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From 2018 to 2019, the media convergence in China has entered a critical period wading down into the deep area. The construction of all-media communication system has dragged into a fast track. China national media have worked hard on the convergence of core technologies, making some breakthroughs and overcoming lots of difficulties. Provincial platforms are moving towards the grass-roots. The construction of county level integrated media center appears prosperity in many places. The construction of media platforms has made important progress in systematic, multi-level and re-connection with users. These can be roughly summarized from the stage of germination or evolution turning into climax stage.
This report is divided into five parts, namely the general report, the sub reports, the provincial reports, the assessment reports and the international reports. The general report mainly describes the new progress, new challenges and new driving forces for China’s media industry which is entering into the new stage of constructing the all-media communication system. In this part, the research group quoted the specific data of some national representative media obtained in the field work, as well as the opinions and suggestions put forward by the industry circle when they talked with the research group face-to-face. The general report highlights the main achievements and features of multi-level convergence, the main acting points and growth poles in the future.
To sum up, the media convergence in China has shown the following distinctive new features in the recent year:
Firstly, the all-media communication system is wide-spreading to emerge. From the national media to the county-level media, from the mainstream media to the commercial internet platform, all kinds of media or platforms at all levels have implemented different strategies making the situation gradually clear in forming the joint force of public opinion guidance.
Secondly, the new policy has spread from local to national. All kinds of media at all levels are marching toward integration, toward 5G and AI, and toward the future at a faster and faster pace. The transformations of the media are on the half way. The pioneer has arrived at the new departure, and the movement of the latecomer has been accelerated.
Thirdly, the construction of county level integrated media center has become a topical issue. All over the country, the construction task has been basically completed because of the hardware deploy and personnel allocation have been successively put in place. It is expected to be completed thoroughly by the end of the year 2020.
Fourthly, the path of multi-stage convergence is increasingly clear. It is common practice that the mainstream media’s business structure is consisted of news services, government services, and livelihood services. On this basis, transformation experience such as adhering to the media function while providing think tank services or earning profits from creative industrial park to feed journalism is also very common.
In the process of convergence, some mainstream media have performed well, most of which have recovered from the downturn, some of which have narrowed their losses, while others have returned to profit. From the state of mind in media practitioners, some are puzzled or confused in the exploration, but they keep forwarding. Media convergence has shown an L-shaped upward-ending curve.
From the supply side, with the implementation of the mobile-first concept, the traditional media has shrunk appropriately, and focus is gradually being invested in multiple channels that are mainly mobile-oriented or both. On the whole, the production and transmission capacity of the supply side have further expanded.
In the part of sub reports, on the one hand, it makes an inventory of the situation of county-level media center in China; on the other hand, it discusses the reform path and typical cases of audio and video industry, and summarizes the main achievements in practice and theory of media convergence in China based on different dimensions such as content, platform, technology and mechanism innovation.
In the provincial reports, some administrative regions are highlighted, including Beijing, Tianjin, Jilin, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Hunan, Yunnan, Guangdong, and Shenzhen Special Administrative Regions, to represent the new practice and experience as well as existing problems and countermeasures of media convergence in these regions.
In the evaluation section, the research group invited experts and scholars to select the 2018-2019 China Media Convergence Pioneer List and Leadership List. At the same time, it sorts out the excellent cases of county level integrated media center province by province.
The international reports tell the stories of social video platforms and Netflix.
The appendix provides the memorabilia of media convergence in the recent year, and strives to record comprehensively and systematically every important imprint left by media integration in China.
The China Media Convergence Development Report has been published for nine consecutive years. Compared with previous reports, this new edition has the following features in addition to the updates of the general situation, data, and opinions.
One is to truly reflect the survival state of the industry as a whole. In addition to the personal visits, the research team conducted a collective survey of Beijing, 6 provincial capitals, and 15 sub-provincial, municipal or county-level cities. Around the main media field visits, they learned a lot about first-hand situations and were deeply touched by the inner anxiety of the front-line media backbones and the firm ideals and beliefs of the media senior managers and executives. At the same time, they also noted that the media in some regions with limited economic conditions, including some county-level media in Jiangxi Province, needed more funding and resources.
The second is to explain convergence from the perspective of systematic thinking. Media convergence is not only a step-by-step interrelated and mutually beneficial reforms, a bold and major initiatives, but also an idea, a way of thinking, a revolution deep rooted in the mind that breaks the island of information and promotes interconnection. The establishment of the all-media communication system is inseparable from the external resources and conditions and the most important thing is the conscious identification and action of each participant in the progress.
The third is to incorporate the evaluation of county-level integrated media into the research vision. As a part of media convergence and an important means of grass-roots publicity innovation, county-level integrated media has been advanced with many cases while there are some uneven steps. In any case, all the efforts are worthy of expectation, and all the cultivation will produce golden fruits.