20 August 2026, Volume 15 Issue 4

    

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  The Revision of Yan’an’s Liberation Daily and the Formation of Mao Zedong’s Concept of “Utilizing Newspapers to Conduct Work”

  Deng Shaogen, Ding Liqiong

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(4): 3-11.

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  After the initiation of the Yan’an Rectification Movement, the Liberation Daily failed to adapt to the situation of reforming the three styles. Mao Zedong instructed the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to discuss the revision of the Liberation Daily and elaborated on the concept of utilizing newspapers to conduct work. In the practice of revising the Liberation Daily, Mao’s idea of utilizing newspapers to conduct work was further deepened. The fundamental requirement was to uphold the principle of party character in party newspapers, the essential guarantee was to implement the the whole party to run newspapers policy, while the primary goal was to organize and mobilize the broad masses of military and civilian people. Under the guidance of this concept, the Liberation Daily greatly promoted the Rectification Movement and the Great Production Movement, becoming a sharp tool for the Central Committee to organize and carry out political, economic, cultural, and various other tasks using the newspaper.
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  The Mutual Shaping of Living Newspaper and Political Propaganda in Modern Revolutions

  Wu Chenyang, Shi Yujing, Dong Tiance

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(4): 12-21.

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  Living Newspaper (huobao), also known as Living Newspaper Drama (huobaoju), represents a communication medium that employs theatrical forms to present recent factual events, integrating three essential attributes: journalistic reporting, artistic expression, and propaganda dissemination. From the perspective of mediaspheres and through the examination of historical documents, this study finds that living newspaper transformed the political propaganda landscape, making it more accessible and interactive. Across different historical stages, influenced by propaganda ideologies, living newspaper evolved into three practical forms: news-oriented, artistic, and propaganda-focused. The rise and fall of living newspaper underscores the mutual causation of technology, ideology, and culture in shaping social reality. It also suggests that propaganda work should pragmatically choose communication forms, respect objective reality, and exercise subjective initiative in a context-appropriate manner.
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  “Heart-Mind Transmission across Tianxia and Harmonious Coexistence”: The Underlying Logic of Constructing an Independent Knowledge System for Chinese Communication Studies

  Xie Qingguo, Li Jiarong

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(4): 22-29.

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  Since President Xi Jinping called for the development of China’s independent knowledge system, exploring how to build an independent knowledge system for Chinese communication studies has become a major proposition in the field of journalism and communication studies. “Heart-Mind Transmission across Tianxia” provides an ethical orientation and value pursuit for the construction of an independent knowledge system for Chinese communication studies, while “harmonious coexistence” constitutes concrete pathways for putting this idea into practice. Starting from the framework of “Heart-Mind Transmission across Tianxia and Harmonious Coexistence”, this study examines the basic concepts, internal characteristics, and practical pathways of an independent knowledge system for Chinese communication studies. On this basis, it seeks to reveal the underlying logic of the development of Chinese communication studies, thereby contributing to the great project of building the disciplinary, academic, and discourse systems of Chinese philosophy and social sciences.
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  How Do Technological Affordances in Human-Computer Interaction Influence User Stickiness? A Comparative Study of Intelligent Dialogue Tools in China and Abroad

  Li Yungeng, Liang Xiao, Liu Jiaxin

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(4): 31-42.

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  The breakthrough in large language model technology has catalyzed a surge in intelligent dialogue tool development, yet the mechanisms influencing continuous usage intention and cross-cultural product differences remain unclear. Based on affordance theory, this study constructs a model encompassing four dimensions—intelligence, anthropomorphism, convenience, and adaptability—and integrates the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and technology trust theory to reveal the pathways through which young Chinese users’ perceptions of technological affordances affect their continuous usage intention toward intelligent dialogue tools. The findings indicate that: (1) overseas products demonstrate superiority through higher intelligence and anthropomorphism, while domestic productsachieve advantages in convenience through localized design; (2) technological affordances influence continuous usage intention through perceived usefulness and ease of use, though in task-oriented scenarios, anthropomorphic features may inversely inhibit efficiency perception; (3) the dual mediating effects of trust and satisfaction are significant. This research provides theoretical models and empirical evidence for optimizing Chinese large language model product design and constructing differentiated technological affordances.
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  Extending the Technology Acceptance Model from the Perspectives of Perceived Risk and Perceived Benefit: Public Acceptance Intention toward AI Tools for Combating Misinformation

  Tan Xinying, Zhang Xinyue, Li Dajun, Chen Liang

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(4): 43-54.

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  This study investigates the formation mechanism of public acceptance intention toward AI tools for combating misinformation, aiming to enhance public understanding of emerging technologies and provide theoretical insights and practical guidance for promoting human‑AI collaboration in misinformation governance. Grounded in the risk‑benefit acceptability model, this study incorporates the core ideas of social exchange theory to further examine the roles of social influence factors and individual differences. This study conducted an online survey of 1,000 Chinese citizens. The findings show that interpersonal discussion is associated with lower perceived risk and higher perceived benefit, whereas social media attention is associated with higher perceived risk. Perceived risk and perceived benefit are further significantly related to public acceptance intention toward AI tools for combating misinformation. Moreover, AI literacy moderates the indirect effects of interpersonal discussion and social media attention on acceptance intention through perceived risk and perceived benefit. Theoretically, this study extends the application of the risk‑benefit acceptability model to the context of AI‑assisted misinformation governance. It also enriches the understanding of how social influence shapes individual technology acceptance. Practically, the findings provide implications for improving public technological understanding and promoting the responsible adoption of AI tools for combating misinformation in human‑AI collaborative governance.
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  Between Rebellion and Return: A Study on Transgressive Prompting Behaviors of Generative AI Users from a Human-Machine Co-construction Perspective

  Wei Shaohua, Li Yao

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(4): 55-63.

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  The “refusal-to-answer” mechanism of generative AI has spurred adversarial user practices aimed at inducing the AI to bypass safety boundaries through “rule-breaking prompts.” Based on the perspective of human-machine co-construction construction, this study employs qualitative research methods such as focus group interviews and participatory observation to investigate the psychological motivations behind users’ “rule-breaking” behaviors and the accompanying ethical risks. The findings reveal that users’ “rule-breaking” prompt behaviors are often driven by psychological factors such as reactance reinforcement, technological expectations of machine empathy, and self-technological practices. Such behaviors give rise to dual risks in the process of co-construction construction: first, “rule-breaking” experiences are capitalized into new forms of cultural commodities; second, they trigger a recursive cycle of model data contamination. The essence of users’ “rule-breaking” prompt behavior lies in the issue of safety boundaries within human-machine co-construction construction. Moving forward, efforts should be directed toward guiding users to transition from “system challengers” to “ethical co-creators,” ultimately achieving a state of “acting with freedom yet without overstepping boundaries” in human-AI dialogue.
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  Reconstructing a Sense of “Home”: Constructing a Value System of “Dialogicity” in Grassroots Governmental Communication

  Dong Xu, Gong He

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(4): 64-72.

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  The wave of closures of grassroots government social media accounts warrants the same scholarly reflection as the earlier rush to establish them. As the “first mile” for gauging public sentiment and facilitating public deliberation, the community remains an underexplored site for examining how public communication practices can empower grassroots governance. This paper returns to the methodological orientation embedded in the concept of community and excavates its cultural connotation of homeland, from which it derives the concept of sense of homeland as a normative anchor and establishes it as the core ethical orientation for localized community communication research in China. Building on this foundation, the paper identifies three structural dilemmas confronting grassroots government social media in community-based operations: a supply-demand imbalance in resource development, a near-far misalignment in information dissemination, and the dis-embedding of account operators from local relational networks. Drawing on dialogic theory and its localized extensions, the paper then constructs a three-dimensional value framework for community dialogic capacity: information visibility (the awareness dimension), network confluence (the relational dimension), and the resource-tool equilibrium of emotional engagement (the concern dimension). These three dimensions converge on a shared telos: the cultivation of a sense of homeland. The study further operationalizes each dimension into empirically observable indicators and offers concrete practice-oriented recommendations for how surviving accounts, in the aftermath of the closure wave, might transition from a coverage-oriented logic to a rootedness-oriented one.
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  National Branding as a Strategic Narrative of Emerging States: A Positive Discourse Analysis of BRICS Media

  Deng Tianqi, Sun Lin

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(4): 73-81.

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  Against the backdrop of an accelerating reconfiguration of the global communication landscape, the BRICS countries have increasingly emerged as an important force in promoting greater plurality in international discourse. Drawing on 116 reports on nation branding published between 2022 and 2024 by 12 major English-language media outlets from the five BRICS countries, this study adopts a Positive Discourse Analysis approach to examine the meaning structures and communicative logics underlying BRICS media’s strategic narratives of nation branding. The findings show that BRICS media construct a strategic narrative system of nation branding through four interrelated dimensions: cultural narratives of subjectivity, inclusive narratives oriented toward the common good, developmental narratives of continuity, and innovative narratives of transformation. These narratives collectively address four core questions: “Who are we?”, “For whom do we act?”, “Where are we now?”, and “What will our future be?”. Together, they reveal orientations toward “co-creative communication” and “positive communication” characterized by cooperation, empathy, and generativity, thereby facilitating a shift in the role of BRICS countries from being narrated within international communication to becoming active agents of meaning production and identity construction.
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  Networks and Genesis: The Making of the Yokohama Qingyi Bao Post-Wuxu Coup

  Liu Yang, Yan Jiayue

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(4): 82-91.

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  As the first overseas reformist organ post-Wuxu Coup, the Yokohama-based Qingyi Bao occupies a pivotal yet understudied position in modern press history. Utilizing Japanese diplomatic archives, correspondence, and other primary sources, this article investigates how the Kang faction’s pre-existing interpersonal networks and social resources in Japan facilitated the publication’s rapid inception. Preceding the coup, the faction cultivated a network bridging overseas Chinese merchants and Japanese entities via the Yokohama Datong School and Kobe’s Dongya Bao. This foundation nearly produced the Datong Daily; although derailed by the coup, its preparatory groundwork directly catalyzed Qingyi Bao’s swift establishment. Following the coup, the Kang faction’s consolidation in Japan reconstituted these networks, securing essential personnel, funding, and distribution channels. Ultimately, the paper’s genesis and paradigm-shifting radicalization reflect broader historical trajectories—notably Western eastward expansion and the Chinese scholar-gentry’s transformation—thereby advancing the historiography of late Qing journalism.
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  A Critical Discussion of Fan Changjiang’s Northwestern Reporting Itinerary and Related Questions

  Yin Yungong

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(4): 92-95.

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  This article engages in a scholarly discussion with Zhang Wei’s study of Fan Changjiang’s “Cheng-Lan journey” regarding controversies over Fan’s northwest reporting route, his alleged plan to “go straight into the Red Army,” and his purported motive for tracking the Red Army. It argues that the existing evidence is insufficient to prove that Fan Changjiang had formed a clear plan in advance to “go straight into the Red Army,” and that the route along the east bank of the Fujiang River alone cannot substantiate a strong motive to pursue the Red Army. Fan’s reporting on the Red Army was characterized by randomness and indirectness, and it also contained critical and even negative descriptions, so it cannot be simply summarized as a “plain style of reporting.”