MCLC: writing teams

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: A. E. Clark <aec at raggedbanner.com>
Subject: writing teams
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Bill Bishop at Sinocism called attention to this article from _The China
Quarterly_. The authors teach in Taiwan.  Full text apparently available
by subscription only.

Andrew

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http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=89
44074

Secret Codes of Political Propaganda: The Unknown System of Writing Teams
Bt Wen-Hsuan Tsai and Peng-Hsiang Kao

Abstract
Within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), some Party units have
established a largely unknown network of writing teams which propagate the
policies or perspectives of a particular unit by publishing feature
articles in Party journals. These writing teams often make use of a
pseudonym in the form of a person's name, leading outsiders to believe
that the work is written by a journalist. In fact, the pseudonyms of the
Party unit writing teams function as a form of secret code. Through this
code, inner Party members can recognize which unit's views an article
reflects. In order to reveal exactly which units the codes represent, we
have collated the names of over 20 writing teams. In addition, we provide
an introduction to the functioning of the writing teams and the manner in
which articles are produced. Finally, we propose that the CCP's mechanism
of ³propaganda codes² is gradually undergoing the process of
institutionalization.