Title:   How to Read the Chinese Media

Speakers:   from the Open Source Center

Topic/Issues:  

1. China's changing media environment--how China's media environment has
   changed since the 1980s and the factors driving those changes
2. How to read China's state-controlled media--what to look for and how to
   read between the lines.
3. The challenges that social media are posing for Chinese censors and
   factors to consider when analyzing Chinese social media.

Resources:

1. China's Changing Media (Open Source presentation)

2. China Digital Times' "Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon"

Readings:

1. Shirk, Susan. Changing Media, Changing China ( Oxford University Press,
   2011)
2. MacKinnon, Rebecca.  Consent of the Networked:  The Worldwide Struggle for
   Internet Freedom (Basic Books, 2012)
3. Brady, Anne Marie. Marketing Dictatorship:  Propaganda and Thought Work in
   Contemporary China (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008).

Goals:

1. To gain increased proficiency in assessing the authoritativeness of various media (text, visual, broadcast, etc.).
2. To understand the shifting impact of various social media platforms.
3. Increased sensitivity to shifts in nuance in public discourse.