The Party Line: How The Media Dictates Public Opinion in Modern China

The first in-depth, authoritative discussion of the role of thepress in China and the way the Chinese government uses the media toshape public opinion China's 1.3 billion population may make the country the world'slargest, but the vast majority of Chinese share remarkably similarviews on these and a wide array of other issues, thanks to theunified message they get from tightly controlled state-run media.Official views are formed at the top in organizations like theXinhua News Agency and China Central Television and allowed totrickle down to regional and local media, giving the appearance ofmany voices with a single message that is reinforced at everylevel. As a result, the Chinese are remarkably like-minded on awide range of issues both domestic and foreign.