DEBATES CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE JOURNALISTIC SCIENCE

Seven major debates on journalism, which typify the Chinese journalism reform's ideological and operational dilemmas, are discussed. These a re: functions of journalism, the Party character and the people charac ter, objective laws of journalism, guidance by public opinion and obje ctivity, socialist press freedom, criticism by the press, and guidance by the press. Although no conclusions have been reached, this article maintains that these debates have opened up Chinese journalists to al ternatives and contributed to the development of journalism in China s ince reform was launched in 1979.