of whether mainstream media will continue to survive will be its ability to unify the diverse production and professional demands of high-quality media products, so more users may be won. The establishment of the correct concept of media convergence is not only about technology and convergence, but also demands the cultivation of new ideas and the upholding of principles. At a symposium of the Chinese Communist Party for press and public opinion on 19 February 2016, President Xi stated: “The media run by the party and the governments represent the publicity position of the party and the governments and must be one with the party.” Mainstream media must always remember their responsibilities and mission during the reform, while constantly upholding the principles of the party and that the party guides the news and public opinion. Mainstream media have a unique position; they are the mouthpieces of the party and the governments, so they represent the party and the governments. They also occupy the highly critical publicity position of the party and the governments, so they need to and must be one with the party. For mainstream media, the means and paths of convergence are diverse, but the objective and principles are consistent. Regardless of the means and speed of convergence, mainstream media must pay attention to show a clear stance on major issues of principle while gathering and editing and communicating. They must remain firm, always reflect the will and position of the party and safeguard the authority and solidarity of the party. Meanwhile, they need to strengthen the consciousness in following the leadership, so as to remain consistent with the party in terms of ideas, politics

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and actions. They must persevere in uniting the spirit of the party and the people, and turn the theoretical guiding principles and policies of the party into the voluntary ideas and actions of the masses through publicity and guidance. Furthermore, they need to promptly reflect the creativity and experience of the masses, along with the issues they face. Emphasis needs to be placed on enriching and strengthening the spirit of the people through the guiding role of an advanced culture. Mainstream media need to firmly support the leadership and guidance of the party in news and public opinion during media convergence. They need to learn and become proficient in using new media, platforms and means to discuss and relate policies and stance. While engaging in news production, they need to thoroughly understand the social conditions and public opinion, promptly discover conflicts, correctly guide public sentiments, actively mobilise the masses and effectively execute their work. Only with the establishment of the correct concepts above, may mainstream media ensure the correct progress of convergence and the vigorous and motivated implementation of intense internal reforms.

1.2 Maintenance of the Dominant Position and Establishment of an Open Development Structure For a long time, media workers have been asked to foster the correct work values and firmly keep in mind their responsibilities and missions. China has always upheld the principle of “party-run media”, that is, “official newspapers of the party and market media bodies are managed and regulated according to advanced guiding principles, so as to gain the initiative in public opinion and establish the basic direction of their service to the people and socialism”, [3] which may be attributed to the unique nature of media work. The media is related to the ecology of public opinion and people’s life, and is not only highly influential in the fields of publicity and education and ideology, but also that of daily life. Mainstream media carries the expectations of the nation and the people and assumes the roles of a bridge and a bond between the party and the masses. It may only serve as a good “navigator” by firmly upholding the party principles and resolutely guiding the reality with the Marxist view of journalism, so that it wants, can and will safeguard the fortress of news and public opinion. Mainstream media may then be able to continue to consolidate and strengthen mainstream ideas and public opinion while driving the development of an advanced socialist culture. The Internet is a hotchpotch of good and bad information, quite a large amount of which is overly entertainment-focused, vulgar and fake. Nevertheless, the Internet and new media have slowly built up their user scale and influence with the help of technological advancements and media accessibility, making them the increasingly important fortress of public opinion. Where the fortress of public opinion is, where the masses are, and also where the party and the governments should manage and direct, as well as where party-run media should be introduced.

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At a symposium of the Chinese Communist Party for press and public opinion on 19 February 2016, President Xi put forward the demands of “raising the banner, leading the direction; being centrally focused, serving general interests; uniting the people, bolstering the morale; setting the trend, strengthening the cohesiveness; clearing up misunderstandings, distinguishing right from wrong; connecting and communicating with the world”. He has requested news workers to serve as the communicators of the party’s policies and position, the recorders of historical changes, the drivers of social progress and the guardians of fairness and justice. Faced with the high hopes and the great expectations of the party and the nation, mainstream media must actively perform well its responsibilities and missions in news and public opinion. It needs to give better play to its role as mainstream media in guiding public opinion on the Internet and actively respond to the trust and expectations of the masses. Specifically, mainstream media must remain firm in its dominant position during media convergence and innovation, and foreground the political direction while putting work related to news and public opinion into practice. The dominant position of mainstream media is not self-proclaimed but historically established—it is a common choice of the history and the people. For many years, media workers have been regarded as capable of guiding public attention and agenda, while mainstream media plays a major, irreplaceable role in the material and spiritual life of society. Unquestionably, and precisely as a result of it, mainstream media is still being developed as the main fortress for public opinion today. Mainstream media has previously inspired total confidence and will continue to raise expectations. The dominant position of mainstream media may have been historically established and a common choice of the party and the people, but such trust may not serve as its excuse to not take part in the market competition. To the contrary, mainstream media should actively join the new competition, in which it should not only consolidate its dominant position in the ideological field, but also find its position in the market competition with an active stance. If it remains uninspired and complacent and refuses to keep pace with the times, it will become divorced from audience needs and eventually be eliminated by the megatrend of development. In the general environment of a socialist market economy, in addition to defending its dominant position, mainstream media must undergo market and public inspection. Mainstream media may only call itself mainstream, when it is able to defend its fortress in public opinion in the fierce competition of the media market, represent mainstream values, powerfully influence the social culture and safeguard people’s rights, rather than occupying a dominant position but failing to play a role in the new information environment. While holding on to its dominant position, mainstream media should promptly modernise the existing structure and establish the open development policies. The consolidation of dominance and the establishment of openness are not conflicting. As stated above, the consolidation of dominance does not mean clinging to old practices and refusing to change. In the end, it comes down to mainstream media bearing in mind its responsibilities and missions, firmly upholding the professional ethics and being responsible to the undertakings of the party and the general public. The most distinctive characteristic of the age of mobile Internets is the demassification and

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the differentiated communication trend. Individuals instead of groups have become the focus, while new issues and challenges have risen. It is clearly not viable for mainstream media to discuss development and reform while being divorced from reality and acting blindly. It should look at reform with an open view and mind and actively take in advanced technology and management concepts, and from there move towards and intensify media convergence. First of all, mainstream media must actively adapt to changes in the general environment as a result of economic and technological developments. It needs to correctly recognise the decisive role the market plays in resource allocation and actively join the market competition. By joining the market does not mean the total marketisation of mainstream media. Since mainstream media has its own missions and responsibilities, it should separate public service and business activities. While slowly increasing social benefits, it needs to focus on improving the economic benefits. During the process of reform, mainstream media with suitable conditions may reasonably seek out social capital, allowing financial capital to breathe new life into its development and boosting the drive for reform. Jiemian (Shanghai) Internet Technology Co., Ltd., a new-media project of Shanghai United Media Group, completed Series B funding that was worth over 300 million yuan in July 2016. The event may be regarded as a reform attempt by mainstream media in capital operations, which foregrounds the emphasis on capital operations and reflects the active adaptation of mainstream media to market development. In November the same year, China Newspaper Association established a professional committee for capital operations and China Newspaper Investment Alliance. The establishment of the alliance marked the preliminary recognition of the importance of capital operations by the newspaper industry, the most traditional of the cultural and media industries. It may be said that capital operations provide the accumulation of capital for and breathe new life into the development of mainstream media. Capital operations have consequently become one of the key means for mainstream media to achieve transformation and convergence. Secondly, mainstream media may attempt cross-industry collaboration. Supported by media, it may integrate market resources and collaborate with operators in terms of operations, with hardware manufacturers and emerging-technology companies in terms of technology and with video websites and self-media platforms in terms of content production and distribution. Naturally, cross-industry collaboration goes far beyond. In addition to the technological, platform and operational collaboration stated above that may facilitate media convergence, mainstream media needs, once again, to understand that convergence is not just for the sake of it, but more importantly is about satisfying audience needs. As a result, cross-industry collaboration is not limited to the production processes of news information. Mainstream media may collaborate with fields such as education to take advantage of its reform results, which will still allow it to obtain experience and economic benefits that will in turn support the development of its main business. Finally, mainstream media should step up the promotion of the integration of stations and networks. In response to the issues and situations facing broadcasters, scholars in China have, back in 2009, already proposed the “three-stage” model

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for the development of China’s broadcasting stations and networks. They believed China’s broadcasting stations and networks would go through three stages, namely station and network coordination, station and network interaction and station and network integration. During the initial stage of development, that is, the station and network coordination, conventional broadcasting stations still dominated, whereas networks remained supplementary as a result of objective reasons such as limited technological developments and popularity. Nevertheless, the two promoted each other and their basic operations could be summarised as “the networks served the stations, while the stations paved the way for the networks”. By the second stage, which is also the current stage, new media has begun to rise. Following means such as financing and amalgamation, it has grown into business entities that are big and strong. Its content and operations to a certain extent are separated from conventional broadcasting stations. Such separation has led to the formation of business entities of new media and their co-existence with conventional broadcasting stations, which is precisely the foundation that enables station and network interaction. During this stage, young audiences continue to turn to networks, and the advertising revenue of broadcasting stations drops. The media contact and use of the audiences have shifted towards mobile media and social networks. Against such background, conventional media begins actively taking part in station and network coordination, which leads to their interaction. Today, many television series may be watched simultaneously on television platforms and video websites. The simultaneous viewing means gives full play to the accessibility and flexibility of video websites while catering to the loyal audiences in front of the television. Compared with the initial stage of the development of stations and networks, the innovative adoption of the broadcasting means of “one show, two media” has given play to the advantages of station and network interaction. Meanwhile, many television programmes have introduced interactions via messaging apps, which may also be regarded as the practice of station and network interaction. For instance, the airing of the Chinese television series “Fairytale” in August 2012 adopted the unconventional dual endings. The audience voted for the desired ending, and the results were respectively shown on television and a video website. In other words, one ending was aired on Hunan Television, while the other exclusively on Tencent Video. In addition to developing the “one show, two media” approach, a new model was created under which television stations draw more audiences to television series through online video platforms. The interaction among television stations, the Internet and audiences are effectively enhanced, while boosting both the initiative of conventional media to collaborate and the lead of networks. As technological continues to develop and the building of new-media databases improves, new technology will help the media achieve the extensive integration and organisation of information, as users gradually adapt to and cultivate the habit of using new media. Building upon this basis, stations and networks will move on to the third stage, the integrated development. Judging from the development speed of China’s new-media market and Internet, this stage is not far off. Mainstream media needs to overcome the conventional thinking of separated stations and networks. Furthermore, it needs to strengthen technical support that connects development and

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guide the audiences to change their views, as it actively explores the path of an integrated development of stations and networks.

1.3 Change Existing Systems and Mechanisms and Drive Media Convergence As repeatedly stressed above, media convergence is the direction of media development. In the face of a new environment and emerging issues, to rely on existing systems and mechanisms clearly does not satisfy the current development demands of the media. That is why, to drive media convergence and innovation, mainstream media must promptly overhaul the rigid systems and mechanisms, which is also a critical step in the successful promotion of media convergence. Starting from the feature of goods involving media products, the media industry may not focus solely on the cultural attributes and overlook its own economic attributes. The establishment of the decisive role of market in resource allocation not only foregrounds the vitality and importance of the market, but also illustrates that the competition in which mainstream media must join is more focused on the market and capital. To react to such cut-throat competition, mainstream media must possess powerful capacity to transform and reform. In addition to revamping conventional business concepts and past perceptions, it must keep pace with the times and reflect on its product systems and structures with Internet thinking, so as to recreate business processes, actively innovate and intensify and complete the reform of the systems and mechanisms. Promoting the reform of existing systems and mechanisms is both the focus and the difficulty of media convergence; it is a challenge facing the global media industry. Despite not having a universal solution, the reform measures and plans for systems and mechanisms of foreign media may serve as reference for China. For example, while changing its existing systems and mechanisms and promoting media convergence and innovation, the BBC abolished the channel-based system and introduced departments that are content- and user-oriented. After covering a story, its reporters no longer have to contribute to mutually exclusive radio, television and Internet platforms or individually complete the gathering and editing for individual platforms, but may contribute directly to all the media subordinate to the BBC. The departments were integrated to establish a cross-platform multimedia news centre. One team produces diverse original media content on one platform, and editors would select suitable content based on platform features and audience needs before “deep processing” the content. In the end, different news products are created and delivered on different platforms. The reform of the systems and mechanisms not only changes collection and processing and content distribution, but also the division of responsibilities. Once collection and processing and content distribution change, the division of responsibilities is no longer limited by media forms and platforms. Reporters thus

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become responsible for the content products they have collected for delivery on platforms, while editors become responsible for the platform media and layout and the positioning and style of the programmes. Many media bodies in China have attempted to reform their systems and mechanisms, while a large number also sought to collaborate with Internet companies. Take the collaboration between Xinhua News Agency and cqnews.net for example, which led to the establishment of Chongqing Xinhualong Palm Media Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. in 2014. The two have joined hands to create a city-wide client cluster for the party and the government and established a mobile-Internet terminal targeting areas such as content production, channel expansion and media operations. The company takes full advantage of the technology of mobile Internets to continuously improve online government services and attract more users. Its objective is to create “an all-inclusive industry chain integrating news release and public, business and daily services”. Unlike media such as conventional government-administration clients, the company adopts new Internet thinking and insists on focusing on the users. In terms of business operations, it actively explores new development models for the media industry and “strives to build an online e-commerce mall targeting culture-promotion works and products; the tentative plan is to achieve the online trade of physical books, electronic publications and audiovisual files. Its business scope covers value-added telecommunication services, such as network data centre, conventional publishing, electronic publishing, e-bulletins, computer hardware and software and the staging of business and cultural events. With its exhaustive content, the company strives to discover an industry chain that is market oriented and serves the public. The structure of the Internet industry may be optimised and greater economic benefits achieved through the cross-platform convergence that integrates regional resources and connects industries” [4]. Such model of creating an all-inclusive industry chain is foresighted and full of opportunities. However, challenges remain in areas such as cross-platform convergence, the staging of business and cultural events and the monetisation of cultural works and products. Continuous exploration is needed to find the suitable path for media development, and the result of such exploration may not be universally applied. To achieve the best result, the focus market and audience should be segmented. In summary, despite the media at home and abroad having achieved remarkable results in their attempts at promoting media convergence, the model remains unstable. In addition, many media bodies in China are still observing quietly instead of actively introducing the reform of internal systems and mechanisms. In view of this, the internal reform of China’s media still has a long way to go. As a result, when furthering media convergence, Chinese Mainstream Media should, in terms of departmental setup, overturn the situation of mutually exclusive broadcasting stations and Internet platforms from the period of conventional media. It should build a cross-platform centre that integrates different media, so as to achieve the single gathering, mixed production and diverse communication of news information. In terms of management mechanisms, the previous inefficient hierarchical administrativemanagement system should be discarded and a more efficient and flattened network

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system adopted. In terms of the daily regulatory mechanisms, a comprehensive evaluation system and reward mechanism may be established to bolster the enthusiasm and support for transformation by internal personnel. In terms of the convergence and recreation of the overall processes, focus should be placed on creating positive coordination without isolating the reform and superficial convergence, otherwise mainstream media will struggle to give full play to its advantages in the competition of media convergence.

2 Mesoscopic Strategies 2.1 Change Regional Development Strategies and Integrate Regions The guiding principle concerning the establishment of broadcasters based on four administrative levels was proposed at the 11th National Radio and Television Work Conference on 31 March 1983. Since then, the principle of station-establishment based on the four administrative levels, namely the central government, provinces, municipalities and counties, has been widely recognised and executed in China. Compared with the previous poor economic conditions, China’s media has been for a long time under administrative management, and the introduction of every media product must undergo review at all levels. The principle has indeed played a positive role in the past. When radio and television were not widely available and resources were rather limited, the principle helped to fully rouse the enthusiasm of regional governments and social sectors to establish radio and television stations. It did help expand the coverage of radio and television programmes within a short period of time and played an irreplaceable role in driving the development of early radio and television. However, as the pace of marketisation, industrialisation and technological advancement quickens and brings about historical and environmental changes, the pitfalls of the “station-establishment based on four administrative levels” principle also begin to emerge. Firstly, the “station-establishment based on four administrative levels” principle may lead to duplicate media productions at different levels, resulting in the rise of massive amounts of homogenous content. The repeated purchase of the same programmes or the showing of the same content leads to simultaneous or successive showing of identical content by broadcasters at different levels. Secondly, at its early stage, the principle helped expanded the coverage of radio and television, whose popularisation was difficult in undeveloped areas and could not take place uniformly. However, as time progresses, the Chinese government has launched the construction of many major infrastructure projects, such as village-network coverage, TibetXinjiang Broadcasting Network Coverage and direct-to-home television, which have achieved remarkable results. In addition, the swift development of mobile networks

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means many residents in undeveloped areas have skipped the stage of radio and television and directly jumped into that of personal computers and smartphones. Cable television has progressed to the purchase and replacement of regular equipment such as digital television and joined the mobile-Internet age. The swift development has clearly far exceeded expectations and the issue of duplicate media coverage began to emerge. To capture the market and fight for their survival, media at different levels had to expand and increase investment in equipment and content delivery. Such competition has led to mainstream media at all levels fighting each other for the market, leading to the division of strength and lost of cohesion. Meanwhile, the news information communicated by media at all levels is to a large extent similar. The homogenous content that lacks core competitiveness does not bring the media positive benefits, while the media’s construction of infrastructure, maintenance of equipment and occupation of channel resources have resulted in resource waste. Furthermore, the general market economy goes against the hierarchical administrative management. The market-based competition mechanisms instinctively reject the constraints of such administrative management and strive to achieve information communication and resource sharing, so as to maximise the capital returns. As a result, mainstream media needs to integrate across regions and coordinate the management of the media at different levels to promote the establishment of media groups. It needs to further the flattening of the organisation in its daily management while fully exploiting existing resources to develop its own core competency. In summary, the “station-establishment based on four administrative levels” principle and the conventional administrative division have given rise to a situation that is “divided, uncoordinated, lax and disorganised”. Faced with fierce market competition, mainstream media must urgently reform. It needs to adjust its organisation, integrate resources and operate collaboratively to bring together the previously divided departments and regions at different levels, so as to fundamentally eliminate existing pitfalls of the fixed systems. For instance, as a provincial media group, Nanfang Media Group has invested over 50 million yuan to encourage the development of the broadcasting industry at county and municipal levels during the first two years of its foundation. This has given rise to the situation in which the provincial stations are the leaders bonded by their operations. The overall edge of the group has also being given full play, as it commits to the scale, joint, coordinated and sustainable development of conventional media. The institutionalised development approach allows the integration of media resources at all levels and the sharing of infrastructure and existing equipment. As a result, costs are saved and strength gathered to eventually achieve the integration and convergence of the advantages and resources of mainstream media, thus boosting the market competitiveness of the overall media group. The cross-regional integration, through which mainstream media achieves resource sharing and strengthens market-based operations, does not merely emphasise market and business attributes. Regardless of the type of reform, mainstream media must firmly hold on to the attributes of being a public institution. In other words, it must give full play to its role as a mouthpiece of the party and the governments. It should focus on positive publicity and correctly guiding public opinion while giving consideration to the development of public services. The single-minded

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pursuit of profits through practice such as influence peddling must be stemmed, so as to safeguard the credibility of mainstream media.

2.2 Create a Mainstream-Media Brand and Develop User Stickiness Previously, when the competition on the media market was not fierce, media availability and content were limited. Mainstream media often gained unrivalled advantages over other media with its status and image alone, winning it generous advertising sponsorship and helping it capturing the mainstream market. Consequently, mainstream media did not need to intentionally cultivate brand awareness while planning its development. However, competition among modern media has become fiercer and supply and demand unbalanced. In addition, market factors have to a very large extent caused media to rely on brands to compete. The media may only boost the loyalty of the “main attention body” by creating and enhancing brand value, so as to generate more funds and expand further [5]. During the current stage of development, it must be admitted that technological developments have led to the expansion of channels and the increase of platforms. Compared with the period when radio and television dominated, the modern forms of communication have become more diverse and the means to obtain information more varied. And, for the first time, user demand for media variety is satisfied. However, the increased options do not change the phenomenon of an information environment filled with a large amount of homogenous content. The homogenisation of information among portals and online media is ubiquitous. Particularly for popular topics, a popular comment or article is often shown fully or partially on the webpages of dozens of media. Homogenisation is not a sudden phenomenon but has widely existed in the long-term competition on the media market. Whether it is entertainment programmes or news information, substitution among the media is highly noticeable and the bottom line of competition rather fragile. With the supply of programmes and information exceeding the demand, the standard of media contact is a reflection of the audiences’ preferences and their loyalty towards particular media, which is brand. Only brands that are high quality and able to capture the mainstream market may win more audiences and greater market share. The so-called high-quality brands refer to brands that possess an edge in the competition on the media market, and they are the first choice of advertisers and users. The cultivation of brand awareness and the establishment of brand strategies by mainstream media may be reflected in news coverage, such as the production of exclusives and programmes with brand characteristics. They may also be reflected in the innovative production of programmes, such as the creation of unique programme content or forms. Mainstream media must stay tuned to audience demands and improve its ability to independently innovate instead of blindly introducing and following fads.

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The effects and importance of innovative forms, unique concepts and personalised content have grown increasingly significant in competition. Take CCTV for example, it has recently introduced a series of unique cultural programmes, such as “Chinese Characters Dictation Competition”, “The Chinese Idiom Congress”, “Chinese Riddle Competition” and the lately highly popular “Chinese Poetry Congress” and “The Reader”. Apart from the newly launched “The Reader”, the other programmes are all major cultural-game shows taking place in studios. They combine China’s traditional cultural elements with the highly entertaining quiz games to provide edutainment. The exclusive form of programme expression has to a certain extent reflected “the nature of public participation”—just like the objective of “Chinese Poetry Congress” is to guide the audience to compose themselves “to search for the cultural roots and savour the beauty of life”. “The Reader” may be regarded as a further exploration by CCTV in programme innovation. Just as Bai Yansong remarked on the show: “‘The Reader’ is a process of returning to the roots. ‘Reading aloud’ may be a modern term, but Chinese culture has always emphasised reading and speaking.” The programme does not focus on reading classics aloud rigidly but rather on the reader, that is, it emphasises communicating the cultural strength and personal emotions. The introduction of such cultural programmes may be regarded as CCTV’s attempts at exploring its media positioning and establishing its brand positioning on the market of television variety shows. The form of “culture + entertainment” may be a viable direction of breakthrough for mainstream media in terms of content innovation and brand promotion. The influence and positive brand reputation that come with quality cultural programmes are far more lasting than entertainment and variety shows that break no new ground.

2.3 Build Cloud Platforms to Achieve Resource Sharing The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee of the U.S. submitted a strategic report, Designing a Digital Future, to the then President Barrack Obama, in December 2010, in which it elevated the collection and use of big data to the level of national strategy. Obama signed and published the National Big Data R&D Initiative in March 2012 and announced the U.S. would invest 200 million dollars to kick-start the research and development of big-data technology. China began relatively late in the research and application of big data, which has nevertheless developed by leaps and bounds. The scale of China’s big-data market was 76.7 billion yuan in 2014, and the figure reached 110.56 billion yuan by 2015, a like-for-like increase of 44.1%. China’s State Council published the Action Outline for Promoting the Development of Big Data on 31 August the same year, which guided the top-level national design and the overall deployment of big-data development in China. Currently, major Internet companies across the globe have almost all expanded their business scope to cover big data. Whether it is the social media, portals or e-commerce platforms, they will all become the open stage for big data. Big data is completing the transformation from

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a “technological buzzword” to a “social trend”, and its development and application are affecting social life and everyone. What is big data? As the name suggests, it is the collection of massive amounts of data that cannot be captured, managed and processed within a specific timeframe using regular software. It is a massive amount of diverse information assets with a high growth rate that requires the use of new processing model to boost its power of decision-making, insight and process optimisation. Big data facilitates targeted marketing or the transformation and upgrade of conventional services, and may achieve the real-time adjustment of prices by taking into consideration demand and stock. That is why it is valuable to any industry. Since big data is a collection of massive amounts of data that may not be processed using regular tools, industries must forgo conventional data-processing means and adopt new methods to thoroughly uncover its value. The chief means to uncover the value of data is cloud computing. Big-data technology has been closely combined with that of cloud computing since 2013. Judging from the current trend, the relationship between the two will grow even closer. The adoption of cloud computing has therefore become a major challenge that industries must face, and the development of different cloud platforms has become a key link in transformation. Today, the development of mobile Internets and network technology has guided the media into an age driven by technology. The development of cloud platforms to achieve crossplatform resource sharing is no longer an unrealistic dream thanks to advancement in data-collection, -storage and -processing technologies. The development of cloud platforms by mainstream media is a requirement to adapt to the age of big data and will help converging the operations of conventional media with mobile Internets. The data assets of mainstream media will be connected and integrated to facilitate the sharing of resources among departments and platforms, which in turn will enhance the speed of information processing and work efficiency. Building upon such basis, mainstream media may optimise conventional production and distribution processes and attain the objective of saving costs.

3 Microscopic Strategies 3.1 Technological Support for Media Convergence and Innovation Technological advancements may be regarded as the fundamental driver for media convergence. It is precisely due to the development of digital technology and the popularisation of mobile Internets that dramatic changes occur to how audiences obtain and communicate information. The media should consequently further media convergence to satisfy the new demands and expectations of the audiences. That is why, to further media convergence and innovation, whether the technological standard can keep up will become an extremely critical factor. Currently, the supporting

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role of technology may primarily be seen in the areas of database building and user-experience improvement. As previously stated, the term big data has in recent years continue to gain popularity and has aroused interest in every sector and industry. It helps the media to better understand market demands, profile the audiences and even understand its own shortcomings through content storage and analysis, in addition to providing feedback and even feedforward based on data analysis. The application of big data by mainstream media may begin in two areas: one is the building of a content database, while the other is the building of a user database. In the Internet context, content may be divided into two types, namely “traffic content” and “stock content”. The former primarily refers to news content, which is diverse and extensive. For such content, mainstream media should use the building of an exhaustive database as the selling point to draw the scarce audience attention, and the importance of the timeliness of news information must be noted. The real-time requirement of conventional news can no longer satisfy the current fierce competition of information speed. When the audiences check real-time push notifications and news information in their spare time, mainstream media should provide news that is simultaneously taking place. And the audiences should be able to choose the categories they are interested in among the many fields, so as to satisfy their demand for prompt—or, actually, simultaneous news. Meanwhile, mainstream media needs to strengthen the building of a database for “stock content”. Such content strongly highlights the professional feature of mainstream media, which is knowledge. The purpose of a database for stock content is reflected in two areas: First, as a result of information overflow, mainstream media should not simply pursue speed and forget depth or single-mindedly search for news and forgo quality content. Both continuous professional and in-depth reports and comment and analysis on social ills are equally important. Such content is a powerful weapon that reflects the professionalism and guiding role of mainstream media, which must build a database for stock content to foreground its irreplaceable social functions. Second, the building of a quality stock database will bring more opportunities and potential benefits for the development of mainstream media, particularly in terms of winning advertisers, charging copyright fees and introducing paid subscriptions. However, it must be pointed out that currently domestic media face many issues concerning paid content. First, for a long time, a major environmental defect exists in terms of copyright protection in China, and it is all the more so for online copyright protection. Openness and sharing define the Internet, and such characteristics provide media products with a wider communication scope but also give rise to the hidden concerns of copyright protection. While furthering media convergence, mainstream media may not overlook issues concerning copyright protection and should immediately defend its right in case of copyright infringement. Second, unlike other commodities, content resources may not be easily evaluated and priced. Currently, no single country or group has been able to set clear standards for the pricing of content and information, whose value remains undefined. Whether the value brought about by content can, to a certain extent, support mainstream media and even an industry requires continuous exploration and experiments. In short, the building of databases

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for traffic and stock content will boost the competitiveness and development potential of mainstream media. It will provide the basic support for the subsequent delivery of content on different platforms, that is, the basic support for the content of media convergence. Another critical aspect is the building of a user database. The audiences remain the focus of the media, and the reason being that audience satisfaction and intention to use concern the survival of the media. It is precisely for its own survival that the media needs to understand the audiences, which consequently leads to audience survey, one of the critical means to understand audience needs and satisfaction. The subjects of an audience survey include readers, listeners and viewers, and the objective of which is to understand their needs, attitude, opinions and suggestions related to news communication; it is a social investigation that falls under the research of information feedback. Conventional audience survey may be divided into two types: direct and indirect survey. Direct survey primarily involves means such as in-depth interviews and focused-group discussions. Indirect survey may be divided into complete and non-complete survey based on survey subjects. The former offers comprehensive information feedback but has low operability, whereas the latter primarily uses questionnaires that focus on audience interests and use experience and audience participation is voluntary. Regardless of the method, conventional audience survey generally has the following shortcomings: large amount of work, many internal and external confounding variables and time consuming. The building of a user database is not unlike audience survey, but the biggest difference between the collection of user data using online media and the audience survey of conventional media is the superior functions of online media. The combination of Internet and big-data technology may to a large extent make up for the shortcomings of conventional audience survey. The extensive collection of user data such as content sorting, keyword search and view counts allows the analysis of the majority of information that conventional audience survey intends to capture. Furthermore, it is more efficient, authentic and accurate. Mainstream media should use audience data to build its own user database, which will help it accurately understand audience needs and generate user profiles. It may thus establish a clearer positioning for new-media content products while selecting and recommending the most suitable content for users and providing customised information or commodities. Meanwhile, this largely prevents mainstream media from blindly producing content and building platforms, and in turn helps establish policies and strategies amid the new trend. The direction and objective may thus be defined and the furthering of media convergence by mainstream media may stay on course. When discussing users, it naturally involves user experience. It may be said that the improvement of user experience is the fundamental driver and the objective for media convergence. For a long time, many industries place great emphasis on user experience. Take the media industry alone for example, the arrangement of programme content, the confirmation of airing time and the introduction of hotlines are moves to improve user experience, satisfy user needs and increase user stickiness, so as to consolidate existing audiences and turn potential audiences into loyal audiences.

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Today, the swift development of technology is for all to see. The emergence and development of new technology on the one hand drive the optimisation and renewal of the media industry, while on the other hand latest technologies such as visual control and perception will no doubt provide users with better experience. As development and daily application of technology such as VR become a reality, human perception has once again been extended. New devices have fully piqued the curiosity of users, and immersive sensory experience will maximally satisfy the entertainment demands of users. Nevertheless, the renewal of devices alone can no longer satisfy user demands. Whether content that adapts to new devices may be promptly created and discovered has become a question that concerns users and businesses. Media convergence is precisely about the combination and use of existing and emerging technologies to expand the territories of communication. While furthering media convergence and innovation, whether mainstream is able to seize the opportunity, capture the emerging market and cultivate more loyal users chiefly depends on its ability to grasp new technology and create new forms of content.

3.2 Transformation of News Production 3.2.1

Development of Convergence Journalism and Attempts at Data-Driven Journalism

Media convergence has become an inevitable trend of modern media development, and technological developments and advancements are no doubt the most critical driver of the progress. It is precisely due to technological factors that linear form of news communication based on a single medium will lose its previous absolute position in the fierce competition. And during such fierce competition, as have already experienced, mainstream media, to a certain extent, faces the threat from self-media. Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2006 was not an individual in the traditional sense but a desktop computer with the word “You” on its screen, signifying everyone in the information age was the person of the year. It was about everyone who was becoming a member of a democratic society in the new digital age and individual who used and created content on the Internet. The dominant role of individuals is being increasingly foregrounded, and one of the key expressions is the rapid development of self-media or “we media” in recent years, which is also known as citizen media or individual media. We Media, the research report by Shayne Bowman and Chris Willis published by the Media Center at the American Press Institute in July 2003, referred to it “as a way to begin to understand how ordinary citizens, empowered by digital technologies that connect knowledge throughout the globe, are contributing to and participating in their own truths, their own kind of news”. The most distinctive characteristic of self-media that sets it apart from conventional media is that the communicators are the general public rather than professional media and their professional news-media workers. According to this definition, blogs, forums, mobile messengers and microblogging sites all belong to self-media. For conventional media, media

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operations are without doubt complex and demand a large amount of manpower, money and efforts to maintain. For individuals to communicate information on networks, the threshold is low, the professional requirement does not exist and the execution is simple. What everyone sees and hears may become news and everyone may become an information source. In the age of promoted discourse power, everyone “tries to be heard”, and the era of “everyone is a journalist” has arrived. However, mainstream media may not simply remain silent. The team of amateur citizen journalists is a hotchpotch, and it is hard to tell the authenticity of the news communicated. Many people “have something to say”, but few are able to “say it with reason and evidence” and not everyone possesses the correct view and good communication skills to “say it well”. Conventional media indeed faces challenges, but its professionalism may not easily be replaced, particularly the functions of mainstream media to communicate news information and values, which may and should not be replaced. “Everyone is a journalist” refers to the prosperous development of self-media, the diversity of information sources and the expansion of discourse power rather than the replacement of mainstream media and its workers. Mainstream media must give full play to its advantages and foreground its uniqueness by demonstrating its professional content production and technology. Rob Curley, vice president of Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, once remarked that future news was mobile, instant, visual, interactive, participatory and credible. When technological development reaches a certain stage, the expression of news will certainly be diverse and lively and communication will be bilateral rather than unilateral. Convergence journalism and data-driven journalism were born out of the exploration of new forms of news communication. The new news models are more vivid, livelier and better able to reflect the professionalism of conventional media. Convergence journalism, literally, is a news model that integrates multimedia news transmission and communicates via different media and channels. The key factor that a media body is able to outperform its rivals does not merely lie in original exclusives, but actually the unique and original information-processing standards, means and approaches and the means of information expression. To rely merely on good content while overlooking communication means, channels and the social networks behind it will not help mainstream media secure a dominant position in the Internet age or win “battles” in the age of media convergence. The development of convergence journalism is therefore an affective means. Through convergence journalism, not only can mainstream media give full play to its professional content, but also develop and apply novel new-media technology and bring news deeper into people’s life. Apart from convergence journalism, another form of journalism has generated considerable attention. Against the background of big-data technology, the role that data plays is attracting growing attention and has consequently given rise to a new form of news coverage: data-driven journalism. Data-driven journalism fully reflects the convergence of digital-technology development and journalism and has to a certain extent changed the production processes of conventional news. As the name

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suggests, data-driven journalism is a journalism model that communicates based on data and visualisation [6]. Currently, international media that may serve as examples in the production of big-data news include The Guardian, The New York Times and The Washington Post, but they are also in the stage of exploration and development. Data-driven journalism requires support from areas such as technology and talent, as well as proper ideological guidance. As repeatedly stressed, media is not converging for the sake of converging, and data-driven journalism is not using data to amass data. If the use of data makes news hard to understand and fails to explain and describe an issue or a phenomenon, then data-driven journalism is undesirable. Simon Rogers, the data-driven journalism editor of The Guardian, once remarked that data-driven journalism was not visualisation but about telling a story with the best means, except sometimes the story was told through visualisation. While exploring the diversification of news presentation, it must be firmly remembered to focus on users and introduce reform with the objective of improving user experience.

3.2.2

The Combination of Simultaneous Mobile Livestreaming and Media Coverage

2016 is referred to as the first year of livestreaming. Livestreaming is not a new means of communication, radio and television have been broadcasting live for a very long time, but livestreaming has been a rapidly rising recent development. The exponential growth of livestreaming in 2016 is a collective result of the swift development of mobile Internets, the fast reduction of user costs and the improvement of device features. In a related report, the 21st Century Business Herald claimed that Miao Wei, China’s minister of Industry and Information Technology, stated in his address at the opening ceremony of PT/EXPO CHINA and ICT China 2016 High Level Forum that China’s total number of mobile-phone users reached 1.3 billion in July 2016, among them 646 million were 4G users. The colossal number shows that more and more people possess the ports for releasing and receiving images and sounds, that is, smartphones that allow instant network access. Smartphones have deeply infiltrated every aspect of users’ life and work, and the rapidly developing mobileInternet technology is subtly changing everyone’s life. Against such background, livestreaming emerges and rises above and beyond. Compared with the live coverage of conventional broadcasters, livestreaming has its own advantages. Supported by different platforms, livestreaming has become a new social means with low access threshold, and any mobile device that has Internet access allows livestreaming to take place anytime, anywhere. It is thus an accessible means of communication that may remove the barriers that arise as a result of distance among people. The age of “livestreaming by all” has thus begun. Furthermore, livestreaming has attracted the attention of many businesses and media bodies. The classification of live-streaming platforms has saved businesses and media bodies time and allowed them to quickly locate their target audiences. In addition, they may directly understand the audiences’ likes and dislikes through the number of viewers and likes received during livestreaming sessions. The feature of instant comments

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has also made live-streaming feedback more direct and rapid than that of radio and television. Moreover, while being entertained, the audiences may directly appreciate the cultural appeal of businesses and media, which may effectively establish their brand images via gentler means rather than hard sell. As technology further develops, if livestreaming may be combined with new technologies such as VR, new sensory experience may be provided to the audiences. Instant communication with similar immersive sensory effects may also become the latest focus and development direction, so mainstream media should fully exploit existing technology and platforms to promptly adapt to audience needs and update and improve current communication means. Media convergence is not about converging media and platforms or the sheer pursuit of the combination of conventional and modern communication means, but is rather about satisfying audience needs and providing them with a better experience. If mainstream media can actually combine new and popular means of communication, it will clearly be able to better reach and satisfy audience needs.

3.2.3

The Intrusion of Machine Writing

The advent of the age of artificial intelligence (AI) means robots and AI will affect everyone in every industry. Just like the development of mobile-Internet technology has driven the media towards deep convergence, faced with the challenges of AI, the media industry may not stick to convention and remain self-focused, but should actively seek out breakthrough points and new opportunities. It should adopt the new technology, and robots may help connect AI technology and media convergence. Compared with conventional reporters, robot reporters may work all year round and have the data-processing speed unrivalled by man. They are able to handle far more workload than man but still produce accurate work. Of course, they also cost far less than hiring a large number of reporters. It may be said that robot reporters will become the right-hand man of media in terms of data processing, and the application scope of their writing will continue to expand as robots develop. When machine writing enters regular news production, the focus of discussions is mostly on whether robot reporters will completely replace actual reporters. Indeed, robot reporters and machine news have many advantages that come with technology. However, based on current understanding, robots basically lack the capacity to engage in automated interpersonal interaction and may also lack a human touch and personal style when writing and reporting news. At the current stage at least, the primary role of machine news is to liberate reporters from complex data processing and mechanical news writing, so they may focus more on in-depth news investigation and friendly audience interaction. Today, machine writing is still at an initial stage and primarily covers factual reports such as financial reports, stock information, weather reports and sports events. We need to explore the future model of machine news and writing after further understanding the potential of AI technology [7]. This will improve news-writing efficiency during media convergence, promote the upgrade of the self-positioning of creators and arouse the enthusiasm and creativity of industry workers.

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3.3 Transformation of the Communicators: Talent Cultivation Communicators are the main body of communication and occupy a dominant position in communication. During the process of media communication, communicators are equally important. Superficially, media convergence is the convergence of channels and content, but more importantly it is the convergence of talent. At a symposium of the Chinese Communist Party for press and public opinion held after inspecting People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency and CCTV on 19 February 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech and stressed that talent resources were the top resources and the most active factor in innovation. The key to media competition was talent competition and the core advantage of the media was talent advantage. The development of a new structure to guide public opinion required the expedited building of a news and public-opinion team with firm political conviction and a fine working style, in addition to being highly professional and dependable to the party and the governments. The successful convergence of talent will directly affect the progress of the overall media convergence. Talent may both be an advantage and a disadvantage for mainstream media when driving media convergence. Over the years, mainstream media has amassed a group of outstanding news workers, and both the gathering and editing of news show exceptional professionalism. In the age of network communication, the solid interviewing and writing skills of news workers have no doubt help mainstream media give play to its superior content. However, modern media competition is unlike that among conventional broadcasters. To occupy a vantage point, in addition to quality content, mainstream media needs to support the new talent reserves promoted by media convergence. As a result, while ensuring the conventional advantages, mainstream media should actively encourage the convergence of talent. Talent convergence primarily comprises three aspects. First, mainstream media should begin with stemming the current talent drain. As the Internet develops, an open cyberspace and personalised features with greater possibility and freedom are drawing large numbers of talent, among them a great number are conventionalmedia workers from mainstream media. These outstanding workers have voluntarily turned to the Internet and are connecting to emerging media through the provision of texts and images, running of online programmes and planning for the building of online platforms. They have abandoned their positions in conventional media due to new-media’s better remuneration, greater freedom of speech and the potential to demonstrate their ability and realise their ambitions. Looking at the exodus of outstanding talent alone, the lack of appeal of conventional media in the new environment is evident, which is unfavourable to boosting the morale, strengthening the cohesiveness or attracting new talent. Furthermore, for conventional mainstream media, this is not simply a talent drain—it is actually boosting the competitiveness of new online media while weakening itself. After inspecting the three news bodies on 19 February 2016, Chinese President Xi Jinping also called for deeper reform of the personnel system of news bodies, and personal attention should be paid and

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prompt financial support offered to workers involved in news and public opinion. As a result, mainstream media should focus on the talent drain and swiftly improve the current personnel system. It should centrally plan and allocate resources, manage the overall number of personnel and enhance the competitiveness, sense of belonging and loyalty of the news and public-opinion team, so as to provide solid and strong support for the long-term healthy development of journalism. Second, mainstream media should attract new talent from different fields. To drive media convergence and innovation, media talent in the conventional sense is naturally indispensible, but the recruitment of talent with new knowledge and skills also may not be neglected. Talent involved in big-data analysis and application, Internet operations and new platforms and channels such as apps will become the key driver for media convergence, as well as the necessary competitive edge of the media in the age of mobile Internets. Mainstream media should therefore seize the opportunity and recruit talent skilled in emerging technology with its positive reputation and greater opportunities, so as to boost its competitiveness and creativity and drive media convergence and innovation. Finally, mainstream media should also focus on the development of omnimedia reporters and an omnimedia-content team. Media convergence requires the gathering and production of content be carried out with highly efficient means that involve “single collection, multiple processing and diverse communication”. Mew talent with professional qualifications who are able to adapt to the omnimedia ecology are therefore needed. Novel news forms such as livestreaming and data-driven journalism also demand reporters to be highly sensitive towards the environment and data. More bluntly, when omnimedia reporters arrive at the site of a news event, based on the environment, they must quickly decide, among text, data, image, video and livestreaming, which means would be most suitable, and which form of expression best suits the news, whether it is newsflashes, news, news dispatches or images. When releasing the news, editors must decide which platforms are more appropriate for content such as texts, images and videos to achieve the optimal communication results. All of these require the reporters and editors’ effective planning and concrete execution. Mainstream media should seize the opportunities that come with the rapid technological developments and develop its new-media teams, so as to adapt to the demand for talent by media convergence and innovation.

3.4 Strengthen User Guidance and Enhance Media Literacy To date, the academic circle has yet to arrive at a universal and authoritative definition of media literacy. The widely recognised definition is that of the Center for Media Literacy in the U.S. in 1992, which explained media literacy as people’s ability to choose, understand, question, evaluate, create and produce as well as to critically react to different media information. Simply speaking, media literacy is the ability of the public to understand, participate in and use media; it is closely connected to the guidance of public opinion by the media. If the public in a country is able to correctly understand and use media, then the mainstream media will get twice the

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result with half the effort in guiding public opinion. On the contrary, if the media literacy of the public in a country is low, it will be a major barrier to the guidance of public opinion by its mainstream media. As digital and mobile technologies infiltrate every aspect of people’s life, the conventional magic-bullet theory, which regards audiences as targets that are instantly knocked out by a bullet, is no longer applicable. Modern audiences are not simply receivers but also participants, consumers and communicators. Users are no longer the passive receivers but have resort to subscription-based and selective use of personalised and differentiated media. As mobile-Internet technology progresses, modern audiences have gradually developed a participatory culture online that differs from the previous passive reception of information. They no longer passively consume content but have developed unprecedented initiative and subjective consciousness, and their participation and actions produce influence and effects that may not be overlooked. With networks beginning to dominate the communication environment, whether it is content production, distribution or reception, the participation of audiences as individuals has become increasingly indispensible. They have found their own platforms and “loudspeakers”, which, within the legally permitted scope, allow them to search for the information they need, in addition to commenting on, sharing, releasing and creating information. As individuals with dissimilar characters, the audiences exhibit distinctive personal characteristics when they participate in any stage of communication, and their opinions and views will intentionally or unintentionally persuade or influence more people. During such process, regardless of the stage or the role, the media literacy of the audiences will, to a large extend, affect their views and judgement when they produce, receive and communicate content. Currently, the media literacy of the Chinese public is undergoing transition and showing extreme instability. Due to their interactive features, massive amounts of information, openness and, to a certain extent, anonymity, new platforms of new media have indeed brought new possibilities to improve user experience but have also exposed a number of issues. Firstly, due to its openness and anonymity, the intensity of content checks by new media has been greatly weakened and the professionalism and authenticity of information compromised. Secondly, in terms of media content, the public taste has gradually shifted towards perceptiveness and utility and efficacy. The trend of seeking novelty and flamboyance has consequently emerged, which is naturally closely connected to the commercial attributes of media products and consumption ideas. Lastly, the public lacks a rational understanding of media information. Overwhelmed by rumours and counter-rumours, which are widely circulated and it is hard to tell what is real and what is not, group polarisation may occur. While the public revels in mobile Internets, mainstream media urgently needs to reset the benchmarks for professionalism and authority, gain discourse power and consolidate the position in the guidance of public opinion. The social trend and value of being “people-oriented” is widely known and should become the fundamental direction for the healthy development of news media. In terms of combining the current technological developments and media business formats, the media should spare no efforts in satisfying the personalised demands

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and experience of users; it is also the basic driver for media convergence. Nevertheless, this does not mean mainstream media should blindly cater to user interests without guiding or educating them. All media, especially mainstream media, should assume the mission and responsibility of guiding public opinion and educating the public. Simply, in terms of the indoctrinatory role of communication, whether it is Harold Lasswell’s The Structure and Function of Communication in Society, which suggested the inheritance of social legacy, or Charles Wright’s Functional Analysis and Mass Communication that proposed social functions, they all emphasised the social role of communication. In other words, its educational function indeed plays a critical role in communication, which has been proven over time and both the academic circle and the industry have confirmed this function. By strengthening its user guidance and improving their media literacy, mainstream media may better prompt media convergence along the right direction. This reflects the sense of responsibility of mainstream media, which in turn helps it foreground its social value.

4 Conclusion Internet technology has ushered modern society into an unprecedented historic period. More importantly, the dramtic change that involves the entire society is just the very beginning of the age of digital and network technologies. In the media field, conventional-media ecology has experienced unrivalled impact and challenges. However, scientific and technological advancements will maintain high-speed growth in the foreseeable future. If certain conventional-media bodies attempt to ignore the progress in media technology and the change in audience needs in the new media environment, while defending themselves with the rules imposed on media operations by the state, they will inevitably and eventually be abandoned by the society and users. By contrast, a responsible conventional-media body, particularly a mainstream media body that still exists in such form, must actively integrate into the digital environment and drive media convergence and innovation. Take the reform of the media field alone, China’s mainstream media, which is in the centre of a whirlpool, shoulders the major responsibility and mission that the party, state and people have bestowed upon it. Mainstream media needs to take advantage of the Internet to complete media transformation and upgrade. It needs to firmly seize the fortress of public opinion of new media, so as to better communicate the voice of the party and the governments and the earnest expectations of the people. While reforming, China’s mainstream media must actively seek changes at macroscopic, mesoscopic and microscopic levels. At the macroscopic level, China’s mainstream media should thoroughly execute the concept of omnimedia and develop the real concept of media convergence, rather than converging in response to policies or being driven by the trend. Meanwhile, mainstream media should uphold the principles of the party and correctly establish its dominant position in guiding public opinion and generating publicity. It must actively

4 Conclusion

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integrate into the general environment of market competition and attempt to promote both cross-industry collaboration and the integration of stations and networks, so an open structure for the overall development may be established. On the other hand, China’s mainstream media must keep pace with the times and actively innovate, so as to create new systems and mechanisms that may adapt to the new-media environment and positively collaborate with one another. At the mesoscopic level, China’s mainstream media should change its existing regional development strategies and further cross-regional integration and collaboration. It should build cloud platforms to enable the use of data resources and the sharing of platform resources. In addition, it should further strengthen market-based operations in response to the fierce market competition. Faced with the increasingly fierce competition of the media market, mainstream media needs to, through creating and increasing brand value, produce programmes that are innovative, unique and original to encourage user stickiness and promptly seize the main fortress of public opinion. At the microscopic level, particular attention should be paid to stay abreast of technological innovations; media databases should be built, the conventional means of news production and coverage changed and the cultivation of talent who are adapted to the new-media environment emphasised. Meanwhile, user guidance and the improvement of their media literacy may not be overlooked. The sense of responsibility of mainstream media needs to be foregrounded, so as to drive media convergence towards a more user-friendly path of development. The promotion of the convergence and innovation of mainstream media not only requires government management and regulation, the media also needs to clearly recognise its status and mission, so it may make tough yet highly effective decisions. To join the megatrend of media convergence does not mean mainstream media should give up all of its attributes, nor does it mean mainstream media should become one of the many media organisations founded with the help of new-media technology. Media convergence is indeed a general direction of development that is also irreversible, but the means of how individual media bodies achieve convergence are diverse. Mainstream media should customise its strategies based on its actual conditions and issues. The current convergence of majority of mainstream media is mostly in form only, that is, content is simply moved between new and old media while the multimedia platforms lacks coordination. Mainstream media should achieve more during media convergence, such as giving full play to different media features and complementary functions, as well as uniformly organising news-media work and seizing the initiative with Internet thinking. Mainstream media starting anew should continue to occupy the main fortress of public opinion, both online and on new-media platforms, while influencing the public-opinion ecology online with mainstream value. Through participation and guidance in the convergence of the entire industry, it will be able to better reflect the will and position of the party while winning users and serving the people.

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References 1. Zhou S. On mainstream media [J]. Press Circles. 2001(6). 2. Collection of major documents since the 14th national congress of the Chinese communist party, vol. 1 [M]. Beijing: People’s Publishing House; 1996. P. 653. 3. Duan P. Epxloration and analysis of party-run media in the new-media environment [J]. Mod Commun. 2017(5). 4. Yin J, He F. Research on the development of new business formats of media convergence – an analysis of the central- and regional-government co-established Xinhualong Palm media company [J]. Young JIst. 2015(4). 5. Yin J, et al. Introduction to the new-media industry – media industry in the digital age [M]. Chengdu: Sichuan University Press; 2009. 6. Zhang H. Modular news: trending news-writing styles [J]. Xinwenjie. 2005(4). 7. Please refer to the Annual Report on Development of New Media in China (2016) published by Penguin Intelligence.

Conclusion

Internet technology has ushered modern society into an unprecedented historic period. More importantly, the dramatic change that involves the entire society is just the very beginning of the age of digital and network technologies. In the media field, conventional-media ecology has experienced unrivalled impact and challenges. However, scientific and technological advancements will maintain high-speed growth in the foreseeable future. If certain conventional-media bodies attempt to ignore the progress in media technology and the change in audience needs in the new media environment, while defending themselves with the rules imposed on media operations by the state, they will inevitably and eventually be abandoned by the society and users. By contrast, a responsible conventional-media body, particularly a mainstream media body that still exists in such form, must actively integrate into the digital environment and drive media convergence and innovation. Take the reform of the media field alone, China’s mainstream media, which is in the centre of a whirlpool, shoulders the major responsibility and mission that the party, state and people have bestowed upon it. Mainstream media needs to take advantage of the Internet to complete media transformation and upgrade. It needs to firmly seize the fortress of public opinion of new media, so as to better communicate the voice of the party and the governments and the earnest expectations of the people. While reforming, China’s mainstream media must actively seek changes at macroscopic, mesoscopic and microscopic levels. At the macroscopic level, China’s mainstream media should thoroughly execute the concept of omnimedia and develop the real concept of media convergence, rather than converging in response to policies or being driven by the trend. Meanwhile, mainstream media should uphold the principles of the party and correctly establish its dominant position in guiding public opinion and generating publicity. It must actively integrate into the general environment of market competition and attempt to promote both cross-industry collaboration and the integration of stations and networks, so an open structure for the overall development may be established. On the other hand, China’s mainstream media must keep pace with the times and actively innovate, so as

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 P. Duan, Innovations of China’s Mainstream Media Convergence, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-9146-1

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to create new systems and mechanisms that may adapt to the new-media environment and positively collaborate with one another. At the mesoscopic level, China’s mainstream media should change its existing regional development strategies and further cross-regional integration and collaboration. It should build cloud platforms to enable the use of data resources and the sharing of platform resources. In addition, it should further strengthen market-based operations in response to the fierce market competition. Faced with the increasingly fierce competition of the media market, mainstream media needs to, through creating and increasing brand value, produce programmes that are innovative, unique and original to encourage user stickiness and promptly seize the main fortress of public opinion. At the microscopic level, particular attention should be paid to stay abreast of technological innovations; media databases should be built, the conventional means of news production and coverage changed and the cultivation of talent who are adapted to the new-media environment emphasised. Meanwhile, user guidance and the improvement of their media literacy may not be overlooked. The sense of responsibility of mainstream media needs to be foregrounded, so as to drive media convergence towards a more user-friendly path of development. The promotion of the convergence and innovation of mainstream media not only requires government management and regulation, the media also needs to clearly recognise its status and mission, so it may make tough yet highly effective decisions. To join the megatrend of media convergence does not mean mainstream media should give up all of its attributes, nor does it mean mainstream media should become one of the many media organisations founded with the help of new-media technology. Media convergence is indeed a general direction of development that is also irreversible, but the means of how individual media bodies achieve convergence are diverse. Mainstream media should customise its strategies based on its actual conditions and issues. The current convergence of majority of mainstream media is mostly in form only, that is, content is simply moved between new and old media while the multimedia platforms lacks coordination. Mainstream media should achieve more during media convergence, such as giving full play to different media features and complementary functions, as well as uniformly organising news-media work and seizing the initiative with Internet thinking. Mainstream media starting anew should continue to occupy the main fortress of public opinion, both online and on new-media platforms, while influencing the public-opinion ecology online with mainstream value. Through participation and guidance in the convergence of the entire industry, it will be able to better reflect the will and position of the party while winning users and serving the people.