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media workers use in their selection and display of news stories. Numerous researchers
have followed suit and have investigated, either systematically or impressionistically, the
process in which editors sort, typify and classify news (e.g., Gieber, 1960; McCombs and
Shaw, 1977; Tuchman, 1973; Whitney and Becker, 1982).
Of all the mediating factors and people that shape media content, the news editors
are the most immediate gatekeepers in deciding what becomes available to the audience.
Their particular news values and judgments are of special significance to our
understanding of the process of news selection and articulation. This study, therefore,
compares both quantitatively and qualitatively results from annual survey of editors and
news directors in Taiwan, Japan and China in their rankings of the top ten world and
domestic events from 1992 to 2001.
Media Systems in China, Taiwan and Japan
After Mao’s Communist Party took over China in 1949, it put in place a Communist
press system – the Communist Party held a monopoly over state power and national
resources, including complete control of the press. Substantial changes have taken place
in China’s media system since the start of economic reforms in the late 1970s. Although
the media are still considered ideological apparatuses by the state, they are often caught
in deep-seated contradictions between political control by the Party and increasing
commercialization of the financial structures of the media system (Ma, 2000; Zhao,
1998). The media often find that they face a daunting task of serving two masters: the
Communist Party and the audience.
Convention