Shifting Power Centers and News Sources: The Practices and Struggles of Hong Kong’s Political Journalists Since the Handover

Focusing on Hong Kong’s news media, this study uses the concepts of news paradigms and information subsidies to examine how a shift in political power centers can affect the production of political news and its reportage. A quantitative content analysis of the sourcing patterns of press reports on interpretations of the Basic Law by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress after the 1997 handover of Hong Kong indicated a rising trend in the use of news sources from the Chinese government and the pro-China camp. Furthermore, in-depth interviews with Hong Kong political journalists revealed that the influence of the Chinese government on the media exceeded that of the Hong Kong government. The currently asymmetrical dual-power structure, which is characterized by the Chinese central government’s supersession of the Hong Kong government, has provoked dramatic changes in news sources and sourcing practices, reflecting a shift in Hong Kong’s news paradigm. Media outlets and journalists face resistance to their news reporting and threats to the professionalism of their journalistic work.