The Evolving Landscape of Media and Communication in Hong Kong

The year 2017 marked the twentieth anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty. Round-number anniversaries like this one are good moments for scholars to look back and analyse what has changed and what has stayed the same since the important event. For researchers at Hong Kong Baptist University’s School of Communication, the two-decade mark provides a good opportunity to examine the state of the territory’s media today. “One country, two systems” — the coexistence of China’s communism and Hong Kong’s free-market capitalism — has been the governing principle for Hong Kong, and this pairing of opposites has resulted in fluctuating levels of cooperation and tension. This applies to the media and communication sectors as much as any other areas of life in Hong Kong.

The main task of this edited volume is a difficult one: to capture the current state of Hong Kong’s media and communications development, media education, advertising and public relations (PR) research, and evaluate their application. The problem is not so much in the themes themselves but in the major changes witnessed by Hong Kong society, in general. As the contributors to this volume aptly highlight, what is happening in the media has its roots in the deep and diverse changes that are taking place in society, politics, ideology, economics and technology. The difficulty in discussing the transformations of media and communication professions themselves — such as journalism, PR, advertising and so on — is compounded by the complexity of its causes.

Providing an in-depth analysis for the main communication and media sectors in Hong Kong, this volume identifies the difficulties and opportunities of media professionals to engage with their audiences. At the same time, some of the authors highlight how the audience — through their rituals consumption—have an evolving role in deciding the fate of media and communication industries.