03 February 2026, Volume 15 Issue 1

    

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  Guided by the Marxist Perspective on Journalism, Scientifically Advancing the Systemic Transformation of Mainstream Media

  Zhang Baixin

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(1): 3-8.

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  The systemic transformation of mainstream media requires upholding the Party’s principles, serving the people, adhering to facts, and maintaining correct public opinion guidance. It demands pursuing truth, defending public welfare, and advancing progress as core values. This transformation aims to achieve “deep cultivation” and “integration” in content production, multichannel synergy in dissemination, and innovation in discourse systems. While embracing technologydriven innovation, we must guard against risks of alienation. We should strengthen the political literacy of media personnel, enhance professional capabilities, cultivate exemplary work ethics, and advance theoretical innovation grounded in practical experience.
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  Emotional Practices and Mass Mobilization Mechanisms of Wall Newspapers during China’s Nationwide War of Resistance against Japan

  Wang Shiyong, Wang Zhaodong

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(1): 9-17.

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  The Wall Newspaper, through its extensive penetration into grassroots social spaces and deep involvement in the everyday lives of the masses, established a media foundation for emotional mobilization. Its content production adhered to the principles of “improving writing style” and “public participation in publication”, employing plain, relatable language to strengthen emotional identification and a sense of engagement among the people. The masses were not merely passive recipients of information; rather, by participating in the creation process, they realized selfidentification and emotional coconstruction. At the same time, the Party and the government, through institutional organization and standardized content management, effectively directed the emotions stimulated by the Wall Newspaper toward the objectives of the war of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, thereby transforming emotional mobilization into political mobilization. As a grassroots propaganda medium during a specific historical period, the Wall Newspaper successfully integrated emotional mobilization with social integration, offering valuable insights for contemporary practices in news and publicity work.
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  Returning to the Right Track and the Initial Formation of the Traditional Journalism Knowledge System:The Historical Context of the Construction of the Knowledge System of Chinese Journalism from the Late 1970s to the Early 21st Century

  Yang Baojun

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(1): 18-27.

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  During the more than two decades from the late 1970s to the early 21st century (December 1978-2002),knowledge production and knowledge system construction of Chinese journalism have traversed a path of historic transformative significance, occupying a pivotal, connecting role in the history of contemporary Chinese journalism development. The launch of reform and opening up has brought Chinese modernized journalism back on track and also enabled contemporary Chinese academic knowledge production and knowledge system construction activities to return to the right path, ushering in a springtime of the era. During these twentythree or four years, Chinese journalism, based on China’s reality, has reestablished the scientific spirit of seeking truth from facts. It has not only restored the original appearance of Marxist journalistic thought but also achieved research results with long-term influence. It has also achieved fruitful research results in various branches of historical journalism, theoretical journalism, applied journalism, and interdisciplinary journalism. From the perspective of knowledge production, and in the sense of traditional journalism, it has established the basic framework of China’s independent journalistic knowledge system, laying a solid foundation for Chinese journalism research and the construction of an independent knowledge system in the digital and intelligent era of the 21st century.
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  Constructing an Evaluation Framework for CountyLevel Integrated Media in Grassroots Social Governance under Systemic Transformation

  Li Yifan, Huang Chuxin

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(1): 28-34.

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  Establishing a scientifically sound and effective evaluation framework constitutes a critical task for countylevel integrated media centers as they advance systemic transformation. Drawing upon the “LegitimacyEffectiveness” theoretical framework, this study designs an evaluation indicator system to assess the role of countylevel integrated media centers in grassroots social governance. The proposed system comprises five firsttier indicators and twentyfive secondtier indicators. The Delphi method is employed to validate and refine these specific indicators, aiming to provide a rigorous assessment of the performance of countylevel integrated media centers in grassroots governance. According to this framework, achieving a dynamic equilibrium between legitimacy and effectiveness is essential to maximizing participatory performance and fulfilling the institutional mandate of countylevel integrated media centers as key actors in grassroots social governance.
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  The Generative Logic and Systemic Risks of AI Sycophancy: A Risk Society Perspective

  Li Dajun, Deng Tianqi

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(1): 35-43.

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  In the intelligent communication environment where news organizations and digital platforms operate jointly, generative artificial intelligence has significantly improved content production and interaction efficiency, yet it has also given rise to the hidden and accumulating risk of “AI sycophancy.” Based on a yearlong investigation of mainstream media organizations, internet companies, content governance platforms, and news practitioners, this study employs multiple case studies and grounded theory, and constructs a fourstage analytical model—“driversmanifestationsrisksgovernance”—within the framework of risk society theory. The findings indicate that the drivers of AI sycophancy stem from the combined effects of model training biases, user interaction cues, and platform governance logics; its manifestations exhibit stable structures across content softening, stance following, and value alignment; its risks accumulate and spill over across the three dimensions of news practice, platform information, and governance systems. Correspondingly, governance pathways have gradually formed a systematized framework comprising technical governance, platform governance, and organizational governance. The analysis provides a new theoretical lens and practical reference for understanding and regulating institutionalized soft risks in the context of generative artificial intelligence.
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  From Subculture to Cultural Globalization: The Discursive Transformation of Online Literature in People’s Daily (1999-2024)

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(1): 44-53.

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  This study examines all People’s Daily items that explicitly mention “online literature” published between 1999 and 2024. Combining frame analysis with critical discourse analysis, it traces 757 valid news pieces across twentyfive years to map the paper’s shifting discursive registers and to offer a vantage point on the industrialization of Chinese online literature. Three steps are taken. First, the volume and evaluative tone of coverage are tracked over time. Second, six recurrent interpretive frames—“cultural mission,” “technologydriven change,” “risk warning,” “policy discipline,” “social interaction,” and “economic empowerment”—are identified and their diachronic competition is analyzed. Finally, the interplay between news texts and broader sociocultural practices is discussed in four distinct historical periods, revealing the evolving logic through which China’s flagship newspaper has constructed the meaning of online literature and the contemporary implications of that construction.
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  Empathetic Communication and Embodied Participation: Research on the Expansion of Chinese Culture Communication Strategy Empowered by Short Videos

  Li Wanqi, Wang Yayun

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(1): 54-65.

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  In the era of new media, the concept of a Community with Shared Future for Mankind has rich connotations. It not only provides theoretical guidance for the international dissemination of Chinese culture but also facilitates the understanding and recognition of Chinese values across different cultures through cultural communication. This, in turn, helps shape the Chinese national image and strengthen the sense of a shared Chinese national identity. With the development of international communication technologies, new media have promoted crosscultural communication and enhanced the effectiveness of spreading the concept of a Community with Shared Future for Mankind. Accordingly, the study uses the online short drama Escape from the British Museum and the short video I turned the Woodshed into a ForestThemed Closet as examples to examine the multidimensional dissemination strategies of cultural symbols in media fields. It incorporates the fluidity and interactivity of cultural symbols into the agenda of Chinese cultural dissemination. The paper suggests that empathetic communication and embodied participation can expand the dissemination paths of Chinese culture, and that empathic communication can deepen the understanding of Chinese cultural symbols, thereby promoting cultural communication and exchange. Finally, the concept of a Community with Shared Future for Mankind can be advanced through the field of cultural communication.
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  Between Cultural Circles: Exploring Fei Xiaotong’s Intercultural Communication Thoughts

  Han Zhirui, Li Mengke

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(1): 66-75.

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  Fei Xiaotong has many interactions with intercultural communication in terms of disciplinary origins and life experiences. The article combines the theory of three circles to summarize the content of Fei Xiaotong’s intercultural communication thoughts. In the study of the core circle, he applies intercultural comparison between China and the West. The idea of the pattern of diversity in unity of the Chinese nation has been put forward from the study of ethnic minorities as the middle circle and extended to the understanding of the world multiculture. From China to the overseas world as the outer circle, he puts forward the mental order and intercultural consensus system. Cultural consciousness and the concern for human being are the conceptual impetus that supports him to cross between different cultural circles. Fei Xiaotong’s intercultural communication thoughts are not lacking in inspiration for the research and practice of Chinese intercultural communication. The problems of intercultural communication that he thought about to a certain extent represent the collective cultural concerns of Chinese intellectuals under the civilizational changes in modern times, which may be used as an entry point to open up the possibility of exploring the history of the local intercultural communication thoughts.
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  The Practice and Value of The Mongolia and Tibet Monthly from the Perspective of Ethnic Interaction Exchange and Integration

  Peng Cui, Chen Anran, Pang Ruican

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(1): 76-84.

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  The Mongolia and Tibet Monthly documented the central government’s efforts in promoting education, transportation, postal services, and telecommunications in Tibetan regions, as well as the interactions and integration between the Han nationality and Tibetan. It serves as a historical source for the study of border minority nationality regions during this period. On the one hand, leveraging its regional presence, the journal promptly communicated central government decrees and interpreted ethnic policies to Tibetan communities, laying a political foundation for consolidating and developing ethnic unity. On the other hand, it emphasized cultural exchange and communication between Han and Tibetan peoples, establishing a media basis for interethnic engagement and integration. Furthermore, as a medium of interaction, the journal traced historical memories and fostered ethnic identity, effectively utilizing historical heritage as a psychological guide in strengthening national solidarity. During the special period of the War of Resistance against Japan, it also played a spiritually guiding role in advocating ethnic unity and mobilizing the entire nation for the war effort.
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  How is the “New West” Imagined? Photographic Images in the American Westward Expansion

  Lin Yuyang, Zou Zhendong

  Journalism Evolution. 2026, 15(1): 85-95.

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  The photographic images from America’s “Westward Expansion” profoundly influenced the public’s perception and imagination of the West, growing in tandem as a “new medium” with a “new place”. In fact, the emergence of photographic imagery did not immediately transform the viewing habits of Americans or their imagination of the West. Historical examination reveals that only when “reproducibility” was unleashed, photographic equipment gradually matured, text began to integrate with photographic images, and photographers deliberately mimicked elements from painting, did photography start to dominate the visual market, bringing the “distant West” closer to the public’s imagination. Different forms of imagery complemented and combined to form a media community that stimulated imagination. The fusion of text and imagery created a narrative community, while the US government, through its funding of Western photography, constructed the mainstream discourse of “Westward Expansion”. The process by which Americans imagined the "New West" through photographic images was not entirely seamless. The interactions among various media forms also provide insights for reflecting on intelligent imagery today.