| Summary: | 碩士 === 銘傳大學 === 傳播管理研究所 === 87 === HOW PRODUCTION COMPUTERIZATION SYSTEM ADOPTION AFFECTS CHINESE NEWSPAPER FIRMS — A Case Study of the China Times Inc.
(Abstract of the thesis for the Degree of Master of Arts, Ming-Chuan University)
by
Wuan-ta Philip Chen
June, 1999
RESEARCH BACKGROUND AND PROBLEM:
Automation and computerization has been adopted broadly by the manufacturing industry for improving its production process since 1940s. It became a new niche for the operational department of the most industries, including the newspaper industry a couple of years later. It is automation which was first adopted by the print/production departments of most of the newspaper in the beginning, and then computerization of the operational departments followed. However, it is not until the 1990’s that the adoption of the Production Computerization System (PCS) became an issue which drew the newspaper industry’s attention, especially in its editorial departments. Recent articles have focused on technical level, however, it is less clear as to exactly what impacts this adoption would have onto newspaper’s organizational changes and its assessment of effectiveness. This knowledge is important if Chinese newspaper leaders and executives are to understand and influence their Newspaper’s evolution.
PROCEDURE:
The China Times Inc. is the first newspaper group which adopts PCS in Taiwan, Republic of China. Thus, its three major branch newspaper companies, the China Times, the China Times Express, and the Commercial Times, were all taken as cases in this study. For understanding and assessing the process of the editorial departments’ adoption of PCS in this three case companies, questionnaire survey was first applied in this study for understanding how the PCS was adopted and what benefits this adoption brings so far. Furthermore, this study also used an in-depth interview method for gathering more in-depth information with regards to the process of adoption, difficulties the newspapers encountered, and PCS’s future in the editorial departments.
RESEARCH FINDINGS:
The findings of this study are as followed.
1. In the early adoption stage, most of the editorial personnel had doubts on the policy, feelings of rejection of new technology, and worries of being dismissed. These doubts and worries were eased by the China Times Inc.’s efforts successfully by measures such as employee education and training programs, communication meetings, firm level’s guarantee of no lay-off, helping job-transferring, and encouraging of retirement.
2. With regards to the characteristic of the China Times Inc.’s adoption of PCS, the research findings are:
(1) most of the editorial department staff hold that the policy (of the adoption) was positive;
(2) the implement of training and educational programs were smooth and successful;
(3) even though the union is not very influential, it has been treated with respects by the firm level of the China Times Inc.; and
(4) there is no timetable for the adoption.
3. With regards to the effectiveness of the PCS adoption, this study has the following findings.
(1) In general, PCS helps decrease editorial department staff’s workload, simplify their working procedure and processes, and improve their working effectiveness; however,
(2) PCS does not help editorial department staff in postponing the dead-line, decreasing the number of staff, and the amount of working time.
(3) Due to the characteristics of journalism profession, editorial staff’s pressure still exist.
(4) The changes of authority structure due to the adoption within the editorial department is vague.
(5) All of the editorial department staff have the benefits from the adoption of PCS. Although many respondents thought that the art/design team is the one that PCS would benefit most, according to the statistic analysis of this study, it is less clear as to exactly which team in the editorial department or what kinds of editorial practice that PCS can benefit most.
(6) The majority of the respondents concluded that PCS can help their companies in having better brand names, producing better news product quality, and become more competitive.
(7) All of the respondents concluded that the adoption of PCS is the policy which can benefit both employee and employer.
4. The process of the adoption will directly influence PCS’s benefits when it is on-line. This argument is supported by the finding that while all editorial staff of the three case companies take a positive attitude toward PCS during the adoption stages, they all confirm the benefits when PCS is on-line.
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