This book explores the challenges to news professionalism and media autonomy stemming from the state, market pressure, the digitalization of communication, and a polarized civil society in Hong Kong. China is tightening its control over post-handover Hong Kong, which includes press freedom. Harsh market competition, coupled with shifting readership from mainstream media to digital platforms, is squeezing the business viability of media organizations. The polarization of civil society in post-handover Hong Kong had degraded consensual values upon which news professionalism relies. Journalists have had to reorient news professionalism and media power in the midst of state-society tension, market pressure, and the shifting communication mode driven by digitalization. These are the key questions for Hong Kong media. This dynamic intervention will be of interest to journalists, scholars of civil society, and scholars of Asian politics.
"Written by three Hong Kong scholars immersed in the city's media, movements and culture, the book is faithful to the micro dynamics of a complex city even as it contributes to global theoretical understanding of the relationship between media and politics in hybrid and authoritarian settings."
- Cherian George, author, Media and Power in Southeast Asia
"The engaging writing reflects the vibrancy of the Hong Kong media during times of "liberal exceptionalism". The authors manage to capture this spirit of a bygone era in an outstanding fashion that is engaging and invites deep emotional reflections."
- Malte Philipp Kaeding, University of Surrey
"The authors of this title offer an engaging discussion of the interactions between news media and state, market, and civil society. Not only do they give us a solid background to understand the changing dynamics shaping the news media before 1997, but they also offer us an up-to-date analysis of the emerging challenges since Hong Kong's return to China."
- Tai Lok Lui, The Education University of Hong Kong
This book explores the challenges to news professionalism and media autonomy stemming from the state, market pressure, digitalization, and a polarized civil society in Hong Kong. It examines how media organizations, journalists, and the audience responded to ongoing social, political, and technological changes as Hong Kong was governed by the paradigm of integration under liberal exceptionalism. Combining the authors' close observations of the media scene with systematic empirical data, this book sheds light on the past, present, and possible future of the Hong Kong media. It shall be of interest to journalists, journalism and political communication researchers, and scholars of Asian politics.
Chi Kit Chan is Associate Professor at the School of Communication, the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong.
Gary Tang is Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Science, the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong.
Francis L. F. Lee is Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and an Elected Fellow of the International Communication Association.
