NOTES
- W.A. Swanberg, Luce and His Empire (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1972), 414–15.
- In this article, “Communist” and “Communism” will be capitalized throughout as this is consistent with Time magazine's coverage.
- Luce's parents were Methodist missionary educators, who were dedicated to introducing Christianity to the Chinese and helping them rise above the devastating poverty experienced by so many in the Far East at that time.
- Robert E. Herzstein, Henry R. Luce (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994), 24–34.
- Ibid., 44–78.
- Whittaker Chambers was one of those hires. He worked as the foreign editor for Time and was known for his substantial rewrites and tensions with reporters, including the respected Theodore White. Later, Chambers would leave Time and go on to his “Alger Hiss” fame.
- The Wade-Giles system of writing Chinese names is used in this article because it reflects the system used by Time magazine at the time.
- Robert E. Herzstein and Isaiah Wilner have written new books on Luce and his co-founder, Britton Hadden, both of which are cited in this literature review. A Mao biography was introduced at the end of 2005 and presents a new and different look at Mao. See Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: The Unknown Story (New York: Knopf, 2005). In addition, recent work on Chiang Kai-shek and his wife include: Jonathan Fenby, Chiang Kai-shek: China's Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005); Laura Tyson Li, Madame Chiang Kaishek: China's Eternal First Lady (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006); and Sandra Donovan, Madame Chiang Kai-shek: Face of Modern China (Mankato, Minn.: Compass Point Books, 2006).
- Swanberg, Luce and His Empire, 6.
- Sterling Seagrave, The Soong Dynasty (New York: Harper & Row, 1985), 232.
- Chiang appeared for the tenth, and final time, on the Time cover on April 18, 1955. In addition, Madame Chiang was featured on the cover by herself on March 1, 1943. See Donald J. Lehnus, Who's On Time (New York: Oceana Publications, 1980), 42.
- Christopher T. Jespersen, American Images of China: 1931–1949 (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1996), 43–44.
- Isaiah Wilner, The Man Time Forgot: A Tale of Genius, Betrayal, and the Creation of Time Magazine (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), 184–86.
- David D. Perlmutter, Picturing China in the American Press: The Visual Portrayal of Sino-American Relations in Time Magazine, 1949–1973 (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2007), xxiv–xxvi.
- Patricia Neils, China Images in the Life and Times of Henry Luce (Savage, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1990), 292–94.
- James L. Baughman, Henry R. Luce and the Rise of the American News Media (Boston: Twayne, 1987), 156.
- Herzstein, Henry R. Luce, 419.
- Herzstein, Henry R. Luce, Time, and the American Crusade in Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 1–5, 239–53.
- Michael H. Hunt, “East Asia in Henry Luce's ‘American Century,’” Diplomatic History 23 (Spring 1999): 321–53.
- It should be noted that other work by writers and academics has centered on different but related areas of news magazines. For example, one study looked at how the three major weekly news magazines covered Chiang Kai-shek and Mao from 1949 to 1976. Yu Yang-Chou and Daniel Riffe explored “topic emphasis” in covering the two leaders as well as whether the “favorableness” of the coverage varied as United States policy became more favorable toward Mao and China and less so toward Chiang and Taiwan. Overall, their research looked at how news magazines’ content reflected United States national policy. The premise of the research for this article is whether and how the influence of a powerful owner affects coverage of events by his media empire. See Yu Yang-Chou and Daniel Riffe, “Chiang and Mao in U.S. News Magazines,” Journalism Quarterly 66 (Winter 1989): 913–19.
- Luce officially resigned his position as editor-in-chief of Time, Inc. publications in April 1964, leaving active, full-time work for retirement. During this period, he continued to serve in the largely ceremonial role of “editorial chairman” until his death in February 1967.
- Covering China during the Cultural Revolution was a formidable challenge. All three news magazines’ reporting operations were based in their Hong Kong bureaus because, for the most part, North American reporters were not allowed in China since the country had employed a set of severe restrictions against entrance. On the other hand, Europeans, such as German and Italian reporters, were able to cover the country, basing their efforts in Beijing. Thus, stories for the news magazines had to be pieced together from various sources such as official Chinese government publications like the People's Daily, Chinese radio broadcasts, accounts from tourists and refugees, and reports from European correspondents. See “A Letter from the Publisher,” Time, Jan. 13, 1967, 1. Stanley Karnow, who covered China as a Time, Life, and Washington Post correspondent, also cited Red Guard publications such as pamphlets, posters, handbills, and newspapers as providing insight to the chaotic events occurring during the Cultural Revolution. See Stanley Karnow, Mao and China (New York: Penguin Books, 1972), xiii.
- The sample included the following issues published from April 1966 through December 1967: Time, forty issues in 1966 and fifty-one issues in 1967; Newsweek, thirty-nine issues in 1966 and fifty-two issues in 1967; and U.S. News & World Report, thirty-nine issues in 1966 and fifty-two issues in 1967.
- Articles on Taiwan and Hong Kong were not included in the totals (see table 1 and note 69). In this article, references to “China” mean the People's Republic of China.
- Carolina Acosta-Alzuru and Elli Lester-Roushanzamir, “All You Will See Is the One You Once Knew: Portrayals from the Falklands War in U.S. and Latin American Newspapers,” Journalism and Mass Communication Monographs 1 (2000): 315–17.
- A.C.H. Smith, Paper Voices: The Popular Press and Social Change, 1935–1965 (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1975), 11–24.
- Almost all of the coverage was Mao or China based with only three articles on Chiang or Taiwan appearing in Time during the period under study. When considering the massive investment made in covering Chiang during the 1940s and the sheer amount of coverage dedicated to Chiang and the Nationalists, this is a highly revealing finding. Mao and his revolution had in effect marginalized Chiang and his Nationalists in Time.
- From the beginning, a crucial element of Time was the recognition that news was made by individuals and not institutions; thus, it would attempt to bring individual personalities to life. The original Time prospectus asserted, “The personalities of politics make public affairs live.” See Theodore Peterson, Magazines in the Twentieth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1964), 334.
- The September 9, 1966, issue, featuring Lin Piao on the cover, included an accompanying five-page article, which detailed the situation in China and emphasized the emergence of Piao over Lui Shao-chi as the heir apparent to Mao. This practice of placing key Chinese leaders on the cover was not unique for Time; this particular cover marked the fifteenth time a Chinese Communist leader or collection of leaders had been featured on the cover of Time since the Communist party takeover in October 1949. See “A Letter from the Publisher,” Time, Jan. 13, 1967, 1.
- Time once referred to Chiang as “His Excellency Generalissimo” and “unquestionably the greatest man in the Far East.” See “Generalissimo's Last Straw,” Time, Dec. 11, 1933, 20; and “Chiang Dares,” Time, Nov. 9, 1936, 18.
- Mao was present in the China coverage in almost every article written on China during the period of study. The reference to “eight” is the number of times that he appeared on the cover from 1949 to 1976. In fact, over his lifetime, Mao was featured on Time's front cover and lead article twelve times. See Lehnus, Who's On Time, 131.
- Beginning in November 1965, Mao spent approximately six months out of public view.
- The Great Splash Forward,” Time, Aug. 5, 1966, 27.
- “Into the Dustbin! Onto the Garbage Heap!” Time, April 14, 1967, 40.
- See “Peking's Big Blast,” Time, June 23, 1967, 28; and “Back to the Cave!” Time, Sept. 9, 1966, 28
- “Peking Opera,” Time, May 20, 1966, 36.
- “Back to the Cave!” 32.
- “The Dear Comrade,” Time, Aug. 26, 1966, 16.
- Ibid.
- “Back to the Cave!” 28.
- Ibid.
- “Dance of the Scorpion,” Time, Jan. 13, 1967, 23.
- “Is This Trip Necessary?” Time, Nov. 18, 1966, 48.
- “Appalling & Alone,” Time, Sept. 30, 1966, 28.
- Ibid.
- “Peking's Big Blast,” 28.
- “The Edge of Chaos,” Time, Aug. 4, 1967, 23–26.
- “A Great Week for Insults,” Time, Sept., 22, 1967, 30.
- “Overflowing Revolution,” Time, July 28, 1967, 20–21.
- “Dance of the Scorpion,” 23.
- “No Ordinary Swim,” Newsweek, Aug. 8, 1966, 36–40.
- “China: ‘A State of Civil War,’” Newsweek, Jan. 30 1967, 32.
- “China: A Vast and Ominous Tumult,” Newsweek, Jan. 23, 1967, 40.
- “China: ‘A State of Civil War,’” 32.
- “China: A Vast and Ominous Tumult,” 40.
- “How Dangerous Is Red China?” U.S. News & World Report, April 4, 1966, 29–31.
- “Russia vs. China,” U.S. News & World Report, Aug. 29, 1966, 50.
- “Communism: World's Greatest Failure,” U.S. News & World Report, Dec. 5, 1966, 59–63.
- “70 Million Lives at Stake,” U.S. News & World Report, May 23, 1966, 48–52.
- “A First-Hand Report on Red China Today,” U.S. News & World Report, July 7, 1966, 58–61.
- “Why the Turmoil Inside Red China?” U.S. News & World Report, Sept. 12, 1966, 33–34.
- “Red China's God,” U.S. News & World Report, May 23, 1966, 14.
- “Communism: World's Greatest Failure,” 59.
- See Ibid.; “The Growing Mystery of Communist China,” U.S. News & World Report, Aug. 22, 1966, 38; and “As Red China Plunges Deeper into Chaos,” U.S. News & World Report, Oct. 2, 1966, 36–38.
- “The Growing Mystery of Communist China,” 36.
- “As Red China Plunges Deeper into Chaos,” 36.
- “Communism: World's Greatest Failure,” 59.
- Ibid.
- Actually, this figure could be much higher if the analysis included articles covering Asian countries and their relationship with China. Given China's size and potential influence in the region, a number of articles focusing on other countries featured China as a strong secondary focus. For example, a feature on Indonesia in Time on July 15, 1966, outlined the countries relationship with China. It also is instructive to note that articles on Taiwan and Hong Kong also would have increased the total amount of China-related articles. Typically, these articles included strong mainland references, such as the tensions existing due to the instability of China at the time of the Cultural Revolution. The counts for the Taiwan and Hong Kong-focused articles were: Time, five articles; Newsweek, twelve articles; and U.S. News & World Report, two articles.
- Thomas Griffith, Harry and Teddy (New York: Random House, 1995), 271.