Creating Effective Forms of Grassroots Media

The Communist Party of China is hailed as the party that places the greatest emphasis on the grassroots level anywhere in the world. In the field of journalism and communication, in addition to requiring party organizations at all levels to run newspapers, our party also strongly emphasizes grassroots-level newspaper publishing. As early as the Soviet Area period [n1], practices of “grassroots media” such as current-affairs bulletins, wall newspapers, and poster newspapers had already begun. In 1939, under the situation of total resistance against Japan, our party proposed publishing wall newspapers or “mass blackboards” to regularly report war news and the participation of the masses in the war effort and production, and to organize and mobilize the masses to write contributions for the wall newspapers or “mass blackboards.” By the mid-1940s, guided by the slogan “the whole party runs newspapers, the masses run newspapers” [n2], the enthusiasm of grassroots masses to participate in newspaper publishing was effectively activated. Tens of thousands of workers and peasants intervened in news gathering and writing as worker-peasant correspondents. Especially during the War of Liberation [n3], amid various worker-peasant correspondence movements, blackboard newspapers, as a spectacular form of grassroots media, spread throughout the countryside.

中国共产党被誉为全世界最重视基层的党，体现在新闻传播领域，我们党除了要求各级党组织办报之外，也非常强调基层办报。苏区时期就已经开始诸如时事简报、墙报、壁报等“基层媒体”的实践。1939年，在全面抗战局势下，我们党提出要出版墙报或“大众黑板”，经常报告战争消息以及群众参战与生产情形，并组织和发动群众为墙报或“大众黑板”写稿件。到了20世纪40年代中期，在“全党办报、群众办报”的口号指引下，基层群众参与办报活动的热情被有效激活，成千上万的工农群众以工农通讯员的身份介入新闻采写。特别是到了解放战争时期，在各种各样的工农通讯运动之中，黑板报作为一种蔚为壮观的基层媒体也随之遍布乡村。

A blackboard newspaper uses a wall or a wooden board to create a black surface, on which one can repeatedly write and erase with chalk. The content of a blackboard newspaper includes both national affairs and local news, as well as events happening in one’s own township or village. It contains criticism, praise, and cartoons, arranged like a newspaper, hence the name “blackboard newspaper.” At that time, blackboard newspapers were regarded as “the peasants’ own mouthpiece” in the vast countryside, the “organ newspaper” of village party branches, and a venue where a large number of worker-peasant correspondents’ manuscripts were published. Blackboard newspapers were established in many villages and published regularly. Although not professional media, they were, like professional newspapers, included in the party newspaper news system. Contemporaries commented: if the “big newspapers” were the “regular army,” then the small newspapers of prefectural and county party committees were like the “local regiment and county brigade,” and village blackboard newspapers were like the “militia.” The regular army must be coordinated with local armed forces and the militia to achieve victory in military struggle; therefore, big newspapers must also be coordinated with small newspapers and blackboard newspapers to do a good job in propaganda struggle.

黑板报是利用墙壁或者木板做成一块黑色的板面，上面可以用粉笔反复擦写。黑板报的内容既包含国家大事，也有地方新闻和本乡本村发生的身边事，有批评、有表扬、有漫画，编排得像一张报，所以被称为黑板报。在当时，黑板报被视为广大乡村中“农民自己的喉舌”，是乡村支部的“机关报”，是工农通讯员稿件大量发表的场所，在很多乡村都建立了黑板报并经常出版。黑板报虽非专业媒体，但和专业报纸一样，被涵括于党报新闻体系之中，时人有评价：如果“大报”是“正规军”的话，地委县委的小报就好像“地方兵团县大队”，村黑板报就好像“民兵”，正规军必须有地方武装和民兵配合，才能在军事斗争上取胜，因此大报也必须有小报和黑板报的配合，才能把宣传斗争做好。

So, how did blackboard newspapers, as grassroots media, actually interact with worker-peasant correspondents, these grassroots communicators?

那么，作为基层媒体的黑板报又是如何与工农通讯员这些基层传播者发生实际互动的？

Blackboard newspapers relied on grassroots organizations, and worker-peasant correspondents naturally became the main communicators. An article at the time believed that “the correspondents of blackboard newspapers should mainly be the worker and peasant masses, because blackboard newspapers are primarily run for the worker and peasant masses to read, to raise the cultural and political status of workers and peasants, to weaken the oppression of feudal forces, and to reflect the voices and demands of workers and peasants.” Therefore, to run a blackboard newspaper well, one must face the masses and mobilize everyone to write contributions for it. The degree of importance attached to the blackboard newspaper also became an important criterion for evaluating worker-peasant correspondents: “Whether a village blackboard newspaper is run well or poorly is the standard for judging the worker-peasant correspondents of that village. If you want to be a good worker-peasant correspondent, you must care about the blackboard newspaper and write contributions for it.” Consequently, the organizational management of worker-peasant correspondents and the organizational management of blackboard newspapers naturally became highly integrated. For example, in November 1946, in the Haibin District of Jiaodong, Shandong, in response to the correspondence work competition called for by the Jiaodong Branch of the Xinhua News Agency, worker-peasant correspondence groups were established in every village, and the manuscripts for the village blackboard newspapers were provided by the worker-peasant correspondence groups and correspondents. In Nitanggou Village, Zhuanggang Town, Junan County, Binhai Area, Shandong, there was a correspondence group composed of more than 30 worker-peasant correspondents. Its organizational leadership was combined with blackboard newspaper work, and the correspondents were led by the communications team leader of the blackboard newspaper.

黑板报以基层组织为依托，工农通讯员自然成为主要的传播者。当时的一篇文章认为，“黑板报通讯员，主要应该是工农群众，因为黑板报主要是办给工农大众看的，是为提高工农文化上、政治上的地位、削弱封建势力的压迫和反映工农的呼声和要求”。所以，要把黑板报办好，就必须面向群众，发动大家为黑板报写稿。而对黑板报的重视程度也成为评价工农通讯员的重要标准：“村黑板报办的好坏，就是这村工农通讯员好坏的标准，假若你要做一个好工农通讯员，就一定要关心黑板报，给黑板报写稿。”因此，工农通讯员的组织管理与黑板报的组织管理自然而然地高度融合在一起。如1946年11月，山东胶东海滨区为了响应新华社胶东分社号召的通讯工作竞赛，在每个村都成立了工农通讯小组，村里出版黑板报的稿件由工农通讯小组与通讯员负责。山东滨海地区莒南县壮岗镇泥塘沟村有一个由30多名工农通讯员组成的通讯小组，在组织领导上与黑板报工作相结合，通讯员归黑板报的通讯队长领导。

For professional newspapers, worker-peasant correspondents were “amateur reporters,” but for blackboard newspapers, they became “professional reporters.” Without their participation, the blackboard newspaper could hardly be considered a “newspaper.” Therefore, blackboard newspapers placed special importance on the manuscripts of worker-peasant correspondents, making it possible for the worker and peasant masses to support the blackboard newspaper. As early as the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan [n4], the blackboard newspaper in Lujiagou Village, Xingtang Second District, Jijin Region, published 27 issues in half a year, carrying 108 articles, while the village’s 15 correspondents contributed 152 manuscripts. Jingouguanzhuang, Junan County, Shandong, was a model village for cultural construction. The village ran five blackboard newspapers, and over 120 people regularly wrote contributions for them. Among them was an 18-year-old female correspondent named Mu Rong, who submitted 32 manuscripts to the blackboard newspaper in a single month. In Shuimotou Village, Linyi, Shandong, a blackboard newspaper committee was specially established to run the blackboard newspaper well, with the village party branch secretary serving as its director. The required manuscripts were gathered and written by the village’s five worker-peasant correspondents. It can be seen that in the editorial team of blackboard newspapers, worker-peasant correspondents were the unquestionable mainstay.

对于专业报纸来说，工农通讯员是“业余记者”，但是对于黑板报来说，他们又成了“专业记者”，如果缺少他们的参与，黑板报也就难以成为“报”了。因此，黑板报对待工农通讯员的稿件特别重视，工农群众对黑板报的支持由此成为可能。早在抗战末期，冀晋地区行唐二区卢家沟村的黑板报曾在半年中出版27期，刊登了108篇文章，而全村的15名通讯员就供稿152篇。山东莒南县金沟官庄是一个文化建设的模范村，全村办有5块黑板报，经常给黑板报写稿的就有120多人，其中有一个18岁的名叫穆荣的女通讯员，一个月就给黑板报投稿32篇。山东临沂水磨头村为了办好黑板报，专门成立了黑板报委员会，由村支书担任黑板报委员会主任，所需稿件由全村5个工农通讯员采写。由此可见，在黑板报的采编队伍中，工农通讯员是当仁不让的主要支撑。

Worker-peasant correspondents were the “protagonists” in running blackboard newspapers, and at the same time, blackboard newspapers became the “main battlefield” for promoting the growth of worker-peasant correspondents.

工农通讯员是办黑板报的“主角”，同时黑板报也成为助推工农通讯员成长的“主阵地”。

Running a blackboard newspaper required a large number of manuscripts, which necessitated mobilizing grassroots worker-peasant correspondents to write. By writing frequently, the correspondents’ writing skills gradually improved. To dispel the concerns of the worker and peasant masses about their low cultural level, Jingbian County in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region [n5] once believed that the cultural level of blackboard newspaper correspondents need not be the primary requirement. A certain blackboard newspaper there created communication methods of “writing notes” and “sending messages by word of mouth,” enabling 13 illiterate and 6 semi-literate people to become correspondents. Of the 114 manuscripts they provided, 79 were “messages sent by word of mouth.” This approach created conditions for the cultural participation of the worker and peasant masses as much as possible. Bi Jianmin, a worker-peasant correspondent from Yantai, Shandong, was originally completely illiterate. After two months of study, he progressed from writing for the blackboard newspaper to writing for the regular newspaper, eventually becoming a model worker-peasant correspondent. From this perspective, in the eyes of many worker-peasant correspondents, the blackboard newspaper was the first step on the ladder of professional progress, through which they could aim for higher goals.

办黑板报需要大量稿件，就需要发动基层工农通讯员写稿，而工农通讯员通过经常写稿，写作能力就会日益提高。为了打消工农群众对自身文化水平低下的顾虑，陕甘宁边区靖边县曾认为黑板报的通讯员文化程度可以不是第一位的要求，当地的某一黑板报创造了“写纸条条”和“捎话”的通讯方式，让13个文盲、6个半文盲成为通讯员，他们提供的114篇来稿中有79篇是“捎话”，这样的做法是尽可能为工农群众的文化参与创造条件。山东烟台的工农通讯员毕健民原先一个大字不识，通过两个月的学习，从为黑板报写稿发展到后来为报纸写稿，最终成为一名模范工农通讯员。以此视之，在很多工农通讯员眼中，黑板报是自己业务进步的第一级台阶，通过它可以迈向更高的目标。

The vast number of rural blackboard newspapers provided worker-peasant correspondents with ample opportunities to publish their manuscripts. On the one hand, this solved the problem that the limited pages of regular newspapers could not meet the demand for publication. On the other hand, because of the support of blackboard newspapers, the chances of manuscripts being published increased, which boosted the correspondents’ enthusiasm for writing. In the Yanfu area [n6], the newspaper *Yanfu Dazhong* received two to three thousand manuscripts and letters from worker-peasant correspondents each month, but the newspaper could only publish a small portion of them. With the village blackboard newspapers, these manuscripts had better opportunities for publication. For example, the blackboard newspaper of Yangzhai Village, Funing, received 1,416 manuscripts between March 1947 and April 1948, of which 1,024 were published, a publication rate of over 70%.

数量庞大的乡村黑板报给工农通讯员提供了大量发表稿件的机会，这一方面解决了正规报纸有限版面无法满足发表需求的难题，另一方面由于有了黑板报的支撑，稿件登出的机会多了，通讯员的写作热情就会高涨。在盐阜地区，《盐阜大众》报每月收到工农通讯员来稿来信两三千件，报纸只能登其中的一小部分，而有了乡村黑板报，这些稿子就有了更好的发表机会。如阜宁羊寨村黑板报在1947年3月至1948年4月间共收到来稿1416篇，其中1024篇得到发表，发表率达70%以上。

In 1948, the Huaihai Region [n7] specifically launched a “rural newspaper movement,” promoting the establishment of 1,138 blackboard newspapers at the township and village levels across the region. These blackboard newspapers provided a vast publishing platform for worker-peasant correspondents. In Lianshui County, during a two-month competition period, a total of 17,541 manuscripts were written, of which 10,038 were published in rural blackboard newspapers. This encouraged the writing of worker-peasant correspondents and consolidated the rural communication network. As a “medium at the side” of the worker and peasant masses, although the reach of blackboard newspapers was relatively limited, the hidden value of a large number of worker-peasant correspondents’ manuscripts being “put on the wall” was akin to being “published in the newspaper,” actively stimulating the cultural subjectivity of the grassroots masses.

淮海地区1948年专门发起过“乡村报运动”，推动全地区乡、村两级办黑板报1138处。这些黑板报为工农通讯员提供了广阔的发表阵地，其中的涟水县在两个月的竞赛时间里共写稿17541篇，发表在乡村黑板报上的就有10038篇，鼓励了工农通讯员的写作，巩固了农村通讯网。作为工农群众“身边的媒介”，尽管黑板报的辐射面比较有限，但是，大量工农通讯员稿件“上墙”的隐形价值却如同“上报”一样，可以积极催发基层群众的文化主体性。

Although a blackboard newspaper is small, its promotion of worker-peasant correspondents was comprehensive. In the process of running a blackboard newspaper, one had to integrate the processes of gathering, writing, editing, publishing, and reading the newspaper, thereby learning much experience in newspaper editing, organizing correspondence, and leading newspaper-reading activities. This had a significant effect on personal progress. For example, in the Central Shandong Liberated Area [n8], by September 1946, over 9,000 blackboard newspapers had been published, and 5,777 worker-peasant correspondents had been developed. Among them, the Yinan Andi District and Jingshan District even jointly published *Dazhong Tongxun* (Mass Correspondence) to exchange experiences and manuscripts from various villages’ blackboard newspapers, and to synthesize the central tasks of each period by publishing express bulletins to guide the completion of those central tasks.

黑板报虽小，但它对于工农通讯员的推动却是全面的，因为在办黑板报的过程中，要融入采写、编辑、出版、读报的流程，可以学到许多编报、组织通讯、领导读报等方面的经验，对个人进步的推动作用很大。如在山东鲁中解放区，到1946年9月时已经出版9千多块黑板报，发展工农通讯员5777名，其中的沂南岸堤区、荆山区甚至还一起出版《大众通讯》，交流各村黑板报的经验与稿件，并综合每一时期的中心任务出快报以指导完成中心任务。

An article in *People’s Daily* at the time held that worker-peasant correspondents, by making use of blackboard newspapers, had in fact transformed themselves into propaganda agitators beloved by the masses, basic correspondents for the mass blackboard newspaper, and at the same time models of learning in the cultural emancipation and advanced elements in ideological awakening. At the same time, by means of this very popular medium of the blackboard newspaper, the worker and peasant masses acquired their own organ of speech, shifting from “the silent” to “those who speak.” Someone commented as follows: “It represents all the interests of the peasants; it is not only a new ground for cultural study, but also a miracle never seen before in history. Only under the leadership of the Communist Party can peasants—peasants who have turned over [in the land reform]—have the right to speak, have the qualification for freedom of speech.” [9]9 The phrase “peasants who have turned over” (翻身后的农民) refers to peasants who gained land and political status through the land reform carried out by the Chinese Communist Party in the liberated areas during the 1940s.

当时《人民日报》上的一篇文章认为，工农通讯员借用黑板报，实际上已变成了群众热爱的宣传鼓动家、大众黑板的基本通讯员，同时是文化翻身的学习模范和思想觉悟的先进者。同时，借助黑板报这一非常普及的媒介形式，工农群众有了自己的发言机关，从“沉默者”转向了“发言者”。有人如此评论：“它代表着农民全部利益，不仅是文化学习的新园地，而且是历史上从未有过的奇迹。只有在共产党领导下，农民——翻身后的农民，才有发言权，才有言论自由的资格。”

In the liberated areas, where transport was inconvenient and the media were still underdeveloped, the blackboard newspaper was a very important media form, because “the readership of the blackboard newspaper is larger than that of other newspapers”; the critical and commendatory functions of the blackboard newspaper could powerfully propel a village’s work. At the same time, in the worker-peasant correspondence movement, because the number of participants was large, the blackboard newspaper, as the most grassroots medium, highlighted its role even more; the large-scale establishment of blackboard newspapers was considered “the most effective method for raising the worker-peasant correspondence movement and promoting general cultural construction,” because it enabled the cultural activities of the broad masses truly to achieve “‘recognize, write, and use,’ integrating learning with application.” On this point, an article offered a vivid metaphor: if the correspondence movement is compared to crops, then the blackboard newspaper is the soil. The relationship between the two, as summed up by experience from the Luzhong region of Shandong, was: the worker-peasant correspondence movement was the main force driving the rural cultural movement, and the blackboard newspaper movement carried out on the basis of this movement was a powerful weapon for consolidating and enlivening the rural cultural movement, strengthening ideological education of the masses, and promoting all kinds of work. Therefore, the organic integration of the blackboard newspaper and the worker-peasant correspondents during the War of Liberation was an effective form of grassroots communication at that time.

在交通不便、传播媒介尚不发达的解放区，黑板报是一种很重要的媒介形态，因为“黑板报读者较之其他报纸的读者多”，黑板报的批评和表扬作用，可以有力地推动一个村的工作。同时，在工农通讯运动中，由于参与人数众多，作为最基层媒体的黑板报更凸显了它的作用，大量开办黑板报被认为是“提高工农通讯运动以及推动一般文化建设最有效的办法”，因为它使广大群众的文化活动真正达到“‘会认、会写、会用’，学用一致”。对此，一篇文章作了生动的比喻：假如把通讯运动比喻为庄稼，那么黑板报就是土地。两者的关系，如山东鲁中地区的经验总结所言：工农通讯运动是推动农村文化运动的主力军，而在这个运动的基础上所开展的黑板报运动，则是巩固与活跃农村文化运动、加强群众思想教育、推动各种工作的有力武器。因此，解放战争时期黑板报与工农通讯员的有机融合是当时基层传播的一种有效样态。

Regrettably, because the blackboard newspaper lacks the preservability characteristic of the newspaper medium, countless blackboard newspapers and countless manuscripts by worker-peasant correspondents have now dissipated without a trace and are difficult to find; people today can only rely on fragmentary descriptions to reasonably imagine the “big stage” of grassroots communication that was the blackboard newspaper, and the “leading actors” on that stage—the worker-peasant correspondents.

遗憾的是，由于黑板报不具有报纸媒介的可保存性特征，因此无数的黑板报和无数的工农通讯员的稿件如今都已经消散无形且难寻其踪，今人只能从一些碎片化的描述中去合理想象黑板报这个基层传播的“大舞台”，以及舞台上的“主角”——工农通讯员。

Yet, looking back at history can still bring us inspiration for today: although the media ecology has undergone profound changes, how to transform and create new media starting from grassroots realities, and to provide appropriate guidance and guarantees for workers and peasants—the grassroots masses on the front line of production and labor—endowing them with certain new roles suited to the new social environment, so that the grassroots masses and grassroots media interweave, stimulate, transform, and grow with each other, and thereby become a vital force for consolidating socialist ideology and flourishing socialist culture, remains a topic worthy of attention.

然而，历史的回望犹能给今天的我们带来启示：尽管媒介生态发生深刻变化，但是如何从基层实际出发改造、创造一些新媒介，并给工人、农民这些在生产劳动一线的基层群众以适当的导引和保障，赋予他们以匹适新的社会环境的某些新角色，让基层群众与基层媒介互为交织、互为激励、互为转化、互为生长，继而成为巩固社会主义意识形态、繁荣社会主义文化的有生力量，依然是一个值得关注的话题。

(The author is a professor at the School of Humanities and Communication, Zhejiang Gongshang University.)

（作者系浙江工商大学人文与传播学院教授）

Online editor: Huihui

网络编辑：慧慧