Institutional History of Journalism Award in China.

Journalism award has been operating in the institutional framework of state corporatism in post-Mao China. It first of all occurred as an institutional innovation in an attempt to build a symbolic order of professional honor and fame for news people, then gradually achieved institutional isomorphism, and finally became an institutional routine. Meanwhile, the pace of institutionalization of journalism award has basically been synchronous with that of global social transformations. Especially, the period of late 1970s to the early 1980s, representing the transformation from Maoist to post-Mao era, and, the period of late 1980s to the early 1990s, representing the transformation from movement to post-movement era, constitute two critical junctures in the award history. Besides, the awards have universally adopted a host-contractor model to build their capital chains. In the end, social forces attempting to penetrate the award institution often adopted two naming strategies: special and ordinary naming. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]