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Governing the Algorithmic Distribution of News in China: The Case of Jinri Toutiao

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The Algorithmic Distribution of News

Part of the book series: Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business ((GMPB))

Abstract

The chapter examines the governance of the algorithmic distribution of news in China through a case study of Jinri Toutiao, the most popular news aggregation application in China. We argue that the rationales, strategies and politics of the Chinese Communist Party’s governance of algorithmic news are not historically novel, and are greatly influenced by the legacies and experiences of the Party’s governance of news and new media technologies in the past. There has been a tendency in the Western literature to see the turn to platform governance as marking a weakening of the power and capabilities of the regulatory state. In China, the opposite is true: the political priorities have remained at the forefront of both governance of algorithms and governance through algorithms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deakin University, Burwood, Australia

    Jian Xu

  2. The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Terry Flew

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  1. Jian Xu
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Correspondence to Jian Xu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    James Meese

  2. Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Sara Bannerman

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Xu, J., Flew, T. (2022). Governing the Algorithmic Distribution of News in China: The Case of Jinri Toutiao. In: Meese, J., Bannerman, S. (eds) The Algorithmic Distribution of News. Palgrave Global Media Policy and Business. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87086-7_2

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