Foreign Correspondents: A case study of China in the digital and globalization age

While Western foreign correspondence is retreating, Chinese central media and correspondents, resourced by the government’s financial backing for media’s role in public diplomacy, are taking the opportunities to expand overseas bureaus, hire experienced local employees, enhance the quantity and quality of international news reporting, use digital technologies in newsgathering and dissemination, and receive Western-style trainings. Against this backdrop, this paper studies the identities, media cultures, and journalistic practices of Chinese foreign correspondents, as well as the international news output, and media–audience and media–foreign policy relationships. In doing so, we propose a new six-level theoretical model: (1) journalists’ identities; (2) cultures; (3) practices; (4) news output; (5) news dissemination, reception, and audiences’ interactions; and (6) the impacts of international news coverage. Based on semi-structured interviews with Chinese resident journalists over eight years, we argue that the media–audience and media–foreign policy relationships in China have become more interactive, dynamic, and complex.