The English‐language media in Hong Kong

The forces of de‐colonization and globalization have shaped the development of the English‐language news media in Hong Kong over the past two decades. When in the mid‐1980s Hong Kong began the transition to Chinese sovereignty, the position of influence of the local English‐language press began to erode while the Chinese‐language newspapers started to proliferate and expand their readership. As Hong Kong moved out of the colonial era, however, a countertrend emerged with international English‐language media conglomerates, mostly US‐owned, extending their reach and reshaping Hong Kong's identity. The images of Hong Kong projected by the colonial press and then by the international media have often been distorted, reflecting the cultural biases of their writers, editors and producers. To increase Hong Kong's representation in an era of ‘new media,’ Hong Kong needs a new type of bilingual media professional with a high level of English proficiency who can contest the assumptions and biases in the English‐language news coverage of Hong Kong and China.