Drs. Carlton Clark and Lei Zhang will present “Grass Mud Horse: Luhmannian Systems Theory and Internet Censorship in China” from 2:30-3:30, Friday Nov. 18 in Wimberly 112. Chinese President Xi Jinping has intensified state media censorship and public relations campaigns. Drawing on social systems theory as articulated by Niklas Luhmann and others, they will argue that these enhanced information-control efforts reflect the increasing systemic complexity of Chinese journalism, which is part of a global journalism system. They classify global journalism as a function system within global society on the same level as law, politics, the economy, science, education, medicine religion, and art. This theoretical move takes the focus away from human and organizational actors and puts it on the mechanisms by which global journalism resists political control and achieves its own system autonomy.