Local News as Propaganda: Precarization and Media Control in Qinghai News

In this paper we report on the challenges that Chinese local news outlets face in the absence of independent newspapers and radio stations, the underfunding and under-training of journalists, and the effective use of digital-only local news outlets for state propaganda. To this end, we carried out in-depth interviews with 20 staff members, including department heads, editors, and journalists from Qinghai News, the local news outlet in the Chinese province of Qinghai, to examine the daily routine of a local news organization dedicated to state media propaganda. Our results also show that journalists are cognizant of the overzealous grip of the central government on the press, but that low pay, dwindling professional opportunities, limited financial support for career progression, and management inaction are the main reasons for the high attrition rate in the Chinese local news industry. The paper concludes with an overview of the local news industry in China and the relative differences to the sector in Western industrialized countries.