From Xinhua, a story that I hope kindled some small sense of irony in the hack who wrote it. According to a survey by a (no doubt totally disinterested) headhunting company, many Chinese journalists hate their jobs:
BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Most reporters in China want to seek other jobs due to low salary and other reasons, according to a survey recently carried out by Zhaopin.com, one of the leading Web-based headhunters in China.

The survey of 500 people, two-thirds of them working in the media industry, found more than half the correspondents are not interested in being a reporter and nearly 80 percent want to change their profession, reported Tuesday's China Daily.

More than 60 percent of reporters have a monthly salary of less than 3,000 yuan (370 US dollars), said the survey, taking poor salaries as one of the reasons for the lack of interest in reporting jobs.

"A reporter's glory days appear to be over," concluded the survey, claiming holding a reporting job less desirable, more risky and unstable.

China's media industry is estimated to have around 750,000 people working for it, said the newspaper.
Well, lets see: heavy handed state control, miserable paychecks, rampant media corruption, and endless calls from, ahem, PR flacks peddling their wares. Yep, it's a recipe for bliss.

A demoralized and underpaid press corps is, of course, one ripe for corruption and shady practices, as discussed in this space recently, as well as in Bingfeng Teahouse (here responding to me) and ESWN.

Of course, having known many underpaid and demoralized Western journalists in my day (you know who you are), this is hardly a problem exclusive to China. But in the absence of a well-developed culture of media trust and integrity it sounds like nice step along the road to some of the problems we've been discussing recently. With an average montly salary of 3000 RMB, you can begin to see where four or five press conferences at 100 or 200 RMB each, or a little money on the side for positive coverage, would begin to make a difference.

Any national media culture takes time to evolve, as journalists, media consumers, media organizations and regulation evolve in parallel, and in response to each other. China's media will progress, the heavy hand of the state notwithstanding. A few good publications will discover the benefit of building a real bond of trust with their readers, and of cultivating journalists who are a cut above the rest. But as long as they are stifled in what they can cover and report on, and paid peanuts, many of the best and brightest will drift into other careers. PR, for instance.

Update: Caustic but good commentary on this from Danwei here.