I. Article Structure and Essential Argument

The article has three sections. The first section, based on the analysis of the interaction between the ideological trend of westernization and the numerous emergence of early Chinese newspapers, discusses that the flourishing of early Chinese commercial newspapers largely attributes to the ideological tide of self-strengthening movement. The second section, through revealing the inner logical relationship between the ideological trend of modernization and the rising of modern national newspapers, confirms that during the ideological trend of modernization, Chinese intellectuals awakened and pushed the newspaper industry into a new height. The third section comprehensively unfolds the mutually-support relationship among the ideological trend of the late Qing Dynasty “Kai Min Zhi (National Wisdom Enlightenment)”, the ideological trend of revolution, the sharply rise of vernacular newspapers as well as the reviving of the speech communication. The article proofs that social ideological trends sometimes even enable communication media to break constraints of objective social environment and material conditions and to leap forward greatly.

Within the framework of the social reform movement in the late Qing Dynasty, the article starts from the perspective of social ideological trends to examine the evolution of communication media and accurately grasps its special pattern of evolution. From the 1870s to the 1890s, the ideological trend of westernization promoted the development of early Chinese commercial newspapers. Soon afterwards, the ideological trend of modernization enabled Chinese national newspapers to reach the first pinnacle. During the last decade of the late Qing Dynasty, ideological trends such as “Enlightenment” and “Revolution” alike brought the surge of vernacular newspapers and the rejuvenation of speech communication. The communication media and the zeitgeist mutually reinforce each other. Through the media evolution during the social improvement movement of the late Qing Dynasty, it is clear that, as important driving forces,social ideological trends sometimes even can enable communication media to break through the constraints of objective social environment as well as material conditions and to leap forward greatly.

II. Primary Innovation and Academic Significance

The article reviews the evolution of media from the study of social ideological trends, which not only provides a new perspective for the research of the history of journalism and communication, but also for the study of ideological history as well as social history. It is a new attempt to explain the phenomenon of news communication in the Late Qing Dynasty in the framework of the social reform movement, which covers the shortage of the historical rationality and theoretical depth in the previous researches. Through the combination of communication with history, the article not only enriches theoretical system of history and system connotations but also enlightens the domain of history and communication that need to be explored theoretically with broader perspectives.

It is of great theoretical significance to explore the interactive relationship between social movements, ideological trends of society and communication media, which can accurately master the evolvement process of the communication media. .