The structure of Chinese society has undergone fundamental changes since the 1990s.A new form of society is appearing and taking shape.
The profound and complicated changes in Chinese mass media system started in 1978 and accelerated in 1992.Regarding the social function of Chinese mass media，it is commonly believed by academics that they are still an integrated part of the political governance structure but are，to some extent，fulfilling the function of public sphere.
The basic question this dissertation attempts to tackle is how television news，as the first medium，has been participating in the process of social construction and meanwhile being constructed by society since the 1990s.In other words，how should we understand and assess the changes that have occurred in practice of Chinese television news and what are their influences.
Centering in this question and guided by the analytical framework of field theory，the dissertation proceeds to identify：the closest fields and spatial model related to the field of television news；the capital and negotiating mechanism among four most related fields to the field of television news——politics，market，culture and audience；the overall changes in these four important fields and the fragmentary influences they exercise upon the field of television news；the subfields fragmented from the field of television news；their capital negotiating mechanism with the four important fields，and their influences on the mentality system of the practitioners in the subfield of television news；the changes this changed mentality system bring upon the habitus of news production，and their effects on the social function of news；the implied messages contained in the field shift of television news for social transformation；the assessment and suggestion about the tendency of the field shift of television news；and the possible effects on the research of the author’s perspective.
The dissertation concludes that：since the 1990s，the field of television news has experienced an internal fragmentary process with the appearance of subfields differing from each others in values and functions，resulting in the invalidity of the concept of a united television community；the social capital dominated by the field of politics and the market capital co-dominated by the field of audience and that of market have led the subfields of television news into different directions，resulting in a chaotic and broken habitus among various groups of practitioners and even among an individual practitioner，the partial fulfillment of informing function，the quick decay of publicizing function，the gradual withering of the educating and supervising function，the obscurity in the fulfillment of communicating function，and the ill prosperity of entertaining function；without the institutional inputs to reorganize the capital structure in the field of television news，the above-mentioned situation，under the mutual construction of the practitioners’habitus and various subfields，will move towards a deteriorating direction against the normative logic of television news，and a fragmented field of television news will continue its inefficient operation in a transforming society.
Keyword：Field，Capital，Habitus，Television News，Function，Since the 1990s
