“Journalism is dead”? Digital press criticism and challenges to media legitimacy in China

This study examines digital press criticism in China, with an emphasis on the much-debated 2023 Zhang Xuefeng controversy. By analyzing video post content and discourse on Douyin and Bilibili, it examines how Chinese netizens, empowered by digital technologies, actively engage in press criticism and vocally express their opinions on Chinese journalism’s failures. Their criticisms challenge journalism’s legitimacy by highlighting deep-seated problems with Chinese journalism, including growing state control and diminishing public service. We argue that digital press criticism in this context should not be dismissed as merely “mob censorship,” but rather needs to be placed in the context of China’s strategic empowerment and governance of digital “civil society.” Following an analysis of the pluralistic and contested nature of the digital public’s criticisms of state and state-dominated journalism, we reflect on how far these criticisms might not only highlight issues in contemporary Chinese journalism publicly, but also offer resources for its potential reform and renewal.