Media politics in China is an exciting scholarly field with excellent monographs being published one after another in recent years, offering insights into news and newsmaking as embedded in the nation's profound social, economic, political and technological transformations. Adding to the burgeoning literature is The Currency of Truth by Emily Chua, who makes an inspirational theoretical endeavour based on incredibly nuanced empirical data gathered through ethnographic observation of daily operations at a Beijing- and Guangzhou-based weekly newspaper, which Chua calls The Times to protect the anonymity of its staff. Chua finds that news media in China is neither a propaganda machine nor the host of public reasoning and deliberation. Rather, news can be conceptualized as currency that various involved actors, such as journalists, editors, Party officials and business executives, use to broker transactions and relations for their own interests.
The monograph has six chapters and an epilogue. The first chapter introduces the ethnographic site, situates the research vis-à-vis the relevant literatures and advances the main argument before laying out the organization of the book. In chapter two, Chua examines the evolution of media as an institution in China from the late Qing until today, and the cultural and political factors that have shaped the process. It reveals how media initially served as a political instrument for nationalist mobilization and then for communist revolution before morphing into an institution that hosted ideological and policy rivalries within the Communist Party in the Maoist era. Today, the news sector has turned into an industry in which a multitude of actors pursue diverse business, career or journalistic objectives. Chapter three follows the process of the coverage of the annual National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference meetings, revealing that despite a lack of interest The Times journalists have dutifully produced propaganda articles out of journalistic and commercial motives. In chapter four, Chua furthers the discussion by introducing the new “ethic of efficacy” of journalists as reflected in their reportorial habits – focusing on “doable” news items, approaching reporting as a game and bending the rules when necessary. Such an ethic allows them “to work strategically and constructively with … differently interested actors without being co-opted” or disoriented (p. 95). Chapter five theorizes “news as currency,” arguing that its publicness enables a host of related actors to pursue private transactions and goals. Through examining how newsmakers at The Times reacted to the sudden removal of their editor-in-chief, chapter six proposes a “jianghu imaginary” of the news sector, in which actors’ identities, positions and objectives are all relationally constituted to understand how news as currency circulates and functions. In the brief yet informative epilogue, Chua traces life trajectories of several editors and journalists to question what it means to be a good and worthy journalist in this ever-changing world.
The book is thought-provoking both empirically and theoretically. It primarily discusses the four types of content The Times produces: black articles (blackmailing the targets so that they pay to stop publication), soft articles (favourably portraying companies in exchange for cash), propaganda articles (meant to please the Party), and investigative reporting; all but the last type betray the journalists’ professional ethics from the conventional perspective. Compared to earlier works on critical journalism, the analysis projects a refreshing and somewhat disenchanting image of the news sector in China (and perhaps elsewhere). Though Chua reasons that some journalists may engage with the former three types instrumentally to create the opportunity for investigative journalism, I wonder whether they still truly believe in journalistic ideals or are simply engaging in self-deception to feel better when knowingly doing something wrong. After all, the analysis shows that most executives, editors and reporters (e.g. those at the economics desk) couldn't care less. Even political journalists seemingly interested in producing news to serve the readers have actively delivered propaganda articles and are largely self-interested. If this is true, whether due to newsmakers’ new “ethic of efficacy” or because they are truly “commercially corrupt and politically supine” (p. 147), one must re-assess the media's role and its relationship with the state and the public in authoritarian politics. As Chua admits, the currency-like nature of newsmaking has led journalists to doubt the value of their practice and journalistic ideals, even more so than state censorship and control (see p. 97).
The book amazes me with rich details about journalists’ daily activities, thanks to the fine-grained data from the ground. Such data, together with her impressive analytical and writing capabilities, allows Chua to take us through the process of knowledge production step by step. This is illustrated well in the documentation of how her perceptions toward the soft and black articles were gradually challenged and evolved, leading to the theorization of news as currency. Similarly, when analysing the removal of the editor-in-chief, Chua describes how her initial impression of the event being a case of state repression is rejected and replaced by an evidence-based story of commercial infighting, which illustrates nicely the jianghu imaginary of the news sector. Evidently, doing so shows how scholarly reasoning progresses with new data, making the analysis more compelling. It also makes the book highly accessible to readers outside academia.
As an anthropological work, the book focuses on only one news outlet. Readers may question its representativeness, especially given existing studies on critical journalists. This is a legitimate concern, and the case selection likely has affected the findings. However, given the rich data and convincing analysis this book presents, I believe it represents more future research opportunities than a flaw of this research.
The Currency of Truth is easily one of my favourite books and I cannot recommend it enough. Scholars and students in a wide array of disciplines such as anthropology, political science, commutations and sociology will benefit from it tremendously. Policymakers or members of the general public who are interested in media politics in China and beyond will find it educational, inspiring and highly accessible. The book even has an open access version. So go and get it!
