Never before in history has any nation experienced such profound

         As China has developed, it has dramatically raised its

         Despite this economic surge – and arguably because of its

         China, however, remains a cultural phenomenon of intense

         The essays in this special issue will include studies of media

fyi Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ FRSC INSNA Founder University of Toronto http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman twitter: @barrywellman NETWORKED:The New Social Operating System. Lee Rainie & Barry Wellman MIT Press http://amzn.to/zXZg39 Print $14 Kindle $9 _______________________________________________________________________ ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 24 Jul 2015 12:48:11 -0700 From: Rong Wang <wrlaura@gmail.com> To: Barry Wellman <wellman@chass.utoronto.ca> Subject: CFP on a special issue Hi Barry, Hope your summer is going well. I am forwarding a CPF of a special issue that one of my professors at USC is co-editing. Please feel free to forward it to anyone who might be interested. Best, Rong China’s Future: Studies of Global Media Narratives Inaugural Issue of Global Media and China Sage Publications Guest Editors: Thomas A. Hollihan, University of Southern California Zhan Zhang, Università della Svizzera Italiana, Lugano Submission deadline: October 1, 2015 Never before in history has any nation experienced such profound social, economic, and political changes as those China has realized in the past few decades since Deng Xiaoping opened the country to foreign investors and adopted a market economy. Despite its rich cultural and philosophical traditions, China had for centuries been beset by military conflicts, political insurrections, social inequalities, and famines. The rise of New China in 1949 swept aside many of the old traditions and ruling families and introduced radical reforms in China, but the nation remained mired in poverty until Deng’s reforms capitalized on the nation’s greatest asset, its hardworking people. China quickly attracted investments from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the United States, and Western Europe as companies built factories that created market-place advantages through the lower costs of production. Soon entrepreneurial Chinese business leaders and state owned enterprises also began to build their own factories and to expend resources on infrastructure and on urban development projects. Millions of rural Chinese migrated from their villages to cities for jobs, simultaneously pulling millions of people out of poverty and creating megacities of unimagined size and complexity. As China has developed, it has dramatically raised its importance in the family of nations, and recently became the world’s second largest economy. Today China enjoys a huge trade surplus and it has become a relatively rich nation that bankrolls other nations through the purchase of foreign bonds. Its sheer size allows companies that focus primarily on domestic customers to mimic international corporations that often become market leaders. Its communication, journalism and entertainment enterprises employ thousands of people and generate significant profits. China has also moved up in the manufacturing supply chain and while the manufacture of relatively simple goods such as clothing, shoes, toys, and cheap electronic goods continues, today Chinese manufacturers produce cars, computers, aircraft, pharmaceuticals, bullet trains and space transport vehicles. Their universities are brimming with talent and are surrounded by their own Silicon Valleys and entrepreneurial spirit. Despite this economic surge – and arguably because of its rapidity – China today also faces extremely challenging problems as it looks to the future. China’s leaders rightly assert that despite producing many wealthy elites and a growing middle class, China remains a developing country as numerous pockets of poverty persist, especially in rural areas. Like many large nations, it has ethnic strife and regional disparities. In addition, taking on the role of the world’s factory has led to serious air, water, and land pollution that threatens public health, shortens lives, and will be expensive to remedy. The current leadership has also identified corruption as a pervasive problem that threatens the stability of the nation and the legitimacy of the governing Communist Party. In addition, China’s rise has produced anxieties in other nations who worry that China’s growing economic power and increasing military capabilities might threaten their own interests. China, however, remains a cultural phenomenon of intense natural beauty, numerous historic monuments, poetic and theatrical mastery, artistic prowess in all creative endeavours, and renowned for its ethnic and regional culinary expertise. And its array of urban architectural gems is unparalleled and has helped lead an explosion in both domestic and international tourism. Even for those who have never entered its physical borders, China is increasingly a key subject of interest and intrigue. In a wide variety of stories in most any country, China, in some form or personage, is now the headline. Globalizing processes have inexorably intertwined China’s future with other nation states, environments, cultures, institutions and systems. Whether the issue is it role in the global financial market, control over the Internet, brokering peace between nations, or its own reform efforts, it has captured the world’s attention. China’s gifts and deficits are very large and among the most extreme in the world today, and this raises serious questions about its future, and without question, that of the rest of the world. The essays in this special issue will include studies of media narratives that shape public understanding and imagined visions for China’s future. These studies will consider how China and China’s aspirations are reported in the news media, social media and represented or imagined in global entertainment programs. These studies will also include China’s strategic communication as it seeks to expand its soft power and burnish its global image through media and staged athletic contests, public exhibitions, and other media spectacles. Studies will also consider how stories about the future shape possibilities, locate constraints, and suggest directions, either creatively or in terms of policy. Although not all of the essays have been selected at this time, the papers will all connect to this focus on China’s imagined future. -- Rong Wang Doctoral Candidate Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism University of Southern California