Chinese Journal of Communication (CJoC)

April 2008 marks the exciting inauguration of the Chinese Journal of Communication (CJoC), a new refereed international journal designed to build a platform for the exchange of scholarship in communication with special attention to Chinese societies. CJoC aims to elevate Chinese communication studies along theoretical, empirical, and methodological dimensions, while contributing to the international and intercultural understanding of media, information, and communication phenomena as a whole.

The inaugural issue of CJoC starts with an interview with Manual Castells, who discusses key issues related to the general theory of network society, communication, and China. This thematic discussion is followed by six original research articles by authors from four continents and three Chinese societies, whose diverse interests and approaches offer a state-of-the-art reflection on the burgeoning field of Chinese communication research.

• Media Systems in Transition: Poland, Russia, China" by Colin Sparks (University of Westminster, UK)
• Ethical Risk Perception of Freebies and Effects on Journalists' Ethical Reasoning" by Ven-hwei Lo (National Chengchi University, Taiwan) and Ran Wei (University of South Carolina, USA)
• Open Information System and Crisis Communication in China" by Lidan Chen (Renmin University, China)
• Local Press Meets Transnational Activism: News Dynamics in an Anti-WTO Protest" by Francis L. F. Lee (City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
• Globalization and the Advertising Industry in China" by John Sinclair (University of Melbourne, Australia)
• Diversity of Exposure in Television Viewing: Audience Fragmentation and Polarization in Guangzhou" by Elaine J. Yuan (University of Illinois at Chicago, USA)

The manuscripts are then followed by a special commentary entitled "An Update on China in the Political Economy of Information and Communications" by Dan Schiller (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA).

The inaugural issue concludes with its book review section that covers five scholarly books dealing with a wide range of topics including film, television, advertising, and media law. One of the reviews is devoted to a Chinese-language book on the cultural history of film in Chinese societies, which offers a window for English-language readers to gain insights about recent Chinese-language academic publications.

With committed institutional support from the School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong, the CJoC is set to become a platform for the transnational scholarly community dedicated to studying Chinese communication phenomena. Research articles using both social scientific and humanistic approaches will be included to understand all aspects of mass communication, media effects, journalism studies, telecommunications, rhetoric and cultural studies, new communication technologies, organizational communication, interpersonal communication, advertising and PR, political communication, communications law and policy, and so on. Historical and comparative analyses focused on traditional Chinese culture as well as contemporary topics such as globalization, deregulation, and democratization are also welcome.

For submissions, please visit www.informaworld.com/cjoc