ABSTRACT

SinceChina has entered a new era of reform and opening-up since 1978,the economic reform has been promoting the political reform and all aspects of social change,including the mass media reform and the transition of the role of mass media.Actually,the role of the mass media has changed much.After the beginning of reform and opening-up,the mass media has changed from a vehicle for propaganda to a journalism organization of the society.Now the mass media has many social roles such as collecting and releasing the information,the current events consultant and opinion leaders.Now China is in a critical period of reform.This is a special period that social decelopment and social contradictions and social problems go together.What kind of role should the mass media play is better for the media itself and the society in the special social background?What the relationship between the mass media and democracy?What the problems the media has met with and how to solve these problems in the procession of the media and social development?All of these are the main targets that the the author would think and research.

The paper is divided into five chapters.

In the first chapter,the author put the definition of basic concepts.It introduced themeaning and connotation of Socialist political civilization and the role of mass media.

In the second chapter,the author analyzes the process aboutsocial development and the transition of the role of mass media since 1978 from historical perspective.This process could be divided into three stages.The first stage is the early period of the reform and social transformation.In that period,economic reform has promoted all aspects of social reform including the mass media.People began to rerecognize the basic function of the mass media that the mass media is an organization of information transmission.Interview and write news or report is the media’s own work,not propaganda.The second stage started with the speech held by Deng Xiaoping when he made the inspection trip in the south.This indicates that China officially entered the era of socialist market economic system.From then on,marketing approaches are to be introduced to the operation of mass media.The mass media belongs to institutional unit,but it would be managed by commercialization administration.The third stage began with the event that China joined the WTO in 2001 which implied that China has been involved into the global economic integration.It is an important period that the leaders have been attaching great importance to socialist political civilization and building a harmonious society.In this period,the mass media has more social functions than before and it also plays an important role in promoting the progress of the political democratization.

In the third chapter,the author analyzes the relationship between political civilization and the mass media’s functions in the period of social transition.On the one hand,the mass media as watchman of the social can help promoting the progress of political civilization.The mass media provides a platform for exchanging opinions and a kind of channel for the communication among the government,the society and the public by protecting the public’s right to know the truth,building the public domain of discourse and taking participation supervision through the process of decision-making and implementation of public policies.One the other hand,some achievements of the construction of political civilization such as amplifying and improving the press spokesperson system,the Government Information Opening Rules was announced,and the media reform which is promoted by structural reform in the cultural field has been taking for several years through boldly projected and carefully carried.All of these would give the support and power to the mass media to do its duty and to the development of the media industry.(https://www.daowen.com)

In the fourth chapter,the author puts the problems that the mass media has been meeting with in the process of development and analyzes the deep reasons from four perspectives such as the relationship between media and government,the relationship between media and economics,the relationship between media and the public,and the relationship between media and the society.

In the fifth chapter,the author provides some measures about how to solve the problems and how to promotesocialist political civilization by the mass media still from those four perspectives aforementioned.

Finally,the author proposes the expectation to the mass media’s functions in the critical period of social transition:be the public communication platform and channel which could associate the government,the public and society;be the“pressure reducing valve”of society;be the“warning system”when the social crisis has occurred.With this in mind,the mass media should play its commonality and spirit of journalism,do the supervision and guide of public opinion well,and put the public interest first.

Key words:social transition;socialist political civilization;role of mass media;public domain;supervision of public opinion.