Grounded theory in journalism and communication studies in the Chinese mainland (2004–2017): Status quo and problems

Grounded theory is a qualitative research method widely used in social sciences. Using content analysis and CiteSpace visualization software and taking journal articles of China National Knowledge Infrastructure database from 2004 to 2017 as the analysis objects, this paper comprehensively explores the studies using grounded theory in the field of journalism and communication in the Chinese mainland. It shows that the application of grounded theory in the field of journalism and communication had a relatively late start in the Chinese mainland. However, interdisciplinary research obviously prevailed. Researches using grounded theory are not widespread, while the theory has not been fully localized. Financial support from the government has been a great help to researchers, but the researchers outside the academic circles hardly get involved in academic activities.