Many Chinese journalists are giving up on that profession as the Communist dictatorship tightens media control and a technology boom opens new opportunities for being paid much more than most journalists could earn.
The Wall Street Journal notes that: {T}he trend is especially worrying in a huge country with such limited public power to scrutinize the government and big companies. Many journalists believe serious journalism is a lost cause in China. While online content appears to be flourishing, there is less coverage of hot-button issues. Online media outlets don’t have the leeway to cover news so they focus on ‘safer’ content such as sports, entertainment, lifestyle and occasionally business news.”
The decline in rigorous journalism almost certainly means more government and business corruption, which will slow China’s economic growth. But the government of President Xi Jinping is focused on doing everything possible to maintain the Communist Party dictatorship. Thus the huge nation, at least for the foreseeable future, will continue to be a strange mix of police state and frantic business activity.
To read The Wall Street Journal’s article in this, please hit this link.