n the 1930s and 1940s ( Hao & Xu,1997 / Zhou,1992). All these early journalism departments and programs borrowed from the American educational system. For instance, the Journalism Department at Fudan University was based on the system of the Journalism College of Missouri University, with a four-year program which had 34 journalistic courses and required a total of 89 credits. As is known, this is the warring period in the history of China, in which newspapers were set up by different political sectors of the society and needed a lot of journalists and management staff. As a result, the target of a journalism program was set as “training of the editing and managing personnel for Chinese newspapers.” To tailor the programs to the Chinese society in this warring period when, courses like Military Education, Geography, Newspaper Organization and Management and Chinese Language were added to the program as selective courses (Ding, P. 70,1997). Meanwhile, the Communists under Mao Zedong also started training their cadres for journalistic purposes in their areas under control ( Hao & Xu, 1997). And the focus of this kind of journalistic training was on political courses and courses that dealt with current affairs and policies (Ding, 1997, p.70,). This was of special importance to a period when the Communist Party fought with the Japanese and later on the Nationalist Party. The second stage saw the establishment of the People’s Republic of China and also the beginning of a tense relationship between China and the United States and a warm-up between China and the Soviet Union. The target of the journalism education in China was modified to “training of news writing personnel with solid political foundation and potential.” This reflected the single purpose of the media at the time, which was soon coupled with a strong sense of political orientation (Ding, 1997, p. 70) As a result, the journalism programs in China were soon re-organized, with Marxist-Leninist theories added to the curriculum and the Soviet model replaced the American model in the curriculum design and teaching methods, which emphasized service to the working class and basic political knowledge and theoretical political learning (Hao & Xu, 1997). The courses like business management and advertising were replaced by the courses like Newspaper’s Mass Work. Journalism students were told that “journalism, in Lenin’s words, should consciously treat itself as part of the party, consciously obey the party and identify with the Party’s political stand” (Hao & Xu, 1997, p3). It should be noted that the reason why the so called Soviet Model became popular in this stage of China is because it was more relevant or easier to be localized to the Chinese society at the that time due to the similarities in ideology and political system. In the third stage after China broke up with the Soviet Union, China became more realistic and self-dependent. The target of the journalism education was shifted on the “the training of journalistic teaching and research personnel.” The curriculum of journalism education favored the courses on theories and cultures and history knowledge, which deviated from the Soviet Model and suited the Chinese better (Ding, 1997.). However, this did not last very long. The normal journalism education was soon interrupted in the mid 1960s (the forth stage) when the chaotic ten-year “Cultural Revolution” started. All the students and teachers were required to go to the countryside. Although new students who had been workers, farmers or soldiers were still enrolled, they no longer underwent the normal journalism education but were evaluated with their political attitude rather than academic performances (Ding, 1997,/ Hao & Xu, 1997). In these two stages, the journalism education in China experienced great ups and downs and was surely characterized by the chaotic period of time in China. For most Chinese, they may feel a bit awkward to regard it as a kind of localization process, but it is surely true that journalism education at this time was modified and adapted to such a way that it satisfied the political needs of this special period in the history of China, for better or for worse. In the fifth stage, the reform and open policy started in the early 1980 brought about the dramatic social changes and rapid economic growth, unprecedented in the history of China. The changes also stimulated the media development, particularly TV industry. The number of TV stations in 1986 was almost six times that in 1983. Meanwhile, the rise of TV set ownership per 100 households from 1983 to 1986 also triggered the expansion of the TV audience size (Guo, 1996, p.81). Besides, the relative competitive operations of the media also led to the increase of pages of newspapers and liveliness of reporting style. In the past 20 years, almost every newspaper in China has tripled their number of pages, which doubled their amount of news reports (Guo, 1996, p.81). In an effort to attract more advertisers, media in China also employed more lively reporting styles such as phone-in hotlines, talk shows, field reporting, criticism reports (negative), larger pictures and separated pages for finance, sports and entertainment. The rapid media developments have left the industry in great demand of more professional and qualified journalists and editors, who are supposed to come from the traditional journalism education. Besides, the media’s emphasis on external reporting, radio and TV, management, advertising and public relations not only resulted in a greater demand of traditional reporters and editors but also required a more diversified and special training from their new recruitment ( Ding,1997, p.71). In this stage, the process of localization has been intensified to an unprecedented level, in that journalism education in China has been tailored to meet the growing demand of the media industry in the country and in a practical way. The journalis

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